This looks like a battle lost from the start by Google, with Yahoo Answers owning about 98 percent of the market or slightly less, but then again, when Google came to be, Altavista dominated more than 90 percent of its market as well, so nothing's really what it looks to be.

The Mountain View based company should have learned by now from its failures and the new face of Google Answers should be ready to take on Yahoo's similar service. I mean besides seeing people who are racking up points with answers like "I don't know" on Yahoo, I'm sure anybody would be willing to pay five or ten bucks, in order to have somebody write a comprehensive article that really answers all your questions on that topic. But then again, that type of paid-answers business failed to outperform the free Yahoo Answers. The Internet is an interesting place and the length some would go for free stuff surprises me.

This service that Google is previewing is code-named Confucius (would it actually go with the joke of writing before an answer "Confucius says :"?) and it no longer has experts on its payroll, but is headed more for the Sunnyvale based rival's approach to the matter. I think it's relying heavily on the popularity capital that Google has over Yahoo! or else I'm not sure how they're going to turn it into a night-instant hit. Of course, they could instantly provide search results as potential answers or display highly rated human responses with its search results. That would do the trick and grab a part of the market I think.

Here's what the Google translation console says when you type in Q&A: "This message is a name of successor for Google Answers. We will use it in OneGoogle toolbar, which you see on top of google.com page in the more... section. Also, please use full name to translate it. That is, Questions and Answers. Abbreviation should be used only for English." Clear enough?