yahoo does this is also.
And no, it isn't just like using Google Search Engine because the people who answered questions often had professional backgrounds that lent insight into specific fields that google couldn't shed light on.
For example, I remember reading a question from a gentlemen writing a mystery novel and he had a question about "crime scene investigation". He gave his scenario as a question in Google Answers and someone who works in the field gave a brilliant recount of how that SPECIFIC case would be logically walked through and gave some ideas to put twists and turns in the plot by adding different evidence and so forth.
But, you are right in that many of the answers were people compiling info from google searches. But even so, if you want to find a little info from a lot of sites and want to pay someone else to compile it all... and someone else is willing to do it... I dont see how it is any different than paying an article writer.
