HubPages vs. Yahoo Answers. What's the difference?

Let's compare Hub Pages with Yahoo Answers to decide the difference between the two and determine if they offer pretty much the same type of service. We'll start with Yahoo Answers.

Yahoo Answers (YA) offers a profile page in which you can tell anything you like about yourself and even post links to your websites, blogs, business affiliates, even Hub Pages.

With YA, You can go into many different catagories and post questions on any topic you choose. You also answer questions in a direct and to the point way just as you would answer in a normal conversation or chat room. You are allowed to post a non-commercial link if it is in direct relation to the question. For example, if someone asks how to start a small business, you can leave a link to the Better Business Bureau but you can not leave a link to your affiliate site or any other commercial site you may profit from. If you do this, your post will be marked as spam and you will receive a YA violations of TOS email and eventually have your account deleted.

Their site is similar to a forum with hundreds of different topics, ranging from business, financial, health, family, relationships, education, the list goes on and on. It is a very informal setting in which there is no specific format for answering questions other than they ask you to provide quality answers. However, many post things like IDK (I don't know) and leave it at that just to get points for posting.

They also allow posters and users to vote for the best answer to each question. If your answer is voted as best answer, you get an additional 10 points. The main problem with this point system is that if there is only one answer and it happens to be IDK, after a certain length of time, it will automatically become best answer. Therefore, this means there is no monitoring at all over the point system, rendering it pretty much useless for those who truly do post quality answers to try to help others.

They have no forum like the one here at HP where the members can get to know each other and just "hang out" like we do in the Hubber's Hang Out thread. You are allowed to email some if they allow the option but the characters are limited in the emails and so are the number of emails you can send per day. This is decided by the level you reach by answering a certain number of questions.

Hub pages, on the other hand, has specific guidelines, even when answering a request. If you just post a one-liner as an answer, your hub is considered sub-standard and therefore the score suffers.

They also have guidelines as to the content that you are allowed to post and the amount of profanity that is allowed, whereas, YA is pretty much free form when it comes to what is allowed.

HP also allows you to post up to two links in your hubs to your business, blog or other affiliate sites as long as you don't do it in every hub you write in excess. You can also earn money from HP if you so choose to. Any profits that YA gets from their ads goes to Yahoo themselves, even though it is the users that earn these profits for them.

HP also allows you to create a profile page with any links you may like in it as long as it is not a gambling or adult site. They don't, however allow you to post affiliate links in the forums or in the comments section of other users' hubs. If this is done, the users may choose to mark it as spam and HP will review it and if needed, delete the spammer's account.

They also recognize the most frequent requesters as well as those who answer the most requests in their weekly newsletters. They also have fan clubs where you can join other members' fan clubs and have them join yours. What I love most about this feature is that just because someone joins your fan club doesn't automatically add you to theirs as it would in MySpace and other social networking sites. I like having the freedom to choose whose fan club I would like to join rather than being added just because they joined mine. You can reciprocate if you like but if you suspect that the member is just here to spam, you have a chance to read their hubs first before deciding.

Along with the Forum here at HP, we are allowed to contact any member if they have the option enabled and our emails are not limited to the number of characters we type, nor the number we are allowed to send each day.