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Answers.com

question-and-answer website

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ2915210
Source-derived summary

Answers.com (previously WikiAnswers and originally GuruNet) is an Internet-based knowledge exchange. The Answers.com domain name was purchased by entrepreneurs Bill Gross and Henrik Jones at idealab in 1996. The domain name was acquired by NetShepard and subsequently sold to GuruNet and then AFCV Holdings. The website is now the primary product of the Answers Corporation. It has tens of millions of user-generated questions and answers, and provides a website where registered users can interact with one another.

History

GuruNet was founded in Jerusalem during 1999 to develop technology that integrates or retrieves information from disparate sources and delivers the result in a single consolidated view to the user. GuruNet initially displayed its information through a downloadable software product, today known as 1-Click Answers. The product was launched as a free product in 1999. Beginning in 2003 it was sold to users on a perpetual license base and later as an annual subscription.

In October 2004, GuruNet had an IPO on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) under the symbol "GRU" and also acquired the Answers.com domain name early the same year for $80,000.

Editorial summary

“Answers.com” enters the record as question-and-answer website. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Answers, question-and-answer and website can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1996, 1999, 2003, 2004—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Answers, question-and-answer and website.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Answers.com” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Answers, question-and-answer and website provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2915210. The first chronological checks are 1996, 1999, 2003 and 2004.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Answers.com”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Answers.com primary sources, Answers.com archive and Answers research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Answers.com”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Answers.com” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.