QueryCAT.com - Search Through 5 Million FAQ’s in One Place.
QueryCAT.com is web’s largest database of online FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions) amassed into one searchable location. Essentially, QueryCAT scours the web looking for pages and links that contain FAQ’s of all shapes and sizes. It then takes those pages, determines which elements are the questions and which elements are the answers, then stores them in a database that you can search.
QueryCAT is one of those hidden gems on the web. It’s immensely useful… but not many people have heard about it. With over 5 million questions and answers in it’s index, you’re bound to find what you’re looking for.
Putting It to the Test.
My first thought to an FAQ search engine was Web Site FAQ’s… You know, the pages that most sites have to tell how to sign up for an account or how to unsubscribe from their newsletter. But, it’s actually much much more than that. After exploring the site, I realized that QueryCAT was actually indexing frequently asked questions about anything. From product how-to’s to dating advice, they’ve indexed them all here.
While doing a few test searches, I found that doing overall or broad keyword searches like “VCR” or “Abdominal Pain” tended to return better results than trying to find something specific. For example, I tried to do a search for “Pain in the right side of my chest” and it returned results on depression. But, when I just did a search for “Chest Pain” it returned much better, more accurate findings. Case in point, with the first question and answer it found on chest pain was; When is Chest Pain not serious? In addition to the search results, the site also provides a “related questions” link under each item that will bring you to similar queries. I’m assuming it’s doing a relational search based on keywords, but I couldn’t find any information about that feature.
In the event that you can’t find an answer to your question, QueryCAT has teamed up with Yedda to help connect you with people who might know the answer. Yedda is a Question and Answer service by AOL - similar to Yahoo! Answers - which is essentially a forum for people to answer questions posed by other users.
More Than Just Search
Aside from it’s search functionality, QueryCAT has also built several tools to help you find common questions. For example, on the Popular Question page, one of questions listed is; “Will PS3 Play PS2 and PS1 Games?”. (The answer is Yes by the way)
QueryCAT also has a massive section dedicated to just health questions. The Health section lists common symptoms and illnesses in alphabetical order. By clicking on the term, it will bring you to frequently asked questions on that subject. Since many people will turn to sites like WebMD to find answers to health related questions, this section of the site will allow them to find information from multiple sources. After all… a second opinion is always good.
You can also search through popular questions via tag cloud, but this approach doesn’t seem too useful if you’re looking for a specific question and answer. It is however a great way to waste some time exploring the site.
The Verdict
While there are a few things that could be improved upon, I think the concept behind QueryCAT is a very useful idea. It will be interesting to see how they improve and grow the service in the future.
August 27th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Sorry, not my cup of tea. I think people will still use Google to search for answers rather than wasting time with this type of services like querycat.com.
Not to say I don’t like the service, but just it is not useful I guess.