Using Answers.com
- I see that Answers.com is free. Do I need to register or subscribe?
- Do I need to install anything on my computer to use Answers.com?
- My friend can Alt-Click words on his screen to look them up at Answers.com. How can I do that?
- Do I need cookies enabled to use Answers.com?
- How do I sign up for e-mails from Answers.com?
- How do I unsubscribe from your e-mail list?
- How do I change the e-mail address that receives Newsletters or Today’s Highlights from Answers.com?
- Answers.com sometimes gives me the wrong answer, or no answer. What gives?
- Why can't I hear the word pronunciation?
- How do I cite information found in Answers.com in a bibliography?
- What sort of questions can Answers.com answer?
- How can I submit a correction to Answers.com?
- Why don't you have an entry on me/my company/my cat?
- How often do you update your content?
- When viewing the Translations, why do I see gibberish instead of foreign characters?
- I've de-selected all of the languages, and now I don't have any Translations at all. How do I get back to that page?
- Can I use Answers.com to translate complete sentences?
- Can I use the spellchecker to correct any document?
- Which platforms and devices are supported by Mobile Answers (mobile.answers.com)?
- I see that Answers.com is free. Do I need to register or subscribe?
Free is free! You are welcome to use Answers.com without signing up with us. Just visit our homepage, type into the lookup bar there, and start enjoying the benefits of a smart search engine. It's that simple. You can also download and install 1-Click Answers for free from here.
- Do I need to install anything on my computer to use Answers.com?
Yes, and No. Our AnswerPages can be accessed from any Internet browser. Simply browse to www.Answers.com and start typing into the lookup bar on the website.
To gain the full benefit of Answers.com, we recommend installing any of our free tools. 1-Click AnswersTM for Windows lets you Alt-Click any word on your screen to get the perfect AnswerPage. The Answers IE Toolbar (installed with 1-Click AnswersTM for Windows) adds a convenient lookup bar to every Internet Explorer window you have open.
Mac users can install 1-Click AnswersTM for Mac OS X. With 1-Click AnswersTM running in the background, just select any word or phrase and press the Hotkey to look it up. If you're running Tiger or Leopard (OS X 10.4 or 10.5), add our Answers Widget to your Dashboard.
If you've selected Firefox as your cross-platform browser, install the Firefox extension to get Answers in Firefox under Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. This tool provides Alt-click functionality, and adds Answers.com to your right-click menu and your Sidebar.
- My friend can Alt-Click words on his screen to look them up at Answers.com. How can I do that?
If you're running Windows, install 1-Click AnswersTM for Windows from here. This will give you the convenience of Alt-Click, plus the pop-out desktop AnswerBar.
If you're using a Mac, 1-Click AnswersTM for Mac OS X works a bit differently. You first need to select the word, and then press Command+Option+G to trigger a lookup. You can pick a different Hotkey in the Preferences dialog.
If you browse with Firefox, install our 1-Click AnswersTM Extension to add Alt-click to your Firefox. This will work in any platform: Windows, Mac, even Linux.
- Do I need cookies enabled to use Answers.com?
Cookies are not required to use Answers.com, unless you wish to personalize your answer. However, we would appreciate it if you would allow cookies from Answers.com, which we use to anonymously study aggregate usage patterns in order to improve the service we provide. We invite you to visit our Privacy Policy to learn more.
- How do I sign up for e-mails from Answers.com?
You can receive Today's Highlights daily in your e-mail Inbox by subscribing at http://www.answers.com/main/highlights_email_signup.jsp. You can also elect to receive our monthly Educators Newsletter. Make sure to add @answers.com to the list of allowed senders in your spam-controlling service.
- How do I unsubscribe from your e-mail list?
To stop receiving Today's Highlights or the Educators Newsletter from Answers.com, just enter your e-mail address at http://www.answers.com/main/highlights_unsubscribe.jsp. Alternatively, there's a link at the bottom of every e-mail you receive from us with a link you can click to automatically unsubscribe.
- How do I change the e-mail address that receives Newsletters or Today’s Highlights from Answers.com?
There is no mechanism at present to change your e-mail address directly. The simplest way to change your e-mail address in our system is to unsubscribe the old address, and subscribe the new one. Alternatively, you can contact our Support Team and we’ll be happy to take care of it for you, but that could take an extra few days.
- Answers.com sometimes gives me the wrong answer, or no answer. What gives?
Answers.com provides you with information on the term it deems closest to what you want. If this is not quite right, try one of the alternate links at the top of the AnswerPage. Also, make sure to scroll down through the different reference sources. Depending on the type of information you looked up, the different sources may provide you with varied types of information.
Answers.com always shows all of the results for which we have information. If you do not find the information you are looking for, then it is likely that the topic you have looked up does not appear in any of our content sources ... yet. Check the links under 'Mentioned In' to see AnswerPages that include the topic you were looking for.
- Why can't I hear the word pronunciation?
For starters, do you hear other sounds clearly? If not, please make sure your speakers are plugged in, both to the computer and electricity, switched on, with the volume turned up. Make sure you have the speaker icon in the Notification Area (near the clock). Click it to scale up the volume, and make sure the Mute box is not checked.
To hear the pronunciations, you also need to make sure your browser is set to play web sounds. If you're using Internet Explorer, here's how:
- Click Start, (Settings,) Control Panel.
- If Control Panel is in Category view, click 'Network and Internet Connections', then Internet Options. If Control Panel is in Classic View, click Internet Options.
- Click the Advanced tab
- Under Multimedia, make sure that 'Play sounds (in web pages)' is checked.
- Click OK
To hear the pronunciation in Firefox, make sure JavaScript is selected in Tools, Options, Web Features.
Firefox also requires that QuickTime be installed and configured in order to play the embedded WAV files in Answers.com. You probably already have QuickTime installed, but if not, you can download it from http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
In addition, you need to configure your QuickTime to play embedded WAV files in your Firefox. Here's how:
- Close down your Firefox
- Open QuickTime
- Click Edit, Preferences, QuickTime Preferences
- Make sure the pull-down menu at the top is on Browser Plug-in
- Click on the Mime Settings button
- Expand Audio
- Add a check mark to WAVE audio file
- Click OK
- How do I cite information found in Answers.com in a bibliography?
Use of information displayed in Answers.com is subject the Terms of Use, per http://www.answers.com/main/terms_of_use.jsp. Use of the content from any particular information provider may also be subject to the terms of use established by that information provider.
In order to cite Answers.com as a source, you must cite the relevant publisher and copyright notice listed at the bottom of every AnswerPage, as the actual source of the material used. If the article has an author, also cite the author's name(s). Most articles do not attribute authorship, but if there are more than 5 authors listed, cite at least five.
When you cite an answer provided by Answers.com, please link directly to the appropriate AnswerPage, using the
"Link" tool at the bottom of any AnswerPage to construct and customize the link.
To build a bibliographical reference to an AnswerPage, use the
link in the Copyrights section at the bottom of the page.
- What sort of questions can Answers.com answer?
Our “encyclodictionalmanacapedia” provides instant answers to simple queries about people, places, things, etc. It is good at answering Who-Is and What-Is questions on over 4 million topics. With Answers.com, you’ll never need to open another dictionary, thesaurus or encyclopedia.
In addition, you can submit any simple query to WikiAnswers (wiki.answers.com) where a community of contributors ask and answer each others questions. With over 650,000 queries (and growing by the hour), it’s likely someone has already asked a similar question, so make sure to look around to see if your answer is there, before submitting a new one. And feel free to add or improve an answer on a subject that you’re familiar with.
However, Answers.com cannot help you find a long-lost friend, e-mail addresses of the rich and famous, or the value of a collectible you found in your grandmother’s attic. Our small Support Team is happy to answer questions about Answers.com’s site and software, but if the answer to your question doesn’t appear in Answers.com, our Support Team won’t know the answer either.
For a brief, simple demonstration of how to get the most out of Answers.com, take our two minute tour: http://www.answers.com/main/flash_demo.jsp.
- How can I submit a correction to Answers.com?
Most of the information displayed in the Answers.com window is copyrighted by our content source partners. However, if you are referring to an entry from Wikipedia -- the user-edited encyclopedia -- we invite you to edit this article yourself, directly at the source.
Start by creating an account at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page. Once logged in, you'll be able to browse to the article you want to edit and make the appropriate changes. To make it easier for you, you'll find a direct link to the Wikipedia source article in the copyright notice at the foot of the AnswerPage. Next time Answers.com updates our content from Wikipedia, your modification will appear (assuming another Wikipedia member doesn't modify it again).
In most other cases, we cannot edit the content ourselves due to copyright issues. But if you send it to our Support Team, we will forward your message on to the company whose content we have licensed. Make sure to include details of the Answers.com page you are referring to.
- Why don't you have an entry on me/my company/my cat?
Answers.com strives to provide the most authoritative definitions and explanations available on the Internet today. At this stage, however, we are not integrating individual submissions of links and proprietary content. Rather, we are concentrating our efforts on collections of reliable, authoritative information that we deem to be of value to our user base.
As for businesses, Answers.com currently contains information on public companies traded on NYSE and NASDAQ. We expect to expand to cover other exchanges, including international bourses.
One of our sources - Wikipedia - allows individuals to edit the content directly. If you would like to add or modify a Wikipedia article, browse to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and create an account. Next time Answers.com updates our content from Wikipedia, your modification will appear (assuming another Wikipedia member doesn't modify it again).
- How often do you update your content?
Our Content Integration team works hard to keep Answers.com dynamic and relevant at all times. We receive regular updates from all of our content source partners. The frequency of these updates varies with the type of source, with Wikipedia and Who2 updating more frequently than Geography and Dialing Codes.
- When viewing the Translations, why do I see gibberish instead of foreign characters?
Your browser does not have the correct language packs installed for that language.
If you are using Internet Explorer 6, you need to make sure that "Install on Demand" is enabled, as follows.
- Click Start, (Settings,) Control Panel.
- If Control Panel is in Category view, click 'Network and Internet Connections', then Internet Options. If Control Panel is in Classic View, click Internet Options.
- Click on the Advanced tab.
- Ensure that both 'Enable Install on Demand' options are checked.
- Click OK twice
- I've de-selected all of the languages, and now I don't have any Translations at all. How do I get back to that page?
Click here to personalize your translation options.
- Can I use Answers.com to translate complete sentences? How about Web pages and other documents?
Answers.com includes single-word translations into 16 languages. It cannot be used to translate complete texts, though.
- Can I use the spellchecker to correct any document?
Answers.com is a word spellchecker, not a page spellchecker. Use Answers.com to check spelling of individual words by typing them into the AnswerBar, or Alt-Clicking them in your document (if you have 1-Click AnswersTM' installed). If the spelling is wrong, Answers.com will detect the error and suggest the correct spelling.
- Which platforms and devices are supported by Mobile Answers (mobile.answers.com)?
Mobile Answers has been was tested on several Palm, Blackberry, Windows and Symbian devices. We expect mobile.answers.com to work on any wireless handheld device that supports HTML. WAP is not supported.
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