Google Answers Sweat Shop?

For anyone following the Google Answers commercial service, there are several recent interesting writings about it. Jessamyn West has a enlightening read in her Searcher article "Information for Sale: My Experience With Google Answers" [10(9): 14- , Oct. 2002.] But her story did not end there as her follow-up posting "How I Tried to Resign from Google Answers but Found I Was Already Fired" shows. And then there is a similar story "Silicon Samurai: Questions About Google Answers" posted at Geek.com on July 17.

I find the economics especially interesting. Maybe Google will make enough to continue Google Answers, but it certainly does not seem that the researchers are going to make much. Nor does it pose much threat to professional researchers, information professionals, or librarians. Oh, and if you want to link to Google Answers, don't use the currently non-functioning link on Google's Services and Tools page (http://answers.google.com). It needs to be an https link: https://answers.google.com. Maybe Google should pay a researcher to help them fix their own internal links?