Got Questions? New InboxQ Feature Helps You Find Folks on Twitter Who Have Answers

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- InboxQ, a free web service that searches Twitter for real, "answerable questions", today released a new searchable index of Twitter users with specialized knowledge who are likely to share their expertise with others. "InboxQ Profiles" spotlight real people with expertise on specific topics from golf balls to restaurants, travel, and so on, as demonstrated in their tweets, and allows others to ask them questions directly through Twitter.

"There are tons of questions being asked by Tweeters, but we realized very few get helpful answers, or even a response," said Joe Fahrner, InboxQ Co-Founder and CEO. "When we launched InboxQ back in February, our platform enabled users to see a realtime stream of questions related to their business or area of expertise, allowing them to easily help others on Twitter. Now, with the addition of InboxQ Profile pages, the inverse is possible: those who have questions can easily search for the people who have the answers and are willing to share it. It's like a virtual Q&A search engine on Twitter."

InboxQ works by matching people with specific inquiries to experts who can help them. The company utilizes proprietary technology to analyze the profiles of millions of Twitter users, looking at what they talk about and share, to identify individuals who have specific, demonstrated knowledge.  An InboxQ profile page is then automatically created for each of these knowledgeable individuals.

InboxQ Profiles are searchable: the user just types in the topic, keywords or question they want answered, and are instantly pointed to the real people on Twitter best suited to help them.  InboxQ users can then submit their question to an individual right on his or her InboxQ Profile page, and it is directly transmitted to Twitter.

"We've found that everybody knows a lot about something, whether its cars or cooking or Caribbean vacations," said Fahrner, "and most people like to share what they know. InboxQ Profiles puts a spotlight on Twitterers who are demonstrating thought leadership, and lets them be recognized for their expertise. And, at the same time, folks who need information are able to seek it from a much wider collective than just those their own Twitter followers. We can point you to all the real people on Twitter who are sharing their knowledge, instead of celebrities or famous people who might have that knowledge but are never going to answer your question."

For more information about InboxQ, visit www.inboxq.com.

About InboxQ

InboxQ was founded by Joe Fahrner and Jason Konrad in 2009 after realizing there were lots of questions being asked by people on Twitter, but few were receiving useful answers. In fact, most Tweeted questions go completely unanswered. We also saw that lots of businesses were having a hard time finding ways to engage with Twitter users. Most available solutions are limited to basic keyword searches which return lots of unrelated Tweets or false positives.

InboxQ solve both of these problems. We help increase the likelihood that askers will get great answers to their questions. At the same time, we alert businesses to compelling engagement opportunities where they can use their expertise to help solve a problem and potentially win new customers.

InboxQ is powered by a small, hyper-productive team based in San Francisco that likes to use really complex technology to build very simple products that solve real problems.

SOURCE InboxQ