Now that Google Answers is no more, Yahoo! Answers has been receiving a little more attention than it used to get, especially for folks used to using Google's service.  Yahoo even invited old Google Answers researchers to join its service and put their knowledge or expertise to use. Oprah has been using Yahoo! Answers.  I'd venture a guess that the service is doing better these days that at any point in the past.

Many people, myself included, are curious about the people answering questions posted to the service.  With an open system that allows anyone to ask and answer questions, there's no guarantee that the answers being supplied are worth reading, right?  Sure… users are given the option to ranking answers, but the masses have been wrong before.  If someone had posed a question asking if Orson Welles' radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds was real, a large portion of the rankings 80 years ago would have leaned toward the YES side of the scale.

To recognize some of its best contributors, Yahoo is awarding 25 Answers users from around the world with a special commendation this Wednesday.  I'm sure a big part of the show and tell is also to highlight some of the quality answer-ers for the service and alleviate any concerns that the people supplying answers are chimps.

One of those to be recognized at the ceremony in California is Dr. Gordon Glazner, a research scientist from the University of Manitoba.  According to The Winnipeg Free Press, Glazner has answered more than 1,000 questions on Yahoo! Answers dealing with science and mathematics.  Glazner, who said he enjoyed tackling the questions others ignored, spent time each day browsing the site in search of questions that needed attention.

Like I said, I'm sure Yahoo is happy to have qualified people like Glazner behind some of the answers on its service and I'm willing to bet that at least a part of the reason for the celebration is to show these users off to those of us who haven't decided whether or not the service is a good source for accurate information.

So if you've ever wondered who some of the people behind the answers at Yahoo! Answers are, here is one example.  I'm sure we'll find out some more about the others after Wednesday's party.