By Art Chimes
From VOA News
Posted - Apr 24, 2009
Website of the Week - FixYa
Time again for our Website of the Week, when we showcase interesting and innovative online destinations.
As the products we use get more and more sophisticated, it's not surprising that sometimes we need help in using them. Maybe you don't like to read the manual - who does? - or maybe you can't figure out what the manual is saying. The retailer or manufacturer may not be able to help you, but our Website of the Week just may have the answer to your question.
"FixYa is the first and largest website for technical support where consumers are helping other consumers to solve product- specific questions on practically any product," says Yaniv Bensadon, the founder of FixYa.com.
It's a place where 12 million users come to exchange information about a million different products they use - technology products like digital cameras and mobile phones, cars and trucks, kitchen appliances and tools. And not just the latest models.
"There is a very 'long tail' of people that are looking for a question [and solution] on an old alarm clock or a hot dog maker or a sewing machine, and that's the beauty of this service. Over time, FixYa becomes the main or the only source of troubleshooting information on products that become obsolete because there are no alternatives."
If you post a problem you're having, Bensadon says you'll typically get an answer in just a few hours. But there is already a huge database of problems and solutions, so you may not even have to wait.
"Each question and answer has been documented on the site," says Bensadon, "So the more time passed, the more consumers are leveraging and using that service, the more our knowledge grows on each of these products and becomes an asset to the folks that are interested to find their own solution instead of asking a question."
Help from other users is free, but if that doesn't work, there are also experts who will solve your problem for a fee.
Tech support and troubleshooting at FixYa.com, or get the link to this and more than 200 other Websites of the Week from our site, VOAnews.com.
