This morning TheScott tweeted the URL for a new 24.com site mentioned by Elan Lohman, head of social media at 24.com during a conference. As the comparisons started rolling in between this new site and Yahoo Answers, it turned out that the site hasn’t officially been launched yet. Scott, in reference to the recent A-Lister debate remarked “so i got a scoop? Wow, I feel like an A-lister!” and Nic Haralambous tested the moderation system by asking who the A-List bloggers are. The question was removed within a few minutes, so clearly the team at 24.com are keeping close tabs on the system.

If you look at it, the similarity between Answerit and Yahoo Answers is significant, but this is not necessarily a bad thing and indicates conformance to best practice

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The premise is simple: people ask and answer questions collaboratively and then decide, collectively, which answers are the best through a voting system. The biggest stumbling block to making a site like this a success is volume. You need high volumes of users, which the Media24 sites have, and you need high levels of participation. The conversion of traffic to participation is the biggest challenge and the risk, during the early days, is that people come to the site, see not much going on and leave never to return again.

By the looks of things 24.com have planned this launch properly though I doubt they thought Twitter would be the way the URL started circulating amongst bloggers. Scott reports, via Twitter, Lohman saying “we believe that answerit is going to be big. A killer app”, which is indicative of the new emphasis M24 are placing on social media and I think most in the industry agree that it’s just a matter of time before Medi24 become a massive player in the social media space, given their ability to leverage already existing and successful online properties.

Congratulations to Elan and the team, the new site looks great.