Yahoo Inc. thinks you might prefer to ask a friendly neighbour for some advice, rather than always plugging key words into powerful search engines.

The company is turning to Canadians themselves to come up with the best answers to those questions that demand a dose of subjectivity, such as finding a good local restaurant.

Today, Yahoo will roll out a new community-based service here that places human experience above the complicated algorithms that power its own popular search engine and those of rivals, including Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

The search tool, at http://answers.yahoo.ca , is part of Yahoo's big effort to create a more personalized and social Internet, and in the process grab a bigger share of the billions of advertising dollars streaming on-line.

The company, which runs the world's most visited websites, wants to spawn a massive on-line community where users share their knowledge and in the process pump new content into its many properties. The new search service lets registered users type in short questions, or more detailed answers, that are then electronically published with a few clicks of a mouse.

To drive participation, the service operates on a system of points. Queries cost points, while voting on best answers and providing answers generates new ones. The points carry no financial or other value at this time, although Yahoo executives say they are still considering ways to expand their use.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company has already shown savvy for recognizing services and features that can build a loyal community on the Web. Last year, Yahoo bought Vancouver-based Flickr.com, a giant public photo album that lets users store and share images for free. It also purchased New York-based Delicious, which lets users share their own collection of Internet bookmarks.

But the usefulness and effectiveness of the new search tool -- which can indiscriminately respond with porn and fatuous queries, such as "How can I become a celebrity?" -- remains to be seen.

Yahoo launched the test version first in the U.S. in December. The company won't disclose the amount of traffic Answers.Yahoo.com has drawn in the early months, or how much advertising it expects to generate off the simple language search tool.

The Canadian product, which is also in test mode, will plug into the larger platform operating in the U.S., but will allow for a full range of Canadian content. The developers tweaked the local version by adding such topics as curling and the CFL, Mr. Renieris said.

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