When in trouble, call an expert, is what my mother always said. Words from the wise or plain common sense, she, and others like her, have constantly exhorted enthusiastic husbands and sons to stick to this rule. Which brings us to the core of what this article is all about: Finding an expert, on anything, somewhere on the WWW.

What I intend to do, here, is comb the Net for the best sites one can turn to for expert advice, suggestions, and answers. Let’s say I want to fix my leaky tap in a hurry, but refuse to spend a rupee. Or maybe I need to switch careers at age forty, and need all the advice I can get. Or maybe I have nothing much to do in my free time, and decide that learning Swahili could broaden my horizons. Thanks to the Internet, I can do it all, free of cost, simply by switching on my PC.

Kicking off my search, I start with Allexperts (http://www.allexperts.com). The site was created in 1998 by a 32-year-old Yale graduate called Steve Gordon. What he wanted to do was use the Internet to help people, and realised that while search engines helped, their results usually left a lot to be desired. So Steve - playing good Samaritan -- decided to recruit volunteers to answer questions, divide them by category, gave them descriptions so consumers could ‘shop’ for the best expert, and put them all together. Voila! Allexperts.

Here’s how it works. The site enlists thousands of volunteers -- from doctors and lawyers, to scientists, engineers, and more -- to answer any questions posted. The answers are free and, best of all, answered within a span of three days. I decided to test it with a question on Axl Rose, lead singer of rock band Guns N’ Roses. Typing in his name got me a list of experts -- mainly fans who have known the band and its music for years -- offering answers to all I needed to know. It was that simple.

For the arrogant few who hate opinions from others and would rather give their own, there are ‘Expert Competition’ tests at the site. If you pass, you are eligible to start answering questions yourself. For lesser mortals, like myself, the main menu is the place to be, with answers to everything from the cast of the ‘Phantom Menace’ to gardening, dating, business and travelling across the globe.

My next stop: Expertcentral(http://www.expertcentral.com). The set-up is similar, linking people who have questions, with experts who can answer them. If that’s sounds easy, however, it’s not. It means finding people capable of answering anything from the basic and factual to the weird and wacky. To give the creators due credit, things don't look so bad, probably in keeping with their mission of making the site as ‘simple to use as ringing a doorbell.’

In keeping with my inexplicable need to test the site with vague queries, I looked up the fabled ‘Loch Ness Monster.’ The engine actually gave me a curator of three past museums on Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Crop Circles, UFOs, and other anomalies!

Impressed yet? I wasn’t, which is why I turned to AskMe (http://www.askme.com), the guys who maintain that they found an idea that was incredibly innovative, yet ridiculously obvious, and then decided to build a huge company around it. The USP here is that any questions you may have are answered by ‘real’ people, namely, people like you and I, free. There are over 300,000 answers already listed, but if you’re looking for something more specific, just send it in. There’s also a list of the top ten experts overall, that changes regularly.

I asked for someone who could teach me Japanese. What I got were experts not only on the language, but also on Japanese animation and sign languages. Needless to say, if you think you can handle questions about something yourself, you are free to sign up as an expert too, which will entitle you to a free AskMePage. It only gets better after this, because you can actually win cash for answering questions about your pet topics. Feng Shui to Dermatology, Fibromyalgia to Cellular Phones, newer topics are added regularly. Over 2.5 million people use AskMe.com every month; and if that’s not good enough, you must be really hard to please.

Let’s say these sites are good, but way too complicated for someone new to the Internet. If that’s the case, try Pitsco’s Askanexpert (http://www.askanexpert.com), the ‘kid-friendly expert site.’ Easy to use, and easier on your Internet account, thanks to its answers to Frequently Asked Questions- a good way to get information in a hurry. The highlight here, according to the home page, is the section on career information. Whatever your question, log in and see if the site is all it claims to be.

Going by the current dot com, there had to be an Indian site hopping on to the bandwagon. What I found was Salahkarindia (http://www.salahkarindia.com/). Thing is, the site has a lot more to offer in terms of advice than actual experts answering your queries. There are no big names promising you the best knowledge for free, but there’s a lot an Indian surfer can use nonetheless. Planning investments to paying your income tax, travelling remote Indian towns to finding a bride for your cousin’s nephew, traditional home remedies to Vaastu Shastra - it’s all here, minus the experts.

Needless to say, the Internet being the Internet, these links merely graze the tip of the iceberg. There’s Experts-exchange (http://www.experts-exchange.com) for example, with its PAQ (previously asked questions) page comprising over 1.5 million searchable, real world postings that may answer your question immediately. Then there is Knowpost (http://www.knowpost.com), that boasts an Instant-Response tool, a search aid that provides immediate answers to user questions, drawing from an extensive knowledge base of thousands of answers.

Inforocket (http://www.inforocket.com) offers no freebies, sadly, because users have to fill in the amount they're willing to pay for an answer, while asking a question. Based on bidders' pitches of why they are suited to answer, users with questions can select the best candidate. Answers received must then be graded, and ones that don’t help you much needn't be paid for. Good things is, this works both ways, which means that you can bid for questions too. All you have to do is identify ones that interest you, place a bid, deliver a satisfactory answer, and walk away a little richer!

Moral of the story, then, is whether you’re too cheap to pay cash, or trying really hard to net the jackpot on Kaun Banega Crorepati, there’s always an expert somewhere in the depths of cyberspace with the right answer to your question. Don’t believe me? Go on, ask. Make your mother happy.

ADVANTAGES:

Search engines are good, but not always as good you want them to be. Looking for information on Mahatma Gandhi, for instance, could get your results ranging from a biography of Sonia Gandhi, to the home page of Kishore Gandhi Jewellers in Nariman Point. Expert sites cut straight to the chase, yielding specific answers to specific questions, from people who claim to know what they’re talking about.

Ease of use is another factor. Compare trying hard to perform a search (when you don’t know the difference between a boolean and an algorithm) with simply typing in a question and waiting for the answers to come to you.

It’s consultation for free. This means there are no lines, no hassles and, best of all, no fees to be paid unless a particular expert charges for his or her expertise.

The choice factor. Thanks to neat categories that cover everything from basic algebra to Darth Vader’s dress sense, you can find an expert sharing your interests simply by narrowing down your search parameters. With a search engine, on the other hand, it could take you days to find barely a couple of really good sites relevant to your queries.

DISADVANTAGES:

Time is the first, and only major problem with these sites. While a search engine can yield results to your queries in a couple of seconds, an expert site can take up to three days to get back to you with replies.

Your answers can be as irrelevant as those generated by a search engine, if your queries are not specific. Asking for an expert on Gandhi, for example, could still get you the Sonia Gandhi’s biographer and not someone with the necessary knowledge on the Mahatma.

Not everything here comes free. Suppose you find an expert on aromatherapy, you may still have to pay a fixed price, or even bid, for your answers. Making the wrong choice of expert could also be tantamount to paying for the wrong answers.