Yahoo has launched a new product this week, Yahoo Answers, in an attempt to gain market share from Google. Presumably, it’s also an attempt to match people’s perceptions of Google, who are lucky enough to be thought of a constantly evolving company, investing heavily in R & D.

The idea of the service is the create a forum where anyone can ask a question, and anyone can answer a question – Web 2.0 at it’s most interactive. Since it has been in Beta testing since April, it’s built an enormous back catalogue of answers to questions regarding software to philosophy. They also convinced leading lights to pose questions, such as Bono and Stephen Hawkins.

Unlike Google, Yahoo has invested a lot of money in old media to spread the word, including PR stunts, and full page inserts into national newspapers. Judging by the response (about 1 question submitted every 4 seconds on average) they’ve found the popularity they were looking for. For now…