Ammas.com Ltd., a leader in Internet "answers" technology, has released a ground-breaking query form, making its unique “privacy” and “quality” features the primary options for users asking questions.

"Our research indicates the two most important issues for users seeking information are high quality answers and private information," says Rohit Bagad, Head of India Operations for Ammas.com Ltd.

"Users want helpful, well-researched answers to important questions -- answers which can save them lots of time and money and radically improve their lives. But they don't want to jeopardize their privacy in getting those answers."

Although the two features have been included on the site for several years with patent filings going back to 2001, this is the first time Ammas has highlighted these features on its homepage, making users aware they have a very clear choice when submitting questions.

“People are all the time making important decisions -- whether it be while filing taxes, career and education decisions, which house or car to buy, which investment to make,” says Gautam Thadani, sales and marketing director of Ammas. “But wealth isn’t just about having information, it’s about having correct and meaningful information that matters to your particular situation.”

Ammas.com Ltd, an Indian-founded website which has been operating since 1998, was the first player to target Indian Internet users with a question and answer trading platform, allowing users to trade knowledge for reward – the reward determined by the online community's peer review system.

Since then, several Internet players, including Yahoo!, Rediff, Ibibo and others have been quick to develop their own Answers solutions in order to enter the fast-growing market of user-generated content.

Ammas unique features include a “private query” tick-box to keep queries out of the public eye, and a sliding bar which allows users to increase the priority or importance of their question.

If no adjustment is made to the sliding bar, the query is submitted, as on any other system. But by adjusting the priority bar to the right, the user can increase the speed, number and quality of responses received.

The system even includes a precise "expectation calculator" with which users can calculate typical response levels for a given price (based on past response levels), and a "satisfaction guaranteed" refund policy if that expectation isn't met.

"This is just the beginning of a whole new range of products we’re planning to release for mobile and Internet users,” explains Bagad.

“We already have business professionals using our system to make important decisions for large companies. The fact is, if you're using old methods to make your decisions -- such as magazine articles, or asking friends and colleagues, or conducting opt-in surveys -- then you're missing out on the variety of perspectives and dynamic peer-review mechanisms a system like Ammas can offer."

One reason Ammas can allow users to adjust privacy and quality levels is because the Ammas.com system rewards the speed and quality of answers with a virtual currency which can be traded for real money (or used to buy products online through SifyMall.com, one of Ammas.com's online partners). In other words, the position of a query in a queue, or its visibility to public browsers, is not as important to its ranked and rated community of experts as the amount of reward the query offers.

"This approach has allowed us to pursue a unique online business model," says Bagad. "When participating in Web 2.0, not every user is the same. Not every question requires the same level of priority. And some users should be able to get more when they give more, it’s as simple as that."

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Ammas.com is a world leader in developing quality answer systems, with a string of patent filings going back to 2001. Ammas 3.0 technology currently powers numerous web-based and mobile answer systems in India, with 300,000+ registered advisors and over 100 affiliate sites. Ammas is the only answer system online which offers a real currency reward to users based on the quality of the information they provide, as determined by fair, real-time peer review.