There's plenty of nastiness on the Internet--mean stuff, dirty stuff, snarky stuff--but there's also an incredible amount of kindness and support to be found. Next time you're looking for something wildly entertaining and enlightening to do online, check out a site like answers.yahoo.com or answerbag.com. On these sites, you can pose a question--any question at all--and crowdsource the answer. You watch and wait as the vast masses chime in with their opinions on your questions.
(Currently on the Yahoo Answers home page: "What's the best brand of handball?" "Baby waking up often. Please help me?" "Is it true that if you have alopecia, you have to shave your head?" And so on.)
There are a few problems with the Yahoo/Answerbag method, though. First of all, they're so scattershot.

You post your question, and you just hope that someone who knows the answer might stumble upon it. There's no attempt to get your question to precisely the *right* person.

Second, it's public. Obviously, you can use a cryptic login name, but still--your question, which might be personal or embarrassing--is out there for all to see. It's just somehow a little creepy.

Until recently, I'd been relying on Twitter for all my obscure-question-answering needs. Often I'd ask for help on some tweaky Photoshop filter setting or a detail of some 1950's Broadway show--and sure enough, someone or other would always know the answer. But often, I'd get 60 replies, meaning I'd wasted the time of 59 people--and this technique doesn't work at all if you don't have a lot of followers.

Last week, I stumbled upon a new, better way to harness the Net for answers: Vark.com. You send your question to Aardvark (the full name of the service) using a chat program like Google Talk/Gmail Chat, AIM, MSN or Yahoo Messenger (an iPhone app is coming soon), where you've added Aardvark as a buddy.

You can also send a question by e-mail to aardvark@vark.com or on Twitter. At the moment, you have to have a Facebook account before you can get started; that's how Aardvark gets its initial idea of your social network.

The service makes no attempt to blanket the Internet with your question. In fact, it forwards your question only to people who have specifically declared themselves to have expertise on your subject--and, furthermore, only people who are already in your online social circle. If there's nobody with expertise among that group, Aardvark extends its search to friends *of* your friends, and so on. Trust me, it works; I've never gotten a bad answer.

How does it choose who gets your question?

It factors in "related topics in peoples' profiles, how you're connected to people, who you trust about related topics, your history of training Aardvark, people who share your favorites (for taste-related questions), people in the right location (for location-related questions), and other mysterious factors." (David Pogue, NYT)