Apart from the research input (pretty interesting paradigm modification I think), I'm thinking of how a serious shift to question answering from search would im

Apart from the research input (pretty interesting paradigm modification I think), I'm thinking of how a serious shift to question answering from search would impact society's approach to information. Nowadays, if you have a question, you may get a bunch of competing opinions and often a Wikipedia article. The Wikipedia article, if it's not a topic with lots of eyes and some consensus, may not be particularly reliable. (Of course many people don't think of this.) I think this multitude of voices is closer to how the world and knowledge actually works. There is effort and interpretation involved. On the other had, a question answering system is more like a short paper encyclopaedia article, except probably is less reliable (no detailed expert supervision) and appears more authoritative (Google is more ingrained into most peoples' lives than encyclopaedias ever were). This may appeal to people that would like internet to always give people the one "correct" answer, but not to me.