Aardvark is like a take-a-penny, leave-a-penny system for advice. And it’s fun! 

Nobody likes a know-it-all, right? Well, unless they need to know something that know-it-all knows. And on the flip side, some people are just naturally helpful and want to offer advice—but unless your name is Miss Manners, you might not get asked. 

Aardvark is a fun and free service that matches up question askers with confident answerers. It brands itself as a “social Q&A,” and it’s perfect for those times when you need a subjective opinion (“What’s the best Twitter app for iPhone?”) rather than an easily Google-able fact (“How much does Twitterific cost?”). Plus you get to give your two cents on other people’s queries while keeping your privacy intact.

To get started, head to vark.com and sign up for an account. You can log in with your Google or Facebook credentials to see if your friends are participating. But you don’t typically interact with Aardvark through its website—instead, you IM, email, or tweet it, just like you’re talking to an actual friend. After setting up your IM, email, and Twitter accounts at vark.com/profile/accounts, you can IM with aardvark-g211@vark.com, email aardvark@vark.com, or tweet and direct-message @vark on Twitter. A free iPhone app lets you ask questions, too.

Using one of those methods, you just ask a plain-English question: What other bands should I check out if I like LCD Soundsystem? What’s the best Chinese restaurant in Reno? Anyone know a good recipe for shark fillets? Aardvark parses your question’s topic and turns to your extended network, passing along the question semi-anonymously (your first name and city are shown) to other people who claim knowledge about that subject. Everyone in the service adds topics they’ll accept questions about (places, subjects, skills, products, interests, and so on). Aardvark pings those people over IM (or email), and their replies get passed on to you. 

“Sounds great,” you might think, “except who wants to get questions over IM all day?” Fear not. Aardvark will first ask if you’re there and preview the question’s topic, and if you don’t answer or fire back “busy,” it leaves you alone. A reply of “away” will turn it off for a week at a time. If you type “sure,” it asks you the question. You can either answer it in plain English, type “pass” to pass, or give the question a better subject label with the “tag” command. If it asks you about a topic you aren’t versed in, “mute” will stop any more questions about that topic. (Type “help” anytime for a list of commands.)

And since it’s real people answering, you can even go back and forth. It’s always polite to thank the answerer, but if you like you can even elaborate or ask follow-up questions (“Oh, I tried that but I had XYZ problems with it...”). Aardvark passes along the messages for you so your own email and IM addresses aren’t out there. And you can get some really helpful tips. Feel free to add me to your network, and have fun.