Naver's pundits in SKorea are never short of an answer

SEONGNAM, South Korea (AFP) — In one of the world's most wired societies, South Koreans seldom "Google" a topic. Instead they "Naver" it, thanks to a real-time question-and-answer system involving tens of thousands of daily responses from the general public.

The world's top search engine accounts for less than three percent of all Internet searches here, according to a research firm, compared to 76 percent for Naver.com.

NHN (Next Human Network), the company that runs Naver, attributes its success to a grassroots product tailored to Korean society.

"NHN shows not only web-based texts but also various other types of content about news, blogs, online communities, books, shopping, dictionaries and even weather -- all one by one," NHN spokesman Yun Won-Sik said at his office in Seongnam, a city south of Seoul.

"NHN has been blended well into the Korean culture where people like ...