Amazon launches Askville.com

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc, the world's largest Web retailer, launched Askville.com, an information-sharing Web site where users can ask questions and answer queries from others, on Thursday.

The site, open to all of its customers, has been in beta testing since December 2006 and has already been open to a few users, Amazon said.

Similar services are offered by Yahoo Inc's Answers and other Web sites such as AnswerBank. Google Inc also had an "Answers" section, which has been discontinued.

(Reporting by Aarthi Sivaraman, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)