This post was originally posted on CenterNetworks.com as part of my blogging on the Israeli startup scene.

Fixya harnesses collective wisdom to deal with one of the modern age’s greatest woes… Tech Support. Let’s face it, Plug-n-Play is anything but and dealing with phone support is costly and exceedingly frustrating. This is where Fixya comes in.

I recently had a chance to sit down with Yaniv Bar-Lev, Fixya’s VP of User Acquisition to learn more about the company.

Fixya is a simple service (simple = good). Users can submit a product related question from across a catalog of 700,000 consumer products. The scope is quite broad, from gadgets to baby strollers. Solutions are then posted by both everyday folks, as well as “Experts”.

Pay attention all you entrepreneurs with “+1″ solutions: 1) Got a problem, 2) Post a question, 3) Get an answer, 4) Problem solved.

It seems common place that companies in the social space have a mélange for a business model. Fixya’s is no different: On-site advertising, repair and part affiliations, as well as premium services such as “Guaranteed Answers” and Online 1-1 tech support. Revenue derived outside of the destination site includes content syndication and white-labeling the Fixya platform to be implemented within support service sites of consumer product companies.

Founded in 2005, Fixya is led by co-founder and CEO, Yaniv Ben-Saadon, formerly of Hotbar. The company was originally funded by a few Angels, most notable among them is Yossi Vardi (see below). Pitango Venture Capital and Mayfield Fund participated in a second funding round, reportedly in the $4M range.

Vardi Side Note: Dr. Yossi Vardi is considered the grand poobah of the Israeli Internet industry. He was the founding investor of ICQ in which his son, Arik Vardi, was one of the co-founders. Today he is a well-regarded Angel that falls under the “smart money” status. He’s also known to be extremely supportive of startups and entrepreneurs. I’ve yet to be at a startup shindig in which I haven’t heard, “Has Yossi Vardi seen this…?”.

Competition-wise, the two big players of this space are unquestionably AllExperts (owned by mammoth About.com) and Experts Exchange. Out in the boonies are the likes of TechLore, and Retrevo.

While the big challenge for Fixya will be to establish itself as the obvious destination site for tech support, the more logical course of action is to focus on SEO and reach users organically. This point has not gone unnoticed at Fixya. Just try Googling “Sony troubleshooting” and they’ll come-up as the second result, right after Sony’s own support site.

It’s going to be a long hard battle for Fixya and we technically baffled folk have only to gain from their work.