18. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to: responsive to the set of question characteristics found in the received input question failing to matching the question characteristics associated with one or more previous questions in the set of previous questions above the related-question predetermined threshold, analyze the input question for relevance to trending topics; and responsive to a topic of the input question matching a trending topic, initially utilize real-time information sources related to the topic of the input question to answer the input question.
19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to: responsive to a topic of the input question failing to match a trending topic, initially utilize both real-time information sources and static information sources related to the topic of the input question to answer the input question.