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No offense to Gabriel or DDG, but this kind of question on quora always looks a bit set-up. If you take DDG out it reads like "Why should I use <specific produ
by growt 8y ago
No offense to Gabriel or DDG, but this kind of question on quora always looks a bit set-up.
If you take DDG out it reads like "Why should I use <specific product>?", to which the creator/CEO/Owner of <specific product> can now answer with the complete marketing blurb he/she has ready, without guilt.
I also have seen that about some obscure AI-Algorithm and a question like "Why is <obscure algorithm> so superior?". To which the inventor of said algorithm had a few pages as a reply.
- bad_user 8y agoI don't understand what the problem is. It's irrelevant if the question is being set-up or not for people wanting to know the difference between a search engine marketing itself for privacy, like DuckDuckGo, versus Google.
- Woberto 8y agoI think OP is making a distinction between a question like "what are the differences between DDG and Google" and the more subjective question that was actually posted. With a subjective question, the marketing team can come tout all the positive attributes as reasons why one should switch without giving equal time to discuss what might be lacking.
- justinpombrio 8y agoIn other words, the bottom line was already written. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/34XxbRFe54FycoCDw/the-bottom-line https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/34XxbRFe54FycoCDw/the-bottom...
- augbog 8y agoYeah agreed I've actually seen this a lot on Quora as well. I personally don't think there's anything "wrong" with it because the pros listed will most definitely be valid however as an outside user, I am interested in both the products and they are less likely to tout their own shortcomings.
- NeedMoreTea 8y agoThe real answer may very well be different to the marketing answer that a founder or CEO might put out. In fact it usually is. DDG is my default search engine, and I only revert to Google very rarely. I'm happy DDG exists and want them to succeed. Yet I would take quite some issue with point 4 "We listen". They may very well listen more than the others, particularly Google who are renowned for being deaf. I've reported faults with bangs, instant answers or results to DDG with little effect weeks and weeks later. They also shut down their community for creating and fixing bangs and instant answers.
- zakk 8y agoMaybe you are right, but it's quite pointless in this context to judge someone's intentions. Staged or not, if Gabriel's answer is factually accurate -- as it seems to be from a cursory look -- I don't see a problem here.
- Kagerjay 8y agoThat's actually a pretty smart way of marketing, Gabriel might have had a shadow account to write that question
- daveFNbuck 8y agoQuora makes the edit history of everything related to a question public. In this case, the question was asked by John Fish. His profile looks like it could be fake, but it's not clear. If it is fake, they waited several months after asking the Quora question before adding other non-setup questions as cover. https://www.quora.com/profile/John-Fish-49 https://www.quora.com/profile/John-Fish-49
- mankash666 8y agoNo problem with that - it's a legitimate marketing channel, which in this day and age of digital proliferation, cannot be ignored. No one forced anyone else to read it, but people are obviously searching in a similar fashion and these answers are getting read.
- craftyguy 8y ago> No one forced anyone else to read it, but people are obviously searching in a similar fashion and these answers are getting read The problem is that it is seriously blurring the line between advertising and unbiased(or less biased that an ad from the company) advice/comparison of search engines.
- optimuspaul 8y agoIs it though? I think it is very clear that this is advertising regardless of the authenticity of the source of the question. The answer is an ad and I don't think that is bad (or good).
- craftyguy 8y agoIt's clear to you and I, but I can see how it would not be clear to others. They could have stated up front in the response that they represent DDG, but they did not.
- kwhitefoot 8y ago> They could have stated up front in the response that they represent DDG, but they did not perhaps they thought it was unnecessary to repeat the information that sits just under the title: "Gabriel Weinberg, CEO & Founder at DuckDuckGo (2008-present)"
- craftyguy 8y agoHonestly I didn't even notice that until you pointed it out. I guess my mind is trained to jump straight to the content and ignore everything else around it.
- aviv 8y agoWho cares if it's staged? Taking on a giant like Google requires some hassle and maneuvering. As a business owner it's your responsibility to do whatever it takes to succeed. This harms no one.
- waynecochran 8y agoYes, this is benign and shrewd. But "to do whatever it takes to succeed" is a motto that is rotten to the core.
- aviv 8y agoSaid the unsuccessful entrepreneurs.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- mempko 8y agoExcept unlike all other marketing, this "Marketing blurb" is packed with information and likely teaches the reader about new things, like "Filter Bubble" which they probably didn't even realize is a thing.
- tzs 8y agoCan't you say that about pretty much any time someone asks about a product in a forum where people who are involved with the product have accounts? The question was asked on 2017-03-12. Weinberg didn't answer until 2018-01-24, 10 months later, after others had answered. After Weinberg answered others continued to add answers. If it was a setup, they did a really good job of making it look like a "user finds question about something he has first hand knowledge of and answers" situation. It's good to be cautious, but most of the time the monsters aren't actually coming to Maple Street.
- growt 8y agoYou're right, I don't think this particular question was set up. And I don't blame Gabriel for answering. What I wanted to say is, that as a reader the answer to the general question "Is product X good?" by the owner/creator/inventor of said product, adds little value. Because obviously the creator knows a lot about his/her product but is also very biased. And I can probably find the same arguments and thoughts somewhere on the product page itself.
- deminature 8y agoI've seen this exact question on my feed with 'sponsored' above, so it seems intentionally asked and answered as part of an advertising campaign.
- zerkten 8y agoIn the early days of StackOverflow (mostly during the beta) there was encouragement to ask intelligent questions which hadn't been asked yet. This was a way to seed the site with better content. I can see the same strategy being useful to Quora who rely on search engine traffic. Sadly, the low signal/noise ratio of Quora, and encouragement of opinions (not that many SO answers aren't!) makes the content even more subjective.
- lostlogin 8y agoSO has a horrible tendency to mark questions as already answered, when they are in fact subtly different questions. It’s infuriating when you are deep in the weeds.
- mayankkaizen 8y agoYou can find idiotic question on both SO and Quora but, in my experience, the stupidity demonstrated in Quora questions is just astounding. But that is not the issue. The issue is that complete garbage answers get upvoted to the top too frequently. You actually have to dig very deep to find something interesting.
- zerkten 8y agoBoth of the points you have made are very similar to the issues with ExpertsExchange which SO set out to replace. The reason idiotic questions and answers remain is that they are fodder for people arriving from search engines. If you cleaned them up and removed the duplication there would be a huge reduction in content. I often wonder if Quora actually knows what it wants to be when it grows up. They have some serious funding (https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/quora https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/quora) for what little they seem to have delivered. I would love for them to prove me wrong as I think there is space for an alternative to SO and the StackExchange network.
- xtracto 8y ago> If you take DDG out it reads like "Why should I use <specific product>?", to which the creator/CEO/Owner of <specific product> can now answer with the complete marketing blurb he/she has ready, without guilt. From what I have seen, this is what Quora is all about related on technology, basically a marketing platform for companies to spit their boilerplate marketing material.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y agoIt wasn't always this way, although it certainly started heading in that direction and that's when I decided to delete my account. Sad to hear that the situation appears to have gotten even worse - it was a really great site in the early days.