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Is Quora the biggest blogging innovation in 10 years?

54 points by harscoat 16y ago

vyrotek 16y ago
No. But while we're here, they need to fix their search.
- whakojacko 16y ago
  Just wondering, what do you think is wrong with it? (not affiliated at all with them) Besides the whole "enter brings up the ask question box instead of going to their search page", I think their search is pretty good. The autocomplete is scary fast and very helpful.
- tednaleid 16y ago
  Totally agree, the usability of having a link that says "Add Question" to the right of the "Find" box, with no other button still makes me think I might accidentally be asking a question whenever I search. The only way to get search results is to actually select something out of the autocomplete list. I rejected using Quora twice before I finally saw an explanation of how to search there. I rarely want to ask questions, I often want to search. They've flipped the priority of those two things in the UI.
  - bradly 16y ago
    > the usability of having a link that says "Add Question" to the right of the "Find" box, with no other button still makes me think I might accidentally be asking a question I thought the search field was the input field for the 'Add Question' button too. I finally found out when complaining in IRC that Quora didn't have a search.
kloncks 16y ago
Quora's relevance and absolute focus on completely revolutionizing the Q&A sector is fascinating. They've done so many innovations in that space. Counting that as an innovation to blogging seems too far-fetched...
mmastrac 16y ago
It's not a blogging innovation - it's just a stream of activity that happens to be related to Q&A. It looks somewhat similar to someone's FriendFeed activity stream, or Twitter conversation stream. Quora and StackOverflow might have improved the traditional Q&A site by making it more about conversations than just "HOW DO I GET BABBY" questions, but it's not blogging. Blogging is more about writing about what's on your mind. In some cases your blog entries are part of a conversation, but it's at the same level that a newspaper editorial is part of a conversation.
- ddorian 16y ago
  did u mean this? http://www.somethingawful.com/flash/shmorky/babby.swf http://www.somethingawful.com/flash/shmorky/babby.swf
minalecs 16y ago
is scoble an investor in quora?
cletus 16y ago
Short answer: no. Long answer: there is (IMHO) absolutely nothing innovative about Quora in terms of technology or concept. It's a Q&A site. No more, no less. The only noteworthy thing about Quora is the marketing success in all the Valley insiders they've gotten to use it.
- liuhenry 16y ago
  Agreed, but this: "all the Valley insiders they've gotten to use it." is a big one. Social sites are generally winner-take-all. You use it because of who's on it. To me, most of the points that Scoble mentions are a result of the quality of community. None of those features would matter if there weren't engaging people and discussions on the site. As to whether Quora made the community, or the community made Quora, I don't know enough to say.
- Rauchg 16y ago
  Quora's technology innovations and product polish are breathtaking.
  - mattrepl 16y ago
    They have taken a use case of Twitter and Facebook and turned it into it's own product. People seem to enjoy using it but breathtaking is a bit much. Also, what breathtaking technology innovation have they produced?
    - rafaelc 16y ago
      One breathtaking technology innovation from Quora would be LiveNode. Here are some detailed notes that got taken down for some reason or another: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:IdWqEvSiW7cJ:bugsalert.com/Abimanyu-Raja-Quora-Tech-Talk-Notes-Raw_41620.html+abi.sh+quora+livenode+notes&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:IdWqEvS...
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
    - 16y ago
AndrewDucker 16y ago
What differentiates Quora over Stack Overflow?
- whalesalad 16y ago
  It's theoretically identical, but it allows for discussion on any topic rather than just technical topics.
- kylec 16y ago
  Initially when Quora was launched it seemed quite similar to Stack Overflow, but as the site has progressed it seems to me that it's actually quite divergent in terms of the core focus of the platform. Stack Overflow is all about getting great answers to questions. Everything, from the reputation system, answer sorting, moderation, etc is designed so that the questions that are asked are on topic and objective, and that the best answers are situated right underneath. Not surprisingly, this focus was borne out of frustration with Experts Exchange playing tricks and hiding the answer to the question on the bottom of the page. Quora, on the other hand, is all about social connection and discussion. It does have a ranking system, but kinds of questions and answers that are typically found on the site are much more subjective and are designed to encourage many people to weigh in and provide different points of view. Quora also places higher importance on the person's real name and employer than a Stack Overflow-like score for on-site contributions. Overall, I think the title of Scoble's post ("Is Quora the biggest blogging innovation in 10 years?") sums up the difference quite clearly - Quora clearly has more in common with blogging than it does with straight-up Q&A like Stack Overflow.
citricsquid 16y ago
> First, look at the Quora items I’ve been participating in. This is a lot like a blog. But it’s not Dave Winer’s blog style. It’s any question I’ve followed, written in, voted up, etc No, it's like a forum.
chunkbot 16y ago
No?
dannyr 16y ago
Inside the bubble of Silicon Valley, maybe it is. For the rest of the world, I don't think it is. I'm waiting for people outside the tech sector of the Bay Area to start using it.
- notahacker 16y ago
  The big question is whether teens using it to settle debates on the respective merits of Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus will add to or destroy Quora's core value proposition...
bbgm 16y ago
While Quora is my favorite web destination today, and the one that I enjoy spending time on more than others, I think Robert's getting way ahead of himself. It's useful to drive ideas to blog about, and have interesting discussions, but to call it a blog is doing Quora a disservice. It's a very well done Q&A and information site, which isn't a bad thing, but the future of blogging it's not.
kevinburke 16y ago
I asked Quora: http://www.quora.com/Is-Quora-the-future-of-blogging http://www.quora.com/Is-Quora-the-future-of-blogging
stan_d 16y ago
It remains to be seen if Quora would get traction on topics not related to Silicon Valley concerns.
jasonwatkinspdx 16y ago
What a huge exaggeration of a headline. Not that Quora isn't interesting/useful/cool, but need we have a meta discussion about how revolutionary every new product is? It's like the Valley is turning into something like the more extreme parts of the fashion world: generating it's own excitement and obsolescence in a way wholly disconnected from the quality and utility of the actual products.
codelust 16y ago
Short answer: No Longer answer: What exactly is a 'blogging innovation'? Something that helps you run a better blog? I don't think Quora qualifies as that. I know a few people who are attempting to use the posts feature as a sort of blog, it is not quite the same as an open blog. It is more like a Twitter follow on a access limited account. As someone loves Quora and is very grateful for it (so far, at least), I can say that they have innovated mostly on the technical front. Their differentiating factor is actually not technology. It is something that even the best of technology can find hard to solve - curation of content and the community. One thing I can certainly think of that Quora has done right is to dis-incentivize the A-list. There is no reputation score in Quora, your follow count means nothing in your ability to participate anywhere. You contribute most often because you genuinely want to. To conclude, I like Robert for his sincerity and passion, but his take on most technology and products are pretty poor.
fingerprinter 16y ago
I just created an account and logged in using my twitter. Pretty painless and I was soon presented with a stream of topics that interest me, highlighted by people I follow on twitter. Interesting and already relevant. However, it was pretty much noise. The specific questions asked were fun, but not something I would like to spend any significant time dedicated to either answering or reading about. That being said, with the rise fo Twitter, many people stopped blogging. I can see how this might get people to write something more meaningful and longer than 140 characters again...and since they are "hanging out" with an people they already have some interest in, it might work. Interestingly, I think it almost fails as a Q&A site on first glance b/c the search seems so horrific. Will I go back? Probably not. I would rather still use Google, which has better search, and see Quora in that feed. Will other people create content for Quora, thereby creating value for Quora? Yes, undoubtedly. It happened with Mahalo, Stack Overflow and Digg/Reddit...it will happen here. To the scale Quora needs? Not sure. Depends if Google picks them up and if they open up to third party tools ala Twitter. Is it the future of blogging? Probably not.

54 points by harscoat 16y ago

vyrotek 16y ago

No. But while we're here, they need to fix their search.

whakojacko 16y ago
Just wondering, what do you think is wrong with it? (not affiliated at all with them) Besides the whole "enter brings up the ask question box instead of going to their search page", I think their search is pretty good. The autocomplete is scary fast and very helpful.
tednaleid 16y ago
Totally agree, the usability of having a link that says "Add Question" to the right of the "Find" box, with no other button still makes me think I might accidentally be asking a question whenever I search. The only way to get search results is to actually select something out of the autocomplete list. I rejected using Quora twice before I finally saw an explanation of how to search there. I rarely want to ask questions, I often want to search. They've flipped the priority of those two things in the UI.
- bradly 16y ago
  > the usability of having a link that says "Add Question" to the right of the "Find" box, with no other button still makes me think I might accidentally be asking a question I thought the search field was the input field for the 'Add Question' button too. I finally found out when complaining in IRC that Quora didn't have a search.

kloncks 16y ago

Quora's relevance and absolute focus on completely revolutionizing the Q&A sector is fascinating. They've done so many innovations in that space. Counting that as an innovation to blogging seems too far-fetched...

mmastrac 16y ago

It's not a blogging innovation - it's just a stream of activity that happens to be related to Q&A. It looks somewhat similar to someone's FriendFeed activity stream, or Twitter conversation stream. Quora and StackOverflow might have improved the traditional Q&A site by making it more about conversations than just "HOW DO I GET BABBY" questions, but it's not blogging. Blogging is more about writing about what's on your mind. In some cases your blog entries are part of a conversation, but it's at the same level that a newspaper editorial is part of a conversation.

ddorian 16y ago
did u mean this? http://www.somethingawful.com/flash/shmorky/babby.swf http://www.somethingawful.com/flash/shmorky/babby.swf

minalecs 16y ago

is scoble an investor in quora?

cletus 16y ago

Short answer: no. Long answer: there is (IMHO) absolutely nothing innovative about Quora in terms of technology or concept. It's a Q&A site. No more, no less. The only noteworthy thing about Quora is the marketing success in all the Valley insiders they've gotten to use it.

liuhenry 16y ago
Agreed, but this: "all the Valley insiders they've gotten to use it." is a big one. Social sites are generally winner-take-all. You use it because of who's on it. To me, most of the points that Scoble mentions are a result of the quality of community. None of those features would matter if there weren't engaging people and discussions on the site. As to whether Quora made the community, or the community made Quora, I don't know enough to say.
Rauchg 16y ago
Quora's technology innovations and product polish are breathtaking.
- mattrepl 16y ago
  They have taken a use case of Twitter and Facebook and turned it into it's own product. People seem to enjoy using it but breathtaking is a bit much. Also, what breathtaking technology innovation have they produced?
  - rafaelc 16y ago
    One breathtaking technology innovation from Quora would be LiveNode. Here are some detailed notes that got taken down for some reason or another: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:IdWqEvSiW7cJ:bugsalert.com/Abimanyu-Raja-Quora-Tech-Talk-Notes-Raw_41620.html+abi.sh+quora+livenode+notes&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:IdWqEvS...
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - 16y ago

AndrewDucker 16y ago

What differentiates Quora over Stack Overflow?

whalesalad 16y ago
It's theoretically identical, but it allows for discussion on any topic rather than just technical topics.
kylec 16y ago
Initially when Quora was launched it seemed quite similar to Stack Overflow, but as the site has progressed it seems to me that it's actually quite divergent in terms of the core focus of the platform. Stack Overflow is all about getting great answers to questions. Everything, from the reputation system, answer sorting, moderation, etc is designed so that the questions that are asked are on topic and objective, and that the best answers are situated right underneath. Not surprisingly, this focus was borne out of frustration with Experts Exchange playing tricks and hiding the answer to the question on the bottom of the page. Quora, on the other hand, is all about social connection and discussion. It does have a ranking system, but kinds of questions and answers that are typically found on the site are much more subjective and are designed to encourage many people to weigh in and provide different points of view. Quora also places higher importance on the person's real name and employer than a Stack Overflow-like score for on-site contributions. Overall, I think the title of Scoble's post ("Is Quora the biggest blogging innovation in 10 years?") sums up the difference quite clearly - Quora clearly has more in common with blogging than it does with straight-up Q&A like Stack Overflow.

citricsquid 16y ago

> First, look at the Quora items I’ve been participating in. This is a lot like a blog. But it’s not Dave Winer’s blog style. It’s any question I’ve followed, written in, voted up, etc No, it's like a forum.

chunkbot 16y ago

No?

dannyr 16y ago

Inside the bubble of Silicon Valley, maybe it is. For the rest of the world, I don't think it is. I'm waiting for people outside the tech sector of the Bay Area to start using it.

notahacker 16y ago
The big question is whether teens using it to settle debates on the respective merits of Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus will add to or destroy Quora's core value proposition...

bbgm 16y ago

While Quora is my favorite web destination today, and the one that I enjoy spending time on more than others, I think Robert's getting way ahead of himself. It's useful to drive ideas to blog about, and have interesting discussions, but to call it a blog is doing Quora a disservice. It's a very well done Q&A and information site, which isn't a bad thing, but the future of blogging it's not.

kevinburke 16y ago

I asked Quora: http://www.quora.com/Is-Quora-the-future-of-blogging http://www.quora.com/Is-Quora-the-future-of-blogging

stan_d 16y ago

It remains to be seen if Quora would get traction on topics not related to Silicon Valley concerns.

jasonwatkinspdx 16y ago

What a huge exaggeration of a headline. Not that Quora isn't interesting/useful/cool, but need we have a meta discussion about how revolutionary every new product is? It's like the Valley is turning into something like the more extreme parts of the fashion world: generating it's own excitement and obsolescence in a way wholly disconnected from the quality and utility of the actual products.

codelust 16y ago

Short answer: No Longer answer: What exactly is a 'blogging innovation'? Something that helps you run a better blog? I don't think Quora qualifies as that. I know a few people who are attempting to use the posts feature as a sort of blog, it is not quite the same as an open blog. It is more like a Twitter follow on a access limited account. As someone loves Quora and is very grateful for it (so far, at least), I can say that they have innovated mostly on the technical front. Their differentiating factor is actually not technology. It is something that even the best of technology can find hard to solve - curation of content and the community. One thing I can certainly think of that Quora has done right is to dis-incentivize the A-list. There is no reputation score in Quora, your follow count means nothing in your ability to participate anywhere. You contribute most often because you genuinely want to. To conclude, I like Robert for his sincerity and passion, but his take on most technology and products are pretty poor.

fingerprinter 16y ago

I just created an account and logged in using my twitter. Pretty painless and I was soon presented with a stream of topics that interest me, highlighted by people I follow on twitter. Interesting and already relevant. However, it was pretty much noise. The specific questions asked were fun, but not something I would like to spend any significant time dedicated to either answering or reading about. That being said, with the rise fo Twitter, many people stopped blogging. I can see how this might get people to write something more meaningful and longer than 140 characters again...and since they are "hanging out" with an people they already have some interest in, it might work. Interestingly, I think it almost fails as a Q&A site on first glance b/c the search seems so horrific. Will I go back? Probably not. I would rather still use Google, which has better search, and see Quora in that feed. Will other people create content for Quora, thereby creating value for Quora? Yes, undoubtedly. It happened with Mahalo, Stack Overflow and Digg/Reddit...it will happen here. To the scale Quora needs? Not sure. Depends if Google picks them up and if they open up to third party tools ala Twitter. Is it the future of blogging? Probably not.