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People underestimate Quora. They underestimate both Quora and Google+ like they did with Twitter, Facebook, Blogger and YouTube before them. What people don't

People underestimate Quora. They underestimate both Quora and Google+ like they did with Twitter, Facebook, Blogger and YouTube before them. What people don't seem to get about both Quora and Google+ is that they are networks not based around the people you just randomly happen to know - but instead around the people and things that you are actually interested in. There's a huge difference between the two. They are interest-based social networks and are essentially pulling niche, technical, specific forums, specific blogs, and just general chatter into one mainstream and real time feed - away from the pseudonym driven, trolling, harsh, fractured, and separate niche areas that we currently have in many areas (Yes I know both Twitter/YouTube began like this - but they have slowly become things you put on your business card/real business use and are based upon). Quora should not be underestimated as a SV centric bubbletastic startup - although it often appears that way. But then again, so did Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, and even YouTube. Quora is where you go to hang out with people who actually share your interests (and not just a zip code), talk about the things that you really care about (not about who was the most drunk on the weekend) and just generally talk shop about the world, with the added benefit of a centralized repository where content bubbles up everyday (kind of like YouTube's subscriptions feature). No more refreshing pages :D. Quora is like the Hacker News for everything else that doesn't already have its own Hacker News with really, really, freaking good UI, addictive game mechanics and really good content filtering. Quora should not be underestimated. And neither should Google+.

dageshi 14y ago
Or Reddit? Which is the hackernews for everything else?
- confluence 14y ago
  Still uses pseudonyms. Sounds like a small difference. It isn't. Facebook existed before, on millions of forums, blogs, websites and various accounts. But what changed everything was using real names. It was the real names and social proof that changed everything from something a bunch of nerds used (like IRC/various chat services/various forums) - to something everyone needed to be on and used daily. Reddit/HN will remain non-mainstream for the foreseeable future.
  - spectrum 14y ago
    Reddit is already mainstream. It had 3.8 billion pageviews and 46 million uniques in October (http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/11/08/expenses-mounting-reddit-updates-its-gold-membership-and-asks-its-46m-unique-visitors-to-pay/ http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/11/08/expenses-mounting-r...) Websites using pseudonyms use karma, upvotes etc. as social proof.
    - confluence 14y ago
      If we're going by page views then I'm sure many unsavory sites have many more. Still not mainstream - or not in the way that you think. My point with mainstream was not views. My point with mainstream was that it will become something normal people could potentially use. I like to think of reddit/StackExchange as the mid point between the completely disparate forums and a Facebook like interest based real-name social network. They are like IRC.
      - pharrington 14y ago
        What nonsavory forums have more pageviews or uniques than Reddit? And are you seriously saying that "normal people" don't use Reddit? Where is traffic coming from?
      - potatolicious 14y ago
        You have a skewed perspective on Reddit. It absolutely is mainstream already, and will become more so over time. When your website has that many uniques, and its subculture has been referenced by mainstream brands, TV shows, and continually shows up in real life (I just saw a local pizza shop that used an Advice Animal on a sandwich board outside), you are mainstream. When the President of the United States holds a Q&A session on your site, you are mainstream. When the internal drama of your website makes it onto the NYTimes and CNN, you are mainstream. It's grown far, far beyond the internet-nerd stronghold it was a few years ago. Hell, at this point my humanities major friends are on Reddit, even if they don't comment. Compare with Quora - which has made few inroads to any community besides "Silicon Valley Insider". The vast majority of content there is still about the tech industry and startups, and even on other topics the vast majority of commenters have tech industry/startup backgrounds. Mainstream? Really? It may be that in the future a real-name-driven community will take the crown from Reddit as biggest community on the internet, but that's a long way from today, and I seriously doubt it will come in the form of Quora. Shit, I just visited my Quora profile and one of the top 3 questions in my feed is "Quora Employees: Are Kah Seng Tay and Kah Keng Tay related?". This community is self-absorbed and self-referential in ways that even Reddit can't match.
citricsquid 14y ago
> Quora should not be underestimated I don't have much of an opinion on Quora and want it to succeed, but your claims seem rather... grandiose. From what I've seen Quora fairs well in very specific situations (where it has a large userbase of people knowledgeable in that specific niche) and then it's mediocre everywhere else. I've never thought "this is the future" while using Quora. Do you have any examples of Quora that show the potential you talk about? I guess it can be argued "If Quora has a large userbase that are knowledgable in every niche then it will take over the world!" but that sort of argument can extend to almost any service. I see Stackexchange as the biggest competitor to Quora and in my experience Stackexchange is fairing much better (both in users and interfaces, I'd much rather ask a question on a SE site vs. Quora, for example).
- confluence 14y ago
  StackExchange still has the pseudonym problem. It is also about 10x as harsh and severely limits itself, by well, limiting the actions of their participating clientele. Stack Exchange has relegated itself with it's strict standards to little more than a technical help resource - for the vast majority of use cases. You don't go to StackExchange to hang out - you go there to ask answer/ask questions. It's like Wikipedia. On extrapolations: All large future extrapolations appear, by definition, to be grandiose. If they weren't - well then it would be bloody well bleeding obvious what was about to happen then wouldn't it :D - and it would go without me having to say so. > Quora fairs well in very specific situations (where it has a large userbase of people knowledgeable in that specific niche) and then it's mediocre everywhere else. Same with anything else. This is a truism. The only thing I can say to people is this: Whenever people tell you to look into something that appears curious - try it for 2 weeks and make your own judgement.
  - ThomPete 14y ago
    But SE has a business and make revenue + profit no?
    - confluence 14y ago
      So does ExpertsExchange - what's your point? If profit were the only things that mattered then Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google could never have gotten off the ground. Those things hemorrhaged cash for years. It's how startups work. They are risky. They are unlikely to succeed. They often look like complete jokes. And that's why you have to watch them carefully. Because it's the stuff you don't notice that really gets you.
Osmium 14y ago
I think the real problem is that a lot of people don't understand the value of a billion dollars. Quora may be a great company, but is it worth that much?
Rastafarian 14y ago
Mentioning poor, useless Quora when the topic is billion dollar companies makes me laugh.
throwa 14y ago
Is there really anything to underestimate in an expertexchange clone. I doubt there is but you can prove me wrong.

dageshi 14y ago

Or Reddit? Which is the hackernews for everything else?

confluence 14y ago
Still uses pseudonyms. Sounds like a small difference. It isn't. Facebook existed before, on millions of forums, blogs, websites and various accounts. But what changed everything was using real names. It was the real names and social proof that changed everything from something a bunch of nerds used (like IRC/various chat services/various forums) - to something everyone needed to be on and used daily. Reddit/HN will remain non-mainstream for the foreseeable future.
- spectrum 14y ago
  Reddit is already mainstream. It had 3.8 billion pageviews and 46 million uniques in October (http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/11/08/expenses-mounting-reddit-updates-its-gold-membership-and-asks-its-46m-unique-visitors-to-pay/ http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/11/08/expenses-mounting-r...) Websites using pseudonyms use karma, upvotes etc. as social proof.
  - confluence 14y ago
    If we're going by page views then I'm sure many unsavory sites have many more. Still not mainstream - or not in the way that you think. My point with mainstream was not views. My point with mainstream was that it will become something normal people could potentially use. I like to think of reddit/StackExchange as the mid point between the completely disparate forums and a Facebook like interest based real-name social network. They are like IRC.
    - pharrington 14y ago
      What nonsavory forums have more pageviews or uniques than Reddit? And are you seriously saying that "normal people" don't use Reddit? Where is traffic coming from?
    - potatolicious 14y ago
      You have a skewed perspective on Reddit. It absolutely is mainstream already, and will become more so over time. When your website has that many uniques, and its subculture has been referenced by mainstream brands, TV shows, and continually shows up in real life (I just saw a local pizza shop that used an Advice Animal on a sandwich board outside), you are mainstream. When the President of the United States holds a Q&A session on your site, you are mainstream. When the internal drama of your website makes it onto the NYTimes and CNN, you are mainstream. It's grown far, far beyond the internet-nerd stronghold it was a few years ago. Hell, at this point my humanities major friends are on Reddit, even if they don't comment. Compare with Quora - which has made few inroads to any community besides "Silicon Valley Insider". The vast majority of content there is still about the tech industry and startups, and even on other topics the vast majority of commenters have tech industry/startup backgrounds. Mainstream? Really? It may be that in the future a real-name-driven community will take the crown from Reddit as biggest community on the internet, but that's a long way from today, and I seriously doubt it will come in the form of Quora. Shit, I just visited my Quora profile and one of the top 3 questions in my feed is "Quora Employees: Are Kah Seng Tay and Kah Keng Tay related?". This community is self-absorbed and self-referential in ways that even Reddit can't match.

citricsquid 14y ago

> Quora should not be underestimated I don't have much of an opinion on Quora and want it to succeed, but your claims seem rather... grandiose. From what I've seen Quora fairs well in very specific situations (where it has a large userbase of people knowledgeable in that specific niche) and then it's mediocre everywhere else. I've never thought "this is the future" while using Quora. Do you have any examples of Quora that show the potential you talk about? I guess it can be argued "If Quora has a large userbase that are knowledgable in every niche then it will take over the world!" but that sort of argument can extend to almost any service. I see Stackexchange as the biggest competitor to Quora and in my experience Stackexchange is fairing much better (both in users and interfaces, I'd much rather ask a question on a SE site vs. Quora, for example).

confluence 14y ago
StackExchange still has the pseudonym problem. It is also about 10x as harsh and severely limits itself, by well, limiting the actions of their participating clientele. Stack Exchange has relegated itself with it's strict standards to little more than a technical help resource - for the vast majority of use cases. You don't go to StackExchange to hang out - you go there to ask answer/ask questions. It's like Wikipedia. On extrapolations: All large future extrapolations appear, by definition, to be grandiose. If they weren't - well then it would be bloody well bleeding obvious what was about to happen then wouldn't it :D - and it would go without me having to say so. > Quora fairs well in very specific situations (where it has a large userbase of people knowledgeable in that specific niche) and then it's mediocre everywhere else. Same with anything else. This is a truism. The only thing I can say to people is this: Whenever people tell you to look into something that appears curious - try it for 2 weeks and make your own judgement.
- ThomPete 14y ago
  But SE has a business and make revenue + profit no?
  - confluence 14y ago
    So does ExpertsExchange - what's your point? If profit were the only things that mattered then Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google could never have gotten off the ground. Those things hemorrhaged cash for years. It's how startups work. They are risky. They are unlikely to succeed. They often look like complete jokes. And that's why you have to watch them carefully. Because it's the stuff you don't notice that really gets you.

Osmium 14y ago

I think the real problem is that a lot of people don't understand the value of a billion dollars. Quora may be a great company, but is it worth that much?

Rastafarian 14y ago

Mentioning poor, useless Quora when the topic is billion dollar companies makes me laugh.

throwa 14y ago

Is there really anything to underestimate in an expertexchange clone. I doubt there is but you can prove me wrong.