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Google Baraza
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- codfrantic 13y ago"One of Google’s goals in Africa is to make the internet more locally relevant and bring more people online. One of the challenges of the internet in Africa is that there is a lack of local content online. At Google, we find that users search for information about local businesses, entertainment, health, etc but often don’t find it because the information is not yet available online. In order to help bring more local content online, Google engineers have created Baraza to allow people in countries across Africa to ask questions and post answers to questions from others." http://www.google.com/baraza/en/thread?tid=3084c339e2379cf8 http://www.google.com/baraza/en/thread?tid=3084c339e2379cf8
- jbrooksuk 13y agoThat clears things up.
- davidw 13y agoWho are "foreigners" for you? That's a bad term on internet forums because people from all over the world use sites like HN, making "foreigners" somewhat meaningless/confusing.
- pavs 13y agoWho the hell is a "foreigner" on the internet?
- r0h1n 13y agoWhat am I missing? Is this Google Answers under a new name?
- AndrewDucker 13y agoAn answer to the question "What is Google Baraza?": http://www.google.com/baraza/en/thread?tid=3084c339e2379cf8 http://www.google.com/baraza/en/thread?tid=3084c339e2379cf8
- diggan 13y ago"What is Google Baraza?" "I am a member of the Google Baraza team. One of Google’s goals in Africa is to make the internet more locally relevant and bring more people online. One of the challenges of the internet in Africa is that there is a lack of local content online. At Google, we find that users search for information about local businesses, entertainment, health, etc but often don’t find it because the information is not yet available online. In order to help bring more local content online, Google engineers have created Baraza to allow people in countries across Africa to ask questions and post answers to questions from others. Here are some quick tasks to try out - Answer a question on your favorite topic - Find a question by browsing labels (e.g.,"Programming & Design") or Search (e.g., "Economics") - Ask a question that you have been wondering about [...]" http://www.google.com/baraza/en/thread?tid=3084c339e2379cf8 http://www.google.com/baraza/en/thread?tid=3084c339e2379cf8
- r0h1n 13y agoSo, minus all the lofty goals, this is Google Answers for Africa. I'd be interested to know what Q&A services Africans already use.
- aray 13y agoAlso notably, the answer linked is from October 2010, so this has been in use for a while.
- joelrunyon 13y agoAre any of these Africa-specific pieces? Just a few of the questions I picked off: > What is the meaning of stonehenge? > What is public enlightenment? > Is politics vicious? Are these answers necessarily local to Africa?
- yati 13y agoWhy, you think Africans won't be interested in answers to those?
- 13y ago
- ekianjo 13y agoWhere are the points coming from ? I seem to have 24 points while I never used this service. How about you ?
- adrianb 13y agoThe 24 points seem to be the "initial sign-up bonus" and a "daily login bonus". I got my initial bonus in 2011 it seems, so this must be an older Google service that was just renamed and re-launched.
- crb 13y agoNote: this URL will be 404 if you're using an "https everywhere" extension. Revert to http:// http:// URLs and it will work.
- OrwellianChild 13y agoThis looks like an attempt to mimic the Quora or StackOverflow format of Q&A, but the structure isn't there. There doesn't seem to be much organizational structure beyond the top-level "Government" or "Computer Software" categories. It appears to have been around since 2010 or so - there are some users that have been contributing for a while (e.g. ivan - http://www.google.com/baraza/en/user?clk=tpct&userid=07087875453522940748 http://www.google.com/baraza/en/user?clk=tpct&userid=0708787...). What is the purpose of recreating English-language Q&A structure in such a poor form?
- wodenokoto 13y agoGathering question answer pairs for training their answering algorithm in google search.
- KiwiCoder 13y agoQuestion for the Baraza team: The framework looks good, and I expect the engineering behind the scenes is impressive. What are your thoughts about content curation and acquiring a critical mass of (for want of a better term) moderators? See (for example) this question and its answers http://www.google.com/baraza/en/thread?tid=618ce3dee8dafc67 http://www.google.com/baraza/en/thread?tid=618ce3dee8dafc67
- ronilan 13y agoThat's new. /s (http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2010-11-16-n46.html http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2010-11-16-n46.html)
- thomasfl 13y agoWill Baraza questions and answers be ranked higher than Quora and Stack Overflow in Google search? When Google starts adding more services with content created by users, will it be harder to rely on Google search?
- joelrunyon 13y agoThis is a good question. At one point is google "impartial" search engine or when does it become a funnel to their own services? You can see it started to happen with the ITA flight software acquisition a few years back (http://www.google.com/press/ita/ http://www.google.com/press/ita/) - now google flights now beat out every booking engine for any flight query.
- lopatin 13y agoI doubt that Google will ruin the integrity of their search results because they want to push Baraza. They do have widgets such as Google Flights pop up when it is clear the user if looking for airline tickets but that's not an indication that Google funnels all their own services for the heck of it. First of all, the widgets such as Flights and People Bios are not in the actual search results, but appear as separate sections. I believe the actual search results are sacred and are exempt from being tampered with, even for Google's motives. Second, flights are a very specific and objective thing which makes their Flights widget extremely useful. If I'm searching for "flights from lax to ord", I'm going to get all flight times available without even leaving Google. The same cannot be said for most services such as Baraza, where the quality of answers/questions is very incomplete and subjective.
- joelrunyon 13y agoTheir flight widget is the second thing in the search results (right under the ads) and above any actual results. That alone - says they're prioritizing the money-making options.
- lopatin 13y ago
- ianleckey 13y ago404
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- selectnull 13y agoHow come Google releases new software that is not using https, and still I'm logged in with my account. I'm surprised google can still make that mistake, making my account vulerable after going to so much trouble of protecting it with 2factor auth.
- srikrishnan 13y agoWell, I see the same news (on Google Baraza) has been doing rounds on HN since 2010 :D. So its definitely not new software.
- giergirey 13y agoAre you sure that the Google authentication token(s) sent over HTTP can actually be used to perform sensitive actions (e.g. reading/sending mail, changing settings)? That is, perhaps Google require an HTTPS-only token for sensitive actions and the authentication token sent over HTTP is only used for basic personalization (like showing your username) and some unimportant actions? Though I guess we know that someone who has stolen your HTTP authentication token could ask embarrassing baraza questions on your behalf ...
- selectnull 13y agoNo, I'm not sure and your questions are valid. But wouldn't you be happier if they used https and the questions wouldn't have to be asked in the first place? This practice of having a website respond to both http and https simply has to die. Google is not the only offender here, but I expected more from them, because they are very security sensitive. Google, next time you accuse Chinese of hacking you, reconsider your practices.
- giergirey 13y agoI agree, it would be good to see Google setting the trend here by going HTTPS everywhere. Personally I think the next website I create will be all-HTTPS. The main reasons I encounter for not going HTTPS everywhere are: 1) Possible negative effect on search engine ranking during transition period. 2) 3rd party content from analytics tools and advert networks not supporting HTTPS. 3) Slower initial page load over mobile due to SSL handshake. 4) No-one else is doing it. Hopefully these reasons will become less valid over time!
- aashu_dwivedi 13y agoIs it because Quora's questions are behind the walled gardens?
- AnilaRashid 13y agoNice place to read. I wish i can learn all and join a company like www.utradestudios.com (Utrade Studios). Great read BTW
- xmpir 13y agohttp://www.google.com/baraza/en/thread?tid=6551f90c5ef62dc2&msg=QUESTION_POSTED&qposted=1 http://www.google.com/baraza/en/thread?tid=6551f90c5ef62dc2&...
- vinight 13y agoI highly doubt this is a serious product google will be pursuing. looks like a low level offering for developing countries/markets
- nthnclrk 13y agoTo me, I actually see this as Google crowdsourcing the data necessary to have "answers" appear rather than search results for those things that make sense to.
- eniacpx 13y agoI was thinking more along the lines of upping their game against Siri.
- jonahx 13y agoIt looks like a row-rent version of SO, targeted at Africa. The muffin stump of Q&A software: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eipl17WpOo&t=12 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eipl17WpOo&t=12
- dhlavaty 13y agoThey shut down Google Reader, because it is "....unuseful" ?!? And now they launch Google Baraza, because it is ... what ????
- lcasela 13y agoGoogle Baraza was launched in 2010.
- CmonDev 13y agoDon't want to log in, sorry. See no point for them to see my account if I want to use the thing in view mode.
- MichaelTieso 13y agoWithout proper moderation, it's going to be filled with junk.
- oxes 13y agoWow that is ugly.
- arikrak 13y agoIt looks like Google Forums but with StackOverflow-style votes. I guess they didn't really use aardVark for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aardvark_(search_engine) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aardvark_(search_engine). I wonder why they didn't try to make a bigger Q&A service, maybe integrated with G+.
- niuzeta 13y agoI don't know which I feel sadder: that I'm logged in a service which I did not agree for, or that I've lost will to try out anything from Google. the NSA deal and (more importantly) Google Reader shutdown really did it to me. As soon as I find an alternative to gmail I'm leaving Google service wholly.
- Zhenya 13y agoI hope you figure out a way to ensure that service doesn't also shutdown. Just because you pay for it, doesn't make it invincible. I think you're mad at SaaS, not Google. I don't see the shutting down a CORE offering anytime soon.
- niuzeta 13y agoI know I'm mad for irrational reasons. I think you are right that I'm mad at SaaS as well. Yes, services shut down. That's just the way it is, or at least how I figure. The thing about Google Reader was that it was one of the reasons that got me interested in Google other than the search engine; then I discovered gmail, and etc. I've felt that Google was one of the 'good guys', and lately, I just don't feel the same way. I guess I'm quoting the Google Reader shutdown as what symbolizes the change. Having said that, I doubt I will try many things from Google, not because of the fear of them shutting down, but because it won't do much for me.
- pornel 13y ago> Baraza is not supported on your browser Displayed in Chrome-based Opera that sends Chrome's User-Agent string and deliberately doesn't even mention "Opera" in the header. It's so annoying that Google keeps discriminating against other browsers even when there can't even be a vaguest technical reason to do so. Why would even simple Q&A site need to require only handful of latest browsers? Why is Google still using User-Agent sniffing? (they have top-notch web developers who all know how stupid that is...)
- somberi 13y agoAt least for one simple question, I found that classic google search gives straight forward answers that Baraza. The question I asked was: What is Tamil? (Tamil is a dravidian language spoken in the south of India). Google search gives the right answer right on the top of the stack: http://tinyurl.com/pzyk3lx http://tinyurl.com/pzyk3lx Baraza does not: http://goo.gl/JJJMf6 http://goo.gl/JJJMf6
- gcb1 13y agolol. first one on the question lost when i clicked http://www.google.com/baraza/en/thread?tid=76951fbe3c65173e http://www.google.com/baraza/en/thread?tid=76951fbe3c65173e
- goombastic 13y agoWhenever I hear of a product from Google, the first thing I wonder about is when they plan to retire it. I'd rather patronize alternatives.
- oddshocks 13y agoI like the one that asks "Why Google collaborate with the NSA?" The one response is "you crazy".
- pax 13y agoalso → http://otvety.google.ru http://otvety.google.ru
- pax 13y agoI wonder why they chose not to allow commenting on questions (possible on Quora or Stack Exchange). Allowing comments could help improve existing answers, but I guess it would add more noise.
- nkg 13y agoOh, Oh... time-consuming website!
- stefan_kendall 13y agoThey shutter google reader, and this is what we get. Fuck.