Quora is the Twitter of Q&A services…. a social Wikipedia. Quora, is a new startup question and answer website from ex-Facebook employees. On the About Quora page on quora.com it says:
“Quora is a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it. The most important thing is to have each question page become the best possible resource for someone who wants to know about the question.”
Quora is a collaborative repository of information:
Quora is not an encyclopedia but, like Wikipedia, Quora is a collaborative repository of information.
“Almost any public space on Quora can be edited by anyone who knows how to improve it. This includes the text of questions and the details around them, what topics are attached to which questions, and the summaries of answers. Quora relies on the good faith of everyone using it to make it a high quality resource.”
Quora is a social network:
Unlike Wikipedia, Quora users have a user profile like a social networking site. “People use their real names and pictures on Quora and have a short bio describing who they are.” Quora links with the users existing twitter and facebook accounts. You can click to instantly connect with your twitter and facebook followers that are on Quora. Users can sign up to follow each other, individual questions, and topic areas. Like twitter an individual’s home feed will fill up with content they are following. Quora questions and answers aren’t limited to 144 characters as they are with twitter.
Quora is Organized:
So much valuable information has, in the past, been buried in message forums. With Quora questions and answers are accessible and organized. Once a question is asked and tagged into categories, users can answer it and even revise the question itself for clarity. Unlike message forums where conversations can go off track and degenerate, Quora is moderated. Like Digg Quora allows users to comment and up vote answers.
Here is a cute video from grandmamaryshow.com that further explains Quora.
Quora isn’t alone, there are other Q&A services including Yahoo Answers and Linkedin Answers but I think there’s a good chance it will be Quora that wins the day. Feel free to follow me on Quora and add your comments about Quora below.
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Quora sure is getting some action/reaction these days. Quora seems like a great way to aggregate important information that will continue to be accessible to people (unlike info that gets buried in forums). Perhaps one negative is that you have to be a member to glean any information.