Review of Quora.com and New Development: More Than Just a Q & A Website - Click here http://bit.ly/f1zrzS for full article

Click here http://bit.ly/f1zrzS for full article

Quora is the new up and coming site where users post questions that get answered by others. It was established in April 2009 by former Facebook employees, Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever. The site opened in a private domain in early 2010, but is now open to the general public. Due to the excessive attention in the U.K and US media and reviews on a number of influential websites, it has experienced an onslaught of new user registrations. Currently, the numbers of users on the site are doubling every four months. The question now is if Quora is really worth something or is it just a lot of hype that is going to die out after the initial interest has faded.

Some people believe that it was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. The site got good reviews just before the CES convention when people had a full week to discuss it, so they registered to check it out. Others feel that Twitter has a hand in driving its popularity. One thing is certain and food for thought for all the PROs out there - major brands and organizations are being talked about and the queries are being answered by some rather high profile individuals. Questions dealing with direct marketing costs were handled by the likes of AOL chairman Steve Case. The phenomenal growth may have something to do with the quality of questions being asked and the answers coming from people who count and know what they’re talking about.

The site interface is a mixture. Initially one feels very at home with it; incidentally, this may have something to do with the fact that Facebook employees developed the site. Upon arrival, one finds that familiar social networking manner with all the goings-on between the followers and subjects of discussion. There is a big search box and an inbox and obviously, options to manage settings. Navigating is a bit more difficult than Twitter or Facebook and to use it efficiently to its maximum benefit will take effort and time. To be fair, however, continuous updates are improving the situation.

One major concern is that due to the explosive growth, the quality of content may suffer a major setback. This is being dealt with in a number of ways. One way to make sure only appropriate material is being added to the site, is that new users have to go through a tutorial quiz before new questions can be added. This way, questions that do not meet the criteria get scanned out. Another way to deal with the exponential growth, is the development of a new algorithm to measure user quality. Once developed, this will be a giant leap in technology. Ranking people is not the same as ranking a web page. The signals Quora gets from people are different from the signals Google gets from its web pages, so developing the algorithm will have to take a different set of standards in to account. There is also talk of getting more help to assess the value of the new material available on the site.

The thought that comes that to mind, is if Quora will outshine others in its league. It is obvious that the site is still in the developing stages; as such, it still requires a lot of effort to structure it, because currently, users just end up spending many hours going through the content. Also, for now, the site is all about social media and marketing, but once the bank of questions diversifies, it will certainly have more to offer.

According to TechCrunch, which has credibility when it comes to forecasts, it will make money in the long run. It is highly unlikely that Quora will diminish the popularity of other platforms; if anything, they may even complement each other. Twitter allows the users to follow people that have been selected by them and as such, it has to do more with the person than the content. Quora, on the other hand, deals more with the credibility and value of the content and users do not get to know the person behind the information. If the quality is maintained, there is no reason why it can’t stick around. One needs to keep in mind that Twitter never replaced Facebook.

The most flaunted aspect of the site and what the early users were impressed with is the quality of information. It is the one point that will set this site apart from the others. As opposed to a Google search, for instance, the answers here are dependent upon merit and credibility and not some robot churning out algorithm based muck. As a result, the answers one gets on the site are quite informative and good. This precisely might be the reason that the site will not become mainstream. By its very nature, the site provides no-nonsense, down to earth, serious stuff.

If one is looking for light entertainment and escapism, Quora is definitely not the place to be. It may, however, just end up carving a niche for itself with the serious minded consumers and the business community.

How can a business benefit from Quora?
With its recent momentum, I suggest business owners initially review the website to see if there is any content being published about their business. In addition, if you are in a niche or specialty business it might be a great destination to contribute in areas you specialize in with the intent to build credibility and ultimately turn into a lead source for you!