The value of Quora, from my limited time using it, doesn't seem to be in the system so much as it is in the user base. I've seen answers authored by more founders/programmers/entrepreneurs from successful companies than I care to count.
Facebook is going to suffer from a very fundamental flaw: its users are there to do two things: spy on their friends and play casual games. No one is logging into Facebook with the Google-esque "I'm trying to find something or help someone else find something" mentality.
Quora's users are highly motivated and know why they are at Quora.com - to ask and answer questions.
Interestingly, this is probably the same reason why Google will never succeed at social networking. Google has solidified itself in the minds of the public as the company who provides us with information when we want it, not the company who satisfies our voyeuristic desires.
All this being said, as much as I rag on Reddit, I think they have Quora and Facebook beat as far as question/answers go. If someone could harvest that data and provide an interface that isn't as butt-fugly as Reddit they'd get some decent traffic.
Title question + answers + right hand nav != exactly like.
The profile of the answers will produce the difference. I get the impression that FB-answers will be more like a comment on a facebook story while Quora is more authoritative like a wikipedia page.
FB comments are fast, easy, and shallow.
Wikipedia is relatively contemplative and certainly greater depth.
Wikipedia is also much more persistence. The past doesn't seem to exist on Facebook, but for question search, it might in this case.
Problem with "authoritative answers" is it depends entirely on the user base (and in the case of Wikipedia, very active moderation). If Quora becomes massive it'll end up with plenty of trivial questions and unhelpful answers.
In that respect, the existence of Facebook questions might actually help keep out the chaff from Quora. It's not so good for the investors though...
Social network websites are similar. Github has followers and will probably add related projects or individuals that work on similar projects.
The difference for me is facebook is a mess, it's too big, the design has gotten very sloppy and aesthetically it's corporate looking, designed by committee vomit. I don't get how people spend prolonged periods of time there. At least it's one less distraction for me.
Very few facebook groups which touch the mainstream (and even some fairly specific ones have a much lower quality of discussion than what I've seen from Quora. Problem is that as Quora grows it will come up against the same issue, being a niche website doesn't seem like the Quora vision.
>I feel like if your entire product can be put out of business/duplicated overnight, there's little value in what you're doing.
>I'm sure Quora will be fine; they've been around a little and have a community.
Arent these statements a bit at odds?
Anyways, I think the "little value" argument doesnt hold very well in the age of social sites, where the network effect is hugely important. Lots of people could create a half-assed twitter/facebook clone quickly, but that hardly means theres little value in those 2 companies. I mean look at LinkedIn - The product is pretty bad, but it has such strong network effects its not going anywhere soon (unless someone builds an app on top of facebook, IMO.)
Anon User has been steadily decreasing in prominence on Quora.
I signed up in March 2010, and Quora has been my favorite site since then, mainly due to the initial population of users, those users setting a high standard, and then new users carrying though.
There are a lot of Quora users I actually trust more than my facebook friends, and several I also like more.
The slickest realtime UI I've seen to date makes the whole thing even more pleasant.
Interesting, facebook questions has an ESP Game-like solution to answer questions, similar to hunch where you cycle through questions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP_game).
Facebook is going to suffer from a very fundamental flaw: its users are there to do two things: spy on their friends and play casual games. No one is logging into Facebook with the Google-esque "I'm trying to find something or help someone else find something" mentality.
Quora's users are highly motivated and know why they are at Quora.com - to ask and answer questions.
Interestingly, this is probably the same reason why Google will never succeed at social networking. Google has solidified itself in the minds of the public as the company who provides us with information when we want it, not the company who satisfies our voyeuristic desires.
All this being said, as much as I rag on Reddit, I think they have Quora and Facebook beat as far as question/answers go. If someone could harvest that data and provide an interface that isn't as butt-fugly as Reddit they'd get some decent traffic.