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My Take On Quora

January 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

So many of you have seen the burst in popularity of a site called Quora. It’s a question and answer site that aims to be the spot on the Internet where people go to find educated questions and answers.

It’s a neat concept, a cross between a more mature Yahoo Answers, a less stuffy Linkedin Q&A, and a questioned based Digg.

So what has brought about near overnight success of a product built by former Facebook employees? Quite simply, the quality of people on the site. Unlike Yahoo answers, where everyone and their grandmother can respond, on Quora you’ll have those people but you will also have a more A-list tech people answering questions as well. CEOs of technology companies have been seen answering questions about their products from everyday people.

The Interface

The interface is a bit overwhelming at first. It’s best to go onto the site and look around and lurk for a bit before you comment and answer questions.  There are some great pieces on how to participate as well. There is a Digg-like voting system that allows people to be rewarded for good answers and there is a way to comment on each of the answers that lends itself to further conversations on the topic.

Once you figure out how to navigate the site, the sheer size of the data on the site hits home. There’s a lot of stuff going on here on Quora.

The Concern

The concern of many people is the stickiness of the site. Will people use it for a while, only to get burned out and never return? Will it go the way of Yahoo Answers, with all the spam and inane comments?

Also, people like This Week in Google’s Jeff Jarvis (also of Buzz Machine fame), expressed concern that Quora is just another site where he’ll feel obligation to visit because people will be interacting with him there and expect him to reciprocate.

Many would tell him to just stay off the site, but it’s not that easy, especially when you’re a journalist. I’m sure he feels the need to explore what Quora is all about, but he also knows that the minute he’s on there people will start engaging him. And there’s the problem, it’s another social network for all of us to check and be active on. Do we have the time or energy for it?

Honestly, I can’t tell. I know my usage of the site has dropped dramatically since I first got on there, but that’s probably a good thing. I’ve found that I have something else to do — work.

Also people are starting to realize that the own their data. Some have started to wonder why they would put all this work into a site where their data, as of now, is not exportable and not owned by them. Will this change in the future, maybe, but it’s something to keep in mind.

Yet another issue, which is probably caused by the recent popularity of the site, Quora has a tendency to lag a bit and sometimes hang and force the user to refresh. Now I’m sure they’re fixing this issue, but it’s worth noting.

My hope is that Quora finds some sticking power among the tech elite, because if there is a quality user-base of people-in-the-know then the site will be around for a while.

Your Thoughts

Have you used Quora? What do you think? Will it be around in 6 months… a year? Post your thoughts in the comments below.

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A2SM Podcast #20 – Just The Three Of Us

July 10, 2010 By 4 Comments

Social Media Podcast

Stories

Picks

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:25 — 40.7MB)

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Link Post for June 19th through June 25th

June 26, 2010 By 1 Comment

This is the A2SM Link Post for June 19th through June 25th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

  • The New Digg: First Impressions – The New Digg is almost here though, and we have access to the preview. We’ve been playing around with the new interface and its many features, and we’ve compared them against both the “old” Digg and other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
  • Yes, Google’s Bots Understand Code – Originally, Googlebot software was only thought to read links and parse some code, but Google told Forbes earlier today that Google now has deeper interaction with JavaScript, and its bots can even “understand some JavaScript.” This could make indexing rich content a great deal easier on the world’s largest search engine.
  • How to Downgrade Your iPhone 3G[S] from iOS 4 to iOS 3.1.3 – A lot of iPhone 3G owners—myself included—have discovered that upgrading to iOS 4 has slowed their devices to a crawl. If you decide the new features and shortcuts just aren't worth the glacial performance, here's how to downgrade your iDevice.
  • 6 Tips for B2B Blogging | Social Media Today – Many companies recognize the potential value of blogging, but struggle to organize their thoughts and the actual writing of the blog. Subsequently, the blogs imply doesn't happen. Yet, according to the Business.com 2009 B2B Social Media Marketing Study, 74% of companies surveyed maintain one or more blogs. What are all these companies blogging about? And, how do they manage it?
  • 26% of iPhones Break Within 2 Years [REPORT] – According to SquareTrade, the warranty provider for the iPhone and other electronic devices, 25.6% of iPhone owners experienced a failure in the first two years of use.
  • Pakistan Ready to Issue Death Warrant Against Zuckersberg and Andy – Facebook has really upset the Muslim world with its “Draw Muhammad” page and this brought trouble for Mark Zuckersberg, the CEO and co-founder of Facebook.
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Link Post for April 6th through April 7th

April 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This is the A2SM Link Post for April 6th through April 7th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

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Link Post for March 30th through March 31st

March 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This is the A2SM Link Post for March 30th through March 31st. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

  • Mobile Firefox Comes to Android (Sort of) – Fennec, the mobile version of the Firefox web browser, is now available in an early build designed for Android handsets thanks to a fan-compiled download posted on an Android developers forum. And by early, we mean unofficial, pre-alpha, device-specific and downright buggy. But for anyone interested in mobile browser developments, this port is an interesting sneak peek into the future of Firefox's mobile plans.
  • Global Pulse 2010 Wants Your Solutions to Global Challenges – Global Pulse 2010 is a completely online virtual event running through tomorrow where you can participate in a global conversation whose stated goal is to “create innovative solutions to the most pressing social issues of our time.” Sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Global Pulse 2010 is also being supported by the U.S. Departments of State, Education, Commerce, and Health and Human Services.
  • Judge: Isohunt Must Remove Infringing Content – One of the largest BitTorrent search engines in the world, Isohunt, has been ordered by a US judge to remove all infringing content from the site. The ruling follows similar ruling against torrent tracker Mininova which has lost a great amount of traffic after complying with the order to remove copyright-infringing links from the site.
  • Board Games on the iPad: Oh Yes, This is Going to be Big – TUAW has a preview of an iPad application called Game Table. It costs 99 cents, and it lets you play classic board games, such as Chess, Poker or Checkers, on the iPad.<br />
    <br />
    The beauty of its approach is the fact that it’s not really a game – it just gives you the necessary components and the mechanics to play a variety of games. And, when you think of it, for many users this app (or similar apps like it) might be the killer app that makes the Apple iPad worth purchasing.
  • 10 Amazing YouTube Magic Trick Videos – Who doesn’t love magic? Whether you’re obsessed with finding out “how they did that,” or you just like to gaze with child-like wonder at a good trick, YouTube has become a wealthy repository of illusion.
  • Google Earth Helps Deputy Make Arrest – Google became true-blue crime-fighting tool for one Florida Panhandle deputy this week. The law man, Deputy Gregory Barnes, recently made use of Google Earth to arrest a man charged with illegally dumping his one-ton boat.
  • iPad, Meet "Star Trek" – In Star Trek, members of the crew are carrying a tablet-like device called the PADD, or Personal Access Display Device. It comes in many shapes and flavors — there’s even a horizontal one. And, circa 2151, the device that was in common use looked pretty much like the thing we’ll be frantically testing this weekend: the Apple iPad.
  • Gmail Adds OAuth Support for Safer 3rd Party Sign-ins – Google announced the addition of OAuth support in Gmail in a blog post today, which is a highly positive move that allows you to give third party applications access to the contents on your email without having to give them your password. You may be familiar with the term from Twitter, who added OAuth support back in April of last year.
  • Automattic Announces VaultPress Security Plugin – (Via @glenngabe)
  • Facebook Squeezes Digg Into A New Business Model – While I personally love using Digg to find my news content, the majority of the internet is perfectly satisfied finding content through their friends. While Digg is in the process of rolling out a new version of their site, Facebook’s decision to release a “like button for the internet” could significantly impact Digg. Combine that with their previously released share analytics and share button, and you can see how Digg is getting squeezed into a new business model.
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Link Post for January 22nd through January 24th

January 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This is the A2SM Link Post for January 22nd through January 24th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

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Link Post for January 16th through January 17th

January 17, 2010 By 2 Comments

This is the A2SM Link Post for January 16th through January 17th:

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Seesmic Acquires Ping.fm: What This Means to You

January 6, 2010 By 4 Comments

http://www.techdigest.tv/seesmic-logo.jpgTwo days ago Seesmic Desktop emailed its massive user base announcing it had acquired Ping.fm.

To those of you who are unfamiliar with Ping.fm, it enables its subscribers to updates 50 Social Media sites through multiple outlets such as email, sms, chats and much more. So those without an iPhone, Blackberry or Android (Or Nexus One) can still update their social media profiles.

Users can update everything from Twitter and Facebook to Brightkite, Yammer and Koornk all from one interface. This is leaps and bounds much more than the current versions of Seesmic and TweetDeck allow.

This purchase by Seesmic puts even more power at our fingertips, but realistically how many of you will want to update 50 websites at once? Most common social media users stick to Twitter, Facebook and a few social bookmarking sites like Digg or Delicious. But it is nice to know that you have the ability to spread your latest blog post or promote your product across 50 social media sites from one application.

One negative issue I see coming from this is how spammers can take advantage of utilizing the software. With SERPs now including social media results, spammers and un-ethical SEO’s will have the ability to spam social search results from over 5o sites with a couple of key strokes.

Additionally I believe this new partnership will increase the amount of people who use social media. In countries like India, many young adults and business professionals do not have access to smart phones. Now by using Seesmic Desktop they can update their accounts through whatever medium they would like i.e. text messaging.

This is a great step for Seesmic, it will be interesting to keep an eye on the other major Twitter Client, Tweetdeck, to see if they make a maneuver to offer the ability to update more than just FaceBook and Twitter.

Here is a link to the sites that Ping.fm enables you to update: http://ping.fm/networks/

Justin Freid is an internet marketing entrepreneur who currently heads up SEO and Social Media marketing efforts for Peterson’s College Search. Justin also runs an Internet Marketing Forum on MarketingScoop.com. You can find Justin’s thoughts on the world of social media and SEO on his blog, Justin Freid | Search Engine and Social Media Marketing and follow him on Twitter under the handle @Justin_Freid

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Link Post for December 30th through December 31st

December 31, 2009 By 2 Comments

This is the A2SM Link Post for December 30th through December 31st:

  • Digg Takes a Dip In Traffic, Half The Size Of Twitter – But its latest growth spurt stopped in September, 2009 when it peaked at 32 million unique visitors worldwide, according to comScore. In November, its worldwide visitors were down 15 percent to 27 million, which is about half the number of people who visit Twitter.com. Digg was passed by Twitter back in March (see chart below).
  • In 2009, Social Media Overtook Web 2.0 [GRAPHS] – While its definition is not yet etched in stone, most believe it describes a new type of media and communication that creates a world conversation and dialogue. Instead of being fed news (a one-to-many dissemination approach), everyone is welcomed to be a content creator and to generate a debate around that content. While its focus is the web, it goes beyond it as well.
  • Digg to aggregate what’s trending on Twitter and Facebook – Holy Kaw! – Looks like Kevin Rose may have found a way to steer the Digg ship back on course with a site overhaul that rumors say will include an aggregation of what’s hot on Twitter and Facebook.
  • FCC Chairman’s Facebook Account Compromised – The New York Times’ Bits blog is reporting that FCC head honcho Julius Genachowsi — the man in the middle of the net neutrality initiatives and the Google-Apple disputes — has fallen victim to the fraudulent activity of scammers on Facebook.
  • Facebook: 5 Predictions for 2010 – Facebook has been around for more than five years, but it hit critical mass and exploded in 2009. As the new decade begins, the fallout is blowing over the entire web. Facebook Connect is everywhere, in case you hadn’t heard. We’re talking 60 million users on 80,000 web sites
  • Facebook App’s Password Data Breach Turns into Lawsuit – Facebook and MySpace app maker and advertising network RockYou isn’t having a great December. Earlier this month, 32 million passwords were compromised by a hacker going by the alias of “igigi.” That’s more than half of RockYou’s monthly active users.
  • The Androidification of Everything – GigaOM – A few days ago, Antonio Rodriguez, a Boston-based entrepreneur and founder of Tabblo, emailed to let me know that he was leaving Hewlett-Packard to go do something new. Rodriguez sold Tabblo to HP in 2007 and had been working on some cool stuff at HP, but now he’s decided that it’s time for him to head back to the startup ecosystem. We met when he was trying to get traction for Tabblo, but we have stayed in touch since, musing over the future of devices and user experiences. (Antonio chronicles many of his thoughts over on his blog.)
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Link Post for December 24th – Part One! Merry Christmas

December 24, 2009 By 1 Comment

This is the A2SM Link Post for December 23rd:

  • Add Clickable Links In YouTube Videos Without Using Annotations – While it is possible to add hyperlinks on YouTube videos via the built-in annotations feature, the only problem is that you cannot link to external websites from YouTube videos – that links should either point to a video hosted on YouTube or to a video search page that’s again on YouTube.
  • 2010: Year of digital distraction? – CNN.com – The “real-time Web” is booming. From Twitter to Facebook to new search engines that discover information posted just seconds ago, it seems the 2010 Web will be fueled by our desire for instant gratification.
  • Mall of America Tweets Holiday Parking Updates – It may not be rocket science, but it is pretty cool: The Mall of America is using Twitter to tweet parking info for last-minute holiday shoppers hoping to avoid the ever-annoying quest for a space.
  • Marketing in 2010: It’s All About the Data -
  • Digg’s Top 10 Most Popular Stories of 2009 – It’s the end of the year, traditionally a time for self-reflection. While many of us are making our New Year’s resolutions and looking back on what we accomplished, a lot of social media companies are sifting through their data and sharing what was hot in 2009.
  • FTC Inquiry Hinders Google’s Acquisition of AdMob – When Google formally announced their plans to acquire mobile ad network AdMob for $750 million, they didn’t expect any regulatory interference to impede upon the processing of the deal. Unfortunately they were wrong.
  • 3 Powerful Social Good Trends in 2010 – 2009 saw a proliferation of online charity events, competitions, and “friendraisers” that spilled across Twitter and Facebook and filled email inboxes everywhere with more requests for money than any Nigerian prince could ever hope to make. And while it’s hard to argue that this is a bad thing — anytime someone gives money to feed the hungry instead of buying another digital potato seed in Farmville, global karma rises, if even just by a little — this focus on using the web as an ever-more elaborate means of getting people to fork over cash misses the much bigger opportunities just over the horizon.
  • BREAKING: Twitter Buys Mixer Labs to Boost Location Features – Twitter co-founder and CEO Evan Williams has just announced on the company’s blog that they have acquired Mixer Labs, creator of the GeoAPI.
  • Is Hiring a Ghostblogger a Bad Thing? – At any given time, there is usually an ongoing debate in some blogging circle about whether ghostblogging is a good or bad thing. I say it depends on how you’re using the term, and how you are using your ghostblogger.
  • Google News Will Not Accept Single Author Blogs – I put in an application to submit our blog to Google news, but it seems Google news will not include sites that are written and maintained by one individual!
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