The Rise of Quora: Why it is the best & most amazing forum on the internet

With many recent start ups making a mark on the internet like Pinterest, Instagram, stackoverflow…comes another equally brilliant service called Quora. This rather new service created a lot of buzz on its inception but them remained as one cliche’ of the internet much like Reddit before recently it switched to a new layout and user experience.Also it improved integration with Facebook and Twitter, allowing people to share some really intriguing and enjoyable content to their peers and thus began the rise of Quora. It has some really unique features unparalleled by its competitors such as Yahoo Answers or Wiki Answers. Its is a very social and genuine service used by genuine and  knowledgeable people,based on an excellent framework of moderation and user interaction settings.It has done something which I believe no QnA site before has done- providing knowledge,suggestions & opinions which are actually very amazing ,helpful and enjoyable to read at the same.It has given real experts of various fields a chance to demonstrate their wisdom and feel happy about it, hence doing it at will and just to satiate their mind.Not for some petty coins or credit system they implement to attract users. Although  it does have such a system,but hardly anybody bother about it.A popular definition Quora has gathered form its users is “Yahoo answers for people with college degrees”.Hehe, I can’t stress how true that is.

While Quora still doesn’t have the brand recognition to make it a first stop for question askers, Google is sending a tremendous number of people through the door, now accounting for 50 percent of Quora’s traffic. “Search engines are pulling up Quora content to answer complex questions, and as more searchers click on Quora links, visit and return to the site, and link back to it, these “votes” in favor of Quora as a relevant destination help improve its organic search rankings over time,” It’s evidence that a market exists for premium, quality content — the answers to our ‘complex informational needs.’” As quoted by Eli Goodman,a prominent Evangelist.

Here is the basic breakdown of Quora, put simply by the website’s About Us section:

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.

Here is Quora for you,in a nutshell-

Activity Feed-Much like the Facebook feed,it shows all the topics and questions which are popular and might interest you.And the algorithm which does this very effective,you’ll see.

Two main reasons to use quora are-

• Content is community organized and edited. The site allows for people to vote on answers to questions, which ranks the question as an “upvote” or “downvote.” This can help you (the reader) sort through answers to find the right one for you.
• Quality comes with voting. There is more a chance for quality content when users can rank answers. Also, Quora has recruited experts in their fields to provide quality answers to questions asked by the community.

Well, to be honest, I am really hooked to Quora. And well,why shouldn’t I be-I get to read stuff written by geek celebrities like Randall Munroe, Felicia Day or my hero Zachary Levi.If I’m lucky they might even answer my questions someday.For now,I seriously recommend you to get started with Quora ASAP and watch how it becomes your homepage,or at least the other Facebook.And please try to contribute to the community and learn new stuff,rather than just posting pictures of lolcats whenever you feel like goofing around.