Many people are used to polling their select online contacts for information or advice through networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. However, the answers are not necessarily organized in any particular way or order. In most cases, they typically are on purely dedicated question and answer platforms. Of course, there is no way of archiving those replies or solutions for some other person who could gain from them, or for your own later reference.
Now, as reports suggest, Facebook itself is looking to cash upon this trend. The networking site has been gradually introducing a user friendly feature on its platform that lets users pose and also answer questions. A spokesperson for the company though refused to divulge details of the new service, an explanatory note on the site states that it will be available to every user in the US within the coming few weeks.
Striking the fine balance between content quality and user base
The traditional question-and-answer sites of the popular format are often filled with questions a skilled or knowledgeable Web user could easily and quickly answer with a search engine, such as a more recent WikiAnswers query on the most popular game ideas for the PlayStation3. One major challenge for the innovative sites is striking the fine balance between maintaining the quality of the content reasonable and attracting a wider, more mainstream base audience. However, trying to do so could well unlock a paying business model that is centered on advertising.
Seeking help of moderators
According to a Forrester Research analyst, targeting a consumer, who is looking for a very specific kind of answer could indeed be valuable to advertisers, but devising a foolproof system capable of tapping into that as well as being easier to use may be that much more difficult. Probably, some of that can be resolved with help of moderators, who will take out duplicate queries and not helpful or meaningful answers. Features that let members vote for the best answers can be of help, as well.
No pseudonyms
Another crucial aspect is knowing a bit about who is actually answering the question, states Charlie Cheever, who conceived Quora along with Adam D’Angelo. The system asks the users not to take resort to pseudonyms. The shift in the way people utilize and feel comfortable with their real identities on the Web has made the task a little bit easier.
Mr. Cheever obviously knows a thing or two about the value of not using a fake name and using a real identity on the Internet: Before Quora’s arrival (thanks to his vision), he was working as a project manager and engineer at Facebook. While there, he oversaw Facebook Connect’s creation that lets people log onto other websites making use of their Facebook IDs.
