Quora is a website that purports to connect you "to everything you want to know about." You can subscribe to topics of interest to you and get information about those topics. The website creates a stream of information about each topic by letting people post real discussions.
Yes, real people talking in phrases more than 140 characters. The site is not limited to brief phrases like Twitter. It doesn't refine the subjects entirely by technology the way Google does. Questions are answered by real people, perhaps experts, talking about subjects in depth. John might ask a medical question, and a doctor with experience in the topic might provide a personal answer that is also shared with others who subscribe.
In some ways, it can be compared with About.com or Ask.com (formerly Askjeeves.com). But there are significant differences.
With Ask.com, you've got a chance of finding an answer to your question but I wouldn't hold my breath, because my experience has gotten me more irrelevant results than relevant answers to my questions. At About.com, where the company hires moderators to collect and publish information, you might find something that matches your question but are more likely to find general discussions similar to the topic you really want. That depends on who the moderator is and what is interesting to him about the topic.
I came across an interesting magazine article about PSA tests (to screen for prostate cancer), an important and widely discussed topic. Since it's a topic that could use expert advice, I thought I'd use a question posed in the article as a test of Quora and the others.
At Ask.com, I typed, "Should I have a PSA test?" The website's auto-complete started to suggest a related topic, "Should I have a prostate biopsy?" as I typed. When I finished my question, it pointed me to pages with answers at Intelihealth.com, Cigna Insurance, and the Mayo Clinic where I could find expert advice.
Typing the same question at About.com gave me various links to pages at the prostate cancer and cancer sections of About.com, where articles by Matthew Schmitz and Lisa Fayed give more info. Dr. Schmitz and Ms. Fayed are guides at About.com, whose jobs is to keep their sections up-to-date. The website posts their bios as well (doctor and journalist, respectively), so you can determine whether their knowledge is relevant.
After those two tests, I typed the same question into Quora. It returned the question, "Once your prostate is removed, how can you have a higher level of PSA (prostate-specific antigen)?" along with three answers - from a urologic surgeon, a chemical engineer and a user with unknown background. I would also expect over the next few days to get specific answers from other interested Quora users.
Typing the same question into Google returns similar results to those I received at Ask.com. Some were the exact same pages.
In essence, you can get answers many places. If you are willing to be patient, Quora can give you more personal answers from various experts. perhaps even get to nuances that you won't find from other resources.
At a recent meeting of tech CEOs, Charlie Cheever, founder of Quora (and a Pittsburgh native), said he was surprised that people browse Quora daily for info and entertainment more than for specific answers.
Perhaps as Quora grows, it might become more of a go-to resource for Q&A. In the meantime, I'd suggest using it when you need specific expertise - but rely on search engines for most queries.
First Published: May 13, 2012, 4:00 a.m.
Updated: May 13, 2012, 4:11 a.m.