Quora, the social questions service, is unlikely to scale bigger than Twitter as it has a focused appeal that makes it doubtful to attract mainstream users. Through the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Digg, this site has learned a lot and provided an outlet for conversation and discussion that have been unable to achieve by many other social network sites.
Quora has been known for its focused appeal as it provides answers to specific questions and questions you didn’t know you had but that interest you. It is similar to a social search engine as it gives users the answers from people who are more knowledgeable about the topic.
In the contrary, Twitter has broad appeal as it satisfies the need for simple and real-time publishing to your connections. Proofs of this are the number of celebrities and notable figures who use its service. It’s simple unlike Quora which feels heavy where it excels – which is to provide in-depth commentary questions. And this heaviness is unlikely to attract mass volume of audience. This tool may be advantageous for tech industry but not with average users. And this is what Quora needs to improve.
Quora may have gained a broader audience but it seems to be heavily trafficked by technologist, those in the media industry and social media types – which sounds so tech-heavy. The site should also consider those prospective audiences outside technology. Its current design as well can affect the volume of its audiences. Its current design has been successful and useful with a smaller community of users and connections. Irene Au, Google’s head of design praised Quora’s design as it build interactions in terms of ensuring high quality content. But the New York Time’s Patrick LaForge showed his frustration as some of its features have been set aside and its news feed seems to be getting flooded with up-voted answers. The site needs to practice handling a large user base and allow people to discover relevant information amide a flood of content.
Quora is not built for mainstream competition but it doesn’t mean that it won’t be a great place to get your questions answered. It is believed that Quora may have trouble winning prospective audiences from mainstream services like Yahoo Answers and the newer Facebook Questions.
This made many people feel skeptical on thinking if Quora will scale to the stature of Twitter despite doing a great job attracting a user base and providing a quality experience with other big competitor on its tail.
