
  Quora Has The Magic: BenchMark Invests at $86 Million Valuation  - sinzone
http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/28/quora-has-the-magic-benchmark-invests-at-86-million-valuation/
======
_delirium
One of the Quora folks posted a link here about two weeks ago so HN users can
bypass the invite system: <http://quora.com/hackernews>

Original post: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1197146>

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sinzone
yes but it doesn't work: 500 Internal Server Error

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_delirium
Hmm, trying to send invites from within Quora gives that error right now too,
so something might be down/broken?

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ccheever
i think this is fixed now, but if anyone sees any 500s again, you can e-mail
in a bug report to bugs@quora.com . thanks and sorry for the trouble.

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treyp
quora is one of the most impressive sites i've seen in a while. here are a few
of the details that really impressed me:

* pretty much everything is real time and extremely fast. even if you have 10+ quora tabs open.

* try logging out and having a friend log in. notice how you can log out all current sessions on remote computers, and how boxes are created for each user that has logged in on that computer. logging in then takes just one click (if it was set to remember).

* have a friend look at your profile. start editing your bio or title. the friend will see these changes in real time.

* start typing a response to a question. everyone can see who is responding to a question in real time. (imagine in HN had this amount of integration of real time data)

* the site search at the top is incredibly responsive and returns results for relevant questions, topics, and people all together in a dropdown

* site notifications additionally appear on the pages to which they are related. for example, if i visit a question where i have 3 outstanding notifications, they will all appear at the top of the page. if i visit a user's profile that has recently started following me, i will see that notification at the top of the user's profile.

* they already have a complete mobile site.

* on the implementation side, the html (html5) is already compacted, the js is combined and minified, and Steve Souders' best practices are already taken into account. this is expected for major web applications, but startups and non web-app sites (like blogs) often ignore it for a very long time or never do it at all.

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alexro
Seems like the last thing they need is to really answer all kinds of
questions. Otherwise I just might get an answer somewhere on a good old forum.

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kalvin
brief impressions, last used it a few weeks ago:

\- insanely polished for a private beta. (see treyp)

\- nitpick: no full-text search (no indexed answer content to display when
query doesn't match any question content) and/or an easy way to return to a
question i recently viewed

\- it is so fast. i didn't even notice at first. i just noticed i was
clicking, a lot more than usual.

\- it feels like browsing around silicon valley's water cooler (but tamer.)
whether quora can keep the feeling of high-quality insight when it's no longer
entirely composed of early adopters is the million-dollar question

\- interesting/unusual content, for now. mark zuckerberg asking what companies
facebook should acquire for talent, actually getting some interesting
answers...

~~~
kalvin
that was a bit vague. here's an example of a quality answer (though the real
strength is in the consistency of the quality, for now) in response to the
question:

How did Chatroulette become such a global phenomenon so quickly?

21 votes by Anon User, Kevin Li, Marc Bodnick, Dave Hodson, more

Anon user: "Chatroulette is the latest in a long line of lower-effort, higher-
interaction social marketplaces. It literally has a higher risk-adjusted
social ROI than almost any other site in the history of the Internet, and
scales downwards especially well.

Let me explain my terms.

R: The (social) return of Chatroulette is an instant video conversation with
another individual, a stranger. This basic return has been available in other
venues for a while (see WooMe for a dating-specific version). What makes
Chatroulette so different is not the high R, but the incredibly, historically
low...

I: Investment. Meaning, the sum of risk taken, effort, financial cost, time
cost, and technical skill. Chatroulette is near-zero on all of these. There is
no effort, not even a sign up--just allow the flash app to access your camera,
and you are done (the anti-eHarmony). There is no special skill required--this
isn't like dragging your Mom through the facebook photo uploader. There's no
incremental financial cost at all. There's no selection, paradox-of-choice
paralysis--click a button, and you are matched (a two-way benefit--there's no
waiting to be selected by picky counterparts). And, most importantly, there is
no social risk--unlike dating sites, you have no idea who the other user is,
and can descend into crazy/exhibitionist behavior with wild-eyed impunity.

As mentioned above, Chatroulette scales downwards especially well. Unlike
auction marketplaces (divided by products) or dating/service marketplaces
(divided by location), Chatroulette is perfectly usable with tens of
individuals spread uniformly across the world, of any age or gender, with
almost no common interests.

Every time a site comes out that simplifies an existing, popular use case, it
does well--even when it offers far less functionality. It is literally
disruptive in the Clayton Christensen sense. Think Twitter against Facebook;
or the iPod against the many previous mp3 players; or the iPhone against
previous smartphones. In the echo chamber of Silicon Valley, we greatly
underestimate how high the 'Investment' (especially skill/effort) of using our
products is, and are always surprised when 'dumbed down' products come out and
do well. Who needs a Snuggie? Who has trouble wrapping a blanket around
themselves properly, or thinks putting on a sweater is a hassle? More people
than you think."

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Murkin
It took me a bit of time to see what is the real big difference between Quora
and the rest:

IDENTITY.

People on Quora use real names. Presumably this affects greatly the type and
quality of the content published.

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nopassrecover
I've seen a couple references to Quora recently and I guessed it was just a
StackOverflow/MetaFilter hybrid and as much as that might be a decent
description I have to say I'm still impressed. Even little things like the
clean design, friendly tone in their About page and their "challenges"
(<http://www.quora.com/challenges>) all give me a great impression.

~~~
Maro
But is it worth $86M?

~~~
allenbrunson
if YouTube is worth 1.65 billion, then i'd say yes!

~~~
Maro
Actually, when Youtube sold in 2006 November it was already widely popular.
1650/80 ~ 20. Does this site have Youtube's 2006 November popularity / 20? Or
potential? (I don't know, I'm asking...)

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jfornear
Anyone have an extra beta invite?

EDIT: Sorry to ask here, but after reading that, I didn't get the impression
that they were planning to send out additional invites anytime soon. (I just
got one from Paul, thanks!)

~~~
abossy
I tried to invite you (using the e-mail address listed on your blog), but I'm
getting a 500 error. Anybody else having this problem?

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TorKlingberg
Impressively made, but I find the user interface rather confusing:

* Middle clicking a link to open in a new tab does not work.

* Where is the search box?

* How can I find a list of recent questions in a topic?

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gojomo
On the links I clicked, middle-click-to-new-tab definitely worked.

Search is atop every page, just to the right of the logo -- and autocomplete
is wicked fast.

When you click a topic -- which has a blue-background, rounded-edge 'tag' look
-- you get the topic page, with a list of 'open questions', 'best questions',
and 'topic activity' (both new questions and answers/comments). Not exactly
recent questions, but pretty close.

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PStamatiou
I have 10 invites. First 10 emails to p at pstam dot com get them. I only ask
that you tell me what you're up to (work/startup/school) as I enjoy meeting
new folks.

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prakash
I have a few invites if anyone is interested. _fyi: Quora requires FB connect
to register._

