Quora Opens Up To Search Engines As Facebook Looms

-Quora Logo- Quora is pushing forward with the continued opening of their service as Facebook Questions continues through a relatively rocky start. Given that it has become relatively obvious that Facebook Questions is nothing short of a direct attack against Quora, the company is preparing to release it’s incredibly high quality content to Google. One of the primary things that Quora users are probably asking themselves at this point is whether or not the opening of the site to search engines will negatively impact the quality of content on the site.

Quora has become so well known among a select group of people because of the quality of responses being given on the site. Whether you want to learn about angel investing and building startups (which is probably among the largest communities on the site), or you want to learn about the history of hip-hop, Quora has some some incredible content. However if you spend time browsing through Facebook Questions you’ll also notice that the quality of content on Facebook Questions is nowhere near as laughable as Yahoo! Answers, the largest Q&A site on the web.

As Facebook looks to resolve many of the user-experience/user-interface (UI/UX) problems within the Questions product, Quora is jumping into the search engine waters as the company’s future is at stake. So what do the Quora people think about this opening to search engines? Adam D’Angelo, one of the company’s founders, posted this answer in response to the question “Will Quora open up to Google or other search engines”:

Yes, this will happen on August 6th.

We are opening up because we are trying to make high-quality knowledge available to as many people as possible. We are committed to giving answerers control over their answers, and so you will have the ability to edit or remove your answers if you’re concerned about what shows up next to your name.

The key statement there, “trying to make high-quality knowledge available to as many people as possible”, emphasizes something that all the users know. However it’s also the biggest risk, and one that I have no doubt the founders would have happily delayed given that the site continues to grow nicely. Despite the risks, Quora has all the ingredients of a successful web service (ingredients I described in this Quora question).

At this point we’ll have to wait and see how the opening of Quora impacts the product, however there’s no doubt that the company, founded by ex-Facebook employees, is accelerating things to fend off the Facebook threat.