• by Joe Marchese , January 18, 2011

Quora is all the buzz with the digital early-adopter crowd. At first glance, Quora doesn't appear all that different from other question and answer services the Internet has spawned, and yet there is a seeming groundswell around its usage. The largest appeal of Quora early on has been the unparalleled quality and qualifications of those industry leaders taking the time to answer others' questions. The value of insights like this seem to be without question. But the question everyone who has used Quora -- well, how about instead of me answering it, I just offer up the second answer on Quora to my question today: What should I write about for my MediaPost column today? Answer: http://qr.ae/A4Ao

From: Tim Geisenheimer, Sales Manager at CBS Interactive: "Quora is insanely addictive and it incorporates some truly cutting edge tech, but it remains to be seen whether or not it will take off beyond the core users that have adopted it so far. It has the potential to be a broadly useful tool, but its deepest content is very niche at the moment. What will be the hook that will drive usage beyond the digital media cognoscenti?"

Interestingly enough, my first answer was from one of digital media's leading journalist, Brian Morrissey from Ad Week, who said: "It has to be on Quora being the next Google/Facebook/Twitter, using your question here as the hook for why it is/n't."

Which, as Brain obviously figured out, was why I had posted the question, my first on Quora. The interesting part for me is that the last time I tested a service because the early adopter crowd seemed to be in love was a one-week commitment I made to use Twitter to see how it grew on me. Anyone who follows me @joemarchese on Twitter knows how that worked out. I think we can all agree that Twitter, if not totally mainstream, has certainly grown far beyond the "digital media cognoscenti."

The truly fascinating part of Quora is that It answers questions, like those about search. It has real-time interation, like Gwitter, and social community features, like Facebook. Does Quora represent the future of social/digital media, or will it remain a favorite only among the early adopter crowd? My vote is for the former, but the simplicity of product and Quora's ability to maintain quality given larger audiences will be the key. 

What I know for sure for now is that I am looking forward to getting more questions answered, like: What will be the Internet's version of the 30-second television spot?