Google Baraza • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Baraza

#11

Post by OrwellianChild » Tue, Oct 01, 2013, 9:19 AM UTC

This looks like an attempt to mimic the Quora or StackOverflow format of Q&A, but the structure isn't there. There doesn't seem to be much organizational structure beyond the top-level "Government" or "Computer Software" categories. It appears to have been around since 2010 or so - there are some users that have been contributing for a while (e.g. ivan - http://www.google.com/baraza/en/user?clk=tpct&userid=0708787...).

What is the purpose of recreating English-language Q&A structure in such a poor form?

Re: Google Baraza

#12

Post by jbrooksuk » Tue, Oct 01, 2013, 9:21 AM UTC

codfrantic wrote: post #6

[deleted] wrote: post #2

[deleted]

"One of Google’s goals in Africa is to make the internet more locally relevant and bring more people online. One of the challenges of the internet in Africa is that there is a lack of local content online. At Google, we find that users search for information about local businesses, entertainment, health, etc but often don’t find it because the information is not yet available online. In order to help bring more local…

That clears things up.

Re: Google Baraza

#13

Post by KiwiCoder » Tue, Oct 01, 2013, 9:24 AM UTC

Question for the Baraza team: The framework looks good, and I expect the engineering behind the scenes is impressive. What are your thoughts about content curation and acquiring a critical mass of (for want of a better term) moderators?

See (for example) this question and its answers http://www.google.com/baraza/en/thread?tid=618ce3dee8dafc67

Re: Google Baraza

#14

Post by ronilan » Tue, Oct 01, 2013, 9:24 AM UTC

That's new. /s

(http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2010-11-16-n46.html)

Re: Google Baraza

#15

Post by thomasfl » Tue, Oct 01, 2013, 9:26 AM UTC

Will Baraza questions and answers be ranked higher than Quora and Stack Overflow in Google search? When Google starts adding more services with content created by users, will it be harder to rely on Google search?

Re: Google Baraza

#16

Post by ianleckey » Tue, Oct 01, 2013, 9:27 AM UTC

404

Re: Google Baraza

#17

Post by joelrunyon » Tue, Oct 01, 2013, 9:31 AM UTC

thomasfl wrote: post #15

Will Baraza questions and answers be ranked higher than Quora and Stack Overflow in Google search? When Google starts adding more services with content created by users, will it be harder to rely on Google search?

This is a good question.

At one point is google "impartial" search engine or when does it become a funnel to their own services?

You can see it started to happen with the ITA flight software acquisition a few years back (http://www.google.com/press/ita/) - now google flights now beat out every booking engine for any flight query.

Re: Google Baraza

#18

Post by joelrunyon » Tue, Oct 01, 2013, 9:33 AM UTC

diggan wrote: post #5

"What is Google Baraza?" "I am a member of the Google Baraza team. One of Google’s goals in Africa is to make the internet more locally relevant and bring more people online. One of the challenges of the internet in Africa is that there is a lack of local content online. At Google, we find that users search for information about local businesses, entertainment, health, etc but often don’t find it because the informat…

Are any of these Africa-specific pieces?

Just a few of the questions I picked off:

> What is the meaning of stonehenge?

> What is public enlightenment?

> Is politics vicious?

Are these answers necessarily local to Africa?

Re: Google Baraza

#19

Post by RivieraKid » Tue, Oct 01, 2013, 9:38 AM UTC

diggan wrote: post #5

"What is Google Baraza?" "I am a member of the Google Baraza team. One of Google’s goals in Africa is to make the internet more locally relevant and bring more people online. One of the challenges of the internet in Africa is that there is a lack of local content online. At Google, we find that users search for information about local businesses, entertainment, health, etc but often don’t find it because the informat…

Why should Africans use this instead of existing Q/A sites like Quora?

Re: Google Baraza

#20

Post by selectnull » Tue, Oct 01, 2013, 9:39 AM UTC

How come Google releases new software that is not using https, and still I'm logged in with my account.

I'm surprised google can still make that mistake, making my account vulerable after going to so much trouble of protecting it with 2factor auth.