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Layoffs hit Quora

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Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#171

Post by logicchains »

rgoulter wrote: post #168
codingslave wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I think the downfall of quora is partly due to their product managers decision making and the machine learning recommendation engine. Both of which are abysmal even with all that Harvard and Stanford talent they have

My main interaction with Quota is its digest emails. I thought the recommendation is pretty good in terms of catching some attention. What's wrong with it?

When you start reading something interesting from the Digest on your phone, and then it stops you with an inescapable popup telling you to use their shitty app instead of your browser.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#173

Post by chewz »

codingslave wrote: post #23

Any company that relies on SEO content is basically going to disapear. Google search and their new NLP technology is just extracting the question and answers from content like that on Quora, significantly reducing their page hit volumes. Not only that, other lower ranked content can be verified to be "true" using neural network based NLP, meaning that the value of content has gone down. Google stole the business of q…

> The content is simply extracted and stolen. How can we have a thriving internet when such monopolistic and profit driven practices stifle innovation and creation on the web?

Judging by the number of copycat sites surfacing in Google search results I don't think there is anything monopolistic in stealing the content.

Remember internet portals? Google is slowly transforming from search engine into one.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#174

Post by bronz »

burn rate? so they are still running on vc? i guess it doesnt surprise me. they arent the worst thing to get massive vc. i will be very entertaining to see when the next recession hits and all these shitty companies dry up overnight. and it will be nice to have fewer arrogant tech peoples around who only have money because of misguided investors who have more money than sense.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#175

Post by gtyras2mrs »

to1y wrote: post #68
plerpin wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered that Quora is failing because it's user-hostile? I do not visit Quora links on Google because I know it's going to tease me with a snippet and force me to login.

That plus it seems >90% of answers are guerilla advertising

The thing about Quora is that I would never use it to get an answer to a question.

I only go there to read a few people's opinions on things. If you restrict yourself to those people then Quora seems ok. If a Quora link shows up in my search results -- I know it's going to be useless.

The only problem is Quora seems to aggressively promote clickbait scammers / self-promoting twits. I find myself actively logging on to Quora very rarely these days as it becomes harder and harder to repel useless content from my feed.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#176

Post by tanilama »

Mirioron wrote: post #167
tanilama wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is just irrelevant to the web today. I don't think Quora has a future to be an independent business. To me Quora is just a more entitled/self-righteous version of Reddit, and much less fun.

I think that sounds fine though. You could consider HN to be "like reddit" too, but there's still value in HN.

HN is not valuing itself at 2B dollars, that is the problem.

It is Quora itself that needs to justify against that valuation, not anyone else. Where that is fine or not, I think the news itself is self-explanatory.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#177

Post by randoramax »

Mirioron wrote: post #166
bawolff wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure how that would help. I imagine currently its all rights reserved, and google is claiming that using their information is fair use.

How come they're not being sued over this?

Probably because nobody understands the ramifications of what Google is doing deeply enough to build a solid-enough case. Justice is slow, too slow for modern times and laws are inadequate.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#178

Post by gundmc »

codingslave wrote: post #23

Any company that relies on SEO content is basically going to disapear. Google search and their new NLP technology is just extracting the question and answers from content like that on Quora, significantly reducing their page hit volumes. Not only that, other lower ranked content can be verified to be "true" using neural network based NLP, meaning that the value of content has gone down. Google stole the business of q…

Is there any data to back up this claim? Anecdotally I can't think of a single query that I used to click through to an answers site like quora or stack exchange that is now addressed my the knowledge box snippet.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#179

Post by raverbashing »

paultopia wrote: post #113
to1y wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That plus it seems >90% of answers are guerilla advertising

And those two facts are related. Quora actively drives casual users away with the forced-login behavior. So the only people on Quora are the people with strong incentives to do so... that is, people who are being paid. Marketeers.

There was also a significant uptick in biased/loaded questions on Quora recently (think election influencing/agenda pushing ones)

OTOH a lot of legitimate questions were answered by specialists or people very familiar with the subjects

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#180

Post by therealcamino »

asiachick wrote: post #34
codingslave wrote: post #23

Any company that relies on SEO content is basically going to disapear. Google search and their new NLP technology is just extracting the question and answers from content like that on Quora, significantly reducing their page hit volumes. Not only that, other lower ranked content can be verified to be "true" using neural network based NLP, meaning that the value of content has gone down. Google stole the business of q…

I haven't used Yelp in years. AFAIK it's a USA only thing. Most other countries I've visited there are far more reviews on Google than Yelp. No idea how I can trust either of them (the reviews, not the companies) Yelp, yes the writing is on the wall. An no, google didn't steal anything from yelp. They just let users review places and post pictures.

Yes, Google entered into a settlement with the FTC in 2013 for, among other things, scraping sites like Yelp and presenting the info directly in search results. Google didn't have any of their own reviews at the time.

"In its 2013 settlement, the FTC ruled against Google on scraping. Rivals can now opt out of having their content lifted, without fear of being demoted in the search rankings."

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/mar/20/google-il...

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