Wisdom of the Crowds: Bing's Social Sidebar Now Includes Quora Answers

Crowdsourcing is gaining credibility as a means of finding answers on the Internet. First Google added Wikipedia definitions to its search results. Now Bing is adding answers from Quora. Much like the crowdsourced encyclopedia, Quora doesn't have a governing body to verify user accounts or to check facts, but the self-policing system seems to have worked well enough.

Crowdsourcing is gaining credibility as a means of finding answers on the Internet. First Google added Wikipedia definitions to its search results. Now Bing is adding answers from Quora.

If you use Bing as your search engine, you might have noticed that you have an option to log in through Facebook and Twitter on the side of the page to surface your friends’ posts in your search results along with the relevant Web pages. The idea is that your friends might have mentioned places to find kayaking equipment or good vegan food, but maybe you didn’t see – or even need – the information when they posted it.

The problem is, what do your friends really know about the things you are looking for on a search engine? And why couldn’t you just ask them?

But if you’ve asked a question, chances are pretty good that somewhere on the Internet, someone else...

AW+

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Spring Special

Save 30% Off an ADWEEK Subscription Today!

View Your Options

Already a member? Sign in