Quora Rolls Out New Changes to Topics

Having trouble finding relevant content on Quora? You are not alone. Quora rolls out several changes to make it easier to find what you're looking for. According to Quora engineer, Edmond Lau, “with the range of topics now covered on Quora, people often need to switch between different contexts and may miss content that they’re interested in.” In other words: “we at Quora recognize the system has issues and we’re trying to fix them.” While a startup is bound to have some glitches, the search capabilities of Quora have left something to be desired. As such, this is most definitely a positive developmental step forward for the site. Lau continues: “As part of helping Quora scale up as a reusable resource for information, we’re launching new topic pages and topic groups to help people learn about topics and engage with all the activity happening on Quora within different topics.” There are two major updates. The first is a re-organization to topic pages. Rather than a list of the most recent questions asked in a particular topic, the new pages highlight featured answers, topic questions, and open questions that still require answers. This re-organization is complemented by a new feature called topic groups. According to Quora, “Users can add related feeder topics to a topic group, and the topic group will then offer a unified feed of the latest questions and answers of the entire group. For example, the Movies topic group (http://www.quora.com/Movies/group) has Screenwriting, Comedy Movies, and Toy Story as some of its feeder topics. The result is a single place on Quora where people keep up with all things movie-related. We'll recommend topic groups on your homepage, and you can bookmark any group on your homepage by clicking the "Watch" button in the group.” So basically, it’s another sorting mechanism. According to the Quora post, some topic groups have topic admins who are experts in a particular area. As admins, they curate the answers for a particular section as well as feature content for users. The goal of the changes are to make specific content easier to find and navigate. Lau notes that the changes should“bring us another step closer to providing rich resources for people interested in learning more about a topic. As a complement, topic groups let people explore their areas of expertise or passion on Quora in a focused, single-context environment.” However, one wonders if the changes will really matter. Quora started the year as the hottest social media ticket, but in the last few months, the buzz has died down. Now, Quora is confronting the question experts had been whispering since late last year: will the site have staying power when the initial buzz is gone? It’s still far too early to tell, but with an onslaught of question and answer sites and features popping up all over the web, Quora certainly has their work cut out for them.

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Quora Rolls Out New Changes to Topics

Having trouble finding relevant content on Quora? You are not alone. Quora rolls out several changes to make it easier to find useful content.

Kelsey Blair

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