“Facebook Questions is exactly like Quora.”

The value of Quora, from my limited time using it, doesn't seem to be in the system so much as it is in the user base. I've seen answers authored by more founders/programmers/entrepreneurs from successful companies than I care to count.

Facebook is going to suffer from a very fundamental flaw: its users are there to do two things: spy on their friends and play casual games. No one is logging into Facebook with the Google-esque "I'm trying to find something or help someone else find something" mentality.

Quora's users are highly motivated and know why they are at Quora.com - to ask and answer questions.

Interestingly, this is probably the same reason why Google will never succeed at social networking. Google has solidified itself in the minds of the public as the company who provides us with information when we want it, not the company who satisfies our voyeuristic desires.

All this being said, as much as I rag on Reddit, I think they have Quora and Facebook beat as far as question/answers go. If someone could harvest that data and provide an interface that isn't as butt-fugly as Reddit they'd get some decent traffic.

Title question + answers + right hand nav != exactly like.

The profile of the answers will produce the difference. I get the impression that FB-answers will be more like a comment on a facebook story while Quora is more authoritative like a wikipedia page.

FB comments are fast, easy, and shallow. Wikipedia is relatively contemplative and certainly greater depth.

Wikipedia is also much more persistence. The past doesn't seem to exist on Facebook, but for question search, it might in this case.

Social network websites are similar. Github has followers and will probably add related projects or individuals that work on similar projects.

The difference for me is facebook is a mess, it's too big, the design has gotten very sloppy and aesthetically it's corporate looking, designed by committee vomit. I don't get how people spend prolonged periods of time there. At least it's one less distraction for me.

FB questions is about as much like Quora as Quora is like StackOverflow.

Fair game in this competitive landscape.

Very few facebook groups which touch the mainstream (and even some fairly specific ones have a much lower quality of discussion than what I've seen from Quora. Problem is that as Quora grows it will come up against the same issue, being a niche website doesn't seem like the Quora vision.

I feel like if your entire product can be put out of business/duplicated overnight, there's little value in what you're doing.

I'm sure Quora will be fine; they've been around a little and have a community.

The lack of anonymity is a huge differentiator.

Interesting, facebook questions has an ESP Game-like solution to answer questions, similar to hunch where you cycle through questions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP_game).

"Reddit is exactly like Digg."