I think the interesting thing about Quora is that you have real answers by real humans, often expert, on real questions.
While if you search for a question on Google, then google tries to match you with a website using artificial intelligence to try to figure out what it thinks might answer your question.
But google of course can't tell which are the best sites to answer your question. It tries, but it often makes mistakes. For instance, with topics with new research which is rapidly changing the field - it often prioritizes old sites that are somewhat out of date, presumably because there are more links to them and they are more established. And may be higher reputation but they don't tell you what the experts would say are the latest results in the field.
If you are reasonably familiar with the subject then you can find the latest on Google. But if not, then it can sometimes be hard to distinguish between things that are now considered years out of date, the latest research, and fringe ideas that are thought to be true by only a few people, or indeed the theories of people who came up with new ideas in dreams and visions and so forth, and may not always be 100% reliable.
Also on quora you can see multiple answers to the same question, so if there is a diversity of views, you get a good idea of that. Not by some person who tries to write a "neutral point of view" encyclopedic article summarizing the various views in their own words, as you get in wikipedia (usually top of the google search results) - but actual answers from those people themselves.
So, given that many questions you have are asked by numerous other people, then on quora there's a decent chance of getting good answers.
Of course Google is a superset of quora as quora answers show up in search results. But those extra results you get in Google can sometimes be more confusing than useful.
Depends of course a lot on what the question is. But for some questions I can see how quora would be a good starting point.
And it is one of the best places to go if you want to hear, e.g. about what it is like to be an astronaut from an actual astronaut, or what it is like to be a pilot from a pilot, etc. In non technical language that is - you can search in google and find them talking in specialist forums, etc, but here you hear from them in their own words.
While if you search for a question on Google, then google tries to match you with a website using artificial intelligence to try to figure out what it thinks might answer your question.
But google of course can't tell which are the best sites to answer your question. It tries, but it often makes mistakes. For instance, with topics with new research which is rapidly changing the field - it often prioritizes old sites that are somewhat out of date, presumably because there are more links to them and they are more established. And may be higher reputation but they don't tell you what the experts would say are the latest results in the field.
If you are reasonably familiar with the subject then you can find the latest on Google. But if not, then it can sometimes be hard to distinguish between things that are now considered years out of date, the latest research, and fringe ideas that are thought to be true by only a few people, or indeed the theories of people who came up with new ideas in dreams and visions and so forth, and may not always be 100% reliable.
Also on quora you can see multiple answers to the same question, so if there is a diversity of views, you get a good idea of that. Not by some person who tries to write a "neutral point of view" encyclopedic article summarizing the various views in their own words, as you get in wikipedia (usually top of the google search results) - but actual answers from those people themselves.
So, given that many questions you have are asked by numerous other people, then on quora there's a decent chance of getting good answers.
Of course Google is a superset of quora as quora answers show up in search results. But those extra results you get in Google can sometimes be more confusing than useful.
Depends of course a lot on what the question is. But for some questions I can see how quora would be a good starting point.
And it is one of the best places to go if you want to hear, e.g. about what it is like to be an astronaut from an actual astronaut, or what it is like to be a pilot from a pilot, etc. In non technical language that is - you can search in google and find them talking in specialist forums, etc, but here you hear from them in their own words.
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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