I stopped using Aardvark for three reasons:
- It felt very transactional — it lacked soul and depth.
- It invaded my private space (my instant messenger sessions).
- It performed well at questions that classic search engines and/or discovery site like Yelp usually handle well e.g. what bike stores are in Palo Alto or where can I find a free SVN MacOS client. You can get answers to these questions without nagging somebody.
On the other hand, I have become a Quora addict for three reasons:
- Performs well at questions not well suited for a search engine: opinion, multiple constraints scenarios, hypothetical scenarios, etc. For example startup founders and investors commonly ask “How did company X get traction.” When somebody with knowledge of that company answers it provides insight that a search engine cannot find because that content previously did not exist.
- Provides depth and insight — by keeping questions alive, providing answer summaries, etc. the content can become richer.
- Feels like a natural conversation. Quora is like a party where you can jump in and out of conversations of interest. Whereas Aardvark which feels like a party where everybody is separated by a wall.
This blog post is adapted from my answer on Quora. You should follow me on Quora here.