Aside from posts to /r/funny pointing out idiots on yahoo answers, when was the last time you ever saw anything from yahoo answers that was not a joke (accidental or otherwise)?
Yahoo better start doing SOMETHING to be relevant.
The people saying they do good playing 2nd/3rd place, I think, are naive. 2nd or 3rd place simply means your biding your time until [upstart] comes and eats your lunch.
In the case of acquihires - the fact is that google and facebook are in a talent war. They gobble up the talent, and guess what? that [upstart] eating yahoos lunch will not be [upstart] but google and facebook themselves.
Another user mentioned that they think that Yahoo should create a great VC arm. I FULLY agree with this, as evidenced by the many times on HN I have said exactly that.
So, its a multi front battle yahoo is in: need talent, need innovation strategy {VC/Acquisitions/dropping driftwood/etc}, need acquisitions that facebook/google are strategically vying for and need to create a relevant service.
Quora, while I have my issues with them, IS relevant. In many ways, but the most important way is they DO have a sizeable % of SV braintrust participating.
Yahoo should bring that braintrust's awareness around their brand!
Why not buy Quora, and "extend and embrace" that userbase and seek advice from some of the people on Quora?
There could be a huge PR win here.
"New mom and CEO Marissa Meyer buys Quora, the silicon valley strong Q&A site, meets with users and holds a town hall on what Yahoo users can truly benefit from, accompanied by an all star panel, many of whom are top users on Yahoo's new site Quora... blah blah blah synergy etc"
I think too many people are scared and lazy at Yahoo, lets hope the new mom and CEO has bigger balls than any of her predecessors.
when was the last time you ever saw anything from yahoo
answers that was not a joke (accidental or otherwise)?
Just the other day I typed "1.3 meters in inches" into Google, to use their calculator. Yahoo answers was at the top of Google's rankings.
Yahoo Answers isn't just top for "1.3 meters in inches" - they're also top for "1.2 meters in inches", "1.4 meters in inches", one-from-top in "1.5 meters in inches" and "1.6 meters in inches" and top for "1.7 meters in inches" - not to mention "1 meter in centimeters". Evidently, Yahoo Answers is a market leader in this sort of query.
Would Quora users stick with them if became a Yahoo-owned property? That 8% super heavy user group is 100% of the value. Absolutely core to the quality.
Sort like what Craiglist had in the 90's. You lose them, and Quora is dead. Not sure Yahoo can own Quora w/o killing it just because of who they are.
Quora is/was super relevant to "realtime web" design people -- it was one of the first really interactive realtime apps for a while, along with Asana. It's the kind of stuff you can do with Meteor now.
