Quora moves beyond questions.

In recent years, many sources of knowledge have emerged to respond to the wild curiosities of the millennials. Wikipedia, though seen as unreliable, has the widest public variety of information available free of charge. While anyone can edit the pages, that leaves them open to being supercharged with specific information from experts anywhere. Information posted without sources is usually taken down soon after it is put up.

Another recognizable name from the past few years is ChaCha, a service that responds to specific questions that users submit via both Internet and text messaging. Using it is free, with the exception of advertisements that fill the time between question and answer. For a generation so used to instant gratification for any matter, this was a short-lived revelation.

Then there's Quora. Currently sitting at 36th on the list of top free reference apps in the iTunes App Store after more than a year since its initial release (September 29th, 2011), it's clear users are satisfied with the way it works. The New York Times even named it one of the next multi-billion dollar startups.

So what gives?

Internet users want more than just information these days. They want interaction. Quora uses the quality resources it has in its great writing talent to appease the curiosity of users. It would only make sense for them to incorporate something very common: blogs.

Quora's Introduction of Blogs

There is slight concern over whether or not the addition of blogging will dilute the effectiveness the company has with its most important service: answering questions.

I'd like to attempt to answer that question, though. Quite simply, it won't. Internet users are smart enough to separate content based on its purpose. They know that a blog won't fulfill their wondering mind as much as the direct questioning they already planned on doing. However, if there is time to read at all, users will enjoy the material presented to them.

With most of their traffic being questions about personal interests, Quora has a strong advantage in how they can structure their blogs. It isn't hard to track how often information on different subjects is requested. It will be easier for them to create material that users will enjoy without requesting for it to actually be written about. Though they don't have a way to directly monetize their blogging platform yet, Quora might have just set themselves apart from most of their competition, while finding new competitors at the same time.