Heads up: This post is 15 years old. My thinking may have evolved since then — read it with that in mind.
A few minutes ago, I signed up at Quora with Facebook Connect, then connected to Twitter to follow the people I’m already following who are on Quora. Picked a few topics it cleverly suggested, probably by cross referencing the kinds of topics the people I follow are interested in. Done! I’m kinda amazed to see the list of questions & answers presented to me by a service I had only just signed up for!
Here lies the success of Quora. The people you follow on Twitter you follow for a reason, and that is either you share the same views as them, you value their opinions, and you admire the things they do. (Or they are really your friends in real life, in which case Quora doesn’t offer much added value what you’re already doing on Facebook.)
Jump into Quora with your Twitter follow list, and instantly you see those people’s questions and answers - PERSONAL responses to other people’s questions in regards to things they care about! That’s just really cool and it’s not something they could do on Twitter.
I think the Quora right now also demonstrates an interesting insight on social web services these days. Quora has been out for a while (1+ year?), but it hasn’t gotten enough traction until recently. (At least from the mentions by people I follow on Twitter.) I would say right now it’s passing the 13.5% early adopters point, this seems to be the sweet spot for the kind of good contents I described above. As it moves on to the next 34% early majority, I wonder if it’ll retain its current allure & value when 13 year olds flood the answers with how things would happen in Soviet Russia. (In a way I’m looking forward to those witty, cynical, mean answers though) :P We’ll see how Quora (or rather, Quora’s users) will handle the big crowd.