When a new website can’t be explained with a simile (“It’s like MySpace for foodies” or “It’s like Blockbuster but through the mail”) you know it could be something big. So in order to explain Quora, I’ve returned to a college exam staple: “Compare and contrast Quora to Yahoo! Answers, Wikipedia, and Hunch.”

Quora is certainly like Yahoo! Answers
They’re both websites where people, after creating a login, ask and answer questions. Users can also review and rate answers, pushing the highest rated answers to the top.

Quora is certainly not like Yahoo! Answers
While there is certainly a lot of activity, Yahoo! Answers has become something of a punchline, rife with amateurish answers and questions such as, well, this one. From the beginning, Quora has sought to set itself apart by presenting itself as a place for more serious discourse. Users are asked to describe their expertise in the topics they participate in, and are given guidance in formatting questions and answers.

Quora is certainly like Wikipedia
Although Wikipedia’s structure is based on topics while Quora’s is based on questions, the goal of both sites is to transfer knowledge about various topics from people’s heads to their site. They are both designed to grow as the world changes. The size and quality of both are only limited by the number of people taking part. And both allow users to edit the contributions of other users.

Quora is certainly not like Wikipedia
One of the defining characteristics of Wikipedia is “Anonymous Editing.” This openness has led to flame wars, backlashes, and inaccurate entries such as, well, these. A few years ago, a study found that 25% of visitors to Wikipedia had found at least one piece of inaccurate information.

But Quora, taking a page from Facebook, encourages people to use their real names, putting their reputation on the line. There is less anonymity and more of a paper-trail of your activities. The hope is that this will lead to a more civilized, positive environment.

[Sidebar, two interesting New York Times articles: one about the banning of Wikipedia on college campuses, and one about the dearth of female contributors.]

Quora is certainly like Hunch
I first learned of Hunch in a Fast Company article about its founder, Catarina Fake, co-founder of Flickr. It’s a site that asks you questions about yourself, and then turns around and offers you recommendations. It definitely works. After answering a buch of questions such as “Do you like sushi?” and “Have you ever mooned someone?” I asked Hunch to recommend some New York Times bestsellers for me to read. I had read almost all of them.  How does it work? I don’t know.

Hunch and Quora are both working towards being an online destination for people seeking answers.

Quora is certainly not like Hunch
In January, Hunch posted this update to the Facebook page: “If you haven’t tried Quora yet, you should. Great site and concept. Note that Quora is about Fact-based Q&A. Hunch is about taste-based recommendations. Both are important but each is very different from the other.”

So that’s a quick breakdown. But here’s the real kicker. When I posed this question to Scott Kiekbusch (who recently blogged about how spam could spell doom for Quora as it grows), he said that maybe what Quora really wants to be is the next Google; the go-to source of information and answers. So maybe in the future, we’ll only go to Google to search for the best Quora answer.

Let me know what your thoughts are in the comments below, and feel free to follow me on Quora here. Also, I just thought of a way to describe Quora: “It’s like an FAQ for everything there is.”