Vark might reduce the noise and clutter on social networks

[mattbell]

Vark (now owned by Google) is an interesting company that aims to help build up the hive mind by sharing questions you have with the people in your extended social network (friends of friends) most likely able to answer the question.  This may solve one of the most pesky problems of trying to get advice on facebook, twitter, and other social networks -- you're often asking, say, 400 people a question that perhaps 5 actually know the answer.  Most people will just ask all 400 if they don't know which 5 will have the knowledge, which means that 395 people will be reading something irrelevant.

Vark claims that it will find the right people in your extended network to ask the question.  I asked one question about information scrap management, and the answers that came back were decently good.

The service is free and provides no financial incentive for answering questions -- it simply plays off the innate desire of people to share knowledge and help strangers, which is the all-powerful force that built Wikipedia.

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I will admit that certain kinds of broad question (eg what kind of car should I get given my constraints of blahblahblah) tend to create big long discussions that become a lot of fun for all participants, and those questions are better served on social networks where they become hot discussion topics.

Sign up, give it a try.  Let me know what you think.

 

Comments

[funcrunch.livejournal.com]

Oh god, Google bought Vark too?

I signed up awhile ago because it sounded intriguing. I answered a number of questions but only posted a couple myself. The answers I got were not that useful. But I still have Vark in my IM list and attempt to answer questions when I can.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Yup, for $50 million!

[miriam-littlebones.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

Must say, I'm skeptical about this. Does it really matter if 396 people read something irrelevant? Seemingly irrelevant information is often what touches my creativity...and the notion of a massive search engine deciding what I might know based on, I don't know, things I buy online or facebook groups I join is arrogant in the extreme. In real life, I'm frequently surprised by who has the answer...

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Not only that, but even when I don't know something, sometimes I know who would know, and that's something I don't see how some website would know.

Plus, I don't mind when my friends ask questions I can't answer. Do you? Does anyone?

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Actually, facebook is already doing this. The people and posts in your news feed and your live feed are automatically chosen unless you specifically disable it. They offer some controls over it, but I still get annoyed at how much it's choosing for me.

I do agree with you that irrelevant information can spark creative thoughts, but it does seem that there's fun irrelevant information (like that song you posted) and not-so-fun irrelevant information (eg a friend in Chicago asking for recommendations for local hardware stores). Following everyone I know on facebook seems to be too much of a time-sink, so anything I can do to get the most value out of the experience feels like it would be good to me.

[(Anonymous)]

I wonder how the quality compares to ask.metafilter.com, which is generally a fantastic source of answers, though not necessarily from people you know.

-JMOZ

Quora

[(Anonymous)]

Have you checked out Quora? It seems like a similar idea.

Helen