Q: What should I read to find more about the Q&A space? A: Here’s some links.

The Q&A (question and answer site) market segment is red hot right now.  Here’s some links to complement my own posts Life imitates art imitates life, Prisms, Kool-aid, and Opportunity, and What do you think of this one-line pitch for qweries?

The overall landscape

• Choe Sang-Hung’s South Koreans Connect Through Search Engine (in the New York Times) describes how Naver’s Q&A site catapulted them to dominance in the South Korean search market.
• How do social Q&A sites monetize and scale?, with answers by Lisa Kavanaugh of Ask.com and others
• What are other Q&A sites besides Quora?, What are some sites that are similar to Quora?, and What are some private-label Q&A solutions?
• Just How Many Q&A Websites are There Out there?, Daniel Roberts, Fortune.

Quora

• Boomtown Tries to Get some Answers from Quora’s Adam D’Angelo, an interview by Kara Swisher of All Things Digital.  Kara frames Quora’s challenge as “trying to move the site well beyond its Silicon Valley-tech-dudes forum to one in which a plethora of topics and memes thrive.”
• Confessions of a Quora newbie, by Christie Ann Barakat, with a great set of references.  The comments are pretty spectacular too.
• Quora Raises Questions, David Pogue, the New York Times
• Quora Backlash Slams into Quora Backlash Backlash, MG Siegler, TechCrunch
• Quora Investor Scoffs at $1 Billion Offer Price, Nicholas Carlson, Business Insider
• Question: Does Quora do Politics?  Answer: …, Nancy Scola, Tech President
• Early Quora Design Notes, by Rebekah Cox on Artypapers, and Life without Photoshop, by Joel Lewenstein, discuss Quora’s design philosophy and process
• Quora Engineers Accused of Vandalizing Clone’s Site, Grey Review; the Hacker News discussion and comments on Quora are interesting too
• Why do some people prefer Quora to StackExchange?, on Quora
• Quora Gamifies: Credits and “Ask to Answer” Live for Everyone, Alexia Tsotsis, Techcrunch, and  Everything You Need to Know About Quora Credits, Yishan Wong (“the richest man on Quora”), Quora Review
• What is Quora currently doing to improve the diversity of its user base? (answer summary: nothing), How would Quora be different if it prioritized diversity?, and Quora diversity: a big red flag — all written by me, on Quora.

Stack Overflow

• Stack Exchange/Quora competitive positioning, Joel Spolsky, Hacker News
• Forget Quora, Stack Overflow is Killing It, by Adrianne Jeffries, The New York Observer.
• Stack Overflow Architecture Update, by Todd Hoff in High Scalability
• Blekko Partners with Stack Overflow to Improve Search Results, Matt McGee, Search Engine Land
• Series A funding announcement and chat Q&A

Ask.com

• Are Quora and new Ask competitors?, with an answer by Doug Leeds of Ask.
• Ask.com Rediscovers Its Roots as a Question & Answer Site—Powered by People This Time, Wade Roush, XConomy
• Why Do People Answer Questions on Q&A Sites? Ask.com Users Speak Up, Wade Roush, XConomy

And …

• 1.8 Billion Questions Later, ChaCha Has Evolved Past Text Message Roots, Sarah Kessler, Mashable
• What’s the difference between Quora and Focus?, with an answer by Scott Albro of Focus
• Federated Fluther Lets Third Parties Integrate Q&A With A Few Lines Of Code, Jason Kincaid, TechCrunch
• Which Q&A Sites Are Best for Business?, Angela West, PCWorld
• What are some Q&A sites in Spanish?
• Quora Competitor Opinionaided Raises $1 Million in Funding for Mobile App, Devon Glen, Web Newser.
• Crowdbeacon: When Quora Meets Yelp, Paloma Vasquez, PSFK.
• Q&A Platform LawPivot Raises $1M; Launches Legal Services Marketplace, Leena Rao, TechCrunch.
• Doctors and lawyers get gamified on Avvo, but will they play along?, John Cook , GeekWire.
• The Race to Build a Page Rank for the Social Web Continues, Mathew Ingram, GigaOm
• Quora for the Enterprise: Two Contenders, Klint Finley, Read Write Enterprise
• Quora for Startups: Sprouter Pivots to Focus on Q&A for Entrepreneurs, Audrey Watters, Read Write Web.
• Le réseau d’entrepreneurs Sprouter se repositionne pour faire face à Quora, Roxanne Varza, TechCrunch France.
• Seattle’s Questionland builds Q&A community around popular alt.weekly The Stranger, Paul Boutin, VentureBeat