StackOverflow is the Answer
Posted by rbpasker on May 9, 2010
The internet has always been about tapping collective intelligence, and, indeed, my very first public use of the internet on March 23d, 1989, was a question.
As Internet usage shifted from USENET to WWW, so, too has the technology for human-powered answers to our burning questions. We’ve had Keen.com, Yahoo! Answers, Google Q&A, Linkedin Answers, and recently Hunch and Aardvark (acquired by Google for a reported $50MM).
The main problem with these sites has been keeping the signal-to-noise ratio high.
StackOverflow solves this problem is a number of well established, clever ways: reputations, voting, bounties, and merit badges, and it has become the de facto site for technologists to get questions answered. (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/stackoverflow.com/)
I’m honored to be backing a great team led by two extraordinary technologists: Joe “On Software” Spolsky and Jeff “Coding Horror” Atwood.
Stay tuned. More answers are coming.
James said
Hey Bob,
I am using StackOverflow for several positions. Not a tremendous number of leads, but the few that have trickled through are of very good quality.
Thanks,
James
Killian Murphy said
Nice. It’s a very useful site indeed, great to see a friend involved.
Killian.