Searching Quora with SMS (hat tip Twilio)

So does Quora, the “continually improving” Q&A site, have a mobile app?

The answer is no: there really isn’t an official app yet.

I know because I searched Quora.

Anne Halsall, a product designer at Quora, said in response to the above question that an iPhone app is in the works, and then suggested a third-party app called Social Questions.

Dave Burkhart, who is a student and non-Quora employee and had provided another A in this thread, is the developer of this unofficial search software, which can be currently found in Apple’s store.

My journey through Quora in search of a Quora search app was started after I read a post in Twilio’s blog.

There you’ll find an interview with Shreyes Seshasa, also from the Quora development team, in which he tells how they were able to hack out, in one night, a new feature that allows Quorians to search Q&As with plain SMS.

It was all done using Twilio’s APIs, and has been well-documented in The Technoverse Blog, this cloud telephony startup’s voice and SMS interfaces are simple to use.

So not doubt there were able to get this project done through one long evening, and certainly was a lot quicker to implement than an iPhone version.

I tried out Quora’s new SMS feature, which was introduced last month.

After registering a cell phone number with Quora, you search their knowledgebase through an SMS request containing a keyword, followed by a reply in which a particular answer is requested.

While this may not be the most efficient and cost-effective approach, for those of us without an iPhone or Android gadget and need a Quora answer pronto, it’s a completely workable solution.

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  1. Pingback: Quora on iPad: Use Pulse Plus Feeds to Provide the Perfect App Solution

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