Earlier this year it leaked that Yahoo was shutting down their Delicious social bookmarking service. This caused quite a stir among existing users, including myself. Bloggers and tech websites covered the story and many published articles on alternatives to Delicious. Assuming the service was shutting down, many users migrated to other platforms such as Diigo and Evernote. I experimented with both, but settled on Evernote.

This morning Yahoo sent an e-mail to all users to inform them that Delicious had been purchased by the founders of YouTube, and would continue to live on.

The letter is below. Will I return to Delicious? I’m not sure, it depends on what type of service AVOS offers. If it is more compelling than Evernote I may switch. It’s good to know that Delicious will continue though because I’m sure many users preferred it’s simplicity over alternatives such as Diigo and Evernote.

The letter:

Dear Delicious User,
Yahoo! is excited to announce that Delicious has been acquired by the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. As creators of the largest online video platform, Hurley and Chen have firsthand expertise enabling millions of consumers to share their experiences with the world. Delicious will become part of their new Internet company, AVOS.

To continue using Delicious, you must agree to let Yahoo! transfer your bookmarks to AVOS. After a transition period and after your bookmarks are transferred, you will be subject to the AVOS terms of service and privacy policy.

Reasons to let Yahoo! transfer your bookmarks
• Continue uninterrupted use of Delicious.
• Keep your Delicious account and all your bookmarks.
• Enjoy the same look and feel of Delicious today plus future product innovations.

What happens if you do not transfer your bookmarks
• Delicious in its current form will be available until approximately July 2011.
• After that, you will no longer be able to use your existing Delicious account and will not have
access to your existing bookmarks or account information.

About AVOS
AVOS is a new Internet company founded by Chad Hurley and Steve Chen who, in 2005, founded YouTube, the world’s largest online video platform. Before YouTube, Hurley and Chen were early employees at PayPal, a leading online payment service that is now part of eBay. Delicious will become a part of AVOS, based in San Mateo, California.

Learn more about moving your bookmarks.
Thank you for using Delicious. Yahoo! has appreciated having you with us, and we are pleased to be able to transfer Delicious to an incredible new owner — you’re in good hands.

The Yahoo! Delicious Team

I recently signed up for Quora, a question and answer service similar to Yahoo Answers. Below is a description of the service from Quora.

“Quora is a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it. The most important thing is to have each question page become the best possible resource for someone who wants to know about the question.”

When I signed up for the site it prompted me with a quiz to help me understand the best way to phrase a question. I thought this was interesting. How many Yahoo Answer pages have you visited or heard of where the question is completely off-the-wall or incomprehensible? It seems Quora wants to avoid this problem and keep their content fresh, clean, and easy to find. I thought it would be worth it to post the question guidelines and quiz below:

Quora Question Guidelines

• Use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation
• Each question should be a complete sentence, with correct spelling, grammar and formatting. It should begin with a capital letter and end with a question mark.
• Don’t capitalize arbitrary words. If you want to emphasize a particular word or phrase use italics, not ALLCAPS.
• Avoid profanity.
• Do not use the second person in your answers. Leave out phrases like ‘Does anyone here know…’ or ‘Can anyone recommend..
  • Instead of ‘Do you think King Arthur was a just king?’, ask ‘Was King Arthur a just king?’
• Avoid surveys and polls, which invite personal opinion, e.g. ‘What’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you?’ Rephrase these questions to directly ask what you want to know.
  • For example, ‘Do you think the Olympics should include curling?’ should be turned into ‘Should the Olympics include curling? Why or why not?’
• Give your question enough context that anyone can understand what you’re asking, no matter when or where they read your question.
  • For example, instead of ‘Who was the guest star on last night’s Law & Order?’, include clarifying details like ‘Who was the guest star on the Feb 16, 2009 episode of Law & Order?
• Your question should not be a rhetorical question, a classified ad, or a job posting (though it’s OK to ask general questions about hiring). Use a Quora post for this type of content.
• Don’t ask questions that would make private individuals uncomfortable or are personal attacks on other people.

Quora Guidelines Quiz

The correct answers are underlined.

2. Pick the question that meets Quora guidelines:
Do you often find yourself to be the smartest person in the room?
Can anyone recommend a good barber in Cape Town?
What are some of your favorite marketing tools?
What does it feel like to fly an F-16 fighter plane?
What do you think about Elton John having a baby?