A Business Insider column titled “Why Quora Is Wikipedia's Worst Nightmare” argues that the crowdsourcing startup, founded by Adam D'Angelo and other ex-Facebookers, will overtake the ten-year-old free encyclopedia. Despite some controversy, Wikipedia considered the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet, with 22 million articles.

While Quora, the San Francisco-based $400 million startup, is still “a tiny gnat compared to Wikipedia's traffic,” notes BI, it has “trajectory [that] shows an enormous amount of promise, and given Quora's buzz, shouldn't be ignored.”

In addition to a growing database, Quora is flexing the muscle of a Q & A site widely attractive to the tech industry. Microsoft’s Bing has integrated it into its social search build-out, further leveraging the use of Facebook data first integrated in 2010 and augmented by a social sidebar this year.Continue reading...

Best Buy, JPMorgan, Yahoo CEO stumbles put ethics and mismanagement in the spotlight. JPMorgan closes ranks around embattled CEO Jamie Dimon as mega-loss is probed; and Yahoo's interim CEO Ross Levinsohn reportedly close to getting role permanently.

Amazon reportedly prepping front-lit Kindle for July.

Facebook eyes historic $12 billion to $15 billion IPO windfall and up to $104 billion valuation.

Activision Blizzard goes back to the future for new games.

Apple plans iCloud upgrade, and thinner laptops with Intel chips.

Baidu enters China's crowded low-cost smartphone market.

BMW touts "ultimate service" in new campaign.

Budweiser strikes deal with Jay-Z for annual concert.Continue reading...

Amazon cloud issues impact sites including Reddit, Quora, Foursquare, and Hootsuite.

Apple reportedly ready to launch cloud-based music service ahead of Google.

eBay and Amazon wage costly battle for shoppers. 

Gap kicks tires on Visa's new mobile commerce program with Gap Mobile 4 U launch.

JPMorgan will return $861 million to Lehman brokerage. 

Linux patent suit ruling goes against Google.

MLB takes control of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

RIM's PlayBook beats odds and sells 50,000 devices on day one.

Samsung launches first Droid-branded smartphone for Verizon.

The King's Speech won four Oscars including Best Picture at the Academy Awards last night, unseating early favorite The Social Network; click here for more coverage.

Apple's iPad 2 rumored to come in white as design guru Jony Ive may return to the UK.

Audi counts on accelerated sales in the US.

Baseball Hall of Famer Duke Snider dies.

Berkshire Hathaway is looking for “more major acquisitions,” Warren Buffett says.

Blackstone wins bidding for U.S. assets of Centro for $9.4 billion.Continue reading...

Nokia designers post YouTube videos answering users' questions (about new devices and mobile phone design in general) tweeted with a #nokiadesign hashtag.

Which brands got the most check-ins on Black Friday? Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Toys R Us and Apple. Target puchased the #blackfriday hashtag on Twitter and duly became the #1 store for Foursquare check-ins, which accounted for 25% of all check-in activity on Friday. Verizon, meanwhile, is paying for the #cybermonday hashtag on Twitter today.

NASA, the White House and PETA top a new ranking of social media savvy by public brands.Continue reading...

Quora is a new startup from former Facebook employees, with growth contingent on current users extending invitations to others. The Q&A site has already won the attention of Silicon Valley.

Benchmark Capital, has reportedly invested $11 million on an $86 million valuation, and former Facebook executive Matt Cohler, has assumed a board seat. The track records of the people behind the new brand, and excitement about the content, have created significant buzz. Quora will open up to the public slowly as a precautionary tactic to handle the influx of interest.

Officially, “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… Learn More.”Continue reading...