Baraza – a failed Google experiment at a Q&A site
Learning from failures is important, so I invite you to take a look at Google Baraza. It is “a Q&A site designed for Africans“, whatever that means.
From the looks of it, it seems to be a clone of the Stack Overflow / OSQA / Quora models. What’s unique about it? Nothing, as far as I can tell. My question about this got little informative responses (the most pathetic response was “Because it’s Google, it’s cool.”).
The site seems plagued with questions such as where can we find girls to sex, and How can i handle a nagging wife.
Every startup or project should be treated as an experiment. At the start, you think you have “The Spark”, that undefinable quality that will make your project a success. Most startups are copies or combinations of existing ideas, there’s nothing wrong with that. Before Google, there was Alta Vista, and before Facebook, MySpace. But as we know, 90% of all startups are destined to fail. Better to fail early than lumber around stuck in a limbo forever. If I were leading the Google Baraza team now, I would decide now is the correct time to fail.
