Facebook 'Questions': New Q&A Feature Debuts (PICTURES)

Facebook has just started rolling out a new feature called "Facebook Questions," a Q&A service that lets members ask and respond to questions posed by others on the site.

Facebook introduced "Questions" in a blog post on the social network:

Millions of people ask their friends questions on Facebook every day. What new music should I listen to? Where's the best sushi place in town? How do I learn to play the piano?

Today we're introducing Facebook Questions, a beta product that lets you pose questions like these to the Facebook community. With this new application, you can get a broader set of answers and learn valuable information from people knowledgeable on a range of topics.

If you can't see it yet--don't worry: Facebook says the new service is only available to a "limited number of people" (about 1 percent of users, according to CNET) as Facebook intends to improve the Q&A service based on the initial feedback.

Facebook Questions is entering an increasingly crowded space, with sites like Quora, Yahoo! Answers, Ask.com, and Aardvark already inviting users to question and answer on their websites. So what's so special about Questions (in addition to the 500 million users it immediately has access to)? According to Mashable, Facebook Questions' "defining features" include: Photo questions; polling; tagging; topic exploration; and "following."

Something else to note before you try the Q&A service: all questions are public and no question can be asked anonymously. As CNET notes, "When you ask a question on Facebook, you're asking it to the world."

Here's a screenshot of what the new "Status Update" toolbar looks like:

A look at the questions that have been posed thus far:

How you answer a question:

What do you think? Weigh in below.

Comments

[dben]

10:41 AM on 07/31/2010

The reflexive acquisition of Facebook "Friends" is nothing more than the pedestrian accumulation of Social Capital.

Those consumers with over 100 "Friends" betray nothing more than insecurity, insincerity and complacency.

[dben]

10:19 AM on 07/31/2010

Facebook illstrates on fantastic point: the "Consumer Model" corrupts absolutely.

There are many forms of government and social organization. All are wonderful in theory, flawed in practice. That being said I believe capitalist democracy is the best. The problem, however, is the egregious attachment of monetary "value" to everything from finger nails to "Friends" on social networking sites.

When "value" and is a given society's bottom line consumerism saturates the culture, stealthily projecting "worth" into non-monetized realms of human experience - like personality development and personal relationships.

If you ask them to be honest you'll find most FB users collect "Friends" using a finance/marketing model - "Friends" are currency and collateral, used to convey stability, security and superiority; they are merely a means to project the "brand" a user needs to impress and attract others. These acquired connections are not, for the most part, embraced as actual friends one knows well.

As a result FB users unwittingly turn personal relationships into marketing experiences. This is the nefarious stroke-of-genius of Zuckerberg & Co. - exploit human relationships for profit. As we all know and continue to meet hundreds of people it is a growth industry.

[sarah18]

06:19 AM on 07/30/2010

Facebook sucks, I deleted my account last month, but guess what?!! once you have an account, you can't delete it all together. You can deactivate it but your name and page will be there forever.....I wonder if anyone has complained about that to facebook!

[permissionmag]

09:02 PM on 07/29/2010

Facebook continues to take other sites' features and copy them whole.

It's just Yahoo! Answers, but this time you have to be logged in to Facebook to see it.

Do they ever have any ideas of their own?

[armchairprotester]

07:47 PM on 07/29/2010

*Lame*

[Tom Sutpen]

06:59 PM on 07/29/2010

All you people complaining about Facebook giving away your private information, I gots one remedy:

Don't give them any info that you don't want them to have.

[sarah18]

06:20 AM on 07/30/2010

That's what i tried to do! but you have to give them an active email address and full name!

[tech7]

05:00 PM on 07/29/2010

I wouldn't let this guy cut my grass, screw FaceBook

[Leviathan21]

03:49 PM on 07/29/2010

I know what my question will be:

How do I delete my facebook page?

[sarah18]

06:20 AM on 07/30/2010

you can deactivate it, but never fully delete it, it sucks.

[rcstreeter3]

03:35 PM on 07/29/2010

If it would be a way of ending the war now and bring our troops home now, actually hearing from the American public & around the world, that would be great. Also, maybe getting public opinion about impeaching Pres. Obama. Seems like a great idea to me.

[ThunderMongoose]

03:45 PM on 07/29/2010

The funny thing about what you said is that if there was some opinion about Obama being impeached, and it turned out that nobody wanted him impeached, you'd cry foul in the data collected....

[Adam2179502]

03:19 PM on 07/29/2010

Never made a facebook page, never will.

[500 a]

03:14 PM on 07/29/2010

This isn't anything new. Yahoo! Answers has been around for years.

[bwright85]

05:32 PM on 07/29/2010

True that...and thier questions and answers are a lot more hilarious and bizarre...browse them one day just for fun.

[500 a]

09:07 PM on 07/29/2010

Actually, I used to contribute to answers. I responded to answers in my speciality and believe that my answers were helpful and accurate.

[Plusorminus30]

02:42 PM on 07/29/2010

Yep, this one put me over the edge...Facebook account will be deleted tonight, I'm done.

As long as private information is worth something to someone there will always be a market for it.

Facebook, Google..etc

[Woravut Lacharoj]

02:16 PM on 07/29/2010

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/28/facebook-questions-qa-ser_n_662733.html#postComment

[dben]

02:12 PM on 07/29/2010

...and will those questions and answers be made public worldwide? Showing up in a Google search of each individual participating?

[bubbuh]

02:14 PM on 07/29/2010

It would be wise to assume so.

[dben]

02:21 PM on 07/29/2010

Agreed. I was being ironic. Rhetorical question.

[dben]

02:09 PM on 07/29/2010

Mark:

Why can't I limit my friend requests to NO ONE??? Why am I FORCED to limit such requests to "friends of friends"?!

I DO NOT want more friends on Facebook, Mark. I am not interested in the Friend Industrial Complex you have created. Instead I'm happy being connected to few people I actually know and like.

I just got a friend request from the friend of a friend and it has produced a very awkward situation. My profile is private, meaning I am not in any "network" and no one can search for me. Yet, still, I get harassed by someone I do not wish to be friends with.

If you have more than 50 Facebook friends you are a loser sucked into Zuckerbergs friends economy.

[Oregonian76]

02:29 PM on 07/29/2010

Really? More than 50 FB friends = Loser? Gosh, I hope nobody has more than 50 relatives to keep in touch with...

Because, you know, you're such a Loser for caring about your family...

And THEN, god forbid you do have a large family, you've now used up your allotted 50 friends, so you can't actually keep in touch with any actual friends or coworkers without being labeled a Loser...

Or what if you use FB as means of social media for your company? What if your company employs more than 50 people? Well, I guess you're ALL Losers...

dben - do you see the flaw in your theory yet?

[dben]

02:56 PM on 07/29/2010

If you have 50 family members you have to keep in touch with on a daily basis...how did you do that before Facebook? Was it such a priority then? Do they really need to be on your private Facebook page? Are you telling me all 50+ members of your family are exactly alike and will not be offended by posts visible to all of their friends that they might consider inappropriate? You sure someone's grandfather (and ALL of his friends) wants to see what a liberal Gay cousin is up to? Really? Or, should everyone censor themselves and repress big parts of their lives to keep family members happy?

I am talking about INDIVIDUAL Facebook pages, not business Facebook pages. Individuals are not advised to use personal profiles as business pages for obvious reasons. Facebook (and most reputable businesses) recommend separate business pages for company purposes only.

Oregonian76: Do you see the flaw in your logic yet? Feel a little reflexive yet?