New York:
Facebook users already use their status updates to ask their friends questions, like recommendations for a babysitter, a restaurant or a vacation.
On Wednesday, Facebook introduced a new feature, Facebook Questions, that formalizes question-asking on the site and lets people ask questions of all of Facebook.
"Facebook Questions helps you tap into the collective knowledge of the more than 500 million people on Facebook," Blake Ross, a director of product management at Facebook, wrote in a company blog post.
The questions, and the answers, will be visible to anyone on the Internet, making Facebook Questions look a lot like Twitter. But it will be easier to use because questions and answers will be grouped together. Companies that have Facebook accounts could ask questions, too, using the site as a free focus group. The fact that the feature is completely open is yet another step away from Facebook's origins as a private social network.
Questions and answers are a hot area on the Web, as big companies and start-ups experiment with ways to sort through the maze of information online to get people the answers they want, and ways to connect people with others who know the answers. Web sites from Quora to Twitter are becoming personalized search engines.
Google, for instance, has been improving its question-and-answer searches, so that now if you type a simple question, like "What time is it in London?" the answer appears at the top of search results. Google recently acquired a start-up, Metaweb, that it says will make it easier to answer more complicated questions, like which private colleges on the West Coast cost less than $40,000.
Many people use Twitter to pose questions and get immediate responses. Ask.com, the beleaguered search engine, unveiled a new Q. & A. engine this week. Quora, a start-up founded by Facebook's former chief technology officer, collects questions and answers from users, and Hunch aims to answer questions based on the questioner's personality.
Facebook Questions is available to some people now and will eventually roll out to everyone. People will see an "Ask Question" button on the homepage, and can pose questions to all of Facebook. The queries can be phrased as open-ended questions or as polls ("Should I visit France, Croatia or Greece?") and include photos.
People can tag questions -- "travel" or "cooking," for instance -- and Facebook will show those questions to people who have expressed interest in the topics. People can browse questions by topic, or sign up to follow certain topics, similar to Quora.
On Wednesday, Facebook introduced a new feature, Facebook Questions, that formalizes question-asking on the site and lets people ask questions of all of Facebook.
"Facebook Questions helps you tap into the collective knowledge of the more than 500 million people on Facebook," Blake Ross, a director of product management at Facebook, wrote in a company blog post.
The questions, and the answers, will be visible to anyone on the Internet, making Facebook Questions look a lot like Twitter. But it will be easier to use because questions and answers will be grouped together. Companies that have Facebook accounts could ask questions, too, using the site as a free focus group. The fact that the feature is completely open is yet another step away from Facebook's origins as a private social network.
Questions and answers are a hot area on the Web, as big companies and start-ups experiment with ways to sort through the maze of information online to get people the answers they want, and ways to connect people with others who know the answers. Web sites from Quora to Twitter are becoming personalized search engines.
Google, for instance, has been improving its question-and-answer searches, so that now if you type a simple question, like "What time is it in London?" the answer appears at the top of search results. Google recently acquired a start-up, Metaweb, that it says will make it easier to answer more complicated questions, like which private colleges on the West Coast cost less than $40,000.
Many people use Twitter to pose questions and get immediate responses. Ask.com, the beleaguered search engine, unveiled a new Q. & A. engine this week. Quora, a start-up founded by Facebook's former chief technology officer, collects questions and answers from users, and Hunch aims to answer questions based on the questioner's personality.
Facebook Questions is available to some people now and will eventually roll out to everyone. People will see an "Ask Question" button on the homepage, and can pose questions to all of Facebook. The queries can be phrased as open-ended questions or as polls ("Should I visit France, Croatia or Greece?") and include photos.
People can tag questions -- "travel" or "cooking," for instance -- and Facebook will show those questions to people who have expressed interest in the topics. People can browse questions by topic, or sign up to follow certain topics, similar to Quora.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
