Facebook has a new feature, Facebook Questions, which it envisions as being a valued place where people can get advice and product recommendations from friends and other members (blah blah blah). I know what you’re thinking—the web does not need another Yahoo! Answers. But hey, if Q&A sites like Aardvark, TripAdviser, and Quora are utilizing the Facebook network why shouldn’t Facebook?
Facebook Questions isn’t up yet, but below is an example of what it will look like. Facebook describes it as a cross between Yahoo! Answers and LinkedIn Answers, but as you can see from the image below, answers can reach Wikipedia-length proportions.
Everyone on Facebook will be able to see your question or respond to it. Facebook friends will see your questions directly in their News Feed. Which poses the question: Is Facebook Questions going to be appreciated or downright annoying?
Using the service is pretty easy. You can either type your question directly into a search box found at the top of each page, use the Questions dashboard, or ask a question via your profile/homepage.
Like Yahoo! Answers, once you post a question on Facebook it will be available for everyone to see. The main difference between Yahoo! Answers and Facebook Questions is that Facebook’s service will not be indexed by search engines, though that may change.
Google-Owned Aardvark Q&A
If you can’t wait for Facebook Questions to go live, check out Google-owned Q&A service Aardvark. When you ask a question on Aardvark it sends it to registered users with experience on the topic, users with similar tastes, and friends of friends in your network who may be able to help. You can share your “Vark” Q&A’s with Facebook friends and friends of friends. Tags within the profile of your network are used to determine whom to route a question to (activities, interests, places, local information, products mentioned, skills, academic information, professional experience, organizations, political information, etc.).
Other sites using Facebook as the base of a Q&A service include TripAdvisor (enables Facebook users to ask their friends questions about specific cities) and Quora. Google Social Search isn’t a Q&A service, but it will give you content posted by people in your contacts list that is relevant to your search. This allows you to review what they have to say without broadcasting your business to your entire network.
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