Facebook beta joins web Q&A craze

Facebook has unveiled a limited beta of its long-rumored question-and-answer service, a tool that lets you toss questions at people who spend lots of time on Facebook. The service is dubbed, yes, Facebook Questions. "Millions of people ask their friends questions on Facebook every day. What new music should I listen to? Where …

[David McMahon]

The Truman show..

So instead of one man getting all the attention, 1/2 Billion people have the desire to do it themselves!

[It wasnt me]

Wow.......

Its like Wikipedia, but without peer review or the ability to correct the idiots.

I wonder how long before it becomes an accepted and trusted source to the mainstream media.

[HollyX]

Oopsie

"On Yahoo!, users must actively seek out answers they'd like to answer."

In some cases this may actually be the case ...

[Elmer Phud]

Instant expert

Having read the article I'm off to add 'Brain Surgeon' and "Rocket Scientist" and "Worlds' Greatest Lover" to my profile.

[Daniel Harris 1]

Linked In

Sounds like the ask a question feature on Linked In but for less professional uses.

[g e]

not forgetting poignant greats such as...

Which Friends character am I?

What kind of kumquat do I resemble?

What is my serial killer name?

[KayKay]

OOPSIE?

""On Yahoo!, users must actively seek out answers they'd like to answer."".... answering someone else's answer is a Chat violation, on Yahoo! Answers.

Questions are sorted into 1600 categories, so people have a good idea where to go for questions they might know the answer to. Answering " I don't know" or "google it" are also considered violations. The result is, most askers end up with 3 to 5 real answers, of varying degree of expertise, to select from.

It will be interesting to see how many useful answers the push method will produce.

How is Facebook planning to keep out spammers?

[Anonymous Coward]

Facebook Questions

http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/wtf_32.png

I sincerely hope there is an option in my user settings to BLOCK ALL QUESTIONS, I have no interest in this latest SPAM feature of Facebook.

There had better be a very smart and serious spam filter also, bad words need filtering....

What about young persons protection ? all it needs is some drunken slob to go firing off questions of very dubious nature to all and sundry and a minor copping one of those questions .

[JB]

Money

Just sounds like a half-arsed attempt to chuck advertising at people. "Who won the world cup in 1970?" wouldn't really generate much revenue, but something like "Where is there a nice restaurant in my area? means money fr someone.