Facebook Unveils New Questions Feature

Facebook is betting people will take recommendations from their friends; rather than just any old self-proclaimed expert.

This is the idea behind their new and improved Facebook Questions feature. The feature was originally rolled out to a select group over the summer. However, the latest version, available to everyone, has been revised from that first update.

For one, rather than go to experts, the new feature will instead focus on letting users pose questions to friends. The social media giant discovered this would be more appropriate during the initial beta period, when most people were asking for opinions or looking to learn more about their friends.

For most of these questions, experts weren't going to be the best source for advice. The answers to these questions are meaningful or interesting because you know your friends and your friends know you, said Adrian Graham, a product manager for Questions, in a blog post.

There are still ways to make one's question available to the wider net, but for the most part, it will be limited to one's friends. Facebook also made some usability changes to the feature.

We wanted to make questions easier and faster to answer. With the updated Questions you can agree with an existing answer with a single click, or you can add a different response. This makes it easy for many more people to respond to you. It also helps us show you the most popular responses, Graham said.