Facebook enters search market

A new function has been launched by Facebook called Questions, which will see it moving into more direct competition with search engines.

Friday, 30 July 2010

The service, which is currently in the beta stage, will allow queries to be posed to the social networking site's 500 million users.

In this way, it will put Facebook up against Yahoo Answers and, more generally, search engines such as Ask.com and Google.

Facebook Questions promises to let users tap into the "collective knowledge" of the site's extensive community.

However, because questions will also be put to friends and family, users are more likely to receive answers that are personalised to them than they otherwise would.

"To ask a question to the community, just click the "Ask Question" button at the top of the homepage. You can also ask questions about your friends from their profiles, similarly to how you would post on their Walls," the site explained.

Photos and polls can also be added to questions, which will be public for everyone to see along with any responses.

The move comes at a time when Facebook is currently at the height of its popularity, having overtaken Google Search as the most visited site in the US at a point in March.

This may have prompted Google's decision to launch a new online games presence, which was announced this week, and could intensify its rivalry with Facebook.