( Mashable.com ) -- Facebook has begun the rollout of a new feature , Facebook Questions , which will allow users to get answers to their queries from the entire Facebook community . Similar in concept to Yahoo ! Answers , Quora and Mahalo , Facebook Questions gives users the opportunity to ask questions just by clicking the `` Ask Question '' button on the homepage . Questions is also available on friends ' profiles just as you would post on someone 's wall . We first learned of Facebook 's Q & A feature two months ago , when the company started asking for volunteers to beta test the product . The world 's largest social network even went so far as to promise beta testers a trip to Facebook 's offices to meet with the Q & A team . I had the chance earlier today to discuss the new feature with several Facebook employees . Questions has several defining features : . • Photo questions : For example , if you take a picture of a bird , but do n't know what species it is , you can post the picture on Facebook Questions and get your answer . • Polling : If you 're simply looking for the answer to `` Which city is better : Chicago or Dallas ? `` , you can get your answer by creating a poll . • Tagging : The company seems to be placing a lot of emphasis on tagging questions based on category or topic . The goal seems to be to make Q & A discovery an easier and faster process by making it simple to look up questions on cooking , photography , San Francisco or a variety of other topics . • Topic exploration : Facebook described this as a roulette-type feature that allows users to browse Facebook 's eventual mountain of Q & A . Under the `` Questions about '' drop-down menu , there 's a feature called `` Everything '' that allows users to browse the company 's catalog of questions . • Following : You can follow specific questions for updates and new answers . • Updated homepage : Facebook Questions does actually change the homepage , adding a new bar at the top of the page where you can choose to update your status , ask a question , add photos , or post a link . There was one more thing that Facebook made clear to me : Facebook Questions is not an advertising product . While brands with Facebook Pages will eventually be able to answer questions , it 's not meant to be a promotional platform ; it 's meant to be a useful and insightful product for users . Facebook Questions will roll out to a limited group of beta testers today , but the company promises to `` bring this product to all of you as quickly as we can . '' The entire feature is public , so we do n't suggest posting those awkward bedroom questions on Facebook . Will Facebook Questions prove to be more useful than Quora or even Twitter as a Q & A platform ? We think so , if only because it has the biggest advantage of them all : 500 million users . © 2010 MASHABLE.com . All rights reserved .
Facebook has begun the development of a new feature , Facebook Questions . Questions will allow users to get answers to their queries from the Facebook community . Questions will roll out to a limited group of Facebook testers only .