Facebook Questions Goes Where Quora Can't | Hacker News Reader

Facebook Questions Goes Where Quora Can't

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14 pointsrwwmike12 comments

Unfortunately, I really think this is going to be a bust, just like the first time they tried to introduce Questions, for a few reasons.

First, some people have a very impersonal friend network, meaning that they probably don't care about the "favorite movie" (this was an example in the article, I'll use it here) of a lot of the people on their friends list. For example, people they met once, or people that they went to high school with 5 or 6 years ago, etc.

Secondly, Facebook is trying to have their cake and eat it too. Their entire basis for this new direction is that Quora and others are too impersonal, but then they add that you can query the network of your friends' friends. Friends' friends is a pretty wide net, and the original argument for Facebook Questions becomes invalid if you expand the question to that many people. Yes, I know that it's optional, but to me it shows that Facebook is trying for the shotgun method, trying to cover as much ground as possible instead of focusing on a feature that people actually want.

Finally, if I want to know what my friends' favorite movies are (again, using the cited example), there's already a place on Facebook for that: their info page. I don't know if people still fill that out, but I know they used to before Facebook mandated that everything on the info page be tied to Pages (which was another goof on FB's part, IMO).

They may prove me wrong, but this just seems like something Facebook won't quit pursuing because it's trying to be the Internet. Personally, I'm more interested, and optimistic in seeing how and if Deals is going to dethrone Groupon and its ilk.

I'd take it a step further, as well - as wide as the friend's friends net may be, I'm still probably not learning anything new. If my group of friends is defined mostly by some common interest, and theirs is too, I'm probably not going to get a good answer to anything outside of that field of interest.

To take the example on the page of restaurants - I'm probably not going to learn about any new restaurants if my friends and I mostly go to the same restaurants, and they go to the same ones with their friends, too.

I just moved to San Francisco not too long ago. Maybe I don't want to know about the best Mexican food in SF from someone from SF, maybe I want the opinion of my Texan pals, who share a similar taste in Mexican food....cuz damnit, I want that certain type of salsa (or something).

Of course, on the Internet, we are always in danger of ending up in an echo chamber.

And besides, there's still Yelp. And Foodspotting. And every other one of those apps out there to get outside my friends' opinions. I just think this makes it easier than ever to get friends' feedback.

Only thing I wonder is, will FB prioritize these entries? Because seeking friends' opinions on FB always seems to get answers from people you weren't looking for answers from.

>I just moved to San Francisco not too long ago. Maybe I don't want to know about the best Mexican food in SF from someone from SF, maybe I want the opinion of my Texan pals, who share a similar taste in Mexican food....cuz damnit, I want that certain type of salsa (or something).

I agree with the sentiment (DFW'er here!), but how are Texans supposed to know about restaurants in the Bay Area?

I have plenty of Texan friends on Facebook that have either lived here or visited. The point is still the same, really - this seems to make it easy to poll your friends for information. Quora is more about getting a community-approved answer.

Don't get me wrong, I think it has its uses, I just think it's pretty limited in scope, to the point that it probably shouldn't be compared with Quora and Yelp. Not only are you unlikely to find the best Mexican in SF, you're not likely to find out about too many new places with that particular type of salsa: chances are good that you've at least heard of the place that everyone's voting for, and that awesome new place doesn't look too appealing, 'cause it only got one vote.

On the other hand, it'd be pretty good for confirming that your friends actually like your favorite Mexican restaurant as much as you do (or maybe that you should have that party somewhere else), and everyone in Texas thinking of visiting SF will probably be happy to be able to make a poll of where they should eat (granted, they could have just posted a comment and counted the "likes" on each response).

It's my impression that the quick poll is a better mean to get to content from your friends than looking at 200 profiles for an information that may have not been there at all. I often ask for suggestions for a good book about X and would be willing to give one, but i don't put them in my info page.

The question is, do you trust all your Facebook friends' tastes?

Perhaps I just want to ask a few people that I trust in <food/fashion/movies>.

Of course, the questions will be a great way for companies to get information about you.

No matter how I look at this, it doesn't strike me as anything new or special.

Sure, it's sort of a useful feature, but it's also a clear admission that Facebook couldn't figure out how to leverage their user base to get good answers. Polling your friends? Yawn

Crowdsourcing is still a very young technology and it isn't well understood how to make the most of it. Personally, I'm really glad that Facebook didn't see the same opportunity for Questions that I do, now if only they stay clueless for another year...

>Personally, I'm really glad that Facebook didn't see the same opportunity for Questions that I do, now if only they stay clueless for another year...

We might have different ideas, but I thought the same thing. But if we have the same idea, I'm only giving you til September :)

September, huh? Well, if we get into YC, we'll definitely have something up by then. Good to know we have some real competition.

Hmm, now you got me wondering if there's another way to go about this because our strategy is pretty unique...

Maybe you can connect with friends on Quora and maybe you can ask specific people questions, but Facebook Questions is gonna far outpace Quora for asking your friends simple questions.

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