Facebook Questions Now Included on Pages and Home Page, Still Buggy

Questions, an in-house Facebook question-and-answer application released last week to a selection of beta testers, has now be deployed to new areas of the site including official Pages and the home page’s right sidebar. The product is also still missing features and continues to have significant bugs for some browsers including Chrome. These issues aren't surprising, given Facebook's tendency to launch products early then iterate. However, the issues could be severe enough to affect adoption among the users who have been given early access to the product. A Facebook Questions panel now appears in the right sidebar of the homepage. Residing below pending requests and above the Get Connected section, the panel lists three active questions, often including one written by a friend or friend of a friend. This panel ensures that there is always something to answer on the home page, regardless of the news feed. When Questions launched, Community Pages gained a tab listing Questions activity in which the Page name was a keyword or topic. Official Pages now have this tab by default, but Page Admins can remove it through a new option in the Page editor. The navigation bug we discussed last week, which tells users a topic has no Questions in it, is still affecting some users, including those using Google Chrome. It inhibits users from being able to choose a topic in which to browse unless they click into the topic through a question, preventing those experiencing the bug from navigating the product. The feature also currently lacks keyword search that could allow users to track down specific questions or answers and make the feature a database of knowledge as well as a real-time answer gathering tool. In terms of forthcoming features, the product's designer Blake Ross said on Twitter that users will eventually be able to tweet out their questions to get more exposure. The inclusion of Questions as an option in the status update publisher has broken the publisher’s tagging feature. Those with access to Questions cannot tag anyone in status updates, and cannot be tagged themselves. Those without Questions access can still tag others without access. [Update: Blake Ross has informed us that tagging in status updates has been fixed. Tagging of people with access now works normally, though when one with access tags someone else, the name doesn’t appear hyperlinked until posted.] Lastly, some have complained that the until a user changes the default notification settings for Questions, they are sent notification emails for every kind of action. Less urgent actions like someone following a question you’ve asked don’t necessitate an email notification. Too many notifications from the product could make users resent it, or stop using it because they worry their activity is bothersome to friends. Testing Facebook Questions on a small group of users could reveal needed features, behavior trends, and minor bugs before its released to the general public. However, major bugs are likely making a poor first impression with some of the site’s most passionate users.

Social Pro Daily

Facebook Questions Now Included on Pages and Home Page, Still Buggy

Josh Constine

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Josh Constine