Facebook to Compete with Yahoo Answers
Yeah, this is no joke. I logged in to Facebook today and saw a special link for a Facebook beta program entitled: “Apply to be a beta tester and get the first look at upcoming Facebook products.” Upon clicking it, you get insight into what is an undeniable glimpse at what Facebook’s next big feature is: a community-run question & answer section.
This link is located on the right-hand column of your main feed, under the heading “Get A Facebook Sneak Peek.” The page that follows explains the concept of what is undoubtedly Facebook’s stab at Yahoo Answers, a well-aged service where people who have a free Yahoo account can browse a massive, ever-updating database of questions and community-submitted answers. Yahoo Answers enjoys great search engine rankings for very competitive terms (check out my Yahoo Answers case study, if you hadn’t already).
In other words, this certainly isn’t anything new. There’s no doubt that Facebook will keep tapping into this massive community to perform even more functions than it already does – if they didn’t, they’d be stupid not to.
Where does it go from here? A “Facebook Answers” section could prove to be successful, given the sheer number of Facebookers currently out there, and the site’s standing as one of the most visited websites on Earth. However, will it compete with a household brand that already does well on search engines? Maybe, if it also starts getting loved by Google, Yahoo & Bing. Otherwise, it will be a closet accessory.
What does it mean for internet marketers? It depends. On Yahoo Answers, you can at least reference a link back to your site once you’ve reached a certain “level” with your account, making it a no-follow (but potentially high visibility) backlink. Will Facebook follow suit, or will they restrict links? Will they have mercy on affiliate marketers, or punish ‘em like they do with affiliate links posted on Facebook Pages? The answer to that will determine if this is another good venue for bringing from FB traffic to your site(s). Only time will tell, of course!
Tags: facebook, yahoo answers
Facebook won’t be able to compete against yahoo answers! Reason: on yahoo answers you pick a nick name of yourself and ask any private question to people and get the the answers. This is the main fun on this site. But on facebook the full name is visible. With that people won’t be going around asking private questions at the site.
Agreed! That’s always going to be an issue with Facebook. I personally would never want my full name attached to anything – especially when it’s conveniently hyperlinked to my profile.