Facebook Begins Phasing Out "Questions"

Facebook has begun phasing out Questions from users, a move that's not particularly surprising considering that it removed the product from the homepage sidebar earlier this year. According to CNET, a Facebook representative stated that the social media company is pulling Questions in order to "focus on other things." It will still be available for Groups and Pages.

Questions was launched back in 2010, and allows Facebook users to create a poll asking their friends and other Facebook users anything they want. Unlike Quora, which Questions was expected to crush when it was launched, users simply choose a pre-defined answer. While the occasional poll appears on Facebook asking some inane question, the product was never particularly popular.

While Questions for general users is being taken away, the product will still be available to Groups and Pages, since it provides a constructive tool that's specifically useful to those kinds of Facebook activity. In addition, users will still have access to old Questions they've asked via the Activity Feed. The Questions option still currently shows up on normal user accounts, but expect it to disappear in the next couple of days.

So what's Facebook concentrating on now? The company won't say. Rumors abound that the social networking giant is shifting its focus onto developing a substantial search feature, something Mark Zuckerberg has discussed in the recent past, having said, "[Facebook is] pretty uniquely positioned to answer a lot of questions people have."

[via CNET]