Microsoft Windows 8 coming on October 26

Microsoft announced that its next-generation operating system tailored for a world shifting from personal computers to smartphones and tablets will be available on October 26. 

Windows unit boss Steven Sinofsky revealed theWindows 8 debut date at a sales meeting, Microsoft communications manager Brandon LeBlanc said in a blog post yesterday. 

Windows 8 will be available in 109 languages across 231 markets worldwide, according to LeBlanc. 

Microsoft has promised to make the new operating system available in August for computer, tablet or smartphone makers to build into hardware. It "is simply the biggest deal for this company in at least 17 years," Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer said last week, referring to the time since the launch of the game-changing Windows 95 operating system. 

"It's the glue; it's the foundation of everything Microsoft is built on." 

Microsoft reported that it has sold more than 630 million licenses of Windows 7, and that the software powers the majority of business desktop computers. 

Windows 7 went public in October 2009. The latest version of the operating system that is the norm for personal computers will also be used on many smartphones and tablet computers, including Microsoft's own Surface tablet to be launched this year. 

The Redmond, Washington-based firm has gone on record stating that Surface tablets would hit the market when the Windows 8 operating system became publicly available. Windows 8 allows users readily to store and share personal data among various devices under the "SkyDrive" cloud computing service. 

Rivals Apple and Google offer such services, which let people store digital data on servers in the Internet "cloud" and access files from devices of their choosing. 

The new Microsoft system will support a wider range of devices, including touch and stylus-based smartphones and tablet PCs as well as desktop and laptop machines. Versions of Windows 8 have been tailored for chips used to power various mobile devices. 

The software giant has been trying to expand its presence in the booming market for smartphones and tablets, which is currently dominated by Apple and Google.

Microsoft Expected to Unveil Office 15

Microsoft is expected to show off Office 15, the next version of the company's productivity suite, on Monday at an event in San Francisco, according to numerous reports.

Office has been available to a select group of users in a technical preview since January. It's not clear whether a public beta of Office might be available Monday, or whether it will arrive later this summer.

Few details have seeped out about Office 15. Several reports claim Windows XP and Windows Vista won't be able to run Office 15. Microsoft is scheduled to stop supporting XP in 2014 and Vista support is expected to run out in 2017.

If XP and Vista won't run the new Office, that leaves only Windows 7 and 8 PCs to run Microsoft's newest productivity suite. Of course, rumors persist that Microsoft will bring Office to the iPad with native Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps. Microsoft in late 2011 released OneNote for the iPad.

Nor has Microsoft said whether it will offer a touch-only Metro version of Office on Windows 8, the next version of the operating system, scheduled for release in October. So far, only desktop UI versions of Office 15 have surfaced online. Microsoft is building Office 15 into Windows RT (the version of Windows 8 for ARM slates), but it too will feature the desktop versions.

What We Know About Office 15

Based on leaks from the Technical Preview, it appears Metro, the main design language for Windows 8 and Windows Phone, will figure prominently in the look and feel of Office 15.

Source: Supersite for Windows

This includes bold, basic colors, and square edges. Office's famous Ribbon UI will reportedly be hidden by default, giving Office 15 a more stripped-down and basic look.

The new version of Office will also feature integration with cloud services such as Facebook, Flickr, Hotmail, and SkyDrive. Microsoft is reportedly preparing an Office Marketplace for extensions and tools, and Office 15 will also feature a touch-optimized mode for tablets and all-in-one touchscreens.

Google's New Service WDYL.com Surfaces

The new WDYL.com is actually Google's way of asking "What Do You Love?". Once you enter a query, it offers "relevant" results categorised by Google's services.

To test this service, I entered the word "Rajinikanth" to get the following results.

As you can see, it's not very informative, and mostly tries to promote Google's products and services such as Chrome, Picasa, Earth, and Blogger. It also fails to understand that Rajinikanth IS THE ONE AND ONLY, and offers to find a Rajinikanth nearby. Blasphemous!

Right now, the service is good for having a few laughs. However, it is not ready yet, and Google will certainly improve it before the official launch. Till then, head over to  www.WDYL.com and let us know which term returned the weirdest results.

Yahoo! Launches New E-mail Service

Yahoo! is giving its popular e-mail service a long-promised facelift and also inviting all of its 284 million users to upgrade to the revamped version. This version of Yahoo! Mail makes it even easier for people to share, organise and store online conversations and media content with a focus on improved performance, enhanced spam protection and a customisable inbox. Yahoo! Mail is available in 43 markets and 26 languages around the world.

The company will also make the latest version of Yahoo! Mail available to its global partners, including Nokia.

Social Infusion: People can instantly respond to messages from Facebook, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Mail and other webmail providers with a new easy reply bar. Additionally, people can view photo slideshows, inline videos and more from within their inboxes. People can also view and share notifications and updates from Twitter, Facebook and Zynga from a new Updates tab.

Conversations Aren’t Just E-mail: When people want to compose an IM, SMS or e-mail they will find their most frequent contacts and lists shown to them. People can now also chat with Facebook friends alongside Windows Live and Yahoo! Messenger contacts and view all of their past IM and text conversations within Yahoo! Mail.

Tailor Your Inbox: People can choose from over 50 themes and stationery options to express their personalities and customise how they view messages and contacts.

App-ify Mail: New, easy-to-use applications help people be more productive and organised right from their inboxes. People can now track their online orders with the All My Purchases app, get removed from unwanted newsletters using the Unsubscriber app or send mega files using Attach Large Files by YouSendIt.

Mail Search Redefined: A mail search experience leverages Yahoo!’s wealth of search science and technology to help people get answers faster by finding the right e-mails. When searching through Yahoo! Mail, a left-hand refinement column appears, letting users easily navigate, sort and narrow the search results by sender, attachment file, date, or folder location.

Lightning Speed: Leveraging Yahoo!’s cloud technology, Yahoo! Mail provides performance that is twice as fast as previous versions of Yahoo! Mail, even in regions where only basic Internet speeds are offered.

Spam Buster: Advanced SpamGuard technology and a new anti-phishing platform have reduced spam reports by 60 per cent and help protect people from e-mail hackers and unwanted instant message conversations. Yahoo! Mail blocks more than 550 billion spam messages per month, the company claims.

“Yahoo!’s vision for online communications brings together all the tools that people use to connect — e-mail, chat, SMS, and social updates — and makes it easier for them to share content and engage in conversations with the people that matter most to them,” said Blake Irving, chief product officer, Yahoo!. “We’re delivering on this strategy with the latest version of Yahoo! Mail, providing our hundreds of millions of users worldwide with a fun, engaging and constantly connected experience across desktop, mobile and tablet devices that keeps the conversation going – anytime, anywhere.”

To upgrade an existing Yahoo! Mail account or create a new Yahoo! Mail account, go to overview.mail.yahoo.com and click the ‘Upgrade Now’ button.

Adobe to introduce latest creative suite apps in India

Adobe Systems Inc is all set to introduce its latest creative suite applications on monthly subscription basis in India, a senior company executive said on Tuesday.

According to Prabhjeet Singh, country manager - India Adobe Systems, the system is already available in the USA and the pricing structure for India is being worked out.

"Very soon we are going to introduce subscription model for Adobe Creative Suiter . Those who cannot afford outright purchase may opt for this," Singh told reporters at a press conference here.

Creative Suite 5.5 is a collection of Adobe's Photoshop, Dreamweaver, InDesign and other software. The subscription model will allow users pay for the product's monthly or yearly use at prices much lower than for unlimited use of the full suite.

USA customers will be able to download subscription- priced versions of Photoshop for USD 49 a month or USD 420 a year, and Dreamweaver for USD 29 a month or USD 228 a year, according to a price list provided by Adobe.

Buyers can rent the full Creative Suite Design Premium edition for USD 139 a month or USD 1,140 a year.

Singh said the shipment of Creative Suite is in progress and it may take a month for the product arrival.

He said Adobe has plans to increase its focus in the South Indian market to drive its new creative Suite sales. The company held a road show today to formally launch the product in the city.

Estimated street price for Creative Suite is expected to be Rs 1,54,791 for CS 5.5 master collection.

Gmail Now Allows You to Personalize Your Account with Your Own Photos

If none of Gmail's themes make you smile when you open your Inbox, starting today you can create your own.
Using photos from your Picasa account, you can customize the look of the main area and footer of your Gmail pages. Custom colors have been possible for a while already.
Here's how to do it:
Click on the "Options" logo (the little gear at upper right)
Choose "Mail Settings," then "Themes" and scroll down for the last option, "Create Your Own Theme."
Follow the directions to choose a Picasa photo or upload something else, and customize text and background colors.
Tips:

• Depending on the photo you choose, you may need to fiddle with text colors to make things legible. I chose a sunset photo taken from the lanai of a vacation house in Kapoho, Hawaii. It still needs work.
• Gmail does its own crop to fit the header and footer, so a landscape or still life will probably work better than snapshots, unless you like looking at the top of somebody's head, or select parts of your dog or child.
• If you can't decide, choose "Random" and rotate through all of Google's themes, plus your on.

Our Daniel Ionescu reports today about another new pair of useful Gmail management features: "Don't Forget Bob," which prompts you to add somebody who belongs in a group, and "Got the Wrong Bob?" which might just keep you from confusing Bob your boss with Bob your ex, and other career-limiting moves.

Skype for Android has a major security flaw

It was only a week ago that an Internet security firm peeked into Pandora‘s mobile app and determined that the company is sharing “mass quantities” of user info with ad agencies. Now Skype is being held under a microscope, particularly the company’s Android mobile app, and it seems that your stored personal data isn’t as safe as you’d probably like it to be.
After discovering that a leaked beta version of the VoIP app was vulnerable to an exploit that offers access to all user data, Android Police tried the same tactic with the widely used Skype for Android, available since October 2010, and saw the same results. The site notes that the Skype Mobile for Verizon app appears to be unaffected, only Skype for Android.
The technical details get a little complicated, but essentially, Skype stores all user data in a folder bearing that user’s name. The database files contained within that folder have incorrect permissions (simply, who/what can access them, and how), and furthermore, they aren’t encrypted. What all of this means is that these files, which contains everything from contacts and profile information to message logs, can be both accessed and read by anyone with minimal trouble.
The issue extends a bit deeper than that as well. If the issue were confined to just what is detailed above, potential intruders would have to have the user’s Skype name. Still not terribly secure, but certainly more manageable. Unfortunately, there is also a way to tease out this information as well. Android Police notes that the big danger here is of a rogue developer releasing a tweaked version of the app — think back to the recent malware debacle on Android Market — that pulls out and transmits private user information.

Facebook ad rates up by 40%

Ads on Facebook Inc's site cost 40 per cent more per click last quarter than in the previous three months, as the company's social-networking dominance let it command higher prices, according to Efficient Frontier.

The increase was on Facebook's self-service ads, not the higher-priced premium ads that run on user home pages, said Siddharth Shah, senior director of business analytics at Sunnyvale, California, based-Efficient Frontier.

"As advertisers are understanding this medium, they are allocating budgets, and it's becoming increasingly competitive," said Shah, whose firm helps companies buy online ads. "They are willing to pay a lot more to get to the consumer."

Facebook, which has more than 500 million users, is parlaying its burgeoning popularity into higher ad revenue. Advertising spending on the site will more than double to $4.05 billion this year, according to research firm EMarketer Inc in New York.

The company may have reached $2 billion in sales last year, three people familiar with the matter said in December. Facebook announced in January that it raised $1.5 billion from investors led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc, placing a $50 billion valuation on the closely held business.

Facebook, founded in 2004, passed Google last year to become the most visited website in the US, according to Experian Hitwise, an Internet-tracking company in New York.

Baidu Ting To Be Launched In May

Baidu Inc , China's top search engine, will launch a licenced music search service in May, in a move to legitimise its current music search that critics say enables music piracy. Baidu will launch Baidu Ting sometime in May, said Kaiser Kuo, a Baidu spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday. The service will allow users to stream, download, create libraries of licenced music and will have a social-networking aspect. 

Music piracy in China has cost record labels hundreds of millions in profits. Most of the music available through Baidu's current Mp3 search service is copyright infringing.

"Our members want to partner with and invest in China's digital revolution, but they cannot do so while the music service run by the dominant Internet company, Baidu, facilitates infringement of the rights of artists and creators online," said International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, a body representing record companies globally, in a letter to the Financial Times last month.

Baidu is the dominant search provider in China with more than 70 percent of the market by revenue.

Last week, Baidu said it reached an agreement with the Music Copyright Society of China (MCSC) to pay fees to MCSC for every song downloaded using Baidu Ting. The licenced music service will be supported by advertising.

The agreement covers publishing rights and Baidu will compensates lyricists and composers through MCSC. The firm is still working towards a more comprehensive agreement that will cover performance rights as well.

Baidu is also in talks with major international record companies such as Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group for a similar agreement.

Google finally introduces its social feature +1

Google has finally announced its previously rumored social feature called +1 that will show up in search results to let users recommend links and stories.

The new feature can be used to bring content from Google News and other sources into a real-time personalized news feed. Google says by clicking +1 on a webpage or ad you find useful, these +1's will then start appearing in Google's search results.
Google explained that these recommendations will come from people you know, linking the feature to the long-described layered approach Google is taking with social. If you do not have a significant amount of Google contacts, you can see "how many people across the web have +1'd" something.

Explaining the new feature in its blog, the company said it will use many signals to identify the most useful recommendations, including things like the people you are already connected to through Google.

Google said it will soon incorporate other signals, such as your connections on sites like Twitter, to ensure your recommendations are as relevant as possible. You can also get to know who you're connected to and how by visiting the "Social Circle and Content" section of the Google Dashboard.

Yahoo! to launch new search engine in India this year

Leading internet company Yahoo! is all set to unveil its latest search offering 'Search Direct' in India by the second half of this calendar, said a top official of Yahoo! here today.

Prabhakar Raghavan , Yahoo!'s chief scientist, senior vice-president and head (Yahoo! Labs) said the Nasdaq-listed digital media company has already rolled out the public beta version of Search Direct in the U.S. last week.

"The new search engine predicts search results as fast as a person types - character by character, and presents those results dynamically, generating a fast, simple search experience that goes beyond mere blue links," Raghavan told media persons here.

He said it (Search Direct) follows a theme ... a theme that the company has been e pursuing ever since they forged a search alliance with Microsoft.

"The idea is to provide the user not with links but with answers. We expect Search Direct, a combination of completing what you were trying to type and fulfill your vertical-search intents including entertainment and shopping, which we launching in the US recently. We will be doing that in India in a few months from now," he said.

Yahoo!, which currently employs around 2,000 professional at its Bangalore Lab has a massive reach of 30 million unique users per month in India and reaches to 74 percent of the Indian Internet audience.

According to Raghavan, the company has been growing in double-digit numbers in India in terms of employees and was looking at continuing that growth this year as well.

He said over the last four years, the Bangalore centre has yielded a 50 percent average year-on-year increase in idea submissions for patent consideration.

Mozilla launches Firefox 4 on Android

A week after it launched Firefox 4 for the desktop, Mozilla today shipped the final version of Firefox 4 for Android.

But some users quickly complained about slow performance and the browser's lack of Flash support.

Mozilla first pitched Firefox 4 to users last August, when it issued an alpha build of what it called "Fennec." Later, Mozilla renamed the program to keep it in sync with its better-known desktop browser.

Today, Mozilla touted Firefox 4's new streamlined interface, faster performance and its integrated Sync feature, which lets users running the browser keep bookmarks, passwords and open tabs synchronized across multiple desktop computers and mobile devices.

According to Mozilla, Firefox 4 is three times faster than the native Android browser, in part because of the former's new JaegerMonkey JavaScript engine, the same engine that drives JavaScript on the desktop editions of Firefox 4.

Some people begged to differ.

"They say it's faster than the stock browser....but it takes twice as long to open," said a user identified as "Andy" in a Tuesday review on the Android Market, Google's official app store.

"Has to be the slowest browser in the history of Android," reported "Oliver" in another review.

Firefox 4 doesn't currently support Flash, but instead relies on HTML5, CSS and other Web standards to render video and animated content.

Users also bashed the browser for the Flash omission. "No Flash support. Uninstalled," said "Rabbi Eli."

The browser offers a multi-tab interface, uses the same "Awesome bar" found on the desktop version that automatically retrieves URLs viewed earlier when a partial address or phrase is typed in, and can be customized with a raft of add-ons, another long-time Firefox feature.

Firefox 4 doesn't work on iOS devices like the iPhone or iPad, as Apple has made it clear it will not approve the browser for the App Store. The best that Mozilla offers for iOS is an app dubbed "Firefox Home" that synchronizes bookmarks, browsing history and open tabs in the iPhone's browser with other copies of Firefox 4.

Unlike last week, when Mozilla touted Firefox 4 downloads for Windows, Mac and Linux, the company has not posted a download scoreboard to track the number of copies Android users grabbed.

Firefox 4 is a free 14MB download from the Android Market, and requires Android 2.0 or later.

YouTube Becomes 2nd Largest Search Engine

Soon www could stand for world wide watching. Unknown to most, YouTube—the six-year-old video-sharing website—has become the second-largest search engine in the world after Google. It gets two billion views a day, up 50% since 2009.
A startup set up by three PayPal employees in 2005, YouTube was bought by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Now it is gearing up to compete with TV.
"We believe that the distinction between internet and TV viewing will fast disappear as on-demand video takes centre stage," says Gautam Anand, director, Google (Asia-Pacific Japan). YouTube is adding new streams of content and figuring new ways to make money. In the US it has signed up with MGM and CBS to let them upload films and TV serials with advertisements. Last year, it launched an online film rental service in the US. But online video services like Netflix, Hulu—and even Facebook—present formidable competition.

Amazon may soon launch film, music locker services

Amazon has spoken with some of the major record companies and Hollywood film studios about creating a digital locker service for their film and music libraries and could announce the plans as early as next week, sources told CNET.

Sources from both the film and music industries said Amazon is working on creating a cloud locker service that would enable users to store their existing music, film, and book collections, even content not purchased at Amazon, on the company's servers.
The online merchant has yet to obtain all the necessary licenses, but Amazon managers told counterparts at the studios and labels that it could announce the service before all the negotiations are complete, the sources said.
An Amazon spokesperson wasn't immediately available for comment.
Amazon is in a hurry to win the race to the cloud, according to the sources. It has been widely reported that both Apple and Google are busy preparing their own media locker services.

Yahoo Introduces Messenger 11 Beta

Yahoo! has released the new Beta version of the of Yahoo Messenger 11. Yahoo Messenger 11 Beta comes the social game developer’s Mafia Wars and FishVille.

You can play some of the most popular social games with your friends, starting with offerings from Zynga, Elex, and OMGPOP. Games include:

• Fishville and Mafia Wars from Zynga – Coming soon
• Balloono, Pool, Draw My Thing from OMGPOP
• Happy Harvest & Happy Manor from Elex

Yahoo Messenger 11 Beta is Facebook friendly, you can now chat with your Facebook friends right from your Yahoo Messenger.
You can share and update your status, post comments and keep up with your conversations across Facebook and Yahoo! your Messenger.

Yahoo Messenger 11 Beta Features

• Enjoy your chats on the go through your iPhone, Android or any Internet enabled phone.
• Make free video calls, and share photos and videos between PC, iPhone, and now Android.
• Easily find or invite friends from other services to come chat with you
• Now you can chat with high quality full-screen video.
• Make free PC-to-PC calls and PC-to-phone calls for as low as 1¢ a minute (plus free voicemail!)
• Send text messages (SMS) to friends’ mobile phones for free*
• Instant message with one friend, or conference in a bunch
• Show your style with emoticons, Avatars, audibles and IMVironments
• Use the built-in media player to watch web videos and view photos with friends

Yahoo Messenger 11 Beta is available for Download.

Mass Email Marketing Tips

Mass email marketing is a very common method used by website owners all over the world to increase their traffic and their number of customers. However, there are techniques that work and techniques that do not in the mass email marketing domain. Luckily, there are people who know these working techniques and that have a great edge over their competitors.

If you want to increase your income potential, mass email marketing is something you should take into consideration. However, there are a few tips you should keep in mind when it comes to mass email marketing. These tips are presented below in this article in order to help you in the battle with your competitors.
One of the most important things you should know is that mass email campaigns usually do not work from the first email. This is a result of some studies conducted and you should consider it.
Therefore, you will need to send at least 7 messages to the potential customer in order to see if you can convert him or not. You can change the subject, the lines and just about everything when it comes to mass email campaigns. Therefore, you should not worry if you initial emails o not get any responses.
Another important tip in the domain of mass email campaigns is to make sure that on your first emails you should definitely offer something for free or at least a discount if you want to have the receiver’s attention in the first place. From then on you can elaborate your emails and send them the offers. If you want your mass email campaign to be effective, it is very important t offer free things or great discounts in your first ever sent email.
You will have to be original in your emails. This is a key factor that can help you become successful on the market. This is because your competitors are probably sending mass emails too and the only way you can stand up from the crowd is through being original so that people remember you. Discounts and freebies are not original things because people are already aware of their existence.
The content of your emails is very important. Even if many people believe the persistence is the key to attracting new customers, you should know that the email message is the one responsible for that. Therefore, you should take your time and create great good email messages before sending them.

Google Music To Launch Soon

Announced at the launch of FroYo, Google Music is still to become a reality. However, new reports leaking out from Silicon Valley suggest that the apparent 'dog-fooding' exercises are already underway and the service may launch very soon.
 Google Music, a cloud-based music streaming service that would also allow you to buy and store your music with the ability to stream your music from any device, would soon be available for public download.
This was discovered after CNET and Gizmodo reported that Google has started internal testing, or in Silicon Valley terms, 'dog-fooding' exercises, to test the features of the service. One of the developers at XDA also wrote that he discovered the music service when he was successful in installing Honeycomb on his Android device.
According to other sources, negotiations with top four music labels and other publishers are ongoing. It is speculated that Apple too would upgrade its popular music distribution service iTunes to a cloud-based service, especially after its acquisition of Lala, a cloud-based music service that Apple acquired and shut down.

Google adds Video Previews to it’s search result

Google’s instant previews for video sites weren’t very useful because most video sites use Flash and the software that generates thumbnails can’t handle Flash. That’s probably one of the reasons why Google replaced the standard screenshots with short clips from the videos. By default, the sound is muted, but you can change this setting. The feature is also available at Google Video next to some search results.
“When it comes to videos, people want to spend less time searching and more time watching. That’s why we added an enhancement to Instant Previews—the ability to preview videos. Click once on the magnifying glass next to the title of any video search result in universal or video mode. For some videos, you’ll now be able to play through a set of four short segments from the video to see if it’s what you’re looking for (video providers have to opt to make the previews available, so you won’t find it for every video yet),”

Baidu apologises to writers in copyright dispute

Chinese search engine giant Baidu apologised on Saturday to writers who accused it of violating their copyright and promised to delete infringing items within the next three days.

"We will now make a concerted effort and devote considerable technological and manpower resources towards getting rid of any infringing content in the next three days," Baidu spokesman Kaiser Kuo told AFP.
"We apologise to any authors or publishers whose feelings may have been hurt by the presence of infringing content on Baidu."
The dispute began last week when more than 40 writers including top-selling author Han Han signed a letter blasting Baidu for providing their works as free downloads on its online library Baidu Wenku without their permission.
State media reported on Friday that negotiations between the Internet giant and Chinese writers to resolve the dispute had broken down, and that the company now faced potential court action.
Baidu Wenku was launched in 2009 and allows users to read, share or download books for free. Some books also can be purchased at a large discount from the cover price.
All documents are uploaded by Internet users and as of November Baidu Wenku had stockpiled more than 10 million files and books, accounting for 70 percent of China's online file-sharing market, according to the company's figures.
Kuo had previously defended Baidu Wenku, saying the firm had already deleted "tens of thousands of infringing items" uploaded by web users.
He denied claims that the firm had made money from Baidu Wenku, but he added the firm intended to profit from the service in the future and share the proceeds out.
Baidu has long been criticised for flouting intellectual property rights. Its MP3 search service, which provides links to free but often pirated music downloads, has drawn particular fire from the recording industry.
The US Trade Representative's office last month named Baidu as one of the world's top marketplaces for pirated and counterfeit goods.

Facebook launches question-and-answer feature

Last July, after months of rumors and leaked screenshots, Facebook launched a Q&A product called Questions. At the time, I said it had the potential to be “massive”: with 500 million (now 600 million) users, the site had the chance to take on Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers, which can be a huge source of traffic. And it was also directly taking on Quora, the buzzed-about startup that has a contentious relationship with Facebook, in part because it was founded by former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo and engineer/manager Charlie Cheever.
But Questions never took off. Facebook has limited access to the product to a small percentage of users, and over the last few months we’ve gotten several tips that the product wasn’t really getting traction. Today comes news that seems to confirm those rumors: Facebook has just announced a revamped version of Questions that has very little in common with the original product. And it’s no longer any threat to Quora.
The new version of Questions is less ambitious — you’re no longer directing questions to the entire Facebook community. Instead, it’s much more in line with Facebook’s ‘social’ bread and butter: you ask a question, it shows up as a structured poll in your friends’ News Feeds, and they can vote on the various answer choices or add a new one of their own. In fact, my first reaction to the product was that it might be more appropriate to call it ‘Facebook Polls’.
So, as an example, I might ask my friends what their favorite restaurant in San Francisco is. I might pre-populate it with choices like “In-N-Out Burger” and “Tony’s Pizza” — which my friends could vote on — but if someone wanted to add a recommendation that wasn’t already listed they could. Whenever one of my friends votes in one of these questions, my question then shows up in the News Feeds of their friends. In other words, the questions you ask can go viral. The responses from your friends will always be highlighted (you’ll see their faces as small thumbnails) but if you ask a question that resonates with a lot of people, you could wind up with plenty of responses from strangers, too.
Unlike the old version of Questions, you can no longer browse by Topic — the only questions you’ll see are the ones that pop up organically in your News Feed (you can also see questions that have been asked by friends, and only friends, in a Dashboard). This is a big change, and it means that Facebook Questions is no longer setting out to become a vast database of knowledge the way Quora is. It just wants to make it easier to get recommendations from your friends.
Product Manager Adrian Graham says that the change reflects the way people were using the original version of Questions. Oftentimes people would ask things that they were mostly directly toward friends (What movie should I watch?, What’s your favorite restaurant?, and so on). But then strangers would respond with lengthy answers, which would intimidate the user’s friends to the point that they might not respond at all. The new version looks to lower this friction by emphasizing polls.
Facebook seems more confident this will take off with users. Unlike the old version of Questions, which never saw a broad rollout, Facebook will be more aggressively deploying this. It’s also letting anyone who wants immediate access opt-in now by going to Facebook.com/questions.