Non-game applications were very popular on our list of top apps by monthly active users this week. Dating, horoscopes, music, video and photos, Connect and quiz apps made up the list, which contained apps growing between 6.2 million and 302,800 MAU this week. Our list is compiled using AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook, and covers those that gained the most users in the past seven days.

Top Gainers This Week

	Name	MAU	Gain	Gain,%
1.	Badoo	61,792,543	+6,294,443	+11%
2.	Daily Horoscope	9,146,881	+1,820,728	+25%
3.	Mafia Wars Game	17,022,203	+1,511,976	+10%
4.	BandPage by RootMusic	21,688,890	+1,483,804	+7%
5.	Monopoly Millionaires	5,138,437	+1,097,890	+27%
6.	VidyoTV Video	1,991,850	+833,699	+72%
7.	friend.ly	908,720	+753,013	+484%
8.	Daily Horoscope	3,752,495	+668,171	+22%
9.	Cupid	3,866,902	+618,875	+19%
10.	Diamond Dash	782,850	+617,281	+373%
11.	Monster Galaxy	7,960,983	+601,564	+8%
12.	Videoloji	2,008,164	+594,956	+42%
13.	Zoo World	6,336,834	+437,406	+7%
14.	Zombie Lane	470,352	+410,934	+692%
15.	Quiz Taco!	11,627,557	+395,896	+4%
16.	Band Profile: Profile Pages for Musicians	7,082,482	+341,395	+5%
17.	大腦分析	647,075	+337,478	+109%
18.	Gourmet Ranch	2,573,840	+320,434	+14%
19.	My Photos	2,364,570	+305,082	+15%
20.	Spot The Difference	1,214,943	+302,752	+33%

Badoo continued to grow tremendously by adding 6.2 million MAU this week alone; the app has seen great success with its Q&A format about a users’ friends. Every time a user answers a question about a friend, the app generates a feed story. Another dating app mimicking Badoo’s format is Cupid, which grew by 618,900 MAU by asking question about your friends and publishing the answer to the stream.

There were horoscope apps, too, both named Daily Horoscope. Second place Daily Horoscope grew by more than 1.8 million users by publishing horoscopes to a user’s feed and by asking users to invite friends to use the app. Eighth place Daily Horoscope saw 668,200 MAU by publishing a daily Wall post horoscope.

Two music apps on our list seem to be filling what’s been a void on Facebook — music — now that MySpace’s future is uncertain. BandPage by RootMusic grew by 1.4 million MAU this week; the app is essentially Facebook Connect and asks users to use their Facebook email addresses. Then there was Band Profile: Profile Pages for Musicians, which grew by 341,400 MAU; the app allows users to make the app a default landing tab. The app allows users to include a bio, band photo, post unlimited songs for streaming/downloading/sale, post shows, sell tickets and track how the music is spreading.

Video and photo apps were on the list, too. VidyoTV Video saw 833,700 MAU this week; the apps posts videos to the stream when used, as well as allowing users to Share videos. Videoloji grew by 595,000 MAU; the apps creates feed stories by posting daily videos, as well as allowing Share and Like opportunities. My Photos publishes a different photo of you from your Facebook photos daily and grew by 305,000 MAU. Spot the Difference is a timed puzzle asking users to identify a number of differences in two identical photos and grew by 302,800 MAU.

Finally, there were some interesting quiz apps on the list. Quiz Taco grew by 395,900 MAU and follows the Badoo-esque Q&A format of asking users 25 questions of their friends, generating a feed story with each answer. Then there was the Chinese 大腦分析 (Analysis of Brain) which creates a photo album published to the stream and also gives users chances to publish feed stories. The Connect friend.ly app grew by 753,000 MAU this week, too.

Here are all the latest headlines from around Inside Network.

Inside Mobile Apps

Tracking the convergence of mobile apps, social platforms, and virtual goods.

Sunday, March 20th, 2011

• Snaptu Becomes Facebook’s Thrid Mobile Acquisition This Year

Monday, March 21st, 2011

• Outfit7′s Lila, Chicken Balls, and Tapper World Tour Mark Newer Titles Atop iOS Paid Charts
• Facebook Lets Users Check In to Events via the Touch Site, Soon the iPhone
• LiquidSpace Uses a Mobile-Only Strategy To Seed a Global Market for Working Space
• Nexon Brings KartRider Rush to iPhone
• Z2Live Becomes Yet Another Mobile Gaming Startup to Scoop Up More Venture Funding

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

• Angry Birds Rio for iOS: A Movie Promotion, and a Quality New Version of the Smash Hit
• Amazon’s Appstore Aims to Compensate For Android Marketplace’s Weaknesses
• Emerging Apps on The iOS Top Grossing List: Overkill, Angry Birds Rio & Everyday

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

• Fueling 1.5 Million App Downloads a Day, Tapjoy Pushes for Exclusivity With Publishing Program
• Emerging iOS Apps: Flowpaper, Sucker Punch Mech Gunner Break Into Top Free Charts
• A Spate of Mobile-Related Funding News: Yobongo, Flipboard & More
• Warner Bors. Sucker Punch on iPad Doesn’t Quite Throw A Mean One
• Amazon Appstore’s Window of Opportunity Around In App Payments

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

• New Hires in Mobile: EA Mobile, Gameloft, Halfbrick, & More
• Unique Art & Mechanics Mix with Ink Ball HD on iPad
• Android Marketplace’s In-App Billing Finally Out To Consumers Next Week

Friday, March 25th, 2011

• FarmVille Becomes iOS’ Second Highest-Grossing App on Farm Cash Sale
• AppDog Puts an Interesting Spin on Pay-Per-Install With Facebook Credits
• Mobile App Roundup: Music, Farms, Square Enix & More

Inside Social Games

Covering all the latest developments at the intersection of games and social platforms.

Monday, March 21st, 2011

• Digital Chocolate’s New Game Zombie Lane: Innovating Within the Facebook Sim Genre
• Fortune League: Fantasy Sports League, EverQuest2 Style
• Mafia Wars, Slotomania on This Week’s List of Fastest-Growing Facebook Games by MAU
• A Bit Lucky Puts Nexon’s $5 Million Toward New Games, on Facebook and Beyond

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

• MinoMonsters Brings Pokemon-Style Battling to Facebook
• Last Week to Pre-Order Inside Virtual Goods: Profiling the Social Gaming Middle Market 2011
• Welcome AJ Glasser — Inside Social Games’ New Lead Writer
• Amazon’s Appstore Aims to Compensate For Android Marketplace’s Weaknesses
• SocialVibe Nets $20 Million in Funding Following Success With Ads in Social Games

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

• Fueling 1.5 Million App Downloads a Day, Tapjoy Pushes for Exclusivity With Publishing Program
• Mafia Wars Promotion Places It On Top Of This Week’s List of Top Growing Games by DAU
• LOLApps Expands Ravenwood Fair, Plans New Title, Shutters Other Games
• Highlights This Week from the Inside Network Job Board: 6waves, NaturalMotion, & More

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

• New Hires in Social Gaming: Kabam, Happy Elements, LOLApps, & More
• Amazon Appstore’s Window of Opportunity Around In App Payments
• Deko-Deko Mail — A New Way To Play With What You Say
• Pokemon Clones Finding Users On Facebook

Friday, March 25th, 2011

• Wooga’s Diamond Dash Maeks a Mad Dash on This Week’s List of Emerging Facebook Games
• FarmVille Becomes iOS’ Second Highest-Grossing App on Farm Cash Sale
• Review: Fortune Stones — Match-3 for a new Decade
• Social Gaming Roundup: Rome, Television, Hackers, & More

Inside Facebook

Tracking Facebook and the Facebook platform for developers and marketers.

Monday, March 21st, 2011

• Snaptu Becomes Facebook’s Third Mobile Acquisition This Year
• Dating, Horoscopes, Video and Basketball on This Week’s Top 20 Facebook Apps by MAU
• Featured Facebook Campaigns: L’Oréal, Buick, Electronic Arts, Florida’s Natural Orange Juice and State Farm
• Facebook Lets Users Check In to Events via the Touch Site, Soon the iPhone
• Beetailer Lets Ecommerce Web Stores Easily Import Products to a Facebook Page Storefront
• Platform Updates: Platform Policy Checklist, App Request Notifications Lead to Apps, HTTPS for Page Tabs, Hack Europe

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

• Facebook Ecommerce Storefront Provider 8thBridge Takes $10 Million in Funding
• Last Week to Pre-Order Inside Virtual Goods: Profiling the Social Gaming Middle Market 2011
• Facebook Tests “Related Adverts” That Target Based On Status Update and Wall Posts Content
• The Like Button Style Guide: How to Pick the Design That’s Right for Your Website

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

• Horoscopes, Phrases, Video, Basketball and iPad on This Week’s Top 20 Facebook Apps by DAU
• Facebook Redesigns Friend Request Email Notifications to Fight Spam
• Highlights This Week from the Inside Network Job Board: Zynga, RealNetworks, & More
• Webtrends Apps’ New Conversion Funnel Tool Offers Some More Facebook Ad Tracking
• Spammers Can “Use Facebook as Page” to Like-Spam Posts and Comments

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

• Facebook Hires and Departures: Brazil, Data Centers, Mobile, Dublin and More
• Facebook Careers Postings: Mobile, Fraud, São Paulo, Austin, Asia And More
• Fontself Allows Facebook Users to Chat, With Fonts That Use Their Own Handwriting
• Facebook Redesigns Questions Product for Quick Polling and Recommendations

Friday, March 25th, 2011

• Basketball, Video, Mobile, Turkey and Promotions on This Week’s Top Emerging Facebook Apps
• How Pages Can Use the Relaunced Facebook Question Product
• Facebook Partners with Seedcamp to Incubate European Social Startups
• Facebook Hotkeys for the Home Page, Notifications, and Photos
• Facebook Roundup: New Offices, Pages, Domain Names, China, Pixazza, Underage Users, Breakup Notifier and More

Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg spoke to an audience of over 10,000 at Brigham Young University last night. The conversation, moderated by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), chair of the U.S. Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force, focused on why passion for one’s product is the defining characteristic of successful entrepreneurs.

The discussion, as Search Engine Land covers, also touched on Facebook’s potential for driving empathy and world peace, and the continuing shift towards openness in the privacy norms of the internet community.

Zuckerberg has spoken to several high profile audiences, including the Silicon Valley elite at Mountain View’s Computer History Museum, but never to such a large crowd. Hatch chose questions from about 450 submitted to the BYU Facebook Page, sticking to inquiries about Zuckerberg’s high level opinion rather than grilling him on specifics of Facebook’s product and policy choices.

Speaking about the type of climate that promotes innovation, Zuckerberg said “we believe there will be much better services for all the people who use Facebook if millions of people around the world can develop those services.” This ties to many of the company’s efforts to facilitate experimentation on the Platform, such as its Girls in Tech developer garage and college hackathons, and his own commitment to improving math, sciences, and technology education.

Though the company strives to remain agile and iterate quickly, Zuckerberg insisted that the social networking space could still be disrupted, “A good independent entrepreneur should always be able to do something better than a division of a company.”

Zuckerberg asked the Hatch about his views on the government’s role in fostering innovation. Hatch responded saying he though government should stay out of industry’s way. This falls in line with the recent White House-initiated Startup America program, which aims to inspire job growth by without issuing grants.

When asked how social media could influence important issues, Zuckerberg spoke about the evolving communication channel between businesses and their customers, and Facebook’s general ability to inform the world about governance issues. He didn’t cite specific examples of political discourse accelerated by social technology such as Egypt or Tunisia. Facebook recently came to agreement with the US government outlining how state and local agencies could disseminate information through Facebook.

He did mention a project called peace.facebook.com, launched in 2009, that visualizes friendship creation across geographic and religious boundaries, such as the number of friendships forged between Israelis and Palestinians. “Empathy is developing in the world between people who otherwise might not have had the ability to connect. In the long term that’s going to create more understanding between countries, more reasonable policies”, he said.

Regarding privacy, Facebook’s founder explained that “If you go back 10 years, people were very afraid of sharing anything on the Internet”, indicating that we are amidst a broad shift in norms towards openness, even if Facebook sometimes pushes people’s limit.

Finally, on what it takes to succeed, Zuckerberg said it was less dependent on technical skills, and more about passion and dedication, “If you don’t completely love and believe in what you’re doing, it becomes the rational thing to stop doing it.”

He said the company brings this philosophy to how it chooses who to hire. This confirms reports we’ve heard that it prefers to employ those who are sure they want to work at Facebook much more than anywhere else, rather than convince those who are on the fence between the social network and other companies. Underscoring the high emphasis put on talent in Silicon Valley, Zuckerberg said “The success of Facebook is really about the team we built.”

Overall, the crowd seemed receptive and excited, cheering loudly when Mark discussed dropping out of Harvard and donating to education. By accepting speaking invitations like this one, Zuckerberg can continue to use his amiable, informal demeanor to improve his public perception while learning more about what the general populace wants from the product, and alleviating fears about how Facebook treats user data.

[Image credit: Mark A. Philbrick, BYU)

New Facebook Offices to Open in Israel, Amsterdam – Facebook opened an office in Amsterdam this week and reportedly plans to open one in Hertzilya, Israel that could grow to about 30 employees by the end of the year.

Facebook Pursues 21 Domain Names – Facebook is fighting to own 21 domain names that include the word “Facebook,” such as FacebookSafety.com, TechCrunch reports.

Facebook Traffic Rerouted Through Chinese ISP – What is being called an “innocent” routing error resulted in Facebook data being sent through the state-owned China Telecom Tuesday, reported The Register.

Search Box Appears in Screenshots of Web Search Box – It appeared that Facebook was testing a second box at the top of its site specifically for web search, but Facebook later said that it was not a real test. [Image Via AllFacebook]

Elliot Schrage of Facebook Joins Pixazza Board – Facebook’s head of global communications, marketing and public policy Elliot Schrage has joined the board of photo tagging service Pixazza as a strategic advisor and observer.

20K Underage Users Removed from Facebook Daily – Facebook Chief Privacy Adviser Mozelle Thompson recently revealed that the company has mechanisms to detect those who lie about their age and removes about 20,000 of them daily.

Crowdflower Raises $7M - Crowdflower is an on-demand labor provider that takes tasks from companies with labor needs to crowdsource markets. TechCrunch reported this week that the startup raised $7 million in a round led by Harmony Partners that included Trinity Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners, bringing the company’s total funding to $12 million.

Facebook Cofounds Open Networking Foundation - In a Facebook Engineering Note, the company announced it would be co-founding the Open Networking Foundation, a non-profit which works on Software-Defined Networking.

The Saga of Breakup Notifier - Dan Loewenherz, the creator of the Facebook app Breakup Notifier, wrote a long post outlining the idea, implementation, creation, launch, problems, and re-launch of his popular app.

Suggest Page Feature Comes Back for Some - Facebook has brought back the Suggest Page feature for some Page administrators, but with a different look. Users do not have access to the tool. [Image Via AllFacebook]

Parature Updates For Spring – Parature has updated its cloud-based customer engagement software, releasing Parature Spring ’11. According to a press release, customers may now automatically receive auto-suggested answers while submitting tickets, a Support tab is now customizable for Pages, users may mange multiple Facebook Pages with one dashboard and analytics were also updated.

The Onion Spoofs Facebook, CIA – The Onion, a humor magazine and web site, spoofed Facebook and the CIA in a video that, among other things, notes that Facebook is the CIA’s “dream come true,” and comments on that fact that information available publicly on Facebook is better than information the CIA has been trying to gather for years on its own. The video also called CEO Mark Zuckerberg a CIA agent codenamed “The Overlord.”

Facebook users can navigate several areas of the site using hotkey keyboard shortcuts rather than a mouse. As part of the recently expanded rollout of the light box photo viewing design, Facebook showed prompts announcing some hotkeys. These join the existing set that allow for rapid browsing of a user’s home page, notifications, search bar, account and privacy settings, Help Center and a few other areas.

With users spending an average of 46 minutes a day on the site, these hotkeys, especially one for returning to the home page / news feed, could save users a lot of time.

Search, Home Page, Notifications, and Settings Hotkeys

Each internet browser and operating system combination uses a different modifier to activate the keywords.

• OS X with Chrome, Safari, and some other browsers: Ctrl + Option
• OS X with Firefox:  Ctrl + function
• Windows with Internet Explorer and Chrome: Alt
• Windows with Firefox: Alt + Shift

While holding down the appropriate modifier keys, you can hit the following keys to trigger the corresponding actions:

• ? – Move the cursor to the Facebook search bar
• m – Open the “New Message” composer pop-up
• 1 – Open the Facebook home page
• 2 – Open your profile page
• 3 – Open the Friend Requests drop-down menu
• 4 – Open the Messages drop-down menu
• 5 - Open the Notifications drop-down menu
• 6 – Open the My Account settings page
• 7 – Open the privacy settings page
• 8 – Open Facebook’s official Page
• 9 – Open Facebook’s Terms of Service
• 0 – Open the Facebook Help Center

Photo Browsing Hotkeys

While browsing photos in either the light box view or the standard view:

• Right arrow key – View next photo
• Left arrow key – View previous photo

While browsing photos in the light box view:

• Refresh (via mouse clicking your browser’s ‘Refresh’ button, Ctrl + r for Windows, or Command + r for OS X): View the same photo in standard view
• Esc – Close the light box view and return to the previous Facebook page you were viewing

The refresh trick can help users looking to save photos from Facebook, as users can’t drag and drop or right click to save photos from the light box view, but they can from the standard view.

Today at Facebook HACK: Berlin, Facebook announced that it has partnered with early stage micro seed investment and mentoring program Seedcamp to help European social startups build new social products. Facebook will become a platinum sponsor and offer Seedcamp startups product, design, and technical resources as well as priority access to beta features.

Facebook’s assistance will help incubate young European startups so they can create social websites, mobile apps, and Facebook apps, and potentially become Facebook acquisition targets.

The partnership with Seedcamp is similar to one Facebook struck in August with US-based startup incubator Y Combinator. Facebook started its own $10 million seed fund called fbFund in 2007, but ceased operations midway through last year.

Founded in 2007, the London-based Seedcamp offer a three-month mentorship program, two-week US roadshow, and a €50 thousand investment in exchange for an 8-10% minority stake. Startups apply and are vetted by a team of VCs and angel investors, and the winners enter the program.

Seedcamp’s blog says that many of their startups already use Facebook integrations, so the direct assistance from the social network’s team will help the entrepreneurs overcome development obstacles. Facebook will also become a platinum sponsor, helping to fund Seedcamp. It joins existing sponsors Google, PayPal, and Microsoft BizSpark.

Facebook has a relatively good investment history, with several fbFund recipients attaining some level of success, including Weardrobe, Networked Blogs, SamaSource, Kontagent and Nutshell Mail which was acquired by Constant Contact. With so much investment activity in Silicon Valley, Facebook is showing its commitment to the international development community through the Seedcamp partnership.

Developers interested in a chance to become a Seedcamp startup can apply for the April 14th Mini Seedcamp Berlin before March 27th.

The following is an excerpt from the Facebook Marketing Bible, the comprehensive guide to marketing your company, app, brand, or website using Facebook. The full version of this article, available through a Facebook Marketing Bible subscription, includes a walk-through for enabling Questions for your Page, a discussion of how you can track the performance of your Questions posts, how to choose between free-response and poll Questions, and explanations and sample Questions for all three core Question types: Pure fan engagement, market and competitive analysis Question, and product/Service feedback.

Yesterday, Facebook relaunched Facebook Questions. The question and answer product makes it easy for users to get recommendations from friends on things such as what camera to buy or what restaurant to visit. Facebook Page admins can also use Questions to gauge the opinions of their fans, which can help them optimize their marketing and product development plan, conduct market and competitive analysis, and engage fans in an inherently viral way.

Here we’ll discuss the viral potential of Questions, how Pages can derive the most worth from the product, explain why you should add Questions to your Page’s posting mix, and provide sample Questions.

Viral Reach of Questions

Asking for the opinion of fans through status updates has long been a solid Page posting strategy because it’s an easy way to engage them and generate lots of Likes and comments. However, these feedback mechanisms had little viral reach. By using the Questions product to ask for fan opinions, you can similarly engage them, but also receive more actionable data and much more exposure to the friends of your fans.

Questions appear in:

• In the news feeds of your fans as full stories
• On your Page’s wall as full stories
• In the news feeds of friends of anyone who answers as full stories
• On the wall of anyone who answers or comments on your Question as one-line activity stories

A link to your Page will appear in the “Asked by” section of the answer page, which viewers can hover over or click through in order to Like your Page.

All these stories and links combine to make Questions a large opportunity for Pages as a viral exposure channel. Each time a fan answers, they are actually reposting the question to their friends, driving Likes and awareness of your Page.

Asking Effective Questions

There are three core Question types:

• Pure fan engagement Questions
• Market and Competitive Analysis Questions
• Product/Service Feedback Questions

Product/Service Feedback Questions

These Questions let you determine the wants and needs of your fans. They serve as cheap, fast focus groups, allowing you to assess if your product or service roadmap is aligned with what your fans desire.

It can be a great way to get a large sample of opinions on what part of your product or service fans value most, and what new areas you can expand into. When users feel that their opinions are respected and integrated into your roadmap, they feel a sense of ownership of your brand, leading to a sense of loyalty.

Some examples of product/service feedback Questions include:

• Product/service expansion option Questions such as “What should be the next type of clothing should we carry?” for a clothing retailer, or “What international country should we tour in next?” asked by a musician.

To access the complete version of this article that includes additional sample Questions, explanations of the two remaining core Question types, and more about Question virality, visit the Facebook Marketing Bible, Inside Network’s complete guide to marketing and advertising on Facebook.

Basketball continued to be a big theme in our list of emerging Facebook applications this week by monthly active users, along with apps featuring videos, Facebook Page promotions, Facebook mobile, friends and Turkish clothing stores.

The list of top 20 emerging apps was compiled based on AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook and covers apps that grew the most in the past week, ending at between 100,000 and 1 million monthly active users.

Top Gainers This Week

	Name	MAU	Gain	Gain,%
1.	Diamond Dash	381,803	+340,669	+828%
2.	CBSSports.com Brackets	483,213	+237,428	+97%
3.	NBA Legend: Official NBA Game	675,805	+227,006	+51%
4.	Galaxy Online II – Most Competitive Strategy Game	917,765	+206,659	+29%
5.	Bracket Challenge by Citizen Sports	480,468	+204,048	+74%
6.	ESPN	557,128	+197,577	+55%
7.	Dragon Age Legends	382,690	+178,259	+87%
8.	Easypromos	549,407	+142,051	+35%
9.	Happy Kingdom	385,149	+134,271	+54%
10.	Townster	592,852	+131,879	+29%
11.	Sınırsız Video	276,982	+129,397	+88%
12.	Pirates Saga	908,316	+127,707	+16%
13.	friend.ly	272,354	+123,747	+83%
14.	101 Oyna (KAMERALI)	620,010	+120,257	+24%
15.	英雄遠征-開心農場	965,959	+118,825	+14%
16.	Friends Ranking	556,709	+108,971	+24%
17.	Facebook by Snaptu	479,303	+104,311	+28%
18.	Mutlu Panço	201,692	+102,779	+104%
19.	Treasure Land	171,320	+102,717	+150%
20.	Video75 Video Ara	889,857	+94,861	+12%

March Madness continues to influence growing Facebook apps this week with CBSSports.com Brackets growing by 237,400 MAU, NBA Legend: Official NBA Game growing by 227,000 and Bracket Challenge by Citizen Sports by 204,000. Each of these includes some viral news feed element to its use. Finally, ESPN’s Connect application saw 197,600 MAU this week.

Easypromos was an interesting application, too, with 142,100 MAU. The app allows users to add custom promotions to their Facebook Pages with a limited time offer to do so for free for one month. Easypromos offers tiered service plans after that.

Sınırsız Video was one among several Turkish applications this week. Sınırsız Video grew by 129,400 MAU by allowing users to view, share and Like videos. Then there was Video75 Video Ara with 94,900 MAU, which was very similar. Then there was an interesting retail application that appeared to be some sort of sweepstakes for Mutlu Panço, which appeared to be a high-end Turkish children’s clothing store. The Page mentions that the company has more than 70 retail stores in Turkey. The app grew by 102,800 MAU and generates a feed story when you use it.

Other apps this week included the friend.ly Facebook Connect application with 123,700 MAU, Friends Ranking with 109,000 MAU, which allows users to rank the attractiveness of their friends and the mobile Facebook by Snaptu app with 104,300 MAU.

Facebook has overhauled the design of its questions and answers product Questions, refocusing it on quickly polling friends and getting recommendations instead of seeking long-form answers and following topics. Questions is now more lightweight, viral and a more seamless part of the Facebook experience that will appeal to a wide audience, rather than a niche destination.

The new Questions product becomes available today to the beta tester group who had access to the old product as well as to anyone who’s specifically asked a question, and those who opt in at www.facebook.com/questions. Questions will initially be available to English language users, but will roll out internationally over the next few weeks.

Facebook originally launched the old Questions product to a very small percentage of the total user base in July, as low as 0.05% or 250,000 users. However, the interface was heavy and buggy, asking users answer in well-cited paragraphs. It didn’t gain sufficient traction.

The project manager Adrian Graham says the new Questions product is modeled after the way people ask questions in the real world. Instead of being public, a question is visible only to the friends of those who asked or answered it. There are no privacy controls or ways to ask private questions, but Graham says users have private messages and privacy-controlled status updates for asking questions to limited audience.

Going forward, Questions will concentrate on helping users get recommendations and opinions such as “What’s your favorite restaurant in San Francisco?” or “What album are listening to most right now?” instead of more factual information such as “What is quantum entanglement?” or “Where does Facebook have ad sales offices?”

The most innovative changes to the product include the ability to easily give recommendations of things represented by a Facebook Page or Place through a type-ahead, and the option to endorse an existing answer, making it one’s own rather than upvoting.

How Questions Works?

Users ask Questions from a tab in the news feed publisher. The Question is published to a user’s stream and any of their friends can view it. Questions can be made free-response, pre-set answer choices can be provided in poll format, and users can enable others to add answer choices. Users also have the option to ask a specific friend, generating a notification leading back to the question.

When a friend clicks on a news feed story about a Question, a pop-up appears allowing them to answer without losing their place in the feed. Instead of upvoting or downvoting answers, users either provide a new answer or endorse an existing one. Typing in a new poll choice opens a type-ahead drop-down menu of matching Pages and Places. Once answered, their friends can see and answer the question as well.

At the top of the answer page for polls, an answer summary appears, ranking answers by those with the most endorsements by friends. A blue bar on each answer represents how often it was endorsed by a combination of friends and non-friends. For free-response, users see a list of answers by friends by default, but can switch to a non-friends tab.

Users are notified when friends answer their Questions, or of any answers if they’ve selected to follow the Question. There are no options to manage Questions notifications. Users will retain access to their content from the old Questions product.

Questions will not appear on Pages that happen to be answer choices, and there will be no Insights analytics for the product, limiting its potential as a marketing tool. Pages may ask questions of their fans via the news feed, and answer questions, leading them to appear on their wall.

Opinions Over Facts

From watching users interact with the old product, Facebook learned that users more often asked for the opinions and recommendations of friends than a scientific answer. It also saw that users wanted to be able to answer questions without necessarily writing anything. The redesign facilitates these use cases with added emphasis on friends as a question’s audience, facepile answer summaries that rank based only on responses of friends, and endorsements.

Users were already asking for opinions and recommendations via status updates, but Questions provides more structure and promotes participation. The redesign brings Questions back within the core functionality of Facebook, rather tacking it on as a stodgy, high-minded knowledge base.

Services like Quora are already providing factual questions and answer sites for the small audience who need them. Facebook has made an intelligent product pivot (which we suggested last May), addressing the much larger need for a mainstream casual, social questions and answers experience, but with authenticated identity to preserve quality. By refocusing Questions, Facebook can return to solving a big problem while allowing smaller players to serve the niches.