Social network Facebook has launched a new question and answer service, according to various online news providers. 

Facebook Questions, launched yesterday, will allow users to draw on Facebook’s 500 million-strong user base for help finding answers to common queries. The service is also seen as Facebook’s first real step into the search market.

The Telegraph report that the new Questions feature will appear alongside the ‘update status’ bar on a user’s wall, with questions automatically made public to all other Facebook users.

Users can still make questions private, but only if they are posted as regular status updates. There is also an option for attaching photos and polls to new questions.

According to BBC News, use of the beta service is limited to just a select group of Facebook users for the time being. However, the Questions feature is likely to become available on a wider scale as the service continues to develop.

Blake Ross, director or project management at Facebook, unveiled the new service yesterday on the company blog. He wrote: Today we’re introducing Facebook Questions, a beta product that lets you pose questions to the Facebook community.”

“With this new application, you can get a broader set of answers and learn valuable information from people knowledgeable on a range of topics.”

The long-term success of the Question service is difficult to predict. However, the New York Times comment that Facebook are keen to tap into the question and answer potential that is being effectively exploited by rivals such as Twitter and Yahoo! Answers.