“Ask Friends a Question” in Orkut reminds me of “Yahoo Answers”. Supposedly the idea is derived from “LinkedIn answers”, and you can now ask questions to your friends on Orkut.
When you ask a question, Google automatically suggests relevant categories based on the keywords/text of your question. The code Mobius is used for this first application on Orkut platform.
For example: I asked “Anyone interested in guest blogging?”
And the suggestion I got was ” Blogging Resources and Services“.
“Ask friends” for Orkut users would mean:
Relevant questions.
Relevant answers.
Common questions.
Common answers.
Trust and reliability.
“Ask Friends” for Orkut (or Google) would mean:
More searches
More ads
If you find this a cool feature, go to Edit Feeds, add Ask Friend’s application, navigate to Mobius and fire. You also have the choice to ask “Among Friends” or “Individual Friends you choose”.
Your approach is just one of the ways of using LinkedIn Answers.
I have found another additional and interesting approach to LinkedIn Answers.
Every couple of weeks I ask a question about a specific technique in how people become successful. I call them Zale’s Success Stories. I a have asked over 40 questions. I get between 20 and 70 answers each time.
Questions have included Time Management, Positive Mental Attitude, Coaching, etc.
And of course one on how LinkedIn helps people succeed.
The stories can be found at
http://www.zaletabakman.ca/stories/
I also have a LinkedIn group where I update the people when a new question has been posted in LinkedIn Answers. At the same time I update them with stories that have been posted.
Take Care
Zale
http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/ZaleTabakman <- An invite to me adds 1,600,000 people to your linkedin network
http://www.ZaleTabakman.ca