Facebook is launching a new search option that allows users to search their friends to find out who is single. At the same time, the new "Ask" feature also gives the option of asking them "what's up?" While the new concept does have a number of naysayers, including those who argue that it could lead to online harassment, overall it is just a new tidbit from the social network.
It is a continuation of the Silicon Valley company's continued play into the "relationship" concept, where already users on Facebook can tell others their current "status." This was, in many ways, a major aspect of Facebook that allowed it to grow rapidly early on. Today, learning who among your friends is not in a relationship is that much easier.
While the feature has been making the rounds internationally and here in the United States, it has yet, until now, become a common feature that all Facebook users could use.
Dateless on a Friday evening? Facebook believes this new search tool will help you reach out to other single folks. According to Facebook, similar buttons and search tools looking at relationship statuses have been in existence for some time and this is the way Facebook is integrating the idea into their own platforms.
"This feature provides an easy way for friends to ask you for information that's not already on your profile," Facebook spokeswoman MoMo Zhou told reporters.
"For example, a friend could ask where you work or for your hometown. If you choose to answer, this information is then added to your profile. By default, only you and your friend can see it, and you also have the option of sharing it with others, too."
With well over half of all Americans believing that online dating is a positive thing, according to recent Pew Research Center information, the idea that users can simply ask their "friends" whether they are single and would like to go out for a drink or coffee could be the next move for Facebook into becoming all-encompassing on a number of levels.
With some 70 percent of Americans who are regularly online using the social network, Facebook sees this as an opportunity to continue to expand and deliver newer, updated, apps and services that third-party resources have been doing.
