As if having family members drill you about your relationship status wasn't annoying enough, now the kid you sat next to in third grade can ask borderline invasive questions, too!
Facebook has been rolling out a new "Ask" feature that lets you quiz your friends about personal details they have not added to their profile. That includes things like high school, hometown, and current city. But it also applies to relationship status.
On the profiles of friends who have not filled out their profile completely, for example, you might see an "Ask" button next to Relationship status. Click that, and a pop-up window says "Let Chloe know why you're asking for her relationship status." You can fill that out and send your request, or hit Cancel (if you know what's good for you).
Facebook told Ars Technica that the Ask button has been rolling out to profiles since January. ReadWrite reported on the rollout of a request option earlier this year, though it seemed to focus more on contact information rather than more private details like relationship status.
Late last year, Facebook senior engineer Lars Backstrom and Cornell University computer scientist Jon Kleinberg created an algorithm that not only identifies a user's real-life romantic partner, but can also determine the likelihood of their impending breakup.
Facebook, however, said it had current plans to implement these findings into its social network, though. According to a spokeswoman, "The specific findings from this study are not currently being used in making News Feed a better product. It has helped the team think about things and informed some of the features we use in ranking."
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