Facebook was beta testing a new app called Facebook Questions last week. For people who are beta testing it, the Questions feature appears in the left-hand column just below Events and Photos. This app allows you to ask and answer questions to and from your extended circle of friends.

Now, Facebook has opened up the private beta further and is now accepting applications for anyone who wants to enter the beta. “Help us build the future of Facebook,” reads the title of the page.

It puts the Questions product on par with Photos and Events.

As a beta tester, your job will be to ask great questions and provide great answers about your favorite topics. Economics? Skydiving? Relationships? Mexican Restaurants? It’s up to you. You’ll be the first person outside of Facebook to use this product. Your expert writing will be seen by tens of millions of people — including job recruiters. And we’ll bring our best beta testers out to California to tour Facebook headquarters and meet the team.

All you have to do to become a beta tester is submit three sample questions.

With Facebook Questions, Facebook is about to take on Yahoo Answers, Google (recently acquired Aardvark), LinkedIn (reference to job recruiters), and Quora.  Why does Facebook need to get into Q&A? Q&A sites can drive massive pageviews and Facebook cannot ignore it anymore. People are already using Facebook informally to ask questions. Facebook Questions wants to get all the questions and answers in one place.