Formspring Adds Photo Support To Its Q&A Service

Today, Formspring is adding support for photos to its Q&A service in an update the company is touting as the biggest in the nearly two years since its launch. With the addition, Formspring users will be able to post a photo both when asking a question or when providing a response.

The new feature comes on the heels of several other rollouts for the company, including its official iPhone application launched two weeks ago, and other new sharing features involving profile pictures.

Upon arrival, the iPhone app also included support for posting photos with questions, but that same feature was not available to Formspring’s online users. With today’s revamp, all of the company’s 26+ million users can post photos, whether they’re mobile or not.

To use the feature, you can opt to upload photos from your computer or you can access your PC’s webcam to take a new picture.

It’s a minor but much-needed addition for a site that’s now competing with the likes of Quora, not to mention the pageview-generating giant that is Tumblr. Both Quora and Tumblr support photos (and have for some time), but in slightly differently ways than Formspring.

Quora lets you enhance questions and answers with photos, but discourages the use of photos solely as a way to add “visual interest” to your items. Meanwhile, Tumblr supports photos in questions, through its “Ask Me Anything” feature, but not in answers. It does, however, offer optional “photo replies” for blog posts.

Formspring says the new feature will rollout today, sometime after 10:15 AM PST.