The Jelly smartphone app, backed by Biz Stone who was part of the team that created Twitter in 2006, lets users submit questions to the network of friends that they have on social services such as Twitter or Facebook.
Users can send a text query or circle something in a photo they've taken to ask for help identifying the object or for more information about it.
"Everyone is mobile, everyone is connected. So if you have a question, there's somebody out there that knows the answer," said Stone, CEO and co-founder of Jelly in a video on the company's website.
Stone left Twitter in June 2011. Among the backers of the new company are Twitter co-founders Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams, venture capital investor Reid Hoffman, as well as U2 frontman Bono and former Vice President of the United States Al Gore.
A number of other services including Quora, founded by former Facebook employees, Ask.com and Yahoo's Answers...