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(image source: AllFacebook)
BY EVAN THOMAS
Facebook is taking a page out of Twitter's playbook.
The Wall Street Journal reports Facebook is experimenting with a trending news segment
in its web-based newsfeed. The list of current hot topics, which Facebook deployed on Thursday,
is reportedly collected from public Facebook mentions, headlines and hashtags. (Via The
Wall Street Journal)
So, yes, it serves the same function as Twitter's trending topics. But PCMag says the new feature
can't get data from Facebook's private or limited profiles, which could make it less
effective.
"As a result, Facebook's search efforts have been a mixed bag, because the results only
tap into those whose security settings permit it. Still, Facebook has 1.1 billion monthly
active users to Twitter's approximately 115 million..." (via PCMag)
Facebook's trends first appeared back in early August in a limited test on mobile devices.
Softpedia suggested Facebook intended to see the feature through to its desktop client,
because "Facebook doesn't test things that it doesn't want to expand to full features."
(via Softpedia)
And more prophetic words — when mobile trends started earlier this month, a CNBC analyst
predicted Facebook would generate momentum from its user base, even if a good chunk of
it was hidden behind privacy settings.
"...it's all the public conversation. Facebook, more about private conversation. So with trending
topics, it's sort of trying to harness the power of the public conversation that's happening
on Facebook to try to drive more public conversation..." (via CNBC)
But not all at once. Facebook is approaching this rollout the same way it did mobile trends.
"We are running a small test of a unit on News Feed," a Facebook spokesperson said.
"Right now it only available to a small percentage of US users and it is still in the early stages
of development." (via Facebook)
So you'll probably have to wait to test it out. There's always Twitter in the meantime.