The Facebook Trending news section you usually see in the right column is going to be removed soon. Facebook plans to add new tools to find news.
The company wants to invest in new tools to deliver the news from trustworthy sources.
By Lenyon Whitaker, Metro
The Facebook Trending news section users check to see what some of
the hot topics are for the day will be removed soon to make room for new
tools for users to consume news on the social network according to a
Facebook.
Facebook announced Friday that it plans to remove the Trending news section as early as next week.
The trending news section was introduced in 2014 as a way for users
to discover news topics and keep up with news headline and what’s in the
news without necessarily leaving the Facebook site right away.
According to Facebook, the tool is not as helpful as it was when it was
first introduced.
"From research, we found that over time people found the product to
be less and less useful," Alex Hardiman, head of new products said in an announcement.
Perhaps the tool began to lose its credibility after The Washington Post conducted an investigation about how Facebook chooses what stories users get to see on the right column of the site.
Facebook notes that the Trending section was only available in five
countries and according to its research, news publishers received less
than 1.5 percent of web traffic from the Facebook Trending news tool.
In addition to removing the Facebook Trending news section, the
company plans to remove related products and third-party partner
integrations that use data from the Facebook Trending news section on
the Trends API.
Facebook is recognizing people consume news on mobile devices and
through news video and the company says it is looking into new ways to
help people follow breaking news and will work with trusted news sources
to give users new ways to discover news on Facebook.
Facebook Trending news section is gone. What’s next?
Facebook is testing new tools to show display news headlines to
users. The company says it is working with 80 publishers in North
America, South America, Europe, India and Australia to put a breaking
news indicator on posts that show up in the Facebook News Feed. You may
have noticed a little red icon for some news publishers already.
The social network is also introducing a new feature called Today In
that is more focused on local news. With Today In, there will be a
dedicated feed for local news publishers, government agencies and other
organizations in specific areas.
In the Facebook Watch video section, the company has plans to allow
users to stay up-to-date with breaking news videos and other news
videos.
"People tell us they want to stay informed about what is happening
around them," Hardiman said. "We are committed to ensuring the news that
people see on Facebook is high quality, and we’re investing in ways to
better draw attention to breaking news when it matters most."
COMMENTS