Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is going through an experimental stage as it tests a ‘new’ feature that shows you the status updates you may have not seen. Mashable recently encountered a box on the Android app version of Facebook labeled as “What friends are talking about” and posted the report on their page. The special section is located on the top of your feeds and it shows the posts of some of your friends. It is meant to let the users know what their closest friends are discussing. This feature should also encourage the users to comment on each other’s posts more. It is still in the beta stage so only a few users have access to it for now.
The latest addition to Facebook features is actually not a new one. Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) already enables their users to see what their closest friends are saying online. Twitter employs algorithms to focus on certain active user posts. It allows users to see what other people they commonly interact with are talking about or sharing online with the public.
Facebook has also been trying other things to keep its user base interested. The company aims to continue its stature as the best social media network in the world by keeping its members online. The more a user accesses his or her account, the higher chances of Facebook increasing its revenue stream. This also helps the company to get more businesses to register for paid advertisements.
Last June, Facebook also underwent an experimental stage giving access to a small group of users. These people were the first to see the Trending feature prototype. Its final version was released only a week ago. Facebook has yet to release an official announcement regarding this new test feature.
During the past few months, Facebook has been trying to introduce changes to the News Feed. One change it is looking to implement soon is how the users will have more access to the status updates they actually want. An angle Facebook is looking at is by placing posts that the user will find most interesting on the top of the feeds. This can be made possible by following the activities of the user online.
The “What friends are talking about” feature will list down the posts of your friends. It will identify how many comments the content received from other users. It will measure almost the same size as an image post so it would be hard to miss.
Last summer, Facebook announced that it plans to give more attention to personal posts than content by businesses. This means users will get to see more posts from friends and family members rather than the annoying ads and promos. The Menlo Park, California-based social network has yet to confirm if this is part of that strategy, but it certainly encourages its users to interact with each other more.
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