Facebook is testing out a negative sentiment analysis feature for its recently upgraded Page Insights product. When page administrators - who are in the test pool - click on the "engaged users" metric, they'll currently see the number of Facebook users who commented negatively in response to a brand post.
First reported by Wise Metrics' blog, ClickZ News confirmed the test status of the feature. An email we received today from Palo Alto, CA-based Facebook read, "What you're seeing on that blog is a test - Facebook is constantly running tests to improve the way the site runs and functions, but we don't have anything else to share at this time."
The test seems to represent a shift from Facebook's perspective. When asked about negative sentiment analysis in October, David Baser, a product manager for the digital giant, told ClickZ News, "When we've researched this, we have found the vast, vast majority of content is positive. So we don't believe today there is any need for us to get into sentiment analysis products."