Facebook tests news feed sorted by topics in Australia
In Australia, Facebook is testing a new version of the news feed.
On Friday, a large number of users noticed a selection of topics at the top of their news feed on both the desktop version of the site and its mobile app. Facebook had kindly put an instructional alert stating: "There's a new way to see a stream of stories that focus on a specific topic."
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Facebook will initially serve users some default topics such as Animals & Pets, Politics, Travel, TV & Movies and Relationships. These default topics vary for different accounts. By clicking on the settings icon to the right of the topics, you can add and remove topics to suit your interests.
On selecting a new topic to add, Facebook prompts the user to select niche content sub-topics within the overall topic. For example, under Animals & Pets, it asks: "Which Animals & Pets are your favorites?" The user can select sub-topics such as "amazing animals," "animal facts" and "animal rights."
In an initial test, it appears content from pages that have not been liked by the user also appear under these topic sections. It includes stories from friends, friends of friends and public content from people and Pages.
Although it sorts the news into topics, it also makes it more difficult to get to the content you want to read by adding an extra click. Though it could also be beneficial to a user as it filters content down to specific areas of interest. A spokesperson for Facebook clarified to Mashable this new layout does not remove any content from the news feed.
Topics have now been assigned by Facebook to each piece of content posted by a brand. It is unclear if a brand will be able to edit the topic assigned by Facebook.
It is already difficult for brands to get their content in front of the Facebook audience as they are at the mercy of The Algorithm. This new move by Facebook will no doubt make this job even more difficult.
Facebook has been testing this strange, broken-up news feed for some time now. It was first spotted on the desktop version in October and the mobile version in December. In April, the news feed was being tested on Android devices.
"People have told us they’d like options to see more stories on Facebook around specific topics they’re interested in," a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable via email. "So we have been testing a few feeds for people to view more and different stories from people and Pages based on topic areas."
This is the first time it has been noticed across a whole region.
UPDATE: May 28, 2016, 2:16 p.m. AEST Facebook's statement and clarification added.
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Topics Facebook Social Media
Jenni Ryall is Mashable's VP of Content Strategy. She spends her time launching cool, new things such as Mashable Deals and Mashable Reels. On the other days, she is developing strong partnerships with companies including Apple News, Flipboard, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.
