January 17, 2013: Facebook in its effort to boost up user base has added a new feature “trending topics” like Twitter. 1.2 billion users of Facebook based in UK, Canada, Australia, US and India in the coming weeks would be able to see a list of trending topics on the right side of their Facebook pages. In the beginning only users from these countries will be able to see this feature and later on it will be available on more countries.
The new “trending topics” feature would be available only on the desktop version and for the time being it will not be allowed on the mobile version. The company is trying to address this by testing this feature on its app as most of the users are now accessing Facebook on smartphones and tablets. Facebook trending section will explain about why a topic is trending unlike Twitter which simply lists the topics.
Facebook according to sources is trying out this new feature as part of its game plan of making the social networking site a “personal newspaper”. In the future Facebook plans to integrate news feeds as well rather than remain as a mere social networking site.
