Facebook has unveiled the next step in its plan to rival Twitter as a news aggregator, beefing up its trending capability.
At the start of the year Facebook introduced Trending in a move which was viewed as Facebook trying to catch up to Twitter as an established news player.
Now Facebook is bringing Trending to mobile and adding further search capability which it promises will make it easier to explore stories from different points of view.
When people tap on a topic in trending, they will get to see five different sections.
These include “articles” to access what news organisations are writing about it; “In the Story” showing you what people in the story are posting about the topic; “Friends and Groups” to show you what your friends are saying about it; “Near the Scene” to show posts from near where the story is unfolding; and a live feed.
The change is being rolled out in the US to android and desktop users, with international and iOS users to see the upgrade “soon”.
The change to Facebook's trending capability comes on the back of the social network making it easier to search for previously posted content.
Whereas before, if you wanted to find a funny video posted on your friend's wall a month ago, you had to trawl through their timeline to find it.
Now, Facebook says users will be able to search for content without the epochs spent scrolling through a friend's wall.
The move could have implications for content marketers who aim to create viral content by giving that content a longer tail. For example, if that content is shared on a Facebook wall, then it could be theoretically easier to find that content in the future rather than being lost after a week.
For more news:
What did we talk about on Facebook?
Social commerce is coming: are you coming?
Facebook brings ad preferences to Australia
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