Facebook is already working on a new Facebook News Tab Feature for its mobile app, the company has now started hiring journalists to select and curate the news stories and content for its News Tab section, the company is expected to start testing the feature later this year.
Facebook is seemingly talking a little different than Google’s approach to news, the news content curated from various news websites will show in the tab algorithmically, the most of the news stories will show up this way, however, the top stories will be selected by a small team of veteran journalists according to NY Times.
The news tab will be separate from the main Facebook’s news feed tab.
Facebook has previously failed in developing a strong news platform where users can read timely stories, the trending topics section was often bombarded with older stories and of little relevance most of the time, and more importantly, the algorithm also promoted false and misleading stories previously according to Verge. Facebook was also blamed for curating news from the same publications over and over again favoring some specific publishers and overlooking the content that worth taking a look at, the curators/contractors hired by Facebook previously were biased towards many news sources. Facebook dropped its trending topics section last year and now the company is mulling to take the flight again.
What is New Now?
Facebook is taking a different approach towards news this time, it could be harder if it wants to compete with Google News but the different strategy could play a significant role in reshaping Facebook News, Facebook said earlier that it is willing to pay millions to the publishers to keep its News section attractive.
The company has also hired full-time journalists rather than relying on contractors for top stories section, this could also benefit Facebook for promoting the stories that are worth reading.
Facebook Paid People To Listen To Audio Messages
According to Digiday Facebook is not even nearing the efforts done by Apple for its News feature, Apple previously hired 30 full-time employees for its news section and its team spread from Sydney to New York, Where Facebook only starting from the U.S. with one journalist in the UK. Facebook will start testing its News feature in October in the United States.
The Catch
When it comes to comparing Google News with others, Facebook and Apple seem far behind this legacy, Google’s News section is mainly powered by time and search, the top stories section is also powered mainly by search, time, social popularity and user’s interest. Journalists sitting behind the top stories and selecting to show users what they wish to see is a pretty difficult job to do, there are still so many complications in creating the best top stories section for Facebook. Let’s see how far Facebook can go with this new approach.
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