As Facebook continues its quest to provide its users with more value, a few big changes to its news feed are being tested that could change the face of the feed as we know it.
While the standard news feed would remain the default, users of the mobile app could soon have the ability to easily switch to sections such as “Sports”, “World & US News”, and “Food” at the bottom of the feed. Users can access these sections by tapping them or swiping left or right, which will update their news feed to correspond to their selected topic.
Those who have seen the test in action report to Mashable that the feed includes posts from friends with links to outside articles and content from pages the user is not currently following. In addition, users can edit the feeds they’d like to see, eliminating categories that don’t interest them and including other specialized topics that aren’t normally of interest to the general population.
In a statement, Facebook said: “People have told us they’d like options to see more stories on Facebook around specific topics they’re interested in.”
“So we have been testing a few feeds for people to view more and different stories from people and Pages based on topic areas.”
Recent reports indicate that Facebook has noted a big drop in the number of posts about everyday life and a jump in those that link to other sites. The social giant has said that it wants users to make more posts about themselves, so the emphasis on revamping the News Feed is a bit of a curious move.
However, this overhaul could go a long way toward getting users to stay on Facebook for their news instead of heading to other platforms like Google News or Twitter.
Marketplace also getting an update
In addition, Facebook is expected to roll out an updated Marketplace tab in some versions of its mobile app. This would allow people to quickly post pictures of items they are selling to people around them.
In a feature that aims to give Craigslist a run for its money, users can enter their zip code and the distance they are willing to travel to find a list of nearby items they can purchase and then puts them into contact with the seller.
