Back in 2014, Facebook introduced the ‘Trending’ feature to help people discover news topics that were relevant and popular across the social network. Since the feature has only been available in five countries and has accounted for less than 1.5% of clicks to news publishers since then, the company has decided to remove it all together.
We’re removing Trending soon to make way for future news experiences on Facebook.
From research we found that over time people found the product to be less and less useful. We will remove Trending from Facebook next week and we will also remove products and third-party partner integrations that rely on the Trends API.
Facebook says it is now developing new ways to help people stay informed about timely, breaking news that matters to them, while making sure the news they see is from trustworthy and quality sources.
The social networking giant says it is testing a new ‘Breaking News Label’ with 80 publishers across North America, South America, Europe, India and Australia lets publishers put a “breaking news” indicator on their posts in News Feed.
An upcoming new ‘Today in’ section will connect people to the latest breaking and important news from local publishers in their city, while a dedicated ‘News Video in Watch’ section will allow people to watch live coverage and daily news briefings on Facebook.
Facebook has however not yet shared when the new features will go live.
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