Dive Brief:
- Facebook is expanding its Trending feature—previously restricted to desktop—to mobile version of the platform.
- Trending was created to help Facebook's efforts to become a place where users come to find out about real-time news topics, a war that Twitter has long been winning.
- In addition to the expansion to mobile, Facebook is now splitting news into five categories or angles to the story: Articles, In The Story, Friends and Groups, Near The Scene, and Live Feed.
Dive Insight:
Facebook's efforts to become a real-time news site continue to be dwarf by the natural faster pace of Twitter. The social giant does have an advantage in the sheer numbers of users, after all, people are posting those stories to Facebook. The sections are an interesting twist for news discovery, but only time will tell if it will trump the as-it-happens nature of Twitter.
