Facebook nixes Trending section to prep for 'future news experiences'
These include the breaking news label, a local news section and the Watch tab.
Today, Facebook announced that it is getting rid of the Trending section on its social network. That doesn't mean that the focus is moving away from news, though. In a release, the company said that the feature would be removed to "make way for future news experiences on Facebook." Those features include the new breaking news label, a "Today In" feature that's currently in testing and news videos in the Watch tab.
The Trending feature was first introduced in 2014, but it wasn't overly popular. It was only available in five countries, and accounted for a very low number of clicks to news stories (around 1.5 percent). Over time, the number of clicks has decreased, which means people are finding it less and less useful. It's not a surprise; after all, Facebook ditched human editors for trending topics back in 2016.
One of the company's main goals in 2018 is to ensure that users see high quality news on Facebook. Both the breaking news tag and "Today In" (which is a dedicated section currently being tested in 33 US cities that allows users to look at what's trending locally) are seeing increased engagement from users, according to Facebook.
