A closer look at... Facebook Trending

Facebook introduced a trending feature to the homepage earlier this year, and was introduced in several countries including the U.S., U.K. and Canada.

It appears to the right of the main news feed and displays links to trending topics in areas like entertainment, sports and news.

It’s meant to highlight topics that are being talked about on Facebook or that appeal to a particular user.

Trending shows you the popular topics and hashtags that are being talked about on Facebook. You'll see stories from people and pages that have been shared with you or have been shared as public.

From the right side of your homepage, click a topic that's trending to see what people are saying about it.

Some users are sharply criticising the feature, arguing that it’s annoying, not relevant to them, and too focused on celebrity gossip. Large Internet companies like Facebook tweak their services all the time, and with so many members it’s not surprising that not everyone embraces the changes.

Trending is Facebook’s way of leveraging the tons of information users offer up every day and making conversations more easily searchable.

The list of trending stories is personalised, including topics based on things you’re interested in and what is trending across Facebook overall. Each topic is accompanied by a headline that briefly explains why it is trending.

Topics cannot be sponsored or promoted “at this time”, according to Facebook. Give it time, I’m sure.

The feature hasn’t been released in New Zealand yet, but it will be interesting to see if New Zealand users like the feature. Twitter isn’t as widely used here as it is in the U.S., so I don’t believe that users will think it’s this amazing new thing.

They’ll probably just think it’s annoying. Unfortunately, once it’s up and running, it can’t be switched off. Just another new Facebook feature that you have to put u with until you’re used to it.