hotlou

New Type of Facebook News Feed Story

Posted on 27. Jul, 2010 by hotlou in Ultimate, Work

Aggregate View of Link Sharing

I spotted a new type of news feed story tonight on Facebook.  Check it out in the image to the right:

What you’re seeing here is an aggregate view of the same ESPN link of an Ultimate Highlight that was shared by several of my connections.

Genius.

A URL is such an easy vector to assemble comments on and so obvious, it’s amazing we’ve not seen it before.  To see the comments in a single story transcends the value of my news feed beyond what’s going on with my connections. It now clearly broadcasts what’s trending among my connections.

If you’re like me, your interest level in Twitter’s trending topics has inversely correlated with Justin Bieber’s rising presence and you have nothing to gain from or offer to TTs like #urthugif.   Last summer’s 140 character tributes to Patrick Swayze, Billy Mays, Ed McMahon, and of course Michael Jackson brought some unexpected humanity to the often sterile world of tweeting.  But it vanished soon after with the aforementioned trending topic types became increasingly pervasive.  And, truth be told, another dose of sterilization probably wouldn’t hurt.

For months now, the shift in trending topic types has had me questioning the personal value the topics really had, if any.

But if the trending topics were sourced from your friends? Now THAT could get fun.

Of course, the ingenious likebutton.me by Zach Allia comes terrifically close. But what I see coming here, is the trending topics of your friends being grouped in the news feed.

Take a second to imagine what your news feed would have looked like if it had grouped all the mentions of, for example, Michael Jackson on the day of his death.  How much more connected would you have felt with your friends? How much more would have you interacted in the form of likes and comments?