Facebook to add 'Trending' section next to News Feed

Facebook again seems to be taking a cue from Twitter by launching a personalized "Trending" section next to the News Feed that will allow people to browse phrases, words and topics creating a buzz across the social network.

The service wil be available to users in the U.S., U.K., Canada, India and Australia and will show personalized lists with trending phrases or words. On clicking one of the links users will be redirected to a page which highlights which users, pages and posts have mentioned the phrase or word.

Facebook is hoping users will find this collection of trending topics useful and increase return traffic and sharing of posts and articles, thereby making Facebook a go-to source for current events, something Twitter has been better at in the last few years.

The trending topics will be rolling out over the next few weeks, and the move follows Facebook's adoption of hashtags, also popularized on Twitter. Facebook seems to be trying to consolidate the wealth of personal information and preferences their users generate.

According to Facebook, “The description next to the topic is actually a headline that provides context around the topic and what is causing it to trend. We have rules in place that work to select concise, accurate, informative headlines.”

[TechCrunch]