(http://readwrite.com/files/fields/rw_now_blue.jpg)
Just two months after rolling out hashtags—topics formatted with a "#" sign, first popularized on Twitter—Facebook is taking another leaf out of its rival's playbook and testing a trending topics section on select users' news feeds, the Wall Street Journal reports (http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/08/30/facebook-tests-trending-section-in-news-feed/).
ReadWrite confirmed that the new feature is showing for at least one employee:
(http://readwrite.com/files/facebook-trending-topics.png)
Hashtags on Twitter act as a way for users to participate in and monitor conversations, and it looks like Facebook wants its users to have a similar experience. The trending topics section that began testing on Thursday will appear on a user's homepage news feed and will feature popular topics being discussed on the site.
Unlike Twitter, Facebook is not using the "#" sign. Instead, it appears to be interpreting and collecting users' posts on a subject together regardless of whether they use explicit hashtags or relevant keywords.
Facebook began testing the trending topics feature on its mobile website earlier this month (http://allthingsd.com/20130807/facebook-takes-on-twitter-by-courting-celebrities-building-twittery-tools/).
ReadWrite