Facebook is introducing a couple of changes today that make it easier to spot trending topics and the coverage around them.
First up, there’s a bit of a visual redesign. Previously, clicking on a trending topic would highlight a story from one publication, and you’d have to scroll down past a live video section to view related stories. Facebook is replacing that system with a simple carousel, which does a better job of showing you different coverage options.
To be clear, the change doesn’t affect how stories are sourced, according to Facebook. It’s still the same algorithm picking out some of the most popular stories about the topic; Facebook’s simply making it easier to see other options, which is a good thing in my book.
Second, Facebook is now putting trends right in your News Feed on mobile devices. Previously, they would be hidden within search, which isn’t exactly intuitive. Instead, Facebook will now just display the top three trending topics on your News Feed, after which you can click through to see other trends. Thankfully, Facebook gives you the option to remove it if you’d rather avoid trends altogether.
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The new trends carousel is rolling out to iOS today, and will come to Android and the desktop soon. Meanwhile trends in your News Feed is just a small test on mobile devices for now, so not everyone will see it, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see it roll out widely in the future.
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