Facebook has started prompting some of its 1 billion users on the desktop version of the website to complete their profile. A source close to the company confirmed with TNW that this feature is currently being tested with a small set of users.
I was quite surprised this morning to see this message at the top of my Facebook News Feed:
Apparently my profile was 90 percent complete, meaning it only need one more piece of additional information (hitting the “Next” link seen above did nothing). Once I agreed to say that I grew up in Toronto, I was informed my profile was 100 percent complete:
The notification is very similar to what LinkedIn users have been experiencing on their profile for years. Since I already have my work information filled out, Facebook didn’t ask me for it, but it presumably would do so otherwise.
Facebook needs this information to serve its users more and more relevant ads. The company already has the most data on its members than any other service on the planet, but it can always do with more.
As for the LinkedIn similarity, we’re not at all surprised: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn regularly rip features off each other, or at least test them out to see how they perform on their respective social networks. Facebook is already used by many to find jobs, and it is constantly looking at new ways to ease the experience, even though it’s not a “network for professionals” like LinkedIn.
Let us know if you’ve seen this prompt on Facebook recently and what you were asked to add. Furthermore, did you add it?
See also – Facebook Home passes 500,000 installations on Google Play one week after launch and Facebook rolls out new action-oriented mobile Pages, making it easier for users and brands to interact
Top Image Credit: Andronicus Riyono
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