Facebook opens Twitter-like public feed
First Facebook added hashtags and trending topics, now it copies Twitter again.
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Facebook says it is giving a handful of media partners the ability to tap into Facebook posts that are made public by members.
That means partners NBCs, CNN and Slate will be able to see a real-time list of public posts related to certain keywords - and featue scrolling live updates on their websites, just as many websites show a Twitter stream today.
Other media partners will be added, Facebook says.
The move is the latest by the social network to match Twitter features. In June, Facebook added support for hashtags, making it easier to search for keywords. The same month it added "trending topics" - another longstanding popular Twitter feature.
Only posts that users have marked “public” will be available for this stream, Facebook says - although critics have noted many users are not aware what they've made public.
With the new changes, Facebook is trying to raise its profile as a place where people go to talk about what’s happening now. Media partners, including Buzzfeed, NBC’s Today Show, Sky TV, and Slate, will get access to what’s called a public feed API, meaning that they’ll be able to pull from Facebook’s firehose of public posts.
They will also get access to Facebook’s “Keyword Insights” API, which will let them pull posts based on a certain time frame. This stream can further be sliced based on certain demographic information, such as gender or age.
NBR staff
Tue, 10 Sep 2013
Tue, 10 Sep 2013
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Facebook opens Twitter-like public feed
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