Facebook Is Testing Topic-Based Feeds

Facebook is looking into providing more ways for people to filter what they see on the social network.

In a test first noticed today by Social Times, Facebook is giving some users the ability to pull up category-based streams of posts from friends and Pages.

The topics — Animals & Pets, Food, Health & Fitness and Sports — are accessible in bookmarks in the left-rail of desktop Facebook. The test apparently isn’t visible on Facebook’s mobile apps. When a user clicks on one of the topics for the first time, he or she is asked to answer questions — “What do you love about food?” or “Which sports, teams or players interest you?” — that Facebook will use to adjust what content it displays.

Facebook is also giving people to ability to flag posts to indicate that they showed up in the wrong category:

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the test in an email to Marketing Land:

People have told us they’d like options to see more stories on Facebook around specific topics they’re interested in. So we are testing a few feeds for people to view more and different stories from people and Pages based on topic areas.

Screen shot images courtesy of Justin Lafferty/Social Times.

About The Author

Martin Beck

Martin Beck was Third Door Media's Social Media Reporter from March 2014 through December 2015.