After months of testing the feature on the mobile app, Facebook has rolled out the Explore Feed for desktop users.
Facebook told TechCrunch that the appearance of the Explore Feed for PC users “is the beginning of the official rollout” of the feature.
Those who use Facebook on a desktop would see the feed in the left-side sidebar, in the “Explore” section, which could have links to features like Events, Groups, Pages, Moments, Saved items, among others.
Users of Facebook’s mobile app can see the Explore Feed on the main navigation page under “More.”
The expansion of the feature to desktop was seen first by Matt Navarra of The Next Web, and he shared a screenshot of the Explore Feed on Twitter, TechCrunch said.
Complementary feed
A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement obtained by TechCrunch: “We are beginning to roll out a complementary feed of popular articles, videos, and photos, automatically customized for each person based on content that might be interesting to them.”
“We’ve heard from people that they want an easy way to explore relevant content from Pages they haven’t connected with yet.”
While the Facebook spokesperson did not give details about how the Explore Feed works, Mashable’s Stan Schroeder has an idea as he accessed the feature in April.
Schroeder said the Explore Feed might show posts that are popular in a user’s geographical location and related to the user’s Facebook likes and friends.
One good thing about the Explore Feed as of now is that it is advertising-free, Mashable reported.
Discover more content
Meanwhile, TechCrunch said, “the idea behind the Explore Feed is to help Facebook users discover more content across the social network, beyond posts from friends and Pages they already follow.”
The Explore Feed “surfaces recommended content it thinks a user might find interesting, including posts, articles, photos, and videos from sources they haven’t followed yet.”
Among the sources of the Explore Feed are Pages and publishers or news organizations.
TechCrunch, however, said the selection of items that show up in the Explore Feed isn’t just random content.
“Items are similar to those you’ve already liked or those popular among your network of friends, for example.”
Captured audience
Meanwhile, Mashable believes that Explore Feed is a way for Facebook “to keep its two billion users entertained on the site as it competes with Twitter, Snapchat, among others.”
That sentiment echoed by TechCrunch, which said: “the overall goal, of course, is to increase users’ time-on-site (or time-in-app, if on mobile).”
TechCrunch also said the Explore Feed lets Facebook serve “more ads in between the content, in videos and elsewhere.”
“Effectively, it’s a second-tier News Feed that Facebook could monetize.”
So far, both TechCrunch and Mashable noted that no ads are appearing on Explore Feed.
What’s Next?
What can you say about the rollout of the new feature for Facebook’s PC users? Have you tried it? Share your thoughts about the function.
The post Facebook Now Lets Mobile And PC Users Explore The Site appeared first on Guild of Bloggers.
