When it comes to browsing the Internet, speed is a key factor. Determining whether users end up enlightened by what they’re reading… or just end up throwing their phone in frustration.
Over 60% of the 890 million Facebook users who log on daily now view the site via a mobile device. And, if this includes you, you’ll know just how much of the news feed is filled with articles and news stories from across the Globe.
On average, flicking between browsers to read articles results in an 8 second load speed. And most users would agree this is way too long a time to waste whilst trying to read up on current affairs (or Buzzfeed’s 15 Hedgehogs with things that look like hedgehogs…if that’s more your sort of thing?)
Well, it seems Facebook is ALSO in agreement. Yay.
Facebook’s newest baby ‘Instant Articles’ plans to inject news stories from 9 mainstream publishers directly into your news feed, without exiting the app, or needing to open up an additional tab. Essentially, making articles just as efficient and easy to view as photos are.
Contributing publishers can design their article, including a cover image, so the branding, logo and fonts are just as you would expect to see if reading an original article. Publishers can also add auto-play video and embed anything that can be embedded into a regular web page.
So, which publishers are involved?
Currently signed up are The New York Times, National Geographic, Buzzfeed, NBC News, The Atlantic, theguardian, BBC News, Spiegel and Bild.
However, if Instant Articles proves a success, I’m sure more publications will be interested too.
Interestingly, Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm is NOT going to preference Instant Articles over regular articles. So there’s no special treatment for the current-contributing publishers.
However, the likelihood is, these stories will gain more organic reach through the additional likes, comments and shares they will no doubt receive from users. Making themselves increasingly more present on news feeds through no additional help from Facebook.
But, we now live in the age of personalization...
Are Facebook missing a beat by not taking this opportunity to also personalize the articles to each individual user? They have more than sufficient data to segment down to an individual level and this would significantly increase the all important in-app metric.
Facebook may want everyone to be made aware of the improvements Instant Articles bring to news sharing, before taking the next step of personalization. Of course, this doesn’t rule out the possibility of news personalization moving forward.
With the possibility of more (perhaps all?) major news channels signing up for Instant Articles in the future, it does suggest Facebook could one day, become the central hub and go-to source for ALL news stories in general. Not extremely likely any time soon… but its introduction means potentially it could happen.
Tell us what you think…
Will it bring an increase in Facebook activity? Or is this the start of Facebook moving away from what they have supposedly always been about… people, not publishers.
Implementation of Instant Articles is currently rolling out globally on the iPhone.