The Facebook feed is for many of us a daily source of information. Through it, we receive news from friends, family and acquaintances, but also from the world and scenes that interest us. Just follow the right profiles and pages and let the algorithm do the rest of the work for us - that is, define what is more and less relevant.
With all the flaws we can point out, News Feed is an accessible idea that everyone knows how to use and with which everyone becomes familiar. This feed concept is present in other platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Reddit and now is Google will introduce a news feed in your mobile application. A big step for a company that, over the last few years, has never managed to hit the field of social networks. Google Wave failed, Google+ did not gain the traction the technology expected.
The Google feed will not only show the information that is most relevant to you based on your interactions with Google services, but also what is trend in your area and around the world. "The more you use Google, the better the feed will be," is the promise of Google - as it was Facebook's. "As the world and your interests change, the feed will continue to grow and evolve with you," he explains. The feed will give you more content of the topics you like the most and allow you to follow specific topics - you just have to do a Google search (for example, about the Stranger Things series) and click the "Follow" .
Google is launching the feed in its app for iOS and Android, first in the United States and then internationally. It is not known what impact the feed will have on users' behavior, accustomed to opening Facebook or other platform for news and go to Google just to search. Either way, Google's feed - which, for the moment, should not hit the desktop - is an attack of technology for a place in the future of the news, at a time when its competitors reinforce the bet in the same sector.
Among the news in the format are two call-to-action that any publication can now introduce in their articles - one to collect signatures for a newsletter; Another for followers to the Facebook page. In addition, Instant Articles will soon support subscriptions, so you can refer readers to paywalls and limit free access to content. A facebook response to an old request from publications that base their business model on paid subscriptions.
Facebook is still launching a statistics panel so managers can compare AI performance with articles on the mobile web. A Facebook-sponsored study has determined that people tend to click more on articles tagged as Instant Articles because they know they carry fast on their mobile phones.
With the news of the IA, the company aims to re-gain the confidence of the publications and, more than that, to fight its main competitor - the AMP, promoted by Google.
Google and Facebook are fighting for the future of the news. Who wins? What about the reader? Leave your opinion