Facebook Tests Links With Larger Photos, Adds Groups To Timeline
Facebook is testing two types of new link in the news feed, one with larger photos and another with icons denoting the link source. The social media giant has also given groups their own separate box on the newly designed timeline.
The new design for posts containing links takes full advantage of the recent news feed redesign, which focuses on providing the user with better, more image-focused content. The first new link being tested is dominated by a picture from the article, which takes up the entire width of the news feed at the cost of a title and summary. Instead, the links source and a sentence from the article sit above the image. Clicking on the photograph takes you to the article – before, it opened the image in a larger lightbox.
The second new link being tested is similar to the current style, with an image on the right and a headline and description on the left. However, the test contains the emblem and the name of the source site across the bottom of the link. Both of the links being tested take full advantage of the redesign’s wider news feed. It is as yet unclear whether the links can contain videos instead of pictures or not, but considering the fact that clicking the photo takes users to the article, it is unlikely – users want videos to play when they are clicked.
It’s been a busy few days for the Facebook team, as they have also added a new groups section to the redesigned news feed. Only open groups that the user has accepted an invite to will appear in the box, closed or secret groups and groups with an invitation pending will not be shown.
Which of the tests do you prefer?
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Facebook Tests Links With Larger Photos, Adds Groups To Timeline
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Thursday, April 18, 2013
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Anonymous
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