Facebook is experimenting with a lot of mobile-centric ideas, aiming to take the social network’s presence beyond just Facebook. Although it has reportedly been in the works for well over a year, it appears as though Facebook is working on a news aggregating app.
Information, especially rumors and speculations, travel fast, and apps like Flipboard have gained vast followings because it makes the ‘news’ looks prettier. Purportedly, Facebook is also working on a magazine-like news aggregating app, which will undoubtedly target its gigantic user base. For the time being, not much is known about the Facebook news app, but if some of Facebook’s recent failings indicate anything… it’s Facebook’s unrelenting pursuit of monetizing on mobile.
Facebook Home, one of the company’s recent projects, failed to attract and retain users as many complained that the Android launcher took too much control of their devices.
Could Facebook’s scramble to come up with something refreshing for its user base be a sign of desperation? The social networking giant’s IPO was perhaps one of the most hyped in recent memories, and many investors had high expectations for the future of Facebook. Some suggested that Facebook should put its name into the hardware hat, but Zuckerberg was adamantly against such an idea. Instead, he publicly stated that the company will focus on its core business, which is advertising.
A news aggregating app is a sound plan, considering Google’s exit as it recently dropped its Reader. Companies like AOL and Feedly have all picked up where Google left off, and Facebook, too, may do the same. This time around, we hope that whatever Facebook is developing, it won’t make a app that clutters up people’s phone, and consequently drive away users because the app is more of an annoyance than it is useful.
source: wsj
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