Facebook is testing a new feature called Discover. As the name suggests, the new feature will help users in searching for like-minded people or communities on the platform.
Facebook Discover: a new way to search interest groups
Facebook Groups is already a quite useful feature that helps users search for virtual communities on a plethora of interests. Now this new feature Discover in the Facebook Groups category will make it much easier for users to join conversations.
Facebook’s new feature will revamp the way users search for groups that matter to them. To suggest a group, the feature considers numerous factors such as the geographic location of a user, their interests and their friends’ interests to recommend a group. In addition to public groups, the “Discover” tab feature will also allow users to browse closed Facebook Groups.
With this new feature, Facebook intends to improve the user experience and enhance engagement. As of now, this tool is not accessible to all as it is still in the testing phase. The social networking giant states that it intends to roll out this feature to more users in the near term.
To check if you are one of the lucky ones to test this feature, just click the More tab then go the Groups to see if the Discover tab is available. The tab will allow a user to choose from 25 available categories ranging from Parenting, Photography, Buy, Sell, Trade, Animals & Pets, Sports, Outdoor Activities and many more. On selecting any of the categories, you will get suggestions for some themed groups. However, if you do not want to choose any, you can also take a look at groups in each category.
A similar feature from Twitter
Last week, Twitter also came up with a similar feature called Connect to help users easily find accounts to follow. Twitter’s product manager, Ricardo Castro, stated that the Connect tab will suggest a list based on the accounts users already follow, their previous activity and also popular accounts in his or her area.
For a long time, Twitter has been criticized for not making enough effort to make the platform easier for new users. This resulted in a higher churn rate. In a blog post, Twitter admitted that finding “new accounts to follow used to require jumping through a few hoops and a dash of luck.” But with this new feature, the micro-blogging firm hopes to address the issue.
