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Uncategorized Friday, May 11th 2012 at 11:36 am

Facebook May Start Letting You Pay To Get Better Placement On Friends’ Feeds

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Ever have something to say that just needs to be heard by everyone? It used to be enough that Facebook let you announce things to hundreds of your “friends” at the same time, but now that rush is wearing off, and everyone is saying so much that it’s easy to get buried. Would you be willing to pay $1 to make sure your obnoxiously cutesy note to your schmuggum wuggums is at the top of everyone’s feed? $2 to make sure Suzy knows you’ve got a new girl now and definitely aren’t thinking about her at all, not even the tiniest bit? If Facebook’s “Highlight” feature comes to pass the way Stuff.co.nz is reporting, you might be able to do just that.

According to reports, the new feature was happened upon by a user in New Zealand. While he naturally assumed this was some kind of a scam, Facebook spokeswoman Mia Garlick has confirmed that this is actually a new feature in testing. ”We’re constantly testing new features across the site. This particular test is simply to gauge people’s interest in this method of sharing with their friends,” she told Stuff.co.nz.

While the feature may strike you as a little gross, it totally makes sense. As Facebook keeps trucking on toward their IPO, monetization is going to become a bigger priority. Facebook ads have never been a particularly lucrative market, and a feature that capitalizes on Facebook users’ desperate need to scream directly in the faces of their peers — which is what they come to Facebook to do — could make a lot of money.

Reportedly, Facebook is still toying with the details of the feature, including how much it will cost and if it will even be implemented. That being the case, it’s possible that “Highlight” could pop up as a free feature somehow, or never rear its ugly head again. Whatever the case, you should probably expect more of the same from Facebook;  they’re probably going to continue to find ways to part you from your money. Let’s just hope none of those ways completely destroy the service. Or hope for exactly that. Your choice.

(via Stuff.co.nz via Business Insider)

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  • https://twitter.com/#!/haversam [A]

    That’s kinda sad.

  • CEE2027

    Uh.  What?

  • http://coatesism.blogspot.com/ Shaun M Coates

    Facebook has officially lost its mind. They make enough money off of us coming together under their platform as it is. Essentially we are the product that companies pay to have access to. Now they want to find a way to charge the product?I miss the days of Facebook being a communications tool. 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XAOGF636RLXAMLLGOC345HYLIU Dave

    I don’t think anyone reading this really cares about being heard so much that they would spend one red cent toward something like this.  Sadly, though, the ducks will scramble to buy en masse.

  • Mcaba1970

    That is insane!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TFZYYFRWOZJVDJJYACTOQRPO2U Verna

    I dont think this feature is for our friends, but for the one’s we click “Like”.  They more than likely want to get top billing to spread their message and would pay money for that pleasure.

  • Michael Yar

    Wow really, paying $2 for highlighting an important thing on Facebook, same thing with Facebook’s games when you have to pay important things when your friends aren’t online on Facebook while they are watching TV, on a different website or doing something in real life. Does those things happen because it is older than doing stuff online.

    Why can’t you just friend people on Facebook that are Facebook nerds (Nerds who go to Facebook all the time.)

    Well, at least you can do the same thing as your friends do.

  • Mohamed M.

    wow. facebook and 70 percent of its users are pathetic