Facebook adds publishers’ logos to links in search results, trending lists

Realizing that people don’t always recognize the publication behind an article they find on Facebook, the social network is rolling out a way for publishers to attach their brand logos to article links appearing in Facebook’s search results and trending news lists, the company announced on Tuesday.

The change is strictly cosmetic: Publishers’ logos will replace their names beneath article headlines, as you can see below.

Facebook adds publisher logos to article links in search results (left) and trending news lists. Source: Facebook.

Facebook’s hope appears to be that people will become more aware of their news sources on Facebook and less likely to fall for fake news from reputable-sounding news outlets.

“By surfacing publisher logos next to article links, we want to make it easier for publishers to extend their brand identity on Facebook — to enhance people’s awareness of the source of content they see on Facebook, so they can better decide what to read and share,” said Facebook product manager Andrew Anker in a company blog post.

It’s noteworthy that Facebook has opted not to have the logos show up on article links appearing where people are most likely to see them: their news feeds. Maybe that will soon change. “The eventual goal is to extend these to all places where people consume news on our platform,” Anker wrote.

To affix a logo to article links, publishers must upload their marks through their Facebook Pages’ Brand Asset Library, which can be found in the Publishing Tools section. Facebook advises publishers to upload three versions of their logos — a colored one, a black one and a white one — so that they can be properly rendered regardless of the background.