Facebook’s Trending Topics Test Moves From Mobile To Desktop

Facebook has expanded a “trending topics” test from its mobile site to the desktop.

As the Wall Street Journal is reporting, and Facebook is confirming, a small number of Facebook users are now seeing the new content block next to the News Feed when they’re using Facebook’s website. The content block lists five trending topics and has a “See More” link.

Facebook tells the WSJ that the test is “only available to a small percentage of US users and it is still in the early stages of development.”

It’s similar to the trending topics test on mobile that Facebook began about three weeks ago.

With both tests, Facebook is looking for ways to take advantage — and encourage adoption — of the new hashtag support that it rolled out in June. Since then, reaction has been mixed. One study has shown that major brands were quick to use hashtags on Facebook, but a separate study suggested that doing so didn’t help increase engagement rates.