Source: Facebook Newsroom
Facebook has pulled its new Explore Feed tab, which it first introduced when users complained about the lack of relevant posts popping up in their news feed. Facebook has framed the Explore tab as a mere test, which means another Facebook experiment has fallen flat on its face and the social media giant still faces the reality that people do not like what their Facebook news feeds are serving up.
With Facebook’s history of running sinister sounding experiments on its users perhaps another failed test like the explore tab could be seen as a win for its users. It is infinitely better than running a test on how easy it is for lies to spread as Facebook did in 2013; or trying to find out if your friends are more likely to buy something if you say you’re going to buy it as Facebook did in 2011. Perhaps the most shocking test that Facebook ran was back in 2010 when it experimented on a massive 61,279,316 users of voting age whether it could affect the way they voted.
The list of intrusive and shocking experiments Facebook has run goes on and will likely continue to grow. Remember that with Facebook you’re the product, and the social media giant isn’t afraid to tweak, probe, and test its product as it tries to increase profits and even boost its hold and control over the 2 billion subscribers it has around the world.
