This evening Facebook began testing what appears to be their version of Twitter’s retweet feature: “via”. On any article shared by your friend, you can click on “Share” and when you post the article to your profile, Facebook will now automatically say who the article came from. While the “via” content only currently works on shared articles, I’d assume that this feature would be extended to other stream stories if initial user testing proves successful. We’ve written extensively about the Twitterfication of Facebook, and this appears to be one more step in that process.
As pictured below, users are able to opt-out of having the shared “via” content displayed when they post a story, however by default any article you share will also include the name of the person that you found the article from. It’s a form of attribution and it also helps generate a trail of where information comes from in the social graph. This is the first iteration of a “retweet” alternative that we’ve seen, however Facebook has had status tagging for months now, something many users still ironically aren’t aware of.
My guess is that this new “via” feature will also increase the use of status tagging in general as many users don’t know how to attribute others within their status updates. There’s few features at this point which Twitter has that Facebook hasn’t incorporated into their site. While Facebook always tends to generate their own version in order to differentiate themselves from Twitter, the influence which Twitter has had over Facebook in general is significant.
Right now it appears as though all users have this feature although it was only recently turned on (at some point this evening). We’ll be sure to continue our ongoing coverage of Facebook’s Twitterfication.
Thanks to Joel Spiro for the tip!
I like this feature more than the @mention, which I use but, you are correct, most don’t understand. I’m already wondering if it will improve article/site sharetracking or if fB is planning to increase their metrics (Insights) and maybe charge for them or for a premium version of Insights? Great find! ~ Donna
Where’s the Like button! Makes building a brand a little easier.
pathetic.
I like it.
They recently allowed inclusion of peoples names that link to the persons profile, kinda like @replies however i’ve rarely seen it used.
nice
where’s the dislike button???
I’d rather have a dislike button than a retweet feature…
Doubt if simple “Twitterization” will cut it.. Facebook has nothing to fear because the social system on Twitter is different, connections (or follows) don’t have to be mutual, 140 characters will be odd to a core facebooker, ..and most importantly Twitter isn’t for everyone
Woulda been OK if they’d added it to both the Lite and mobile versions, which badly need a Share option.
I link stuff all the time, but based on what I’ve seen, most people never caught on to the @ thing. Yeah, I know it’s easy, but…this may fix that.
I guess we’ve all been waiting for this to arrive on Facebook. It’s going to be interesting to see how many people start using it.
Follow me @ChristopherM on Twitter
FB hasn’t got the idea yet. My FB wall is STILL garbaged up by an item I can’t opt out of. Each time a friend becomes a friend of someone else, each time a friend “likes” a photo or comment another friend posted, or each time a friend’s photo is tagged by another friend, I hear about it by a small one-liner on my wall. What a mess! Gimme Twitter any day.
I don’t think most of the features that Facebook is rolling out can be termed as “twitterfication.” Although I do see that they are getting idea from Twitter, the way they are implementing it is commendable.
As you already know Nick, this little feature can be huge, especially for Facebook fanpage as it add a huge element to viral growth. Before this anytime someone shared something from a fanpage or profile, they would have to manually give credit which many didn’t even know how. Now it will give credit by default and funny thing is although there is an option to remove the credit, many won’t know how. So it’s a good thing cause just like in the world of blogs an article should link where it’s due, in the world of social networks and information exchange, credit should be give in any form and this new feature certainly make it easier.
All in all, I think Facebook isn’t trying to be Twitter or take their thunder. They are just choosing the best aspects of it and how it can complement their business model. After all, although Facebook has over 350 million members, their main core revenue target is businesses which usually comes through fanpages and with this feature the visibility is much more than what it used to be.
Sorry for the long comment but just had to share my thoughts on this. If anyone thinks Facebook is stealing from Twitter, they are doing it very well and doing it in a way it compliments their business. What makes Facebook what it is today is the compilation of these little features, they are gold for small businesses and brands.
Thx for your post. Nice one
Much appreciated feature, what wrong whith social bookmarking?
Great; I’ve wondered before, why they don’t do this.
I’ve used the @ symbol in Facebook to retweet. It works just the same as Twitter, although it does depend on the fine-grained privacy settings.
okay, now I need tagging in links. I can share links with all, or just with some, but I need “with all, attention some”
oh and a tweet this button for my Facebook toolbar
The word “via” doesn’t make sense here; the way FB uses it, it’s backwards, like a person who lives in L.A. saying “I drove to Chicago via New York,” when in fact they went to Chicago first, then New York, i.e., “to New York via Chicago.”
Consider the example you showed. Veronica posted a link. Nick then re-shared it so that his friends who aren’t friends with Veronica could see it. So Nick’s friends are seeing Veronica’s link VIA NICK, not (as Facebook would have it) “via Veronica.” Maybe it should say something like “Nick shared Veronica’s link,” not “Nick via Veronica.”
Haduh
makasih