Do you want to know what your friends are reading? What about your friends’ friends? With Huffington Post’s new HuffPost Social News, you’ll get your chance. The new feature is a partnership with Facebook that tracks what HuffPost articles you’re looking at and what all your Facebook friends are perusing. In a recent article, “Huffington Post + Facebook= the Future of Journalism,” for Slate’s The Big Money, Chadwick Matlin, explains how the two Web sites are providing the service:
Connect basically serves as a conduit between Facebook and another Web site, allowing data to be sent between the two. Facebook sends profile information. In return, the site sends details on what the user is doing. Web sites, of course, have always tracked what pages their users visit. Now HuffPost is broadcasting that information to all of your friends. It has become a loudmouthed Big Brother.”
Not too surprising, the success of the venture could guarantee quite a cash windfall for both Facebook and HuffPost. Matlin isn’t a huge fan of HuffPost, but as he concludes, “it’s not important. Trust me. Huffington Post has taught me that lesson all too well.”
