Facebook is continuing its recent push to improve application engagement, trialing aggregated game-related stories in its mobile news feed to drive traffic from smartphones and tablets. "Gamers and non-gamers alike will see stories for the games their friends are playing the most," writes Facebook product manager Namita Gupta on the Facebook Developer Blog. "As we gather user and developer feedback from this test, we'll continue to iterate on the feature as we focus on making feed a strong acquisition channel for developers."
Facebook also added a series of new games categories including Casino, Family, Sports, Strategy and Word. Role-playing games now fall under the Adventure category, and virtual world-based games are now classified under the Simulation umbrella. In addition, Facebook is increasing the number of bookmarks at the top right of every canvas page from four to six. Facebook commonly cites bookmarks as one of its top drivers for app re-engagement.
With more than 350 million users worldwide accessing its social networking services via mobile device each month, Facebook recently expanded its Facebook Platform APIs and developer tools to Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS, Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android and the mobile web. According to Facebook, the move represents a significant step towards enhancing mobile interactions, introducing a series of social channels designed to galvanize app discovery and distribution.
For more:
- read this Facebook Developer Blog entry
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