Although some of the larger online publications have successfully built substantial followings and readerships, most news apps are barely used and for the most part, are not competitive. Considering Facebook’s nearly 1.5 billion users alone, it seems a missed opportunity for not only Facebook but for online news sites as well.
Facebook’s Notify is based on and dependent on the likelihood that we all have our notifications turned on and are already accustomed to receiving updates throughout the day from its app. With Notify, users can select the news organizations you want to receive updates from, subscribe to these channels, or “stations” as they are currently referred to, and then receive notifications whenever the publication updates with a news story. Notify essentially eliminates the need to check various apps, and leads you directly to the news stories you are interested in reading.
Notify seems to be Facebook’s answer to efforts by other social media platforms to provide up-to-the-minute news, such as Twitter’s recently launched Moments tab, a collection of tweets including news stories. With Facebook’s user base and reach, it’s easy to imagine Notify becoming the bridge between social media and news.
Considering the addition of the newest shopping tool and “buy” buttons, and Facebook’s Notes revamp to provide blogging abilities, Facebook is pretty close to becoming that one-stop shop for everything Internet. Notify is set to become available as early as the end of the month.
