Facebook LOL

About

Facebook LOL is a special newsfeed found within the social media website Facebook specifically for sharing memes and trending jokes, videos and GIFs.

History

On January 18th, 2019, TechCrunch^[1] announced that Facebook was testing a "special feed of funny videos and GIF-like clips." According to the report, only about 100 high school students were signed on to test the feature.

Facebook told Record that the feed would be used to share popular meme content and was being tested by a small number of people. They were still deciding whether or not for it would be released within Facebook or as a standalone application.

In an official statement, Facebook said, "We are running a small scale test and the concept is in the early stages right now."

Shutdown

On February 7th, 2019, Recode^[2] reported that Facebook had confirmed the shuttering of the LOL project. According to the report, they would no longer be working on an app that would attract high school-age adolescents and would focus on Messenger Kids, a messaging app for children under 13.

Many of the members of Facebook's "Youth Team," a 100-employee group that works specifically on products aimed at young people, would be moved to Messenger Kids, which is aimed at people under 13, making them too young to join Facebook's main offering.

A Facebook spokesperson made a statement to Recode. They said, "The youth team has restructured in order to match top business priorities, including increasing our investment in Messenger Kids."

Features

LOL works like other Facebook feeds, such as Watch. There are two known categories, "Dailies," which feature popular and trending videos and memes, and "For You," which serves as recommendations for the specific user. Additionally, the user can select the types of content they would like to see. These include "Animals," "Fails," "Pranks," "Wait For It," "Savage," "School" and more (screenshot below).

Users also have the ability to rate and share the memes. According to a screen capture, these ratings are designated as "Funny," "Alright" and "Not Funny" (shown below, left). They can also upload their own videos, either through manual file uploads or through URLs (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References