SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S. social media giant Facebook Inc. began on Friday to roll out a test program of news service to some U.S. consumers to help them explore a wider range of their news interests directly within the Facebook app.
Facebook said the news section, Facebook News, will appear as a home screen tab and bookmark and users will have more control over the stories they see on their mobile phones.
The company said that while news articles will continue to appear in current News Feed in the app, the new News tab will give its customers access to "the most relevant national stories of the day" collected by a team of journalists.
"Facebook News will feature a wide range of content across four categories of publishers: general, topical, diverse and local news," said the social media giant based in Menlo Park, California.
The new feature was developed in consultation with many publishers on the basis of findings of a survey with more than 100,000 users in the United States earlier this year, it said.
As part of the initial test, Facebook said the new service will focus on original reporting by surfacing local publications from the largest major metro areas across the country, including Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and other cities.
