BBC launches News Control Panel on Facebook

BBC News product manager Gareth Owen noted that less than half of the 8 million daily visitors to the BBC News website visit the home page. Furthermore, about 250,000 BBC News fans start the trip to the news site everyday through a link on Facebook. That is why BBC News has built a News Control Panel for Facebook. This panel will allow those who "Like" the BBC News Facebook page to receive customized news by topic, show or correspondent. The software is still in beta, but you would be hard pressed to find any area where it needs much improvement.

Directions for setting up your BBC News Panel

That is not to say that there haven't been complaints. A BBC user named Chris said that while he understands that much of the traffic to the BBC News web site comes from Facebook, he strongly dislikes the idea of the BBC using its resources for promoting a proprietary public platform. Also, there has been some criticism of The Washington Post and Yahoo! News Facebook-centric apps that automatically share with your friends the stories you read.

For news junkies, having the BBC set up this Control Panel on Facebook has more positives than negatives. Any chance to get a wide variety of stories just the way you want them should make it easier to stay updated throughout the day.