Facebook launched a test project of news without hyperlinks

The social network Facebook has started testing the publication of news media without hyperlinks.

Facebook’s “delicate” talks with publishers lasted for several months. Nine companies, including NBC News and the New York Times (NYT), agreed to the deal, despite the fear that participation in the project could ultimately affect their own business, the material says.

Facebook reported earlier that it plans to start hosting news and videos of BuzzFeed, National Geographic and other publications. The main feature of these publications will be that the content will be posted on Facebook entirely and without hyperlinks. It was noted that for many publications, links to their content on Facebook have become an important source of traffic, but the opening time of such links on mobile devices reaches 8 seconds and often disappoints users.

The program starts with the publication of several articles, but is expected to expand the project quickly. As Facebook promises, downloading “instant” content will be ten times faster. While the new format is available in a test format for iPhone users.

Five US media outlets joined the project, including BuzzFeed, National Geographic, The Atlantic, NBC News and the NYT. On Wednesdays, each edition will publish a single article in a new format. Four European media participate in the program: The Guardian, BBC News, Bild and Spiegel Online.