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Facebook considers sympathy button, YouTube reveals top trends and Pinterest gets into news

By Iona St Joseph

December 12, 2013 | 5 min read

Facebook ‘Sympathise’ button

Andy Murray: the UK's most talked about man on Facebook

In what could possibly be the most ridiculous social media story of 2013, Facebook has been trying out a ‘sympathy’ button, so now you can let people know you don’t give a shit about their attention-seeking status even harder by not clicking on it.

The button has apparently been developed as a solution to the ‘difficulty’ of responding with liked to a status where someone posts bad news. The Guardian summed up this dilemma perfectly, by observing "as if users were not already able to negotiate this small hurdle".

I really hope this doesn’t become a reality. Seeing as there’s only so much "U ok hun?" I can take, I could not be less enthused about the ‘sympathy’ button.

YouTube reveals the top 10 trending videos of 2013

YouTube has revealed its top trending videos for 2013. The magnificent ‘How Animals Eat Their Food’ topped the list in the UK with a whopping 88 million views.

The UK top ten is as follows:

1. How Animals eat their food

2. Tom from McFlay’s wedding speech

3. Attraction – Week 1 of Britain’ Got Talent

4. Will & Jaden Smith, and Alfonso Ribiero rap on The Graham Norton Show

5. Asdfmovie6

6. Harlem Shake (original army addition)

7. Tom Daley: Something I want to say

8. Francine Lews with her many impressions: Week 2 Britain’s Got Talent

9. PEOPLE ARE AWESOME 2013

10. Learn the alphabet with Peppa Pig

You can see all the videos here.

No redesign for Facebook

Those who like to whinge about a newsfeed redesign can breathe easy, as it has been revealed that Facebook’s redesign has stalled, and so won’t be coming to users any time soon.

This is despite the fact that, in March, Facebook made a big deal about the platform’s exciting upcoming redesign. There is a redesign in the pipeline though, it’s just that it’s still being tested.

I await the reams of complaints from idiots that will forget what the old design looked like within a week.

Twitter update adds images to DMs

Good news for Twitter users, as you can now send and receive images in direct messages. Hurrah!

The feature, unveiled this week, has been a gripe of Twitter users for a while now, so it’s interesting to see it’s something that has finally been fixed.

The Twitter app also has a new look, allowing you to swipe between the ‘Home’, ‘Discover’ and ‘Activity’ tabs. An Android-only feature allows users to set up notifications for other Twitter users that they follow, not just celebrities or high-profile tweeters.

Facebook reveals biggest trends of 2013

Two more top tens in this week’s article. Don’t say I’m not good to you.

According to new data from Facebook, Pope Francis has been the number one trending topic on the social network this year.

The top ten most talked about topics on Facebook this year have been:

1. Pope Francis

2. Election

3. Royal Baby

4. Typhoon

5. Harlem Shake

6. Flood

7. Miley Cyrus

8. Boston Marathon

9. Tour de France

10. Nelson Mandela

In the UK however, absolutely none of those newsworthy topics were on the list. Our top ten most talked about topics were:

1. Andy Murray

2. Margaret Thatcher

3. UEFA Champions League Final

4. Prince George

5. Sir Alex Ferguson

6. Call of Duty: Ghosts

7. England retain The Ashes (lol)

8. X Factor

9. The bedroom tax

10. GTA V

Pinterest gains ground for news

Pinterest is now gaining ground as a news platform, giving Facebook and Twitter a run for their money.

A news study from Gigya has found that 20 per cent of all ‘media/publishing’ related content shared to social networks in Q3 of this year was shared on Pinterest. Facebook and Twitter made up 70 per cent combined.

It would certainly be worth keeping an eye on Pinterest in 2014 to see how this develops.

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