For Facebook users who don't have the time to read through content on their News Feed, the mixmasters at Facebook have devised a new Save feature that allows users to squirrel away items of interest for later consumption.
Actually, Save is not completely new. Facebook tested it as far back as 2012, after it acquired software maker Spool, whose self-named read-it-later app presaged Facebook's development of Save. The testing phase in 2012 seemed to indicate that everything was good to go, so it's somewhat surprising that it took Facebook another two years to unleash it upon the masses.
Now that it's out and about, what exactly does it do?
The option to Save is incorporated in the submenu on the top right corner of a post. That's where other options have traditionally been listed, such as Get Notifications, Unfollow, I don't want to see this, etc. Choose Save from this revamped drop-down menu and the content will be accessible by accessing the "More" button at the bottom of the mobile screen or clicking on the link on the left side of the Facebook page on the web version. The Saved button should be somewhere near the Most Recent button that Facebook doesn't honor anyway.
Just as an aside, this new feature might add quite a bit of bloat to Facebook's share of your mobile device's storage. Those of us who practice brinkmanship with our devices' memory might want to be cognizant of that.
According to a Facebook blog post on the subject, links, places, movies, TV and music are examples of items that can be set aside for later viewing. These items can also be shared with friends or moved onto an archive list.
The Saved list is organized by category, and Facebook, not surprisingly, will poke users from time to time with reminders about items they have saved.
This is actually one of Facebook's better ideas, and seems like it should have happened long ago. It seems especially relevant now that the average News Feed has become so helter skelter and any sense of chronological order seems to have been abandoned. It also represents another means of promoting revenue-generating content.
Facebook is also revving up a "Buy" button for "sponsored content" (read: advertising). Should a user wish to make a purchase, pressing the Buy button will initiate a transaction, with the process taking place entirely inside the Facebook shell from start to finish.
