The Unexpected Impact of Facebook’s ‘Seamless Sharing’

Financial Times: In September, Facebook rolled out new tools for sharing music, videos and links that CEO Mark Zuckerberg said would “transform” media. Turns out, he was right, but probably not in the way he anticipated.

Numerous news sites are reporting that decades-old stories with offbeat headlines are surging in popularity. For example, the UK’s Independent reports that last week’s most viewed stories included “Sean, 12, is the youngest father” (from January 1998) and “Scotland’s ugliest woman honored” (from May of 1999).

Facebook’s Christian Hernandez downplayed Facebook’s impact, saying, “With open graph, the potential for discovery is always there, meaning that every piece of content has the potential to be renewed and recirculated. The resulting traffic only aids in driving awareness of articles of the moment, as well as from the archive.”