The Independent announces its new social reading experience

Recently Read is a new social reading experience on Independent.co.uk that is part of a new class of applications that help people express who they are on Facebook.

The experience allows people on Facebook and on the Independent site to discover the articles their friends are reading, By opting into the Recently Read Facebook application on any article page on The Independent site, articles that people have read will be posted to Facebook for their friends to discover and interact with in real time.

People using the application can see what their friends have been reading via a ‘Friends Activity’ tab on the Recently Read application on the Independent site. In the absence of friends’ activity, the tab will show popular articles from across Independent.co.uk.

Many Independent readers already experience their news through a social lens. Since integrating social plugins in early 2010, referrals from Facebook have increased by 430 percent, making Facebook the second biggest driver of traffic to the website. And in a recent month people shared or liked content on Independent.co.uk 136,000 times.

This latest move aims to further strengthen the Independent’s engagement with its readers and interaction with their peers through social media.

People can control what articles become part of their profile directly from the application, and also on Facebook.

The Recently Read application will is available on Independent.co.uk via the unit to the right. Visit www.independent.co.uk/recentlyread for more information

Try Recently Read