Facebook says it is testing a “things in common” label to highlight connections between non-friends who commented on brand or publisher Pages posts
Richard Nieva / CNET :
Context & Ripple Effects
The 'things in common' label is the latest entry in a long line of Facebook tests aimed at turning strangers into connections. It follows the 'Discover People' feature for finding users who share interests or employers, LinkedIn-style profile tags, and the Groups tab being tested on some Pages.
What distinguishes this test is where it operates: not a dedicated discovery surface, but the comment sections of brand and publisher Page posts — high-traffic areas where non-friends already interact without any prompt to connect.
First-order effects
- Non-friends who comment on the same brand or publisher post will see labels flagging what they share, lowering the friction to start a conversation or add each other.
- Brands and publishers get stickier comment threads, since highlighted commonalities give readers a reason to keep engaging with a post after they've commented.
Second-order effects
- The feature reinforces the case for the Groups tab on Pages, pushing brands to treat their Page presence as a community hub rather than a broadcast channel.
- More visible connections between strangers expands the surface where interactions happen outside the friend graph, which affects how much reach Pages content earns beyond its initial audience.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern from Discover People through this label holds, Facebook is steadily building an interest graph layered on top of the friend graph — with brand and publisher content as the connective tissue between users who have never met.
The trend: Facebook is incrementally converting passive content surfaces like Page comments into active people-discovery tools, stitching an interest graph alongside its declining emphasis on the pure friend graph.