Facebook lately been experimenting with a small group of users by offering them the opportunity to promote their own status messages by paying for them. If the “Highlight” feature is more widely adopted, people will soon be able to pay to make sure their cutesy status updates are at the top of everyone’s news feed.

Said Mia Garlick, a spokeswoman for Facebook:

We’re constantly testing new features across the site. This particular test is simply to gauge people’s interest in this method of sharing with their friends.

The feature is, by all accounts, aimed less at “friends” in the literal sense than at small businesses or events with Facebook accounts wanting to promote their wares at a specific slice of the social network. Which isn’t exactly great news – Facebook’s news feed is cluttered as it is with marginal advertising, application invitations and “featured” news articles.

The increased shift towards monetization isn’t by any means surprising, given Facebook’s upcoming IPO – scheduled for this Friday, 18 May. More than ever, Facebook will be geared towards finding ways to get people to pay for things.

[Source: CNET]