Facebook targets publishers on WordPress with an Instant Articles plugin

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Facebook wordpress plugin graphic

facebook wordpress plugin

Facebook has been pushing the rollout of its Instant Articles platform since its launch on May last year on both iOS and Android platforms. It was first rolled out in the US and subsequently rolled out to other regions like Asia later on.

Its rival platform, Google’s open sourced Accelerated Mobile Platform was officially launched on 24th February and had way more publishers from different platforms which include those that are based on WordPress. Speaking of WordPress, this is one of the most popular Content Management Systems available on the web right now and 25% of the web is powered by the platform.

Since WordPress was one of the original signatories to the AMP platform and is a major player in hosting content on the web, Facebook could not afford to lose them. That is why the company announced that they have developed a WordPress Plugin for Instant Articles.

This move is strategic in that Facebook had earlier announced that their Instant Articles platform will be open to all publishers next month on the 12th. They are opening that to publishers of any size and since a lot of publishers out there use WordPress, this move is strategic by the company.

They have already beta tested the plugin with a number of publishers where Facebook describes some of the features. When you click on a photo in an Instant Article, the photo will expand and fill the screen and you can explore it by tilting the phone. Also, embedded videos in the article will be played natively as well as the usual graphic embeds so you never miss the full web experience.

Facebook wants to be the entire web for the populations out there and by rolling out Instant Articles worldwide soon, there will be no need to visit actual websites any more.

 

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