Facebook Inc. [NASDAQ:FB] is trying a new feature to make the interaction with FB friends feel more personal. According to the latest information Facebook is testing how someone will pronounce your name when you’ll visit their profile. The feature has not been rolled out widely to the public at large. The feature is still limited to a few Beta users. Some of them have posted the screenshots online of the new feature.
Facebook has released this news to Yahoo Tech. In an announcement Yahoo’s Editorial Director Rafe Needleman posted about the new feature of the social media giant. The feature has been rolled out for a limited audience in US for English version as of now.
A user can go down to the Profile and under “About” they can add the details of name pronunciation. The name would be added in text format as well as an audio file of the name would be added which could be heard by the users. Facebook will also offer suggestion for the way your name could be spoken and you can add the same if you feel the same is correct.
Owing to this feature of auto-suggestion Facebook Engineers might be cautious in rolling out this feature. With the wide audience which Facebook caters to they have to be very careful in rolling out a feature wherein sentiments might get hurt if users would find the feature could not spell the name correctly.
It is interesting to know that Wikipedia has the feature of pronunciation in Phonetics for difficult name on their websites for ages. This is definitely a first time for a social media platform to add this feature.
Facebook would have been driven to add this feature as Facebook has become a meeting place. More users now connect in the Virtual World over apps and social media platforms before actually connecting in Physical World. With differences in Languages, Ethnicity and nuances of dialects it is indeed difficult sometime to speak out name of people. This feature could be welcoming for people who would want to create good first impression on their intended audience on the first go.
