Image via Wikimedia Commons

Via the Wall Street Journal’s “Morning Download” email:

Facebook tests system charging $1 to send some messages. Facebook is testing a system for users to send messages to people outside their immediate circle of social contacts for a payment of one dollar, reports the WSJ’s John Letzing. Facebook said the new message-routing feature will only be for personal messages between people in the U.S., and the maximum number that can be sent will be capped at one per week. A statement posted online by Facebook cited research showing that “imposing a financial cost on the sender may be the most effective way to discourage unwanted messages and facilitate delivery of messages that are relevant and useful.”

On one hand, this is another instance of a troubling innovation trend.

https://twitter.com/stackiii/status/281036114209411072

On the other hand, does anyone use Facebook messages for important communications to people they don’t know directly? (In other words, does this even matter?)