NEW DELHI (TIP): Several monthsafter Facebook started testingpromoted status messages, the socialnetworking website on Friday said itwill start “a small experiment”around paid messages.In a statement posted on Facebook,the website said that it is makingseveral changes to efficiently delivermessages that Facebook users get.As part of the new measures, it isrolling out an experimental featurethat will allow a Facebook user tosend a priority message to other usereven if he is not a ‘friend’ at anominal charge of $1. The currentrate for the message is not final andFacebook may change it in future.The service will be initiallyavailable only in the US and numberof messages that can be send to auser will be capped at one per week.

“We’ve heard that messages peoplecare about may not always bedelivered or may go unseen in theOther folder,” the website noted inthe statement.It then explained that currentlythere are two kind of mail boxesFacebook users have. The Inbox iswhere they get messages from theirfriends while the Other is where themessages from strangers go.”Facebook Messages is designed toget the most relevant messages intoyour Inbox and put less relevantmessages into your Other folder. Werely on signals about the message toachieve this goal,” the website notedin its statement. “Today we’restarting a small experiment to testthe usefulness of economic signalsto determine relevance.

This testwill give a small number of peoplethe option to pay to have a messagerouted to the Inbox rather than theOther folder of a recipient that theyare not connected with.”The feature can also be used bythe Android users of FacebookMessenger. To use FacebookMessenger on Android, users don’thave to be a member of the socialnetworking website.Earlier Facebook had started anexperimental feature that allowedpeople to promote their statusmessage so that it reaches all theirfriends. Currently the feature isavailable to select users in severalcountries and costs $7 per statusmessage.