I kept getting those pesky trending articles in Facebook, which are actually advertisements. I can’t confirm it, but I think that companties pay Facebook to have their articles posted to your timeline as soon as you or one of your (remote) friends gets on their website. This feature is in my top 3 of most-hated Facebook features.

If you look closely at the trending article post in your timeline, you will se the name of an app, e.g. Yahoo, MSNBC or The Independent. Those aren’t websites but Facebook apps and thus you can block them.

Click on the little white triangle next to the Home menu (in the top-right of the Facebook page).

and choose Privacy Settings from the menu.

Click on the link Manage Blocking at the bottom of the page.

You need to scroll down to the “BLock Apps” section. You willsee a field, where you can write the name of an app. If you write Yahoo, a list of Yahoo-options will appear and you can choose the one that annoys you. As soon as you choose an option, the app will no longer post to your timeline.

As you can see, I block everything that isn’t posted directly by a friend, app or page that I added to my timeline myself.

Please, write a comment to this blog post if you know a better solution.