Facebook, in its continuing quest to make its social network more public and "newsy," announced "Trending" on Thursday, a new feature that will put a list of trending topics up in the top right corner of every user's News Feed. The addition of this feature confirms that Facebook sees Twitter as both a threat and a model for news-focused social content.

Engineering Manager Chris Struhar made the announcement in Facebook's Newsroom, bringing up the Golden Globes and the death of Nelson Mandela as examples of what users could find in the new trending section. "Today we're announcing Trending," wrote Struhar, "a new product that's designed to surface interesting and relevant conversations in order to help you discover the best content from all across Facebook."

The trending list will be personalized based on topics that users are interested in, as well as what stories are trending across the world's largest social media network. In the trending section, you'll see a headline and a brief explanation as to why it's trending. When you click on a trending topic, Facebook will take you to the most active posts from your friends, or other pages that are talking about that subject.

With the addition of Trending, expect Facebook to continue to push itself as a social news site this year.