Facebook (FB) Tests New Rankings System for Local Businesses

Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) is testing an effort which pits one local business against the other.

InsideFacebook said that some small business owners can see what their business ranks in a certain area, usually a specified town. An example would be a local grocery store with a Facebook page. The grocer might have a certain number of 'likes', visits, and user reviews. Facebook would then run those numbers through its algorithm and rank the grocer versus segment peers in the same geographic locations based on the results.

For right now, rankings are only visible to page administrators and its expected that only Place Pages will be included, though that may change down the line.

While it's not clear what Facebook's endgame is in doing this (read: ad revenue), some might suspect that businesses that are ranked near the bottom would simply close their Facebook account. Other savvy business owners might spend a little extra for more 'likes' and positive reviews, though there might be an alert system for Facebook if it sees too many users pumping up a business in a short period of time.

Shares of Facebook are down 4.3 percent.

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