Facebook has jumped aboard an interesting source of financing that promises to lend more voice to the wealthy, or just those reckless with their money. Namely, the company is trying out a feature called ‘Highlight’, which lets users highlight their statuses.

Apparently, only about 12 percent of one’s friends see his/her status update. The new feature will make sure that more users see it, probably by making it up there for longer, appear to a broader circle of friends and similar. Also, the posts will not be colored, despite the rumors as of late.

The financial benefit here is clear and the company’s got every right to be excited. I mean, exploiting narcissism by charging for transmitting meaningless musings puts it in line with most mainstream radio and TV stations. Directly charging individuals for statuses should be considered a beneficial contribution to the society, were it not for the fact that someone’s gotta read ‘em. But will it pay? Are you kidding me? Bucketloads.

More here.