Facebook Inc is testing a feature that lets users of the social network create "wishlists" of home furnishings, clothing and other retail products, laying the groundwork for what some believe could be an eventual push into e-commerce.

Facebook said it is working with seven retailers, including Pottery Barn and Victoria's Secret, to test the new feature that will allow certain users to flag images of desired products by clicking a special "want" button.

"People will be able to engage with these collections and share things they are interested in with their friends. People can click through and buy these items off of Facebook," Facebook said in a statement.

The feature, which Facebook has dubbed Collections, could help Facebook play a bigger role in the online commerce market by encouraging its 1 billion users to buy products for their friends and by sending shoppers directly to online stores.

A Facebook spokeswoman said the company does not receive a fee when someone purchases a wishlist item on Facebook from a retailer's site.

But Robert W. Baird analyst Colin Sebastian said the new Collections feature could open up new sources of revenue for Facebook, whose stock has taken a drubbing as concerns about its long-term money-making prospects have mounted.

"E-commerce is one of the best ways to monetize the Internet," said Sebastian.

"Thinking about how large they are as a platform and how engaged people are, there are lots of levers they haven't pulled yet in terms of monetization," he said. In addition to potentially collecting a transaction fee for referring users to an e-commerce site, Sebastian said that retailers might also pay Facebook to promote products featured on users' wishlists, similar to the way the Facebook's current ads function.

Shares of Facebook, finished Monday's regular session down 2.4 percent at $20.40. Earlier on Monday, BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield downgraded Facebook to a "Sell" rating.

In a note to investors, Greenfield cited concerns about the company's advertising business, particularly Facebook's nascent efforts to expand the business onto the mobile devices that its users increasingly access the service from.

Facebook's new Collections feature will gradually be offered to 100 percent of its U.S. users, Facebook said.

Some users will see the "want" button as part of the test, while others will see a button inviting them to "collect" an item or to "like" an item.

Unlike Facebook's existing "like" button, the feature that Facebook is testing will showcase the "liked" item within a user's Timeline profile page.

Facebook is also testing the Collections feature with Neiman Marcus, Michael Kors, Smith Optics, Wayfair and Fab.com.

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Slow and steady wins the race is history. The need for speed is the need of the hour not just for techies, but users everywhere. Facebook has finally realised this fact and updated its iOS client to version 5, which has bid adieu to HTML 5 and says hello to Objective-C.

The social networking app is now twice as fast with Photos, News Feed and the app itself launching quicker than ever. With this update, iPad users can now access the Timeline profile view.

The app has been built from scratch over the past nine months to bring a major performance improvement. We take a detailed look at what's new under the hood.

Now when you launch the app, it opens in the blink of an eye as opposed to earlier when you would continue to stare at the logo for a couple of seconds at least. It directly opens into the News Feed, which is more responsive and speedier than before. The navigation bar now slides out with a punch.

All the options in the sidebar like Messages, Events, Groups, App Center and others now load smoother and faster. Coming to News Feed, you can now scroll through stories in a breeze. The refresh rate is faster too. If you're in the midst of reading stories, new updates published by friends will appear in a banner on top of the screen as "New Stories". A "New Comments" bar will also show up immediately when you're browsing though individual posts.

Photos is another area where the app truly delivers. Apart from the fact that Photos now load faster, elements from Facebook's standalone Camera app are clearly visible when it comes to both form and function. The base shows options to like, comment and tag photos. For single-handed use, you can now simply swipe down to return to the previous screen.

Messages got a whole new look and its safe to say that it now functions just like Facebook Messenger. The interface and other features are a ditto version of the Messenger app including the ability to share photos and your location.

There's no doubt that the speedier app will be highly appreciated by millions of Facebook users. In case you've been neglecting the app for its painfully slow load times and crippled speed, we suggest you befriend Facebook in its all new faster native iOS avatar.

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Facebook Inc has proposed a revised $20 million settlement in a class action lawsuit accusing it of violating the rights of users through its "Sponsored Stories" advertising feature after a U.S. judge rejected an earlier accord.

The new settlement agreement, filed Saturday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, drops provisions setting aside up to $10 million for plaintiffs lawyers' fees and allows users to apply for a cash payment of up to $10 each.

U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg rejected an initial settlement proposal on August 17 after questioning why the agreement provided no cash for Facebook users.

The initial agreement provided no money to class members and instead set aside $10 million to be given to charities involved in Internet privacy issues.

The new agreement, which is also subject to Seeborg's approval, allows for some of the funds to go to charity, but only if there is any left after users' claims, attorneys fees and other expenses are met.

But given the size of the class, the charities might still get some cash. The agreement provides that, if it is not economically feasible to pay all the users a cut, the court may designate the entire fund as going to the charities.

The proposed settlement covers nearly 125 million people, court documents show. The $20 million equates to less than 2 cents per class member.

"We believe the revised settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate and responds to the issues raised previously by the court," Andrew Noyes, a Facebook spokesman, said on Monday.

Richard Arnes, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Filed in 2011, the lawsuit alleged that the social networking site's "Sponsored Stories" feature violated California law by publicizing users' "likes" of advertisers without any compensation or a way to opt-out.

As part of both settlement proposals, Facebook also agreed to give users more control over how their names and likenesses are used.

Facebook's revised agreement also provides new terms on targeting children.

Facebook said it agreed to encourage new users to designate who else on the site is a member of their family. Parents will be able to directly have their children opt-out of the Sponsored Stories feature once their relationship to the child is confirmed.

Facebook also now has a right to object to plaintiffs lawyers' fee applications, unlike the earlier settlement agreement. It was unclear how much the plaintiffs lawyers would seek with the new settlement.

Facebook shares closed at $20.40 on Monday, down about 2.4 percent.

The case is Fraley v. Facebook Inc., U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 11-1726.

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