Facebook, the world's biggest social network released a controversial list entitled "The Most Shared Articles of 2011" which was accepted with mixed responses.

"The Most Shared Articles of 2011" list talks about the most talked-about stories for the year 2011. Malorie Lucich, a representative for Facebook explained the ranking method stating that "We (Facebook) looked for articles with the most likes, shares and referral traffic." Though that is the case, the list that Facebook released was not based on these criteria. According to Andrew Montaleni, a software developer and the co-founder of Parse.ly, a website analytics company mentioned that the "share" feature of Facebook is different from the "like" feature. Montaleni further explained it saying that "When a user 'likes' something, it's simply a one-click action ... you click the 'Like' button and that's it. When they 'share' something, it's usually a multi-step action (you can share it with comments, for example, in which case it will appear as an entry on your wall and in your friend's news feeds)."

The controversy sorrounding this list is not only because of how this list was derived but because there are certain "intriguing news stories of the year" that was reported by other news organizations not in the list. These news organizations include FoxNews.com, MSNBC, AOL, etc. Facebook described the list as "the stories range from cute to thought provoking and represent the type of news people have been sharing and discovering with friends in 2011."

Here are the top 10 most shared stories according to Facebook:

  1. Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami (New York Times)
  2. What teachers really want to tell parents (CNN)
  3. No, your zodiac sign hasn't changed (CNN)
  4. Parents, don't dress your girls like tramps (CNN)
  5. Father Daughter Dance Medley (video) (Yahoo)
  6. At funeral, dog mourns the death of Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan (Yahoo)
  7. You'll freak when you see the new Facebook (CNN)
  8. Dog in Japan stays by the side of ailing friend in the rubble (Yahoo)
  9. Giant crocodile captured alive in Philippines (Yahoo)
  10. New Zodiac Sign Dates: Ophiuchus The 13th Sign? (The Huffington Post)