Some new users signing up for Facebook are starting to see Pages integrated into the process, including the number of other people who like each Page. The result, for users who select Pages in this interface, is that they’ll see activity from these pages appearing in their news feeds once they finish signing up. This is clearly designed to get people users engaged immediately — and specifically engaged around public topics and brands they’re already interested in.

Most of the options that we’ve seen are celebrities, so we assume that Facebook is optimizing the number of fans around public figures rather than, say, around companies who are trying to market to Facebook users. If you’re a new user, you’ll see this window as the fourth step in the sign-up process.

Other parts of the new interface also show Pages: The second step asks you to enter your high school, your college/university, and your employer. The Pages fill in with actual Official Pages or Community Pages, it appears. While Community Pages don’t have owners, and don’t have a way to publish to the news feed, new users can still go check out the ones via clicking on the links to the added Pages in their personal feed.

One note is that all of these Pages appear to be public by default, something new users may not realize as the fact isn’t disclosed within the sign-up process.