I don’t think we are saying radically different things, Bingley. I agree on the primary sense. But FS was correct in drawing attention to the other meaning - it exists, it's out there.

I think there is a clear case of language change going on in front of our eyes on this one - ~oid started out as ‘like or not quite real’ and has gathered a denotation of ‘small’ through repeated connotative association.


Websters merely records the two senses:

Main Entry: fac•toid
Pronunciation: 'fak-"toid
Function: noun
1 : an invented fact believed to be true because of its appearance in print
2 : a brief and usually trivial news item

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=factoid


American Hurtage has an effective marker as a usage note:

NOUN:
1. A piece of unverified or inaccurate information that is presented in the press as factual, often as part of a publicity effort, and that is then accepted as true because of frequent repetition: “What one misses finally is what might have emerged beyond both facts and factoids—a profound definition of the Marilyn Monroe phenomenon” (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt). 2. Usage Problem A brief, somewhat interesting fact.
OTHER FORMS: fac•toid al —ADJECTIVE

USAGE NOTE: The –oid suffix normally imparts the meaning “resembling, having the appearance of” to the words it attaches to. Thus the anthropoid apes are the apes that are most like humans (from Greek anthr pos, “human being”). In some words –oid has a slightly extended meaning—“having characteristics of, but not the same as,” as in humanoid, a being that has human characteristics but is not really human. Similarly, factoid originally referred to a piece of information that appears to be reliable or accurate, as from being repeated so often that people assume it is true. The word still has this meaning in standard usage. Seventy-three percent of the Usage Panel accepts it in the sentence It would be easy to condemn the book as a concession to the television age, as a McLuhanish melange of pictures and factoids which give the illusion of learning without the substance. •Factoid has since developed a second meaning, that of a brief, somewhat interesting fact, that might better have been called a factette. The Panelists have less enthusiasm for this usage, however, perhaps because they believe it to be confusing. Only 43 percent of the panel accepts it in Each issue of the magazine begins with a list of factoids, like how many pounds of hamburger were consumed in Texas last month. Many Panelists prefer terms such as statistics, trivia, useless facts, and just plain facts in this sentence.

http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0007400.html



An architect friend of mine refers with bitter disparagement to "bungaloids", and there is no doubt that he is referring to small domestic habitations scattered in the countryside, with a further connotative connection with haemorrhoids!

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/haemorrhoid?view=uk