Yesterday, Facebook made some changes in what information you receive on your wall by default, and now gives you the option of a News Feed and a Live Feed.
If you’re like many, you log in and just expect to see the latest status updates from friends on your wall. Many were surprised to see what appeared to be ‘old news’ on their wall. It took me a minute to see the Live Feed and News Feed links at the top of the page.
Clicking the Live Feed link provides you the current status update stream, and it auto refreshes (which is nice!).
The News Feed is essentially the old Highlights feature rolled into their new algorithm to create the News Feed and you will see not only status updates from your friends, but also video, images, page suggestions, event RSVPs, friend requests and photo tags.
How Facebook Determines News Feed Content
It’s apparently a popularity contest of sorts, as one part of their algorithm is how many comments that particular content has received.
Here’s a quote from Facebook on the News Feed:
The News Feed algorithm bases this on a few factors: how many friends are commenting on a certain piece of content, who posted the content, and what type of content it is (e.g. photo, video, or status update).
How To Control What Gets Posted in Your News Feed & Live Feed
Just as before, when you mouse-over to the right of a status update title/content, a ‘hide’ option will appear. Click the arrow and that will open up options in this instance:
- Hide your friend entirely from your stream
- Hide just the application they’re using that you prefer not to see
You can read more about the Facebook News Feed on their Help page addressing the most common questions.
As Facebook continues to grow, we should expect to see more such changes. They are trying to keep it fresh and I’m sure address suggestions from users.
Do you like the new News Feed and Live Feed options? Comment below and let me know what you think.
To YOUR Success,
Traci Knoppe
P.S. Do you find you'd rather let someone else handle your web site maintenance tasks for you? Check out Your Web Tech Team Outsourcing Services : We Handle It for You.
About Traci Knoppe
Thanks for the update Traci! I thought something strange was going on!
I do like some of the changes Facebook made with the fan pages as well. Now you can get your vanity link with only 25 fans.
Pretty cool!
.-= Paul Cooley´s last blog ..Business Growth Strategies =-.
Hi Paul – you’re welcome for the update!
I learned about the lowered vanity URL requirement for Facebook fan pages earlier this week. It started out as 25, then they increased it to 100, then apparently they lowered it back to 25 again. Wish they’d make up their minds! LOL
Your explainations help me to understand what’s going on but even so, it’s quite confusing. It’s not clear cut what goes in what section and it seems odd to have old information and new information mixed together without an obvious reason why.
Also, Facebook usually explains their changes but haven’t given links to help understand what they’re doing this time around. They’re making changes but they’re not helping us understand their process.
Honestly I’m still finding my way around Facebook and it still loses me. Kind of like trying to find my way in a labyrinth. I guess I’m so used to Twitter ( easy peasy ). I really have to set some time aside to understand it all. Thanks for the step by step on it.
All the best,
Eren
.-= Eren Mckay´s last blog ..Internet and computer addiction jokes -Top 13 Clues that You’re Addicted =-.
Thanks for the update Traci! I thought something strange was going on!
The News Feeds and Live feeds are all so confusing for me! I love facebook for more of my Friends messages and inputs. Recently my FB notifications shows all sort of notifications now even related to me. Like your “Friend x commented on some y’s wall”…now, why to bother me if my friend x comments on some other (irrelevant to me) person’s wall…With all so many notifications, it’s really difficult to find the ones which are related to me.