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Facebook redesigns its news feed -- again
In a never-ending bid to make its news feed easier to use, Facebook has changed its look yet again. For one thing, the font will now be in Helvetica for Macs and Arial for PCs, which will make it look a lot like the fonts already in use elsewhere on your computer. Further, different shared stories will no longer have indentations when a friend leaves a comment, and will instead be separated out into its own post for the sake of a less messy interface. The left-hand column, previously cluttered with icons, is now much lighter and cleaner. Lastly, shared photos will now be in full-width, while multiple photos will be presented in a collage. The roll out begins today, so keep hitting refresh -- hopefully you'll get to see it before Facebook's next round of redesigns. Update: As Re/code explains it, this latest redesign is a result of poor testing of the design it showed off last March. That particular look was only rolled out to a small percentage of users, almost all of whom disliked it, which prompted a complete UI rethink. Therefore if the left-hand column above doesn't look all that different to you, it's because you never received last year's redesign in the first place. The primary difference that you'll see in the latest redesign is that the photos on your news feed will be much bigger.
Facebook's News Feed: now with more relevant and oft-commented articles, fewer meme photos
Ahh, News Feed, the lifeblood of Facebook, a river rife with baby and puppy pictures, plus countless status updates and shared articles. Today, Facebook has updated the Feed once again to percolate more (and more relevant) news article in your feed. Why the change? As usual, you, the users have informed the Social Network of the need to do so through your clicks -- which told FB that most folks would rather see content about current events and favorite sports teams than the latest third-party meme photo making the rounds. And, your Feed will also start showing up to three related articles to ones that are shared to make it easier to dive deeper into article topics you enjoy. Lastly, Facebook will uprank articles that garner a lot of comments, so that you'll know exactly what stories are so hot right now. You dig? There's more about Facebooks News Feed decision-making process at the source below.
Facebook developing brain-like AI to find deeper meaning in feeds and photos
Facebook's current News Feed ranking isn't all that clever -- it's good at surfacing popular updates, but it can miss lower-profile updates that are personally relevant. The company may soon raise the News Feed's IQ, however, as it recently launched an artificial intelligence research group. The new team hopes to use deep learning AI, which simulates a neural network, to determine which posts are genuinely important. The technology could also sort a user's photos, and it might even select the best shots. While the AI work has only just begun, the company tells MIT Technology Review that it should release some findings to the public; those breakthroughs in social networking could help society as a whole.
Facebook tweaks News Feed, adds new algorithm to serve up high quality content
The usefulness of Facebook's News Feed ranking algorithm may not be universally agreed upon, but the social network's dedication to improving it is unquestionable. Today, FB has updated that ranking system with a newly developed algorithm meant to better surface "high quality content" from pages users are connected to at the top of News Feed. To do so, the algorithm makes determinations about what content is timely, relevant, from trusted sources and is likely to be shared -- and also identifying content that users complain about seeing or attempts to "game News Feed" distribution with solicited likes. These signals were informed by the results from surveying a few thousand users, and after implementation in a small scale test, Facebook found folks sharing, liking and commenting on more stories, and hiding fewer of them. As such, we can all expect to see the update in the next few weeks, so brace for a Facebook flood of insightful stories, funny cat videos, or whatever else it is you're into.
Facebook explains its News Feed post ranking process, rolls out story bumping feature to improve UX
Have a love/hate relationship with your Facebook news feed? Sure, that feed serves up plenty of photos and posts from friends and family that you want to see, but there are also plenty of posts you could do with out, or posts you wish had been assigned greater importance. Facebook knows this, and is constantly tinkering and iterating its news feed post ranking processes to provide the most relevant stories possible to each individual user. To that end, Facebook's rolling out a new feature, called story bumping, to better percolate the stuff you care about to the top of your feed. Story bumping has already been launched on the web, and will be rolling out to mobile in the coming weeks. Previously, Facebook evaluated the most recent posts on the social network by assigning each post a score based upon a series of factors including: number of likes and comments, the relationship between you and the poster, the type of content, etc. Using those signals, Facebook runs them through a proprietary algorithm to determine a post's score. News feed then displays the posts with the highest score at the top of the feed. However, this method often resulted in relevant posts being relegated below the fold, and those posts would forever be lost in the never-ending social story avalanche. Story bumping provides a way for such posts to be seen by tweaking the recency logic previously used. Instead of picking from the most recent posts, the system now looks for the most recent posts that have not been viewed by the user, so that those older, yet relevant posts get a second crack at showing up in the top of your feed.
Facebook to ask users why they hide News Feed content
Hiding posts on Facebook has been a pretty simple affair, but the firm's gearing up to add a little more nuance. Instead of simply dismissing updates or sponsored stories, the social network will soon ask users why they decided to banish them from their News Feed. Details on how the feature will work are still MIA, but it could very well function like the site's advertisement hiding feature, which asks if ads are uninteresting, misleading or otherwise unpleasant. Naturally, giving the outfit the extra intel will allow it to serve up content and ads that better please your palate. Facebook's Product Manager for Ads Fidji Simo told ABC News that it'll start testing the tweaks soon, and users should start seeing them surface within the next three to four months. In the meantime, feel free to hide posts without answering to Zuck.
Yahoo, Twitter partnership brings tweets to your newsfeed
The ever-changing web portal that is Yahoo under Marissa Mayer will receive its next tweak with help from Twitter. In addition to providing summarized stories, Yahoo newsfeed will soon include occasional tweets based on your interests. Folks in the US can expect to see the change in the coming days across desktop and mobile versions of Yahoo -- just try to keep your excitement contained to 140 characters.
Facebook explains how the fresh News Feed came to be: a deck of cards
Facebook made a sharp break from tradition when it unveiled the simplified News Feed, but how did it get there? As the social network's Jane Justice Leibrock has just explained, it was as simple as shuffling cards. Well, almost. Leibrock gave focus group subjects a stack of cards reflecting their recent social updates and asked them to pick the cream of the crop as well as sort the rest into groups. The results led to the filtered approach that's rolling out now: users tend to gravitate toward specific categories such as close friends, photos and direct interests, rather than piling everything together. As often as people accuse Facebook of launching surprise changes, it's clear that the News Feed revamp involved at least some deliberation.
Facebook freshens up News Feed, brings bigger images, feed filtering and a uniform cross-platform UX
We knew Facebook had something new planned for its News Feed, and today at an event at Facebook HQ in Menlo Park, the company confirmed those rumors. As suspected, the new feed filters content by type to display whatever specific feed you choose (be it photos, music, games, etc.), plus it presents even larger images and bigger advertisements. The new layout also serves to better highlight Pages users have liked in a more central and easier to access area, and provides info pulled in by services linked to folks' Facebook IDs.The desktop FB site's not the only beneficiary of the new layout, as the Social Network is also bringing these features to its mobile apps as well to provide a consistent experience across platforms. And, the best part is it starts rolling out today to a select few, with a wider rollout to follow once all the kinks have been worked out.%Gallery-181038% Why the change? Well, Mark Zuckerberg said that the goal for News Feed is to "give everyone in the world the best personalized newspaper we can," and making it more visually engaging will help Facebook reach that goal. You see, almost 50 percent of the content in News Feed is now photos, and almost 30 percent of content comes from Pages. Want to know more? There's more info about the changes after the break.
Facebook reportedly launching new 'content-specific' news feeds
We've already had one major Facebook press event this year for the launch of Open Graph personalized search features but according to TechCrunch, another one later this week will herald the arrival of a revamped news feed. The new main page will filter content by type to pull out photos, music, with larger images overall and larger images for advertisements. The mockup shown above is based on information distilled from various sources that indicates the social network's plan is to put currently buried feeds like Pages users have liked in a more central and easier to access area, along with information pulled in by the ever expanding number of services linked to one's Facebook ID. What isn't confirmed however, according to the TechCrunch rumor are revamp views for the mobile apps, despite the company's stated plan to go "mobile best" in 2013. Hit the source link for more details on how your mother will be keeping tabs on you in the near future.
Facebook brings bigger images and text to its news feed, because size does matter
Not long after hooking up its mobile site and apps with a minor facelift, Facebook's reportedly planning to bring a similar redesign to its full-sized website. According to our friends over at TechCrunch, the changes will be nearly identical to those we saw on the mobile front, meaning you'll be able see bigger photos (up to twice as large) and text pop up on your cherished news feed. The light, but plentiful revamp is expected to hit users over the next few days, so don't feel like the odd one out if you've yet to spot any tweaks. Now, if only you had that SimCity Social to help pass the time while you patiently wait...
Facebook lets advertisers easily buy mobile-only ads, our news feeds feel slightly unclean
Facebook's fistfuls of cash come almost exclusively from advertising, but virtually none of it comes from mobile. Much to its delight and our chagrin, that's changing. Prospective advertisers now only need to use the social network's ready-made ad interface and Power Editor to back a sponsored news feed story on mobile devices, instead of getting the explicit say-so from Facebook. It's not open season on Facebook's mobile apps: we won't see dating ads rear their pretty heads in Facebook Camera anytime soon. All the same, it does mean the social stream on your HTC Status will be a bit less than pristine from now on.
One more place to play Farmville or one more reason to quit Facebook?
Perhaps there aren't enough places for you to play Words With Friends or FrontierVille, who are we to judge? Maybe what the world needs right now is playable Angry Birds in your Facebook news feed. Instead of just an invitation to join Cow Clicker, maybe you need to be able to play it straight from the homepage. Well, now you can. And that's all we have to say about that.
Facebook adds real-time 'ticker' to overhauled news feed, donates old layout to science (video)
Facebook is about to turn your social life into an online newspaper. That's the takeaway from a new slate of changes the company unveiled yesterday, ahead of its annual f8 developer conference in San Francisco. From now on, if you log in to Facebook after a lengthy hiatus, your news feed -- much like the front page of a daily paper -- will consist of a list of "top stories," photos and updates that were posted while you were away, with each high-priority item tagged with a blue earmark. More frequent users, on the other hand, will find a list of most recent stories presented in chronological order, along with larger photos embedded directly within their news feed. The company has also introduced a new "ticker" feature that provides users with real-time updates on their friends' activity, displayed along the right-hand side of the home page. Here, you'll find the exact same updates you'd see on a real-time news feed, with the crucial difference being that you'll be able to interact with each development without missing a beat. If you see that a friend comments on a cat video, for example, you'll be able to click that item in the ticker and add your two cents, without having to navigate away from the home screen. Facebook will likely provide more details on these new features at its f8 tomorrow, but you can find more information in the demo video, after the break.
Facebook for iPhone can now change its news feed appearance instantly
The official Facebook client for the iPhone was updated recently and one salient change was an improved News feed. On the surface, the news feed changes appeared minimal, but behind the scenes Facebook re-worked the background mechanism that pulls in this status information. According to Inside Facebook, the iPhone client reportedly now pulls its News Feed information from Facebook's mobile website, m.facebook.com. This server-side mechanism lets the social network make changes to the News Feed without modifying a single line of code on the device. All changes can be made to the backend server and reflected on the iPhone instantly. This system lets Facebook update their app without pushing a new version through the App Store for approval and lets it respond to feature requests and complaints at a faster rate. Pretty cool, eh?
Get your notifications: experimental Mac app from Facebook
Mac-using Facebook fans are going to be happy to learn about Facebook's experimental Desktop Notifications app. Desktop Notifications sits in the menu bar, and pops up notifications (using Growl if you have it) when they occur. It also gives you quick access to your news feed, profile page, and quick ways to update your status or start a new Facebook email message. There are two things about Desktop Notifications that are compelling, yet have nothing to do with the app itself. The first is the fact that it's a native Mac application, rather than yet another Facebook client written on Adobe Air. The second is that it was actually developed by Facebook themselves [Update] Thanks to Raul and Nate for pointing out in the comments that the application is marked as "not developed by Facebook", though one of the developers listed works for Facebook. It's unclear at this point how serious this project is; it's clearly marked as experimental, which is clearly becoming the post-Gmail way of denoting that something is beta. In terms of raw functionality, Desktop Notifications is pretty barebones, since most of what it does is take you to a particular Facebook page. Personally I kind of like it that way. It's relatively light in terms of memory usage, and uses virtually no CPU cycles at all unless you are actively interacting with it, which is exactly what I want from a utility that is running all the time. My one beef is that the built-in hotkey that pops up a status update dialog box conflicts with another utility on my system, and there is no way to modify it. Since Desktop Notifications is still in the experimental stage, that's a pretty small complaint. [Update] Commenter Scott points out that there is a preference setting to change the hotkey. [via TechCrunch]
