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The biggest new feature in the
news feed is the option to filter posts by category. Users can view only
updates from friends or the latest from the pages they follow.
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Facebook updates its news feed
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Facebook has redesigned the news feed to fill more of the main page
- Web version of Facebook will look much more like the mobile app
- New categories have been added for music and photos
- Update will begin rolling out Thursday; revised apps are coming in the next few weeks
The social media site,
which has more than 1 billion users, on Thursday announced a newly
redesigned news feed that blows up photos and visual content, and adds
categories that focus on specific types of content. The Web version of
the social network now looks much more like the mobile apps, which are
also getting a revamping.
Facebook announced the
changes during a media event at its headquarters in Menlo Park,
California. The new Web version will roll out slowly to users starting
Thursday, and updated iOS and Android apps will be available in the
coming weeks.
Chief Executive Mark
Zuckerberg compared the revamped feed to a local newspaper and the new
channels to the traditional sections, such as sports and business, you'd
find there.
Facebook unveils redesigned news feed
"I think that there's this important and social place in this world for this customized newspaper," Zuckerberg said.
He didn't note the irony of comparing Facebook to an industry that his site and others are marginalizing.
The news feed is the
first, and sometimes only, page people see when they log on to the
Facebook website or fire up a Facebook mobile app. The nerve center of
the Facebook experience, the news feed fills the middle of this home
screen with updates, photos, articles and other content and activity
from your friends, such as likes and app updates. Interspersed among
that somewhat-chronological content are posts from pages you follow and
targeted ads.
The main page, which
Facebook is calling the "front page" to go with its newspaper metaphor,
is adding categories so people can look at a more narrow feed of
specific types of content as an alternative to the all-in-one view.
There are views for all friends, most recent, close friends, music,
photos, games and following.
Photos will show every single image your friends post as well as the photos posted by the pages you follow, including
anything shared to Facebook from Instagram. The music channel will show
a combination of nearby concerts, feeds from musicians you follow and
the songs friends are listing to with third-party apps such as Spotify.
The channels will appear on the mobile apps and Web versions of
Facebook.
"Everyone's going to
start on the front page like they do today. This just gives people more
power to dig into the topics they care about," Zuckerberg said.
The individual elements
that populate the news feed have been redesigned to fill the page
better, the company maintains. Text is taking a back seat to visual
content, which now makes up almost 30% of the content in the news feed,
according to Zuckerberg. Photos, videos and albums are bigger. Shared
articles show a bigger image and larger summary along with a logo for
the publisher. Content in the feed about individuals and pages will
show a little slice of their timeline, including their cover photo and a
button to add them as a friend or to like the page. Maps and posts for
third-party apps such as Pinterest have also been cleaned up.
Previously, the news
feed occupied less than 40% of the real estate on the Facebook home
page, according to Julie Zhuo, Facebook's director of design. To cut
down on clutter and give the feed more room to breathe, navigation
elements on the left have been slimmed down to a narrow black column of
icons, similar to the mobile interface.
One thing that's not
changing is the algorithm that decides what posts are displayed in a
feed, which has received some criticism. Zuckerberg defended the
practice of not showing a full and complete chronological feed of all
content, saying people benefit from more important content, such as
major life events, being given a more prominent place in their feeds.
The filters might be
great for users, but they could have a negative effect on companies that
have sunk money into promoting their pages and gathering fans, said one
analyst. Those fans can switch to a more narrow feed of just their
friends (or music content or photos) that doesn't include brand pages,
potentially making it more difficult for companies to reach their
followers.
"It's going to continue
to erode the value of companies having Facebook pages and fans," said
Forrester analyst Nate Elliott. "Facebook is walking a really fine line,
they're not providing enough value."
Ads will still be
featured on the friends-only feeds, so companies and brands that want to
reach people who switch to those views can by buying advertising from
Facebook. Elliot says this could be interpreted as a "bait and switch"
by marketers.
Ads -- which are included in the redesign -- are Facebook's primary source of income. The company made $4.2
billion off advertising in 2012, which accounted for 82% of the social
network's total revenue, according to Engadget. Most of that ad money
comes from the Web version of Facebook, and 23% was from ads on mobile
devices.
The company may get
money from advertisers, but it needs to keep the users who click on
those ads engaged, active and happy on the network.
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