Facebook getting ready to change News Feed
NEW YORK (AP) — Amid chatter of "Facebook fatigue," real or imagined, the world's biggest social networking company is getting ready to unveil a new version of News Feed, the flow of status updates, photos and advertisements its users see on the site.
Facebook Inc. is hosting an event at its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters on Thursday to show off "a new look for News Feed." The company offered no other details on what the changes will be in an invitation sent to journalists and bloggers. It will be Facebook's second staged event at its headquarters since the company's May initial public offering. The company unveiled a search feature at the first one in January.
If past site changes are any indication, the News Feed tweaks may take some getting used to and will likely lead to user grumbles. Facebook users often complain about changes to the site, whether it's cosmetic tweaks or the overhaul of privacy settings.
Gartner analyst Brian Blau says one change he'd like to see from Facebook as a user is the ability to control how much he's seeing from the businesses and other non-friend accounts he follows. Currently users can only tweak how much they see from their friends, not from businesses they follow.
"We have a 'like' but there is no degree of 'like,' it's binary," he says. "I need a 'like plus' or even a 'like minus.'"
The event comes a month after a Pew study reported that many Facebook users take a break from the site for weeks at a time. The report, from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, found that some 61 percent of Facebook users had taken a hiatus for reasons that range from boredom to too much irrelevant information to Lent.
Overall, though, Facebook's user base is growing, especially on mobile devices. At last count it had 1.06 billion active monthly accounts. The number of people who access Facebook daily is also on the rise.
That said, even the company has acknowledged that some of its users, especially the younger ones, are migrating to substitutes, but so far this has not meant an overall decline in user numbers.
"For example, we believe that some of our users have reduced their engagement with Facebook in favor of increased engagement with other products and services such as Instagram," the company said last month in the "risk factors" of its annual 10-K filing. "In the event that our users increasingly engage with other products and services, we may experience a decline in user engagement and our business could be harmed."
Facebook owns Instagram, but so far it has not shown any ads on it.
Facebook Inc. is hosting an event at its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters on Thursday to show off "a new look for News Feed." The company offered no other details on what the changes will be in an invitation sent to journalists and bloggers. It will be Facebook's second staged event at its headquarters since the company's May initial public offering. The company unveiled a search feature at the first one in January.
If past site changes are any indication, the News Feed tweaks may take some getting used to and will likely lead to user grumbles. Facebook users often complain about changes to the site, whether it's cosmetic tweaks or the overhaul of privacy settings.
Gartner analyst Brian Blau says one change he'd like to see from Facebook as a user is the ability to control how much he's seeing from the businesses and other non-friend accounts he follows. Currently users can only tweak how much they see from their friends, not from businesses they follow.
"We have a 'like' but there is no degree of 'like,' it's binary," he says. "I need a 'like plus' or even a 'like minus.'"
The event comes a month after a Pew study reported that many Facebook users take a break from the site for weeks at a time. The report, from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, found that some 61 percent of Facebook users had taken a hiatus for reasons that range from boredom to too much irrelevant information to Lent.
Overall, though, Facebook's user base is growing, especially on mobile devices. At last count it had 1.06 billion active monthly accounts. The number of people who access Facebook daily is also on the rise.
That said, even the company has acknowledged that some of its users, especially the younger ones, are migrating to substitutes, but so far this has not meant an overall decline in user numbers.
"For example, we believe that some of our users have reduced their engagement with Facebook in favor of increased engagement with other products and services such as Instagram," the company said last month in the "risk factors" of its annual 10-K filing. "In the event that our users increasingly engage with other products and services, we may experience a decline in user engagement and our business could be harmed."
Facebook owns Instagram, but so far it has not shown any ads on it.
Too many changes for us seniors.
How about better customer service, security and why can not they just give a damn what we think?
I want music and pretty layouts like Myspace had.
no like feature and id like to be able to delete my own comments and posts permanently
I would really like it if they would do away with all those pictures that say "Like if you do.... or ignore if you don't" or those people who make pictures up just to get a million or so likes. Drives me crazy and you have to weed through all of those just to see a friends status!
i want a dislike button for sure!
the 1 dollar charge .. If i am looking for some one from my past i do not want to pay one dollar to every one i contact...
Defiantly don't make it at all like MySpace!
Get rid of all the games everyone complains about all the time!
AGAIN??
Personally, I would like to know that if I delete my account, it is all really deleted. The fact that they archive everything...every minor detail is disconcerting.
Ability to set up your page with backgrounds and html stuff like you can on my space
get rid of the new $1 charge for sending an email to someone that is not your friend....that is annoying and rediculous
Anna Rentz, that's a very specific example, did this actually happen to you? as for what I'd change about facebook...I don't really know of any substantial contributions I can think of off the top of my head, mostly just frivolous crap or things like making facebook switch back to facebook version 1.0 on april fools day for the people who whine about facebook changes every time...
Honestly people care more about Facebook than the state if our country. And that is simply sad
I don't want people to be able to share photos.....and just to make it more private for people you don't want, or I guess easier to make private.
The side bar can be hidden, once I figured that out it doesn't bother me anymore. One change I would like to see - ever since Facebook created those categories for "close friends" "family" etc. - if I go to that list I find it filled with graphics shared by 1 or 2 people. I don't wish to discourage others from posting as they see fit, but if an infrequent FB user does post, it gets buried before I can see it. My suggestion is, when you click on one of those categories, it should show the name of the person just once, followed by a brief "one line per item" list of what they posted, so you can decide which items you want to read. That way if your cousin who seldom visits FB posts that he's getting married, you'll see his name just as clearly as you do the people who "hog" FB space.
If you don't like the adds use the Google Chrome browser and add on the extensions called Adblock and Adblock Plus. Poof, all annoying adds are gone . . . all for free.
Theres always that one person.... -_-
That seems like an odd thing to "love".
I love it when Facebook changes, and people FREAK out over minor changes to a free service that they are in no way obliged to.
you can tell it confuses a lot of people who see it in their feed too, from comments on pictures & whatnot from people thinking someone who "liked" it actually posted it & they post a comment talking to them...
What Shelby said^. I hate that people automatically get to see in that side feed whenever I comment on a public page. The side bar is ridiculous, I look up there right now and see that one of my friends just added someone, that another like some pages photo, that another made a comment on a public page etc etc.. None of that are things that I need to know, but I don't want to change all the settings I have for them because I want them to show in my actual feed. That and If I like a page, I want to see it in my feed, I had that Facebook filters what we see, we should be able to have total control over that.
would be nice if each person posting could control whether their friends list sees every public comment or like in their feed or not. instead of the person seeing it controlling whether they see it or not.
Buy a no ads version
That it would stop changing all the time.
Put a "throat punch" button in
a "dislike" button
Where it doesn't automatically like things for you because it looks like you might be interested.
If its not broken leave it a lone.
Nothing...why do they have to keep changing it? The changes are so annoying I spend less time using it. They should leave well enough alone and stop jacking it up. Oh and stop charging for things like messages. How come it is the rich people who always get greedy for more?
Delete it.
I'd give people their privacy back. Facebook has become way too open. I don't need or want to know when my friends and family like on someone else's page...and I sure don't want people seeing what I'm liking all the time. Or commenting on.
they keep changing it and changing it and it just takes longer and longer to check all your friends messages and to look in all the categories they have us stick them under..was better and easier in the beginning.
ads*
Require an IQ test
A dislike button
Take out the annoying add from companies I haven't liked or subscribed to.
Leave it alone...... if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Something Microsoft desperately needs to be aware of.
My friends list lol