By: iPadfanzz staff on March 8, 2013
Facebook has introduced a completely redesigned News Feed, featuring larger images, a mobile-inspired design that’s consistent across devices, and specialized feeds focusing on photos, music, photos, games, people you follow and all of your friends. The focus on photos is expected to make the social network ad-friendly and is aimed towards enticing people to spend more time of the website.
Announcing about the changes, CEO Mark Zuckerberg likened Facebook’s new News Feed to a “personalized newspaper.” The design and feel of the newsfeed has been kept unchanged and gives a dynamic look and additional controls to users to sort and stream photos and other stud into more organized sections of their personal interests.
The changes were done after users’ complaints that Facebook's hub - the News Feed - is degenerating into a jumble of monotonous musings and disjointed pictures. This would have been obvious due to a large section of people having a wide assortment of friends, family, businesses, celebrities, co-workers and fleeting acquaintances.
To execute the results, Facebook took a more nuanced approach than the computer-generated algorithms that the company has been relying on to pick out the most relevant content to display in each user's News Feed. Another reason that prompted the company to focus more on photos were the growing usage of tablets and smartphones wherein users use the device’s camera to display photos and video.
The changes comes soon after the company launched a new social search feature called “graph search” that makes easier for its users to discover more content on the social network.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hopes the makerover turns the News Feed into something like a newspaper tailored to fit the particular interests of each user.
"This gives people more power to dig deeper into the topics they care about," Zuckerberg said while discussing the makeover at Facebook's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters.
Given that images make 50 per cent of total feed content, Zuckerberg said, the company delivered much larger photos, with overlaid text and slightly rounded corners.
Another prominent feature is the prominent left sidebar, which now manages both navigational elements and Facebook’s chat features atop a smooth, slightly pushed back dark-gray background. At the same time, the right sidebar gets lost in the background.
The new redesign significantly improves how we consume the content, and possibly lesser clicks to search for the information. This also means that users won’t go away easily once they find the information placed on a proper stack.
Other subtle small changes include the collapse of the right sidebar navigation as you scroll down the feed to make room for ads. Further, “New Story” alerts which pop up at the top of the page are nice.
Although Zuckerberg didn't mention it, the makeover will give way to show larger and more compelling ads within the News Feed given that the company is looking to boost its revenue and stock price.
Given the earlier unfavourable response from its users, the company is now planning to roll out the changes in phases. It will take at least six months before everyone who accesses Facebook on a personal computer sees the revamped News Feed, the company said. New mobile applications featuring the changes should be released within the same time frame.
The new features will also enable users to choose to see streams of content that feature only photos or posts from their closest friends, family members or favorite businesses. Or they can just display content about music, or sports, as if they were grabbing a section of a newspaper.
The company believed the changes would make it a more fun place to hang out. The changes also assume importance given the younger folks losing interest in the site. A phenomenon, known as "Facebook Fatigue," was recently documented in a report from Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project.
Recap: The News Feed will incorporate these new changes:
1. All Friends: A feed that shows you everything your friends are sharing from status messages to links etc.
2. Photos: A feed with nothing but photos from your friends and the Pages you like on Facebook.
3. Music: A feed with posts about the music you listen to, music that your friends listen to, information about your favourite artists and what they share on Facebook.
4. This is what the new News Feed looks like. Screengrab via Facebook.
5. Following: This feed with the latest news from the Pages you like, celebrities, and other important people you follow on Facebook.
6. Bigger, bigger photos on the site.
7. Same design across the board
8. Third Party content will get more prominent.
Facebook has introduced a completely redesigned News Feed, featuring larger images, a mobile-inspired design that’s consistent across devices, and specialized feeds focusing on photos, music, photos, games, people you follow and all of your friends. The focus on photos is expected to make the social network ad-friendly and is aimed towards enticing people to spend more time of the website.
This is how the new Feed will look like
Announcing about the changes, CEO Mark Zuckerberg likened Facebook’s new News Feed to a “personalized newspaper.” The design and feel of the newsfeed has been kept unchanged and gives a dynamic look and additional controls to users to sort and stream photos and other stud into more organized sections of their personal interests.
The changes were done after users’ complaints that Facebook's hub - the News Feed - is degenerating into a jumble of monotonous musings and disjointed pictures. This would have been obvious due to a large section of people having a wide assortment of friends, family, businesses, celebrities, co-workers and fleeting acquaintances.
To execute the results, Facebook took a more nuanced approach than the computer-generated algorithms that the company has been relying on to pick out the most relevant content to display in each user's News Feed. Another reason that prompted the company to focus more on photos were the growing usage of tablets and smartphones wherein users use the device’s camera to display photos and video.
The changes comes soon after the company launched a new social search feature called “graph search” that makes easier for its users to discover more content on the social network.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hopes the makerover turns the News Feed into something like a newspaper tailored to fit the particular interests of each user.
"This gives people more power to dig deeper into the topics they care about," Zuckerberg said while discussing the makeover at Facebook's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters.
Given that images make 50 per cent of total feed content, Zuckerberg said, the company delivered much larger photos, with overlaid text and slightly rounded corners.
Another prominent feature is the prominent left sidebar, which now manages both navigational elements and Facebook’s chat features atop a smooth, slightly pushed back dark-gray background. At the same time, the right sidebar gets lost in the background.
The new redesign significantly improves how we consume the content, and possibly lesser clicks to search for the information. This also means that users won’t go away easily once they find the information placed on a proper stack.
The old News Feed
Other subtle small changes include the collapse of the right sidebar navigation as you scroll down the feed to make room for ads. Further, “New Story” alerts which pop up at the top of the page are nice.
Although Zuckerberg didn't mention it, the makeover will give way to show larger and more compelling ads within the News Feed given that the company is looking to boost its revenue and stock price.
Given the earlier unfavourable response from its users, the company is now planning to roll out the changes in phases. It will take at least six months before everyone who accesses Facebook on a personal computer sees the revamped News Feed, the company said. New mobile applications featuring the changes should be released within the same time frame.
The new features will also enable users to choose to see streams of content that feature only photos or posts from their closest friends, family members or favorite businesses. Or they can just display content about music, or sports, as if they were grabbing a section of a newspaper.
The company believed the changes would make it a more fun place to hang out. The changes also assume importance given the younger folks losing interest in the site. A phenomenon, known as "Facebook Fatigue," was recently documented in a report from Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project.
Recap: The News Feed will incorporate these new changes:
1. All Friends: A feed that shows you everything your friends are sharing from status messages to links etc.
2. Photos: A feed with nothing but photos from your friends and the Pages you like on Facebook.
3. Music: A feed with posts about the music you listen to, music that your friends listen to, information about your favourite artists and what they share on Facebook.
4. This is what the new News Feed looks like. Screengrab via Facebook.
5. Following: This feed with the latest news from the Pages you like, celebrities, and other important people you follow on Facebook.
6. Bigger, bigger photos on the site.
7. Same design across the board
8. Third Party content will get more prominent.
