24 October 2009

Facebook Makes New Changes, Controversy Erupts

PC Mag


Facebook on Friday again revamped its homepage, getting rid of its "Highlights" section and instead creating separate tabs for the news feed and real-time events.

When users sign into their accounts, they can select to view either the "News feed" tab or the "Live Feed" tab. The news feed will feature items Facebook believes are of most value to you, while the live feed will list everything that is going on with your friends.

"News Feed picks stories that we think you'll enjoy based on a variety of factors including how many friends have liked and commented on it and how likely you are to interact with that story," Facebook wrote in a blog post.

If you're on the news feed tab, the live feed tab will keep track of how many new posts have been added, much like how the most recent news feed notified you when new posts were added.

Facebook also re-added things to the news feed, like when friends are tagged in photos, when friends become fans of pages or join a group, when they RSVP to events, and when they add friends.

Facebook did away with the Highlights section "to be sure you don't miss other interesting content." The social networking site first introduced the feature during a March re-design that saw a lot of user backlash, though most redesigns have had their critics. The real-time news feed was added in May.

"Some of you may ask why we are changing the home page again. Like you, we know it can be disruptive when things are moved around, but we hope that these changes make Facebook a more valuable experience for you," Facebook said. "We put a lot of thought into all the changes we make to the site and do a lot of testing before releasing anything."

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