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As the uproar over the new Facebook design continues, many are getting used to the new features and trying to effectively navigate through the increased number of stories that pop-up on their homepage daily. I’ve been polling users about their feedback on the new design over the past few days and one thing that continuously pops-up is the comments is a desire to filter out application stories.
Currently Facebook lets users view feed stories based on whether they originated. If you’d like to view all of the stories from a single application you can do that. Want to limit stories to all of your friends in a single friend list? You can do that to. There are still some inherent limitations to the new feed but Facebook has taken a huge step forward.
The Live Feed Becomes the Main Feed Without Streaming
In the previous design, there was a tab called “Live Feed” which let users view a streaming list of all the stories being produced by their friends. That “Live Feed” has become the primary feed for all users except that it doesn’t automatically update without refreshing the page. For the time being I would consider the lack of real-time updates negligible and would guess that it will help Facebook temporarily boost their page views.
What’s important about this redesign is that all users now have completely unfiltered access to their feeds whether or not they like it. This overload of feed content creates an awkward tension for users which would drive them to begin using granular feed filters. I would argue that feed filters will be the most important feature of feeds in the future because they will let each user create their own custom news feed.
Introduction of Granular Feed Filters
Right now Facebook provides a simple “X” to remove individuals and public profiles from our feeds but in reality, we don’t want to remove those people from our feeds. As the image below illustrates, I can remove Howard Lindzon from my feed if he has been tweeting too much about stocks and I’m tired of hearing it (he’d never do something like that though ;)).
This is an extremely inefficient system though because I like some of the things Howard says. So what I’d really like to do is temporarily limit access to his status updates and also remove his Google Reader items for example. Using granular filter settings this is all possible. I’ve created a quick mockup of what it would look like in the image below.
The ability to control what stories you hear about someone is priceless. Not even Twitter or FriendFeed provides such granular filters and in a world of content overload, granular feed filters will be a requirement of any feed service. My guess is that Facebook will be implementing these filters in the very near future as they listen to the feedback from users.
Content Overload Becomes A Thing of the Past
The version of feed filters that I mocked up below are one step above the existing filters but they could theoretically get even more granular. For the time being an application level filter should be sufficient as users begin to train the system about what information they like most. Granular feed filters applied to other news sources will prove to be extremely powerful.
For example, you may like reading news from the New York Times but only their technology section or a specific author. Through settings that are configured by the New York Times you will be able to select which author you like. Currently you can do this through RSS feeds but the reality is that the masses do not know what RSS is and they probably never will.
By starting with content overload, users will be forced to begin applying the filters that are given to them and eventually those feeds will become extremely customized to the point where users will have no option but return to Facebook daily for their custom feed. There’s one big value provided by granular filters: feeds can be opened to developers.
Developers Get What They Want
Developers have been demanding access to Facebook’s feeds for a long time now but Facebook has yet to relent. Mark Zuckerberg has emphasized the company’s commitment to openness and I honestly believe that this openness includes full access to feeds. As long as Facebook is the primary source for a user’s granular feed filters, and those filters are held under lock and key, Facebook and developers can have a win/win situation.
Facebook controls the filters and developers get unfiltered access to the data. Those filters can also be used to improve the advertisements that are displayed to users. If you are a fan of the New York Times but have removed the majority of their content from your feed, the strength of your brand affinity is substantially lower than a user that has unfiltered access to the popular news source.
Being able to measure the strength of brand affinity will add immense value to Facebook advertising.
Everybody Wins With Granular Feed Filters!
With the introduction of granular feed filters developers win with unfiltered access, users win via better applications and a more custom tailored feed, and Facebook wins with priceless user data. In other words there is no option to avoid granular feed filters. I would bet heavily that we will see the introduction of more granular filters over the coming weeks and months as Facebook moves toward complete openness.
Do you think granular feed filters would resolve the majority of complaints you have about the new design?
I want to see more profile updates. That “highlights” section on the right is not enough. That was one of the best things about Facebook before it died. You could see what everyone was doing on their pages. There are no more relationship updates or anything. You really need to creep now to see what your friends are actually doing. Also, I hate that you don’t immediately know the difference between status updates and wall posts when you go to someone’s page. That is a tad ridiculous especially with the new attention to status. Overall, this granular filter thing wouldn’t fix all of the issues I have with Twitterbook. A lot more needs to be fixed before Facebook comes back alive.
“Do you think granular feed filters would resolve the majority of complaints you have about the new design?”
Yes.
@David, I think you jumped the gun. While my image doesn’t show relationship updated, etc, that doesn’t mean these wouldn’t be part of granular feed settings. You will be able to control absolutely everything that you see from individuals’ feeds directly in your main feed.
Absolutely all of a user’s mini-feed stories would be accessible via the main feed if you wanted. It’s totally up to you to select what information is displayed.
Great post. Granulated filters is exactly what Facebook needs, because I’m really tired of seeing all of those quiz apps my friends took.
The only problem is: all those quiz feed posts actually come from different applications, which would mean I need to disable EVERY single quiz app every time a new one comes out.
There’s no easy solution…
I think it’s possible FB overestimated the technical abilities of a majority of Facebook users. Much as I agree your changes would indeed be useful, in my experience most people are unprepared to customise their FB experience to any major degree, whether due to a lack of knowledge or fear of breaking it. We technically-minded folk ride the surf of new tools, methods and applications, but Joe average just bemoans most changes to a familiar interface.
Although FB’s recent changes in my opinion have been unsurprising due to Twitter’s rapid growth, I’m still not sure that they’re for the best. Only time will tell.
The question is, would users use it? My feeling is, eventually, yes. But right now it’s far easier for me to hide you than it is to pick and choose what I want to see.
I’m also a fairly advanced user, I think most users would find it easier to just complain about the overflow of info.
Is it possible to analyze (based on likes) what to show? I think so.
@Tyler @Rob, I think you guys are underestimating users willingness to use granular settings. Then again, I could be overestimating
Granular feed filters would resolve many of my complaints as long as I have the ability to pick which applications to filter on. Right now, I am limited to filtering on the five Facebook apps plus three random apps, none of which I even use or care about. I’d like to be able to filter my feed based on the apps I use or have installed.
I’d also like my Highlights to be filterable. Right now, My Highlights consists mainly of news about users I hide in my feed who use applications I don’t care about. It’s more like Lowlights. Anecdotaly, my friends all report the same thing.
And if I can have a pony, I’d like to be able to apply an outbound feed filter as well as an feed inbound filter. I don’t mind if people come to my wall and see that I used “Send to your friends”, but I don’t think that needs to be in my friends’ feeds. Right now, notifications are all (feed and wall) or nothing, so I turn off all notifications for the vast majority of my apps.
The following aren’t feed issues, but I’m on a roll. How about a wall that is time-ordered? Or selectable story sizes? Filtering the feed is a big issue, but there are still many “improvements” the new layout made that reduced usability.
The old FB of two weeks ago already had some of this filtering in place via the “see more/see less” feature. You could do it for people and/or story types. It’s one of the things I miss most and I’m stunned they removed it.
Your filtering idea takes it one step further, which is great, but the old functionality should return as well.
Being able to filter out certain feed items by person would be a great improvement.
This is also known as FriendFeed.
I’d like to have more granular filters available but I wouldn’t want to see the controls become too complex. I also have my doubts whether users really need controls that are too finely tuned (perhaps this should be an opt-in feature in a settings panel somewhere).
@Nick
I don’t think I’m off the mark (although, I guess I wouldn’t be incentivized to think I’m wrong :), case-in-point: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=15507498&v=feed&story_fbid=58206268836
For those of you that aren’t friends with me, here’s the skitch: http://skitch.com/tylerwillis/bj8hg/facebook-tyler-willis
I fully agree with whoever it was that said highlights isn’t very good. Why I can’t filter that section at all really confuses me.
I don’t have an EDIT HOWARD, I only have a HIDE HOWARD when I go to edit people. If I could have an EDIT HOWARD, I’d be much happier.
And yes, more granular filters are needed! (no more hatching!)
You are correct that better, more granular filters, are needed. It had this before, and they should Never have removed that functionality.
But:
“That “Live Feed” has become the primary feed for all users except that it doesn’t automatically update without refreshing the page.”
No, you are incorrect. The Live Feed *also* included a vast array of stories and information that the current news feed does not, including:
- someone added a friend
- someone changed relationship status
- someone is attending an event
- someone became a fan of a page
- someone commented on a photo/video/note
- various and sundry other application stories that no longer appear (I used to see a lot of MobWars stories)
Again, they should Never have removed this functionality.
Mostly, my take on the new design is one wholly of “reduced functionality”. So far, I have see nothing that’s an improvement, and only things that are reductions in functionality.
Hopefully, they will get their &^#$ in gear, and put this functionality back. I can abide some interface changes, but to remove functionality really gets my goat. I can certainly say that I have been using FB less and less since this re-design, simply because I don’t have that same view (neither real-time, nor useful information) that I had before. Less timely, less useful information on my homepage/livefeed, means less clicks through to other pages, means less time spent on the site, which no doubt means less advertising dollars. But I don’t know if my activity is representative of others or not, or whether it shows up as any less traffic overall or not, but that’s definitely the effect it’s had here.
So the future of Facebook is the Old Facebook! The old feed filtered everything out for you, and you could view the live feed if you were really interested in all that stuff.
My guess is that as users realize just how much they are clogging other people’s feeds with quizzes, they’ll stop publishing so often, and be a bit more judicious.
Although I agree with you that granular settings are a good thing, they need to be very intuitive. Big letters at the top: CUSTOMIZE YOUR STREAM, which includes top down settings for story type (which will let you block certain story types from EVERYONE), and settings on each story:
disable this story type, disable this user, disable this type of story from this user…. I don’t think you need to edit every story type for a user when you just want to rid yourself of THAT story type.
I would like the possibility to block apps not only for a single person but the app as such. Until now it was possible to do that by blocking the app. Once I blocked an app it never appeared with any stories on my news feed. Now this does not work anymore. It would be nice to have this back and the possibility to block an app directly from the feed.
An nice extension of this feature would be to block all apps which belong to a certain category like: all quizzes, all games, all dating-apps, all gift-apps and so on depending on if you want them or not.
The future is the past … who would have guessed.
But I agree with you; the biggest and most annoying part of the latest facebook downgrade is the deluge of (unwanted) messages that clog up the feed; the old more/less filtering scheme, and importantly the automatic aggregation of like stories, were great tools and are dearly missed.
Will - Exactly.
I applaud Facebook for the many changes that they have made and the extra filtering functionality will improve things even more, but they will only filter out what is currently in the Main Feed.
The updates that you list (friend makes a friend, friend comments on photo, etc, etc) have been removed from the feed. It is this functionality that allowed me to expand my social network with ease.
That’s what Facebook is - a social networking site.
My Facebook for mobile still has the old Live Feed function where I can get these updates. Also I can access this on my PC via http://www.m.facebook.com, so I will usually have both regular facebook and mobile facebook open at the same time whilst I am online.
It is absurd!
@Mike Sherov: “The old feed filtered everything out for you” — but IT did the choosing. No matter how much I fiddled with the settings, I’d end up missing many of the stories and people I most wanted to see while some of the other stuff wouldn’t go away. I’d much rather have the whole feed and make my own choices.
I do agree with your suggestions about implementation. Many of the complaints I’ve heard about things that have gone missing or don’t work are incorrect, but Facebook didn’t make it easy for the average user to find. Plus, as cognitive psychology tells us, if you’re upset and frustrated, it’s harder to see the solutions.
@Nick, you’re right about the present filters; they’re all but worthless for me. Good post.
“No, you are incorrect. The Live Feed *also* included a vast array of stories and information that the current news feed does not, including:
- someone added a friend
- someone changed relationship status
- someone is attending an event
- someone became a fan of a page
- someone commented on a photo/video/note
- various and sundry other application stories that no longer appear (I used to see a lot of MobWars stories)”
I love everything about the “new” design other than what is listed above. Granular feeds are a nice idea, and should be added, but it doesn’t mean everyone will use it.
Personally, just having the ability to go from friend list to friend list as easily as I can is fine, just need that live feed back.
I actually like the unfiltered feed right now as it introduces me to many things I don’t care about but don’t mind being shown to me… I take Facebook very openmindedly, and ignore it when it becomes a spamfeed. But generally I like the change… I’d appreciate filters if only so people stop being bitchy about Facebook.
All I want to to is block/remove all Farmville updates from my stream. I really don’t care about the status of anyone’s fake cow.