Facebook has just launched their newsfeed rating system. Valleywag had previously leaked the rating system screenshots but it has just gone live. The system is pretty basic. If you like a newsfeed entry you can give it a thumbs up. If you don’t like it, you click the “X” to remove it from your feed and your newsfeed will slowly get better. This is pretty smart of Facebook given that the newsfeed is probably Facebook’s strongest asset.
There was a lot of discussion surrounding news feed optimization previously but that has since quelled and become almost irrelevant. Ultimately, it is the user that determines their newsfeed, not Facebook. If a user doesn’t like receiving newsfeed stories from your application, chances are they won’t be receving them for very long. What would be a nice addition to this rating system is to have new newsfeed items pop-up if you remove ones that you don’t like.
I’m not quite sure how heavily I’ll be using this feature but it is definitely cool! Screenshots have been attached below. Do you think this new feature is a good one?
![[Inside Social Apps 2012]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/ISA2012_336x100_F_RegisterNow.gif)
![[AllFacebook Stats: Facebook Analytics for Your Business]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/stpro_allfacebookstats.gif)
![[How can Facebook change your business?]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/FMB_A_MAY2011_336x100_F.gif)
how do you control this after the fact. What if I decide I don't want to see any newsfeed stories about gifts being given, after a while they should stop showing up. If in the future I decide I do want to see them, how do I control that?
Comment by jeff — November 21, 2007 @ 10:06 am
Jeff, stop being so indecisive
You need to stick with your gut instinct 
You make a very good point though. Perhaps they'll set up a page where you can view past stories that you've removed and unmark them.
Comment by Nick O'Neill — November 21, 2007 @ 10:20 am
jeff… you can click the icon a second time to change your mind.nick… i like this feature a lot! assuming it translates into better feed content. i can now get rid of all the application noise and see more of the interesting content my friends are adding. some applications add good content, but many don't. presumably, facebook will decipher the apps i like to hear from.
Comment by Greg — November 21, 2007 @ 11:17 am
Jeff, stop being so indecisive
You need to stick with your gut instinct 
You make a very good point though. Perhaps they'll set up a page where you can view past stories that you've removed and unmark them.
Comment by Nick O'Neill — November 21, 2007 @ 11:20 am
Too bad I can't 'thumbs down' the ad for Spider-man 3 on DVD.
Comment by L.A. King — November 21, 2007 @ 11:38 am
Moreover, what am I registering a dislike towards? I have a friend who continually joins inane groups such as '10 reasons boys smell' that I really don't need to know about.So, if I click 'remove' whenever I see such an announcement, will Facebook be smart enough to realise that it's just her groups I don't want to know about, or will it think I don't want to know about groups for anyone?
Comment by Dan Lester — November 21, 2007 @ 12:00 pm
jeff… you can click the icon a second time to change your mind.
nick… i like this feature a lot! assuming it translates into better feed content. i can now get rid of all the application noise and see more of the interesting content my friends are adding. some applications add good content, but many don't. presumably, facebook will decipher the apps i like to hear from.
Comment by Greg — November 21, 2007 @ 12:17 pm
It seems to be a cool feature that, you are right, will get better.
Comment by Mark — November 21, 2007 @ 12:31 pm
Moreover, what am I registering a dislike towards? I have a friend who continually joins inane groups such as '10 reasons boys smell' that I really don't need to know about.
So, if I click 'remove' whenever I see such an announcement, will Facebook be smart enough to realise that it's just her groups I don't want to know about, or will it think I don't want to know about groups for anyone?
Comment by Dan Lester — November 21, 2007 @ 1:00 pm
Another facebook game?
I think it's good, but see the outcome first.
Comment by faizal — November 21, 2007 @ 2:01 pm
how do you control this after the fact. What if I decide I don’t want to see any newsfeed stories about gifts being given, after a while they should stop showing up. If in the future I decide I do want to see them, how do I control that?
Comment by jeff — November 21, 2007 @ 2:06 pm
Too bad I can’t ‘thumbs down’ the ad for Spider-man 3 on DVD.
Comment by L.A. King — November 21, 2007 @ 3:38 pm
It seems to be a cool feature that, you are right, will get better.
Comment by Mark — November 21, 2007 @ 4:31 pm
It's a great feature that people will use. It will also dramatically limit news about people adding applications or giving hugs etc. this means application will yet again lose some of their virality because almost nobody is going to want to see that.do you know if the news feed system also values the object or just the object type eg:i don't want to see eric adding "ghosts" –> is application adds gonna show up less and / or eric doing adding applications and / or eric doing anything?
Comment by Flavio Rump — November 21, 2007 @ 9:17 pm
It's a great feature that people will use. It will also dramatically limit news about people adding applications or giving hugs etc. this means application will yet again lose some of their virality because almost nobody is going to want to see that.
do you know if the news feed system also values the object or just the object type eg:
i don't want to see eric adding "ghosts" –> is application adds gonna show up less and / or eric doing adding applications and / or eric doing anything?
Comment by Flavio Rump — November 21, 2007 @ 10:17 pm
At first I wasn't sure I'd be able to decide which to x and which to check, as I tend to skim everything. But, as I went through my Feed, I found a bunch of stuff I've no interest in (like who's giving whom a gift, or news related to apps I don't have and don't care to add). So, we'll see – hopefully this nifty new instant feature will clean up the "visual noise" a bit.
Comment by Mari Smith — November 22, 2007 @ 5:20 pm
At first I wasn't sure I'd be able to decide which to x and which to check, as I tend to skim everything.
But, as I went through my Feed, I found a bunch of stuff I've no interest in (like who's giving whom a gift, or news related to apps I don't have and don't care to add). So, we'll see – hopefully this nifty new instant feature will clean up the "visual noise" a bit.
Comment by Mari Smith — November 22, 2007 @ 6:20 pm
The growth of a community (Digg vs Mixx)…The first to popularize the "up" and "down" buttons for rating things which has now even spread to Facebook…
Comment by The growth of a comm — December 1, 2007 @ 7:12 pm
The growth of a community (Digg vs Mixx)…
The first to popularize the “up” and “down” buttons for rating things which has now even spread to Facebook…
Trackback by The growth of a community (Digg vs Mixx) | Can The World Hear Me — December 2, 2007 @ 12:12 am
[...] this year Facebook added a new feature to their newsfeed enabling users to rate newsfeed stories. A number of people that I spoke with [...]
Pingback by Facebook Newsfeed Returns, No More Ratings - The Unofficial Facebook Blog — April 15, 2008 @ 4:51 pm
Hello. I've noticed that, at least for me, Facebook have removed the rating system.
Is there any news on this? I can't find anything on their blog.
They don't seem to mention it on their help page (http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=1) anymore.
Do you have any news on this?
Comment by Jonathan Ross — April 16, 2008 @ 12:03 pm
Is there a way to set it up so certain lists can’t see your newsfeed items?
Comment by Anon — November 1, 2009 @ 7:41 pm