Facebook made some minor changes to the homepage last night with one substantial change which is the removal of quick links to Facebook created applications (notes, videos and photos). Now, the status has been promoted to be the primary item within the homepage. This new update clearly marks a shift toward a more Twitter-like environment.
Additionally, statuses are no longer in the sidebar only in the news feed. The majority of the changes are extremely small but the promotion of statuses definitely emphasizes the importance of statuses. Soon enough we will see statuses as the default tab within the news feed. That would actually make a lot of sense considering Facebook’s less than efficient auto-filtering system in the feed.
I’ve noticed that viewing the unfiltered feed provides me with much more valuable information. I’ve spoken with a number of other people who have been dissatisfied with the quality of stories being displayed in the news feed. Have you had any issues with news feed content?
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I still wished they simply archive statuses and make them searchable. Kind of want most of Plurk's functionality in facebook's status feature.
Comment by mojaam — August 20, 2008 @ 7:04 am
I have a friend who was getting no notifications and then suddenly got like 28 in an hour. I also definitely feel like I'm not seeing as many news stories as I once was, or like I have to hunt for them more. This may be a result of new options for privacy settings? or it may be that I'm not "getting" the new layout yet.
Comment by Rain — August 20, 2008 @ 8:26 am
I love the changes they're introducing and would love it if we could make the “All Stories” tab open by default
Comment by allixsenos — August 20, 2008 @ 10:31 am
It would be nice if all my applications were listed on the applications tab but sadly some of mine aren't. To access the application I have to search for the application then try to join it. When it says I'm already a member, I can then click a link to go to the application.
It's only a little thing but is annoying specially as I use this application whenever I have a spare 5 minutes.
Comment by Amanda Regan — August 20, 2008 @ 11:20 am
I don't understand…FB emphasizes status, but hides your friends'…. At least in my case, I hardly read what my friends are doing any more… keep forgetting to click the tab.
Comment by Aby — August 20, 2008 @ 6:37 pm
Aby. If you click on the 'Options for Top Stories' link at the bottom of your news feed you can prioritize the types of stories that appear. If you slide the Status slider all the way to the top (and move some of the others down) you should start to see more status updates appear.Alternatively, if you use a feed reader (like Google Reader) you can subscribe to your friends status feed and never miss a thing.
Comment by Früv — August 20, 2008 @ 7:32 pm
I've been noticing a few stories in my news feed lately that seem to be stuck at the top. Other stories appear up there but gradually make their way towards the bottom. For some reason, these 3 or 4 stories appear at the top and then, a few days later, are back up there again. All are comments from a particular friend on photos that I uploaded. The comments were left weeks ago. I visited this friend's profile and found the same stories at the top of his mini feed. He's in the process of moving house and doesn't have regular internet access at the moment so his FB account has been quiet since he made these comments. It seems that the news feed items are found by looking at what is currently at the top of your friends mini feeds without taking into account the time that each story occurred. That means that stories from your more active friends will appear at the top and quickly make their way to the bottom whereas stores from your less active friends will stick at the top for days or even weeks. That's how it appears to me anyway.
Comment by Früv — August 20, 2008 @ 7:52 pm
Thanks Früv! … but I have to keep clicking the status updates tab no matter what, right? I was used to see their status updates right away, without clicking the extra tab (new design).
I think I'll start using the feed reader better… thanks! = )
Comment by Aby — August 23, 2008 @ 11:43 am