New Delhi: Facebook seems to be on a feature addition overdrive. After launching the 'Subscribe' button followed by 'Smart Lists', the social networking bellwether has now introduced improvements to its 'news feed'.
Facebook believes that it is not just the people users hear from that make their news feed interesting, it also matters how often they visit Facebook.
For instance, if a user has not returned in a week, he may want to see a summary of top stories first. But, if a user has already visited several times that day, he probably would be interested more in recent news.
"In the past, news feed hasn't worked like that. Updates slide down in chronological order so it's tough to zero in on what matters most," posted Mark Tonkelowitz, engineering manager at Facebook, on the official Facebook blog.
Now, the news feed will let users see the important updates at the top. All of the user's news will be in a single stream with the most interesting stories featured at the top. If a user hasn't visited Facebook for a while, the first thing he/she will see are the top photos and statuses posted while they were been away. They will be shown marked with a 'blue corner' that indicates 'top story'.
But, if the user logs on more frequently, he/she will see the most recent stories first. Moreover, photos will also appear bigger while scrolling through.
Facebook also rolled out another feature called 'Ticker' that allows users to chat with their friends about photos, articles and other things they are posting in real-time.
Now, when a friend comments, asks a question or shares something, the user will be able to join the conversation right away. "Click on anything in ticker to see the full story and chime in – without losing your place," Tonkelowitz said.
The new 'news feed' has been currently enabled for users who have their default language set as English (US) and Facebook is expected to soon enable it for users with other languages as their default soon.
To be able to get a feel of the new features, users can set their language to English (US) from their account settings.
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