Facebook Tweaks its News Feed by Displaying More Posts From Your Friends

Facebook is making its News Feed more “human.”

Facebook is tweaking its News Feed, minimizing posts from pages that you’ve liked and displaying more updates from you friends. In a statement today, the world’s number one social network said that the new updates are all about giving the right balance, making the News Feed smarter and better by showing content that matters. Of course, Facebook knows that the right balance depends on the interests of its users.

The first update is suited to users who don’t have enough content to view on their News Feed because they have fewer friends or haven’t “liked” any pages. Facebook is attempting to make the experience better by displaying multiple posts from sources. It is worth noting that Facebook implemented a rule that prevented users from seeing multiple posts from a single publisher or brand. Now, Facebook is relaxing the rule.

The second update will make the News Feed more “human.” Facebook does this by displaying more content posted by your friends, especially the people that you care about (Facebook already knows your close friends by studying your habits). So that means you’ll see more photos, videos, status updates and links shared by your friends. However, you’ll still be able to view posts from the pages that you’ve liked or followed. But Facebook will now prioritize your friends over pages, which is bad news for publishers and brands.

The last update is more technical. Apparently, Facebook learned that many users don’t like to view random posts that their friends have liked or commented. The third update will now minimize these posts by making them appear lower in the News Feed. The result is a cleaner, unsophisticated News Feed that everyone will love. As for publishers and brands, Facebook says that traffic could potentially decline. However, the impact could vary depending on the “composition of your audience and posting activity.”