Facebook is holding a press event on Thursday to introduce its News Feed redesign, the first since it launched in 2006. The update is expected to feature new ways to filter and organize the timeline. Users currently have no way to tailor their feeds, other than prioritizing friends and hiding statuses they have no interest in reading.
Multiple feeds, separate ones for photos, music and ads will be the new configuration, instead of burying everything in the navigation, keeping some things hidden unless users make a concerted effort to find them. The Music feed includes the songs friends are listening to on services such as Spotify, and will also include concerts and new albums. Larger images and bigger ads will also roll out on March 7.
Anonymous sources at Facebook tell TechCrunch that Facebook will be paring down features that are rarely used, such as the navigation sidebars and Ticker, which was a push to be more real-time but mostly just irritated people. Facebook, unlike Twitter and Instagram, is really just not very effective for following friends in real-time, although it remains the go-to stalking tool.
Unlike the Timeline update, which many people dreaded as it slowly infected their friends' pages (relieved status updates saying they hadn't switched over yet were all the rage back in 2011), the ability to jump between feeds sounds great to us. Having a dedicated news feed, image feed and other kinds of content feeds instituted on Facebook may not eliminate the need for Twitter or Pinterest or Instagram, but it would probably make Facebook more usable, rather than just something to check if you need homework from a friend you don't know well enough to text.
Other Facebook developments may come in the form of a mobile update that completely re-imagines the iOS interface, says TechCrunch, but that is reportedly still not ready, and will not be deployed anytime soon. The social media company also recently filed a patent for a paid subscription service, which would eliminate ads from the browsing experience and offer other privileges, reports BGR. Facebook could be exploring this option in response to cries from Wall Street to monetize its userbase beyond only ads. Unless someone is extremely active on Facebook, however, we don't see many users willing to shell out for it.
