Facebook updated its News Feed algorithm yet again, this time with the hope of presenting users with more “high quality content” like news articles and current events. Facebook says the goal of News Feed is to show the right content to the right people at the right time whether it’s from a close friend or a news source halfway across the world.
Varun Kacholia & Minwen Ji explained some of the changes and what they mean, on the Facebook blog.
Why are we doing this? Our surveys show that on average people prefer links to high quality articles about current events, their favorite sports team or shared interests, to the latest meme. Starting soon, we’ll be doing a better job of distinguishing between a high quality article on a website versus a meme photo hosted somewhere other than Facebook when people click on those stories on mobile. This means that high quality articles you or others read may show up a bit more prominently in your News Feed, and meme photos may show up a bit less prominently.
Basically you`re going to see less junk in your news feed, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Then again not everyone uses Facebook the same way, there are many people who use want to see memes and content that you or I (or Facebook for that matter) deem to be of lower “quality”. Is it right for Facebook to tell you what you want to see or does this change really not affect our day to day social lives. Let me know in the comments!
