Facebook unveils a new look for new news feed for he desktop and mobile devices (Click Image To View Facebook News Feed page)
Today at Facebook HQ, Mark Zuckerberg just unveiled a new look for news feed that uses a “mobile-inspired” consistent design across devices, lets you drill into specific content type feeds, and offers larger images. Photo albums have gotten a facelift as well to be more immersive, and links shared will have longer blurb to preview what you’re about to click to.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explains changes to the new news feed at today's unveilng (Click Image To Enlarge)
The changes will start to roll out today and you’ll see them over the next few weeks. The roll out will be slow and careful so Facebook can get feedback about what’s working and what’s not. Here’s our quick hands-on video of how the redesign looks and feels.
Chris Struhar of Facebook's news feed team showed off speial topic feeds (Click Image To Enlarge)
Some other news feed design changes include that check-ins to places now have a larger map to show people exactly where you are. Pinterest posts to Facebook are now more vivid, so what you see on Facebook “better reflects what you see on Pinterest”. Videos appear larger too. If multiple friends share the same post, you’ll see their faces to the left of the post.
Chris Struhar of Facebook's news feed team showed off speial topic feeds (Click Image To Enlarge)
Facebook is also trying to better surface trending content. So you’ll see “Recent Articles About Taylor Swift” that come from different news sources if you Like her.
With Facebook's new news feed, your photos are larger and bursting with color (Click Image To View New Facebook News Feed page)
Users now have a choice of feeds. Chris Struhar of Facebook’s news feed team showed off special topic feeds. The feeds are sorted by how often you check it so its easy to get to your most visited feeds. They’re all available on both the web and mobile. The include:
- All Friends: shows only posts from your friends in reverse chronological order
- Music: Shows what friends are listening to, new albums being released, and recommendations of artists you might like.
- Photos: Just photos, including those uploaded straight to Facebook, but also photos share there from Instagram or other photo apps
- Following: A revamp of the Pages feed that shows every post by Pages you Like
- Games
- Close Friends
- Any of your Interest Lists or Friend Lists
Facebook's new news feed offers Fresh Feeds by most recent, by friends, by photos, by music, by following, by games and by groups (Click To View Facebook's new news feed page)
Mark Zuckerberg explained.
“At personal level that makes e we build service that let you see and feel the people and friends you care about. What’ were trying to do is to give everyone in the world the best personalized news paper. It should have quality public content and from friends. It should have a front page and it should let you drill down into any topic you want. It should be visual, rich and engaging. They should be displayed with more than just text. From the beginning our goal with news feed was different that what any service was trying to provide. You should be able to share any type of content you want…and with any audience you want. The types you tell with photos are totally different."
"Now that we all have cameras in our pockets, news feed has become primarily about visual content. Almost 50 percent of content in the news feed is visual. Now the average news feed Pages posts ins almost 30% of the content. How we’re sharing is changing. We all want to share with friends, but want updates from publications we care about, and artists, and world leaders.”
See the same clean look wherever you use Facebook -- on moble, tablet, or web (Click Image to view Facebook's new news feed page)
The updates closely match with what I wrote Facebook would launch a few days ago. When you receive the web roll out of the redesigned you’ll see a button to switch to it at the top of the news feed. That roll-out starts today but will slowly proliferate over the coming weeks and months. Updates to Facebook’s mobile apps will become available in the next few weeks.
COMMENTARY: It's about time that Facebook improved its news feed.
The new look is more vibrant and in our view will help users better manage and organize their own personal news feeds. The redesign will be rolled out gradually on the Web and on mobile. The goal of the change is to increase engagement, and some think the changes better enable Facebook to match up vs. competing services like Twitter and Pinterest. Many reports are out today and we note what a few analysts are saying below:
BAML Analysts note:
Though the impact of the news feed redesign is difficult to estimate on the quantity of ads served (users may be better able to avoid ads), a better news feed user experience will likely increase engagement and increase overall monetization opportunities for Facebook. We continue to see an opportunity to generate more revenue per FB user, and larger news feed ads could yield higher click through rates (ads in specific news feed categories could be more targeted) and higher ad pricing (from more advertiser demand for new formats). We are maintaining our Buy rating and our 12-month Price Objective of $35.
Wedbush states:
We investors expect the changes to the News Feed to drive revenue growth in 2013 and beyond. Richer Stories will drive user engagement through more appealing content that augments the appearance of News Feed and should better appeal to each user’s interests. Richer Stories will prevent the Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) experience from becoming stale in the eyes of its users. A more engaged audience allows Facebook to charge more for its targeted ads as users will be less likely to gloss over content in the News Feed. Choice of Feeds will also have a positive impact on targeted ad prices as the user will feel compelled to provide more information about “likes” in order to receive a more interesting “personalized newspaper.” Also, the “Games” News Feed will bring greater awareness about different games to an interested audience, potentially resulting in greater Payments revenue.
More information on users provides greater targeting abilities for ads, and as relevancy and effectiveness improve, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) can charge higher prices. Mobile Consistency will provide a more integrated Facebook experience from the perspective of the user, decreasing the urge to bypass using Facebook on one platform because it is not as visually appealing or up-to-date.
Topeka Capital had the following to say:
In our view, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s updated news feed offers better presentation of content, and signals that the Company is looking to garner a slice of the rapidly growing on-line video ad dollar..
Now it is going to look more like what Google+ offers its users. If you want to add the new news feed to your Facebook page follow these directions:
First, go to facebook.com/about/newsfeed. Second, click the big green "Join Waiting List" button at the top of the page. Boom. Done. Next step? Wait.
Courtesy of an article dated March 7, 2013 appearing in TechCrunch, an article dated March 7, 2013 appearing in TechCrunch, and an article dated March 8,2013 appearing in ValueWalk
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