“I hate the new Facebook changes!” “Facebook, why are you so confusing now?” “Are the people at Facebook bored so they just decided to make some changes for the heck of it?” – Those are just a few of the comments I am seeing in regards to the Facebook changes that occurred overnight. And of course, there’s this picture floating around.
So far, the census seems to be that Facebook users don’t like the changes and they want their old Facebook back. Do you think it’s because people hate change or are the differences really that bothersome? We’ll get into that in a minute.
Let’s break it down into Five Facebook Changes You Woke Up to Today: (If I missed any changes you noticed, please let me know in the comments.)
1. Top Stories and Recent Stories are all in one place. You can no longer choose between the “Top Stories” and “Most Recent” links. Facebook now has them all in one place with Top Stories at the top. They decide what they think will be interesting to you.
2. Top Stories have a blue mark on the upper left corner. What’s with the blue mark on the posts I am seeing in my Facebook News Feed you ask? This helps you easily spot the most interesting stories since you last checked Facebook. It’s their way of helping you not miss important news and updates from your friends.
3. It’s now easier to hide updates you don’t care about. Hover over a friend’s status update and you’ll see a little mark which opens up to a drop down box. Choose from activities such as mark as top story, hide story, report story and more.
4. Larger photos are now displayed in your feed. Photos are now larger and more prominent in your news feed.
5. A new feature called the Ticker has been added to the right hand corner. No matter where you are on Facebook, you’ll see a friend ticker on the top right of your screen. It shows you what your friends are doing and allows you to join them in real time. Click any ticker as it slides by and a window pops up for you to respond to them.
Why all of the changes? Mark Tonkelowitz, an engineering manager at Facebook, explains the changes and the reasoning behind it.
He says, “When you pick up a newspaper after not reading it for a week, the front page quickly clues you into the most interesting stories. 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. Now, News Feed will act more like your own personal newspaper. You won’t have to worry about missing important stuff.”
It seems some changes are geared towards those who don’t log on to Facebook on a regular basis.
“The first things you’ll see are top photos and statuses posted while you’ve been away. They’re marked with an easy-to-spot blue corner,” he says. “If you check Facebook more frequently, you’ll see the most recent stories first. Photos will also be bigger and easier to enjoy while you’re scrolling through.”
So tell us – do you think people just don’t like waking up to so many sudden changes on Facebook or are the complaints legit? What annoys you most about the changes? Sound off in the comments and tell us how you feel!
On a side note, some are saying if you change your Language settings to English (UK) you can have your old Facebook back. Have you tried it?
I dislike the fact that FB thinks it’s smart enough to know what I’m most interested in reading. Who do they think they are? Changes are supposed to simplify things, but it just seems like FB is trying too hard to be Twitter. Also, there have been too many changes at once (i.e. the new friends lists)
Ya know I’m sorry other people are too damn lazy to log in everyday or to scroll back to the last thing they saw. I’m not that way. and I really really dislike FB thinking it’s know what is most important to me. If that were true they never would have changed it, cause what is most important to me is that I see everything in the order of the time it was posted. I don’t miss anything important cause I take the time to scroll back all the way to the last thing I read. I don’t have 300 + friends so it is not an issue for me.
Oh as for changing language, it did nothing. However others have said their mobile FB looks just like it did before the change. So why would they change the computer version and not the mobile?
Facebook is not a newspaper. It’s an interactive social media site. By trying to be more like a newspaper, they are taking away the interaction that brought us all there in the first place. I don’t want them to decide what’s most important, and what they think I should want to read. By trying to be more newspaper-like, and making it harder to keep up with my friends, they’re pushing me to use Google+ more. I’ll bet a lot of people will do the same.
I’m one of those people who doesn’t log onto Facebook every day and this change will have me ignoring the ‘top stories’ dashboard completely. If i want to check updates i’ll just head directly to friends’ pages. I don’t care for most of the useless stuff and updates people post and that’s exactly what i got “blue-marked” on my Facebook updates…things i don’t care about.
The new FB sucks! I don’t care about most of it’s so called “top stories” and now because it is choosing them FOR ME, I am missing out on other posts from the obviously less important people like my FAMILY or close friends, for a bunch of stupid “So tired, going to bed now” “long day” “I’m bored” etc. posts. Pretty much defeats the purpose of me even having a Facebook account… HATE the new ticker too. I don’t care about my friend’s, friends posts to each other! I’m pretty sure they don’t care about mine either, but if people wanted to FB stalk me, it’s easier than ever since every breath I take can now be watched by people in real time. Thanks a lot FailBook!
I like some of the changes… but I want the news feed and the top news feed to be separate. The two being packed together has become very inconvenient. I would imagine when facebook sees what people think about the new changes they’ll make some serious changes… I hope.
I’m already set to English UK and I’ve got the rubbish new feed
I use FB as an interactive social tool as I work alone, I talk to friends and family whilst working yesterday I spent most of my day hiding stories I really didn’t want to know about and the ticker kept distracting me. How dare FB assume that I’m too stupid or lazy to search for my friends or look for updates its a social media tool not a news tool. I have now found two fixes for the site and they appear to work esp getting rid of the blasted ticker/
Yes, I too am somewhat frustrated with these changes. I cannot yet see their positive impact for me, but I have to be optimistic and assume that there is a positive impact to come! I’m browsing, reading, watching and waiting and will wait till next week or so before committing to being completely frustrated or, oh, I get this now! The UK English change seemed to be a couple of hours behind the US, but as others have already figured out, they are now the same [new] feed.
Why Facebook can’t just leave things how they are, I do not understand. If I didn’t need to use it for keeping in contact with the college course group, I would have deleted it by now.
There was no need for this change at all. Was it to justify their payroll? Did Zuckerberg just walk in one day and demand a change for the sake of change? With all the brilliant minds in than building you would think moronic actions would be few and far between,,, not so! Almost everything was fine before this. The real problem is that no one can get in contact with anyone their,, oh unless you are a “developer”.. WTF does a developer know?
Hey Mark,, ! words to live by “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix the f*$kin thing” ! That needs to be put up in the lobby.