Hasta La Gadget!

Facebook today announced a series of improvements that aim to make News Feed experience better for the social network’s one billion-plus users. The improvements clamp down on Pages that “deliberately try and game News Feed,” one doesn’t have to venture very far to get an example, most of the Pages sharing viral content or memes on Facebook often try to increase their reach using methods that are frowned upon. The latest News Feed update targets three broad categories of this type.

Like-baiting can be widely seen on the social network. Even legitimate brands and Page owners often ask people to like their Page or interact with it to get a discount or avail an offer. Facebook doesn’t allow posts that explicitly ask for such engagement in return for something else. Today’s improvement focuses on better detection of these stories and will ensure that such posts don’t show up more prominently in News Feed. Facebook clarifies that this update will not impact Pages that genuinely try to encourage discussion between their fans.

We often see the same content appear again and again on Facebook, particularly if its a viral photo or video. Listening to feedback from users who complain about Pages that frequently post such content, Facebook has tweaked News Feed to de-emphasize pages and indulge in this activity.

Last but not the least, Facebook targets stories that use inaccurate language or tricky formatting to hoodwink people into clicking through to a website. The improvement reduces cases of spammy links. In most cases the website is full of ads or a “combination of frequently circulated content and ads.” Meme Page owners who drove traffic to their websites from Facebook can now effectively kiss it goodbye.

Facebook Makes Improvements To Reduce News Feed Spam , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Web, Facebook, News Feed,

Back in March Facebook summoned media outfits to its offices to show off its redesigned News Feed, which is without a doubt one of the most critical elements of the world’s largest social network. Much of the user’s time is spent on the News Feed, where they catch up with their friends’ activities, see posts from pages and groups as well as see advertisements. For a redesigned version to work the company needs it to perform equal to, if not better, than the existing design. Rumor has it that user engagement isn’t picking up on the redesigned News Feed, which is why Facebook has reportedly decided to shelve plans of a global roll out of the new design.

At this point in time, only a small fraction of Facebook’s over 1 billion users have access to the redesigned News Feed. For almost nine months this select group of users has been using the new design, and apparently it hasn’t driven up engagements, which would have been one of the primary reasons behind implementing a new design in the first place. If these rumors are true, then its possible that the company might not roll out the redesigned News Feed to all of its users. Facebook has previously said that its decision depended upon what it observed after the select group of users had used the new design, as per the rumors, Facebook has observed that its probably better off with the existing News Feed design.

Redesigned Facebook News Feed Might Not Be Released For Everyone original content from Ubergizmo.

Facebook announced recently that it has tweaked its News Feed algorithm so that users see more high quality content when they peruse their feeds at any given time of day. The social network says that its goal is to show people the right content from the right people at the right time, so users don’t miss the stories that are important. The latest update helps ensure that the organic content users see from pages they are connected is most interesting to them.

To understand how a post is deemed high quality, Facebook says that it surveyed thousands of people. They asked the users a number of questions, if they thought that content from a page was timely and relevant and if they would ever complain about seeing that content in their News Feed. Facebook explains that it used the results of this survey to build a new machine learning system which detects high quality content. The system judges quality based on thousands of factors. Facebook says that creating an algorithm to do all this is complex, and that the algorithm will continue to be refined as more feedback is received from users. Facebook advises Page owners to continue with their strategies, which should be to create good content and optimize for engagement and reach.

Facebook News Feed Tweaked To Show More High Quality Content original content from Ubergizmo.

Facebook’s video ads is reportedly being delayed until later this fall.

Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo.

Some times, the good ol’ fashioned ways are the best. Seems Facebook would certainly agree: according to a blog post, its new news feed was developed using paper, Post-its, and a large blank wall. More »