If you are observant, you may have noticed that Facebook’s News Feed is not the same one as the one in 2009 for example. Initially, it was a way to keep up with your friends where you could see their updates in a reverse chronological order. This has changed over time where Newsfeed has been given AI powers where it shows you content based on what posts you engage with the most. This is to make sure that your newsfeed is totally suited to you and also means your newsfeed content can be totally different from your friends even if you share similar interests.
Facebook usually takes feedback from users about their Newsfeed experience through rating their experience and through surveys. They asked questions like “how much did you want to see this story in your News Feed” and also rating a story on the scale of one to five stars. This enabled them to come up with interesting findings.
They found that users “reported having a better News Feed experience when the stories they see at the top are stories they are both likely to rate highly if asked and likely to engage with” This has prompted the company to update News Feed to address the two concerns where it will rank higher posts that you probably want to see at the top and what you might take action on.
Facebook has assured this update won’t lead to a situation where traffic of some Pages experiencing an increased referral traffic while some experience a decline. They even warned Pages not to encourage people to click on their posts since the new algorithm will detect the increased traffic and balance it off eventually.
