The News Feed is quite central to the Facebook experience and their biggest asset since that is where its 1.65 billion active users interact with each other and are served with ads by the company. We know that it is powered using algorithms where some content is favoured over others but today they have decided to dive deeper into the mysterious inner workings of the system.
In a blogpost,Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s VP of Product Management explained the new update to the News Feed where he started by stating these 5 “News Feed Values
Friends and Family come first
Facebook states that this is the “driving principle” of the News Feed since the company’s mission is to connect people with their friends and family.That is why if your friends and family post anything, they will be at the top of your News Feed.
The company also reveals that they did some research where they found out that people expect that their feed informs and entertains them. Informing in the sense that the stories they see on their feed are meaningful to them and entertaining in the sense that their News Feed should be a source of entertainment
Platform for all ideas
Facebook expects the News Feed to have the sort of integrity where they don’t favour specific kinds of sources other than what you give as feedback thanks to your activity. In addition, they also want people to feel safe in the midst of a multitude of opinions on the platform.
Authentic communication
Authenticity matters and that is why Facebook insists that they try to understand what people are posting on the News Feed to determine if they are spammy or sensational and if they are, you will see less of them. This means in the end you will end up seeing more authentic stories that matter to you.
You control your experience
This is either a deliberate or an automatic way you influence the content you see on the News Feed. Deliberate in the sense that if you don’t want to see certain content, you can tap on a button and “hide” the post or if you want to see more of them, you can set it to “see first.”
Constant iteration
Facebook claims that their work is only 1% finished on the News Feed and that is why they continuously improve it each time. This is the same statement they made on Messenger and we can take this “1%” figure they quote always as a measure that they are yet to make sure the News Feed has hit its peak.
