Facebook have made yet another change to the way your News Feed is populated and managed, but this one seems to be an instant hit with the users. Ok, it’s nothing hugely new – if anything it is a reappearance of an old feature that was lost when the news ticker and timeline came to the fore.
This update adds a “Sort” link to the top of the News Feed, which when clicked brings up two options for organising what you see: “Highlighted Stories First” or “Recent Stories First”. The first option will push what Facebook thinks is the most important content to the top of the page, which is how things operate at the moment. The “Recent Stories” setting will display News Feed items in reverse chronological order, much the same as the “Ticker” on the right hand side, although not quite as comprehensive.
It’s thought that this change is a reaction to many users still wanting a simple way to see status updates and News Feed items at any time. Facebook says the ‘Sort’ feature will be rolled out over the next few days.
Judging by the comments on Mashable, the public reception of this has been on the whole positive: “I’ve been relying on smart lists for updates since Top News isn’t relevant to me. I would like to see them get rid of Top News altogether, but this is a good compromise.” However some people wish to have further filtering options: “They should bring a status update filter back. Only status updates. No links and shares.”
What are your thoughts on the changes made to Facebook over the last few months? Leave a comment below with your opinions about this.