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| Facebook Tweaks News Feed to Surface Fresher Content |
A new tweak to Facebook's News Feed aims to address the common problem of seeing days-old posts on the platform.
Our goal with News Feed is to show everyone the right content at the right time so they don’t miss the stories that are important to them. We’ve heard feedback that there are some instances where a post from a friend or a Page you are connected to is only interesting at a specific moment, for example when you are both watching the same sports game, or talking about the season premiere of a popular TV show. There are also times when a post that is a day or two old may not be relevant to you anymore. Our latest update to News Feed ranking looks at two new factors to determine if a story is more important in the moment than other types of updates.
As part of the update, Facebook will give greater priority to posts that tie in with its trending list. "This means that when a friend or Page you are connected to posts about something that is currently a hot topic of conversation on Facebook, that post is more likely to appear higher up in News Feed, so you can see it sooner," Owens and Vickrey said. Testing revealed that such posts got a 6% jump in engagement.
Perhaps Facebook's biggest change to News Feed is considering the timeliness of posts:
One way we show timely content higher-up in News Feed is to show people stories about things that are trending as soon as they occur, so you can immediately know what your friends or favorite Pages are saying about the stories of the day. This means that when a friend or Page you are connected to posts about something that is currently a hot topic of conversation on Facebook, that post is more likely to appear higher up in News Feed, so you can see it sooner. Early testing of a small percentage of posts has shown that this update on average leads to a more than 6% increase in people engaging with these stories (e.g., more people share, comment, like or click).
Facebook said the timeliness will also influence which stories get a "bump" in News Feed
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