Today, Facebook announced major changes to the social networking giant's news feed. This is the interface used to post, view, "like" or comment. Posts also include text, photos and videos and subscribers were not exactly happy with the last change. The screen displays small posts in a dual column format, mixes in advertising and adds other unwanted content. According to a March 7 Forbes Technology report, the new format will feature larger photos and posts to give a better visual feed. Users will also be able to filter posts by category, as with music or sports.
The news feed format seems to be inspired by the Google + news feed screen, where content is more visual. The Google + display is simpler and posts take up a much larger portion of the screen. Currently, Facebook's news feed is confined to just 40 percent of the screen.
Since photos make up 50 percent of all Facebook news feed format, the larger format will make the images much easier to see without having to load another page.
If a subscriber adds "places" to a status update or post, the information will include a large map that spans the width of News Feed. This might be irritating to those who do not want to see a large map on their screen.
Chris Struhar of Facebook's News Feed team said little about advertising except that the current ads will be incorporated into the new design along with other News Feed content.
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