Facebook Updated its News Feed Algorithm

Facebook is doing something new that might make it easier for you to find the things that you actually do want to read in your News Feed. They have made changes to the algorithm that will allow it to respond to “signals from you”. Ideally, this will result in you seeing more engaging and interesting things at the top of your Facebook News Feed.

The change to the algorithm will note several things that you do. It will notice how often you interact with a particular friend, Page, or a public figure (like a celebrity) who posted something. It will look at how much you have interacted with that type of post in the past.

The algorithm will also take into account how other people on Facebook interact with a specific post. It will keep track of the number of likes, shares, and comments that a particular post gets from people all across Facebook. It will note how your Facebook friends responded to that post. The algorithm is also going to notice whether or not you (or other people on Facebook) are hiding or reporting any given post.

All of this should result in the top 300 (out of 1,500 posts) in your Facebook News Feed being things that you actually are interested in and want to read, view, watch, and potentially respond to. The system is being rolled out right now, so not everyone has it yet.

I cannot help but wonder if a lot of people on Facebook start posting about a sports or cultural event, that you have no interest in, if that will end up at the top of your News Feed simply because of the amount of “likes” it has received. It appears that the new algorithm will push posts to the top of your News Feed that got a lot of interaction (even if the post first appeared lower down in your News Feed). Each post will have more than one “chance” of being placed in the top of your News Feed.