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Big changes coming to FacebookSep 21, 2011 (San Jose Mercury News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Millions of Facebook users woke up Wednesday to find that the social network had revamped News Feed, the primary forum that highlights friends' posts, to include Google (GOOG)-style automated relevance algorithms designed to help users cope with an ever-growing volume of content. That was just the latest of several significant changes to the site in recent days. Earlier, Facebook launched the "Subscribe" button, which allows users to have a Twitter-style, one-way following relationship with others on the social network. It also added a ticker running down the right side of the page that gives a scrolling, real-time view of friends' activities. Facebook even quietly hid the "Poke" feature, one of the last vestiges of an era when the nascent social network was primarily a way for undergraduates from Harvard to Stanford to hook up. The changes are likely to only accelerate Thursday at Facebook's f8 developers gathering in San Francisco, when the company is expected to announce new media integrations with Spotify and other digital music services, and the introduction of new ways to consume other kinds of media, including news, music, video and other content. New buttons such as "Listened" or "Read" will allow users to tell their friends about songs they heard on Facebook, or articles they've read. "It's not going to be some fine-tuning thing; it's going to be some fundamentally new capability that may change the look and feel of Facebook in a fairly macro way," said David Kirkpatrick, author of "The Facebook Effect," a recent book on the creation and growth of the social network. "F8 is a platform event, and they don't have them if it's not a really big deal. From their point of view, this is critical to their future." With membership growth slowing in countries like the United States and Canada because such a large share of the population already uses the social network, analysts say the changes are a different way to grow -- by having members spend more time on the service. This may be the week Facebook transforms itself from a popular website to a crucial organ of the Internet, analysts said. Michael Fauscette, an analyst with IDC, said Facebook is trying to become the primary online hub where people access all kinds of media -- news articles, music and video -- recommended by their friends. "It sort of becomes the user interface for the Web. That's what Google search is for a lot of people today," he said. "From an advertising perspective, it's all about time spent: The more eyeball time you get, the more ads you can serve, the more revenue." Facebook's revenue picture is looking particularly bright. According to estimates released Tuesday by eMarketer, its revenues will more than double to $4.3 billion in 2011, from $2 billion in 2010. One of the strongest areas of growth is Facebook Credits, the virtual currency purchased with real money that is used to pay for games or the use of other time-consuming apps on the Facebook platform. Those revenues will be $470 million in 2011, more than triple the $140 million from last year. While the number of people using Facebook might be approaching saturation in some countries, "I don't think it's approaching saturation in terms of the amount of time people can spend interacting" on Facebook, said Debra Aho Williamson, an eMarketer principal analyst. Big changes to Facebook's appearance always spark an outcry from some users. When Facebook first launched News Feed almost five years ago, picketers appeared outside its Palo Alto headquarters. Based on the reaction Wednesday by scores of people on this newspaper's Facebook page, the new changes are just as unpopular. "Stop trying to be FaceTwitGoo+ and be Facebook," wrote San Jose's Oscar Najar, referring to other social networks. "There's my 2 cents." "Maybe all those engineers who've been hired at Facebook are trying to come up with more annoying ways of job security," wrote Jennifer Bourgoyne, a long-time San Jose resident who recently moved to Austin, Texas. "I realize Facebook is free and I shouldn't complain, but guess what? Now all those advertisers you want me to visit? Not going to see them anymore because there is so much junk on the page it makes me dizzy." Not everybody hated the changes. Some with large numbers of Facebook friends felt the algorithmic changes allowed Facebook to display more relevant content. Among the "signals" Facebook says it is using to promote relevant content are posts that mention a user's employer, school, relationship status or city, as well as feedback from a post. "I love that the new Facebook newsfeed is highlighting friends' updates more, when they mention that they or a family member is sick," wrote Enoch Choi, an urgent care physician in Palo Alto. "This is a change from before. I know since I have 4,000 friends, my updates have changed considerably." Contact Mike Swift at 408-271-3648. Follow him at Twitter.com/swiftstories. ___ (c)2011 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) Visit the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) at www.mercurynews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |