First look: New Facebook News Feed

First look: New Facebook Newsfeed
Taking the social out of the social network

So Facebook's fiddled with its news feed again and this time it's all about simplifying your Facebook experience, it says. Not ads. Don't worry about the ads. You don't need to think about ads.

It's certainly a cleaner look than the last newsfeed iteration, and brings the web experience more in line with the iPad and iPhone apps.

Like Spotify's new Web Player, Facebook has concentrated on vertical columns to separate all its social bits and pieces.

Facebook Newsfeed

The menu options are banished to a darkened column on the left hand side - it's a responsive design, so when screen space is at a premium it shrinks down to just icons, and expands out to full titles when there's more room to breathe.

Facebook Newsfeed

The News Feed itself takes up the bulk of the main middle column while the right hand column plays host to some filtering options and, of course, some ads.

Facebook Newsfeed

Although the News Feed is displayed by default every time you open Facebook, the column on the right gives you greater control over what you see.

You can choose to see updates from all friends (which seems to include friends you've hidden or requested only important updates from), updates from people and publications you follow but aren't friends with.

Facebook Newsfeed

With the emphasis on pleasing visuals, it's no surprise that you can choose to see only photo stories by hitting Photos.

Facebook Newsfeed

And with social gaming a good source of revenue for Facebook, another key tab is Games where you can spy on what games your pals are playing (no Farmville in mine, I'm happy to report).

Facebook Newsfeed

The Music tab is pretty cool - not only does it serve up all the musical activity your friends are engaging in, from liking Beyonce to listening to stuff on Spotify, it also suggests artists you might want to 'Like' (based on friends' preferences and your own existing likes) as well as suggesting upcoming concerts that you might be into.

Facebook Newsfeed

This suggested Likes thing is prevalent around the new design, and it's probably because Facebook wants you to like as much as possible so it can target ads more effectively at you - and make its Graph Search product a mite more useful.

Facebook Newsfeed

Facebook tells us that this filtering menu will learn which options you go for most frequently and reorder itself accordingly.

The news ticker is relegated to a tiny corner of the site and it doesn't look as though you can increase the size of it which is a shame - although the general News Feed includes some of this activity, it's making stalking some of my friends a lot more difficult.

Facebook Newsfeed

And this is an issue: as my esteemed colleague Gary Marshall points out, this brave new world does not provide a very sociable experience. This emphasis on visuals takes the attention away from the words you might use - so it makes us less inclined to post status updates, for instance, because a photo will look better and be seen more.

Facebook Newsfeed

This is something Facebook loves - it doesn't want you to comment so much as Like - your friend's cat died? Like. Your aunt grows a whole new person in her tummy? Like. Funny sign? Like. It doesn't want you to share, it wants you to curate.

You want to communicate with people? Take it to the messages app. Take it to Facebook chat. But your news feed is now only for News with a capital N - and that's a real shame.

Even the Following view shows posts from pages you don't actually follow - I don't follow the NME, yet because two of my friends do, Facebook thinks it's okay to show me its updates:

News Editor (UK)

Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.