The leading social network appears to have heard the complaints from marketers, including many in Hollywood, who say that their stuff often is lost in Facebook News Feeds that are awash with clutter. Pictures and images will become a lot more prominent in what execs describe as a more attractive and more customizable News Feed that they introduced this afternoon. The company will begin to offer it in a limited way on the web today, and make the version for mobile devices available over the next few weeks. In the new designs, individual photos and albums will be larger. So will logos from the publishers of linked articles, and maps when people identify locations. Users also can tailor the experience, for example by following and isolating what friends are sharing, photos, posts about music, and news and other material from people and content providers the user likes. The goal is to make the News Feed “the best personalized newspaper” CEO Mark Zuckerberg says. He notes that about half of all posts include photos. The enhanced ability to tap into music could help Facebook lure people from destinations including YouTube, Spotify, and the revamped MySpace. The company said little about ads, a big concern for users (who dislike clutter) and investors (who like the sales revenue). Facebook shares are up about 2% in early afternoon trading after slipping slightly during the company’s presentation. Execs say that the revamp is a work in progress as they take a firehose of information available to users and break it into several smaller ones that may be more manageable, depending on the context and device being used to access Facebook.

Yo, Zuckie baby… Keep your enhanced BS. All we want is (a) to see what our friends our posting on their respective walls; and (b) to see the posts in chronological order. It’s pretty bad when my husband has to tag me in a post to be sure that it hits my wall. I’m a big girl, I don’t need FB policing my wall and picking/choosing what I get to see!
Oh yea…Face-book…
Would seeing picture after picture of “friends” taking groups pics over brunch really count as “news?”
Deleted my facebook acct in November…spent a few years on it…i can honestly say, after all those years, I have absolutely no recollection of anything significant in memories that I can share wit the grandkids concerning my time on FB…even guys locked away in prison have stories they can share…and THAT is a damn shame.
Also deleted my FB account late last year and still hear from people “What are you doing, What are you involved with.” Now its just my business with no suggestions and I get contact the old fashioned way or not at all, Twitter, email, cellphone, Google +…
Dear Mark Zuckerberg,
EVERY single time you Zuck with the FB layout/format we’re used to, a large section of my friends flee FB, to almost never return. Your tinkering is killing your product.
As it is right now, of my 120 or so friends, maybe 7 or 8 post anything on even a semi-regular basis. I try to post a daily “something” just so people won’t abandon it altogether. Your site is dying, man, whether you want to admit it or not.
I keep my Facebook acct, so I can see what some friends post, but I never “like” anything because it’s an invitation to promotions and ads…
This new Facebook revamp just looks like it’ll bring on more annoying sales pitches and unwanted garbage on my pages, already cluttered by people trying to sell me things.
I don’t post “news” because security controls are too hard to navigate… and somewhere along the line, a couple years ago, my real full name and hometown show up on any posts I make that use Facebook, inviting breaches to my privacy and unwanted attention. I’ve tried to change my posting name, but it appears impossible. I don’t want to share my identity and location with the world.
So… my only recourse seems to be to be to delete my Facebook acct, maybe start over with a new name… but I’d have to contact my “friends”, explain who I am… it just seems like too much trouble. I use Twitter almost daily because messages are short, sweet and un-intrusive. Oh, and I use email and the phone to contact people I care about.