Facebook to change how it ranks content in the News Feed

In March, Facebook announced new ways to manage and control the News Feed with a Feed Filter Bar, better explanation about suggested posts, and the ability to control what and with whom you share a post. Now, the company is incorporating more feedback into News Feed ranking.

Starting this spring, Facebook is expanding its work to use direct feedback from people who use its social media to understand the content people find most valuable. For example, the company will expand on “Worth Your Time” surveys.

For example, if people say a post is worth their time, we’ll aim to show posts like that higher in News Feed, and if it isn’t worth their time, we’ll aim to show posts like that closer to the bottom. We also use surveys to better understand how meaningful different friends, Pages, and Groups are to people, and ranking algorithms are updated based on the responses.

Facebook will use even more feedback from users to better show posts. Here are some of its news approach:

• Wether people find a post inspirational: Facebook is running a series of global tests that will survey people to understand which posts they find inspirational. The company will incorporate responses as a signal in News Feed ranking, with the goal of showing people more inspirational posts closer to the top of their News Feed.
• Gauging interest in certain topics: Even though people can choose wether they want to see a post of a friend or family member, it may not want to see everything these people post. Facebook will ask people whether they want to see more or fewer posts about a certain topic, such as Cooking, Sports, or Politics.

• Making it easier to give feedback directly on a post: If the user come across something that it find irrelevant, problematic, or irritating, it can tap the X in the upper right corner of the post to hide it from the News Feed and see fewer posts like it in the future.
• Better understanding content people want to see less of: Facebook will work over the next few months to understand what kinds of content are linked with user’s negative experiences. For example, it will look at posts with lots of angry reactions and ask people what kinds of posts they want want to see less of.

These features will start rolling out in the coming weeks for Facebook users.

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