New York — Top online social-networking service Facebook on Wednesday began rolling out the update to user home-pages that brings a new look, enhanced filter system, and most importantly, real-time updating. Patience is evidently required. The company says the roll-out will take place in phases over the coming days.
“The update will take place gradually, so everyone should have the new home page over the coming days,” Facebook product manager Peter Deng wrote in a statement.
The home page was previewed last week. In the company blog, Deng says the social networking giant received more than 30,000 email messages from users about the new home page since it revealed the planned changes.
Changes include making the status update question “What’s on your mind?” building on a theme in a Facebook home page redesign last year. All the photos and apps in Facebook are still intact, but the new design really puts the friend stream in your face.
Real-time updates are Facebook’s answer to Twitter, which has been able to thrive on offering users instant updates from their friends and favorite celebrities.
Among the other changes include:
- The Publisher: It is a way to create messages, attach pictures and videos to those messages, and then share them with your friends.
- Real-Time Stream: The News Feed is now a live stream of stuff being shared by friends and connections.
- Filters: Filters on the left hand side of the page — including News Feed, Public Profiles, Photos and Videos — let you control what you see in your stream. You can create new filters with friends’ lists.
- Highlights: This section shows you the most important activity over a longer period of time than the real-time stream.
“As more and more is shared, we want you to be able to find out everything that is going on in the world around you at any given moment, or shape the stream of information most relevant to you,” Deng wrote.
Filtering tools on the new home page allows people to be more choosey about who they want to get news from, according to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
“Over the past five years, Facebook has evolved to make sharing information more efficient and to give people more control,” Zuckerberg said of the website he started in 2004.
“This year, we are going to continue making the flow of information even faster and more customized.”
You can tour the new changes Facebook has more here.