Facebook newsfeed

News Feed is a feature of the social network Facebook. The web feed is the primary system through which users are exposed to content posted on the network. News Feed highlights information that includes profile changes, upcoming events, and birthdays, among other updates. Using a proprietary method, Facebook selects a handful of updates to show users every time they visit their feed, out of an average of 2,000 updates they can potentially receive.

Nearly two billion people use Facebook every month, making the network's News Feed the most viewed and most influential aspect of the news industry.

Nearly two billion people use Facebook every month, making the network's News Feed the most viewed and most influential aspect of the news industry. Facebook's influence has become a liability for the company, as propagandists used it to viralize fake news during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The news feed has become a significant contributor to the spread of misinformation; as former U.S. president Barack Obama put it, "misinformation...looks the same when you see it on a Facebook page or you turn on your television."

On the Facebook app, News Feed is the first screen to appear, partially leading most users to think of the feed as Facebook itself.

An integral part of the News Feed interface is the Mini Feed, a news stream on the user's profile page that shows updates about that user. Unlike in the News Feed, the user can delete events from the Mini Feed after they appear so that they are no longer visible to profile visitors.

Adam Mosseri is Facebook’s vice president in charge of News Feed and Chief Product Officer Chris Cox runs the Facebook app and News Feed.

Facebook's proprietary algorithms compare the merits of about 2,000 potential posts every time the app is opened, using a complex system based on providing a meaningful experience, over that of clicks, reactions, or reading time.

Facebook has been researching its filter bubble on its news feed since 2010, and initially used an algorithm known as EdgeRank.

Before 2006, Facebook simply consisted of profiles, requiring the user to visit a profile to see any new posts. On September 6, 2006, Ruchi Sanghvi announced a new home page feature called News Feed. The new layout created an alternative home page in which users saw a constantly updated list of their friends' Facebook activity. Initially, the addition of the News Feed caused some discontent among Facebook users. Many users complained that the News Feed was too cluttered with excess information. Others were concerned that the News Feed made it too easy for other people to track activities like changes in relationship status, events, and conversations with other users. This tracking is often casually referred to as "Facebook stalking". In response to this dissatisfaction, creator Mark Zuckerberg issued an apology for the site's failure to include appropriate customizable privacy features. Thereafter, users were able to control what types of information were shared automatically with friends. Currently, users may prevent friends from seeing updates about several types of especially private activities, although other events are not customizable in this way.

...
Wikipedia