Besides telling Facebook to "I don't want to see this," users of the social networking site, up to now, had to either block others or bear through the undesirable post of individuals they weren't quite ready to unfollow or unfriend.
To improve its News Feed, Facebook has armed its users with new controls to manage the flow of content that's broadcast over the site's primary channel. The new News Feed controls were rolled out across both desktop and mobile platforms.
"What you do in News Feed helps determine what you see in News Feed," says Greg Marra, a Facebook product manager. "You decide who you want to connect to, and what Pages and public figures you want to follow."
For Facebook users who are following pages or groups that are way more chatty than expected, the individuals can review a weekly list of the accounts that share content with the most frequency. After realizing a friend or company page posts approximately 55 stories each week, Facebook users can choose to unfollow that entity on the new Summary page.
Along with displaying the most chatty entities an individual is following, the Summary page also shows a handful of the unfollowed. Users have the option to follow people once again, because maybe the person or business finally realized more selfies don't always equate to more followers.
Previously, Facebook users could hide a single post or block all of an account's shared content from showing up in their news feed. Now Facebook has included a more moderate course of action, through which users can choose to see less content from another account.
The objective is to make the Facebook experience better for everyone, by giving users more control over what content they see, according to Adam Mosseri, product management director of Facebook's News Feed
"The goal is to show content that matters and facilitate conversations," says Mosseri. "We want to give people more control over the News Feed experience."
The options to flag inappropriate content or turn off notifications from posts remain among the news feed's settings. There is also the feedback button, with which Facebook hopes to hear how people like or dislike the new News Feed controls.
Along with giving users more control over what content they see, Facebook also added a temporary panel to the top of news feeds.
Facebook is encouraging its users to donate in the fight against Ebola, though the panel disappears after individuals choose to pitch in or opt out. For those who choose to donate, they'll have the option to pick which charitable organization they want to support in the battle to control Ebola infections in West Africa.
