Facebook Replaces News Feeds with Status Streams

04.03.2009
Facebook is taking a cue from and retooling its home page to include real-time status streams with advanced options for customization. The change was announced at a media event at Facebook's Palo Alto headquarters Wednesday.

The New Home Page

The, set to go live by the middle of next week, is anchored by the newly named Stream (previously known as the News Feed). The Facebook Stream shows your friends' activity as it occurs, with automatic refreshing built into the page. The status update box, now branded as Publisher, simply asks: "What's on your mind?" Any text, photos, or video entered into it go straight into your profile and onto your friends' home pages at the same time.

The revamped page features added filters as well. The filters give you greater control over what you see in the Stream, letting you choose to see updates from only specific users or specific sources. If you'd rather not see content that comes from particular applications, for example, you can opt to filter it out.

As , Facebook also revealed plans to tweak its . Those pages will now mimic the look of personal profiles, allowing companies to send status updates and other information directly into users' streams without previously imposed restrictions.

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