Facebook Empowers Us To Tell News Feed What We Want To See First

“We know the algorithm isn’t perfect” News Feed Product Manager Greg Marra tells me. So to make sure Facebook stays entertaining and addictive, it’s giving users more direct control over what they see by revamping News Feed Preferences

Facebook is rolling out to the U.S. a way to choose friends and Pages they want to “See First” atop the feed, after I spotted it testing the feature last month. The upgraded settings section will now display who’s shown most in your feed and let you unfollow them, refollow people you’ve hidden, and discover Pages based on your interests. It’s coming tothe U.S. on iOS today and other platforms soon.

After years of suggesting who we should add as friends, Facebook is finally helping us to cull and coordinate who appears in our News Feeds. That could ensure our best friends don’t get drowned out by distant acquaintances. The “Discover New Pages” section could better map interests to connections by letting us explicitly volunteer information, improving Facebook as a news reader.

Meanwhile, See First creates a new holy grail for marketers looking to boost their Page’s audience amongst declining reach. Expect brands to campaign for you to add them to your See First section so you never miss their posts.

Facebook first launched News Feed Preferences in November with unfollow suggestions, and ways to refollow people, but Marra admits the drab interface made configuring them seem like a chore. The new version includes bright animations and plain language descriptions for setting so everyone will understand them.

“We wanted to make this not feel like a place to do work” Marra tells me. The playful crab Preferences mascot makes choosing your settings almost fun, if that’s even possible. It’s a lighthearted solution to a serious problem of keeping Facebook interesting and personalized.

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