Facebook is testing a new feature that will show selected friends’ updates on the user’s page on a priority basis. The feature, which is in the testing phase on mobile, allows a user to select the friends and pages that should be prioritized on their webpage, according to AdWeek.
Updates from selected friends
There is a box on the top of the News Feed for some users allowing them to select friends and pages, according to the report, noting that it is an easy way to see their latest posts. The News Feed serves as the dashboard where users can see all the updates from their friends. Any new activity, such as photo uploads or status updates, show up in the News Feed. At present, users are given a choice to decide on whether they want to see the latest updates at the top of their News Feed or the “Top stories” that are based on an algorithm.
AdWeek reported that the new feature will only prioritize content from selected friends or pages rather than filtering content. Therefore, even if the News Feed publishes recent posts, the new feature will still prioritize and display older content from the selected friends at the top.
Every day billions of content is poured into Facebook News Feeds, so it becomes pertinent to manage the content, especially for those who have a large number of active friends. It is not clear, as of now, if the feature will be offered on a permanent basis to all Facebook users. The Menlo Park-based company keeps testing new features while some are rolled out and others go in the dark.
Facebook hit by bug
Recently a bug affected Facebook after which millions of Facebook users’ posts disappeared, and some were even blocked from sharing links. Users started complaining on Thursday evening that posts were disappearing and links were being automatically deleted, citing a violation of the security policy.
Some users alleged that Facebook exercised selective censorship as they were trying to post links to stories about the Baltimore riots. However, later the issue was identified as a system-wide issue.
