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(Image source: TechCrunch) BY BRIANA ALTERGOTT
ANCHOR MIKAH SARGENT
Facebook is about to update its design again. Starting on Thursday,
the site will switch over to a more content-specific news feed.
It will feature a photo feed
that places users’ Facebook and Instagram photos all in one place. Also making its debut
is a revamped music feed where Facebookers can share songs and find concert schedules,
information on new albums, and more.
More differences to expect are larger images and
shared link posts—especially for advertisements. And like any Facebook change, this begs the
question: Why?
TechCrunch says it’s “because we are information junkies. Give
us a feed and we’ll read it. But when we scroll so far we hit re-runs – we hit the
road. So Facebook has a plan to give us something different to look at … it could get us spending
more hours on Facebook and seeing more — and more intense — ads.”
These ‘more intense’ ads will likely attract more advertisers to the site, allowing Facebook
to make even more ad revenue from its platform. Facebook alterations have been met with resistance
in the past—but a writer for Wired says there’s good reason for this change.
“It
might seem silly to get wound up about a redesign of a section of a social website, particularly
when that section is so often used to share humorous cat pictures and forwarded jokes.
But for many people and organizations, News Feed is serious business. And Thursday will
be a big day.”
Until the big day, users can pack away their torches and pitchforks—it’s
likely no changes will be made until after the media event.