Facebook Is Trying to Perfect Newsfeed

Facebook has started trying to perfect what its users get out of Newsfeed by asking them directly what they like and want. Currently, Newsfeed is curated by an algorithm that processes what you like and comment on, but it turns out that our activity on Facebook is highly affected by the variety of content we're shown. As you might have guessed, we are disproportionately likely to react to and affirm emotionally compelling content. That ASPCA puppy video... we're all over it. Mainstream news content? Not so much...

As a result, Facebook has started trying to ask users directly what they like and want to see in order to better determine what users desire in their newsfeed.

"The project works like this: each of these 600 Facebook users is presented with 30 top News Feed stories in a random order. Then they go through each story one by one. They can comment, share, follow a link, or choose to ignore the story. After that they answer eight questions about each item, including how much they cared about the subject of the story, how welcome the story was in their News Feed, how entertaining it was, and how much the story connected them to friends and family. Finally, they are asked to write a few sentences describing their overall feelings about the News Feed story."

It is in Facebook's best interest to learn how to better curate content for its users:

"Facebook made $2 billion in ad revenue last quarter, more than two-thirds of its total $3.59 billion in ad revenue for 2014. And where do those ads live? In News Feed. If the social network can crack the problem of what users really want from News Feed, they can presumably apply those learnings to ads, too."

So, if this experiment pans out, it may make Facebook's advertising worth significantly more.

http://www.wired.com/2015/01/facebook-making-news-feed-better-asking-real-people-direct-questions/