Facebook News Feed To Surface More Timely Stories

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One of the problems with Facebook’s News Feed is that older postsstay at the top for a while. Facebook is addressing this issue by updating its News Feed algorithm. Facebook said that its goal is to show the right content at the right time so that important stories are not missed. The update to the News Feed will be based on two factors: trending topics and engagement (the rate of “likes” and comments).

“We’ve heard feedback that there are some instances where a post from a friend or a Page you are connected to is only interesting at a specific moment, for example when you are both watching the same sports game, or talking about the season premiere of a popular TV show,” said Facebook in a blog post.

You may have noticed that content is surfaced when it refers to trending topics, which are displayed on the right-hand side of the desktop version of Facebook. Facebook said that early testing of trending posts has shown more than a 6% increase in people engaging with the stories.

To decide the posts that surface to the top, Facebook is also going to factor the rate that people are liking or commenting on a post. Facebook currently looks at the total number of likes that a post received, but now it will look at when people like, comment and share posts. People that engage with the story shortly after it is posted means that it was most interesting at that time, but will be less interesting at a later time. This means that posts that receive likes, comments and shares faster will be posted higher in the News Feed.