Facebook shows off more visual, customised News Feed

Facebook unveiled an updated look for its News Feed on Thursday, showing larger images and offering different feeds for users to drill down their interests.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and co-founder of Facebook, was the first to take the stage at a press event at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. He made it clear that users are about to see a very different-looking News Feed on their Facebook page.

"The stories around you are intricate and detailed and should be displayed with more than just text," Zuckerberg said. "We believe that the best personalized newspaper should have a broad quality of content... socially and locally updated from people around you. A front page or top news or most important news going on across all topics. And the ability to drill down into any topic you want."

Facebook first announced on Friday that it would be unveiling a new design for its News Feed, which brings users content posted from their friends, favorite musical groups and businesses - all on their individual home pages.

Facebook wants to make the News Feed individualized for every user, offering different feeds that focus on friends, music and events, for instance.

Zuckerberg noted that since the end of 2011, almost half of Facebook's News Feed content is made up of photos and visual content.

"How we're all sharing is changing," Zuckerberg said. "The design of News Feed needs to reflect this evolving face. We want to share with our friends and with our publications and businesses and artists and world leaders. That's what we want to talk about today, a design that reflects the evolving face of News Feed."

The newly redesigned News Feed also is geared to give mobile and browser users the same experience. The site's assets should have a material and visual consistency regardless of what platform users are viewing.

The company is rolling out the redesigned feature for desktops today. Mobile and tablet platforms will roll out in the next few weeks.

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin, on Google+ or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed. Her email address is sgaudin@computerworld.com.

See more by Sharon Gaudin on Computerworld.com.

Read more about social media in Computerworld's Social Media Topic Center.

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