Where did my recent news go? How do you know what is important to me? What is a ticker? These are all things that people on Facebook are asking right now as they wake up and find their favorite service changed.
Facebook has been rolling out changes over the last few weeks that have, according to them, made life easier, but many are saying why did you break it?
Starting at the top right below the blue Facebook bar you will notice that your status box has been hidden until you want to post either a status, picture, or question. They have removed the other choices.
Also changed is your ability to CHOOSE whether you want most recent or top stories. Facebook has chosen for you, the top stories from the previous day and marked them with a blue triangle in the corner. They are deciding what is important to you based on your relationships with other people on the service. If it has been a while since you logged in, Facebook will show all of the top stories since you last logged in.
If you are looking for more recent items you actually have a couple of choices. Below the top stories area, the most recent posts will appear in the order that they were posted. You also have a ticker in the right hand column that will be a live stream of everything that your friends are doing. In my opinion the ticker will be the place to look for the most recent things happening since it is near the top and you won’t have to scroll all the way down to see recent things.
Facebook is also sorting your friends and family into smart lists as well. What is a smart list? Well Facebook determines that someone is in your family based on many factors including your other friends’ relationship statuses. They also will group them by your schools, jobs, or even by locations automatically and place them into the lists. You may also create your own groupings as well. When you click on one of the lists that are in the left hand margin, you will be brought to all of the most recent posts from people in that list. This is also a way to enjoy a most recent status list.
All of these changes are coming fast a furiously as Google begins to compete with them. Google has been slowly by invitation only releasing their “Google Plus” service. Tuesday they opened the service up to everyone which may explain why Facebook has opened all of these changes today.
Some say that the Google Plus service will be a Facebook killer, when others say it is already dead. I haven’t tried plus yet but will start setting it up this week just to see which is better.
Have you tried Google Plus yet? What do you think about it? What do you think about the changes in Facebook? Please visit our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/SearchCitrus and let us know what you think.
