How Facebook Is Using Surveys to Improve Its News Feed and Give Users What They Want

Facebook is taking more of a "survey says" approach to what users will see in their news feeds. In a blog post published today, Facebook software engineers Cheng Zhang and Si Chen explained that the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company's traditional ways of determining what shows up in feeds—likes, clicks, comments, shares—don't always give a full picture of what users want. And the changes could weed out publishers that rely on clickbait for traffic. Facebook asked more than 1,000 users to rate their daily experience and provide feedback on how it can be improved. It also surveyed tens of thousands of people around the world to better understand how well feeds are being ranked. Respondents were asked to give stories a rating of up to five stars according to how much they wanted to see each one show up in their news feed. Facebook uses algorithms to determine what people see based on each user's connections and activity on the platform. Updates to the news feed algorithm will include the probability that users want to see a given story and how likely they are to engage with it. "We saw through our research that people reported having a better newsfeed experience when the stories they see at the top are stories they are both likely to rate highly if asked and likely to engage with," the engineers wrote. So, how will this affect Pages, the section brands use to manage their Facebook page? That depends on the scope of the audience, how frequently a brand posts and what it... Continue reading at 'AdWeek'

[ AdWeek | 2016-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #-based company #full picture #provide feedback

Other Publishing stories related to: 'How Facebook Is Using Surveys to Improve Its News Feed and Give Users What They Want'


Facebook left ‘hundreds of millions’ of users’ passwords stored in plain text

Facebook Inc. said Thursday that it had left “hundreds of millions” of users’ passwords exposed in plain text, potentially visible to the company’s employees, marking another major privacy and security headache for a tech giant already under fire for mishandling people’s personal... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun

[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-03-21 20:35:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #passwords stored #plain text #left hundreds #passwords exposed #potentially visible #major privacy #security headache #tech giant #mishandling people #personal information


Facebook left ‘hundreds of millions’ of users’ passwords stored in plain text

Facebook Inc. said Thursday that it had left “hundreds of millions” of users’ passwords exposed in plain text, potentially visible to the company’s employees, marking another major privacy and security headache for a tech giant already under fire for mishandling people’s personal... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun

[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-03-21 20:35:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #passwords stored #plain text #left hundreds #passwords exposed #potentially visible #major privacy #security headache #tech giant #mishandling people #personal information


Several apps funnel users’ sensitive data to Facebook without consent, report says

Several phone apps are sending sensitive user data, including health information, to Facebook Inc. without users’ consent, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. An analytics tool called App Events enables app developers to record user activity and report it back to Facebook even... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun

[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-02-22 22:40:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #sensitive data #phone apps


Several apps funnel users’ sensitive data to Facebook without consent, report says

Several phone apps are sending sensitive user data, including health information, to Facebook Inc. without users’ consent, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. An analytics tool called App Events enables app developers to record user activity and report it back to Facebook even... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun

[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-02-22 22:40:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #sensitive data #phone apps


Facebook decided which users are interested in Nazis — and let advertisers target them directly

Facebook makes money by charging advertisers to reach just the right audience for their message — even when that audience is made up of people interested in the perpetrators of the Holocaust or explicitly neo-Nazi music. Despite promises of greater oversight following past advertising... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun

[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-02-21 13:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #people interested #facebook decided #advertisers target #charging advertisers #greater oversight


Facebook decided which users are interested in Nazis — and let advertisers target them directly

Facebook makes money by charging advertisers to reach just the right audience for their message — even when that audience is made up of people interested in the perpetrators of the Holocaust or explicitly neo-Nazi music. Despite promises of greater oversight following past advertising... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun

[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-02-21 13:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #people interested #facebook decided #advertisers target #charging advertisers #greater oversight


Facebook just purged hundreds of fake accounts linked to a Russian news network

This is just the last announcement in its crackdown on “inauthentic” behavior. Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher published a blog post this morning saying the company has discovered and removed hundreds of pages and accounts it deemed to be “inauthentic.” The pages came... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2019-01-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Publishers failing to improve racial and regional diversity, survey finds

Despite concentration of publishers in London, only 11% of respondents identified as BAME – significantly lower than average of 40% in the cityA major survey of the UK’s publishing workforce has found that “significant progress” still needs to be made on both the numbers of black, Asian and... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #uk industry #significantly lower #improve racial #regional diversity #significant progress #south east


Facebook is funding more programs catering to local news publishers

Facebook announced over $30 million in grants to organizations trying to help local news publishers. The post Facebook is funding more programs catering to local news publishers appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2019-01-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #facebook announced #post facebook #$30 million


Older people more likely to share fake news on Facebook, study finds

Researchers suggest over-65s may lack skills to determine veracity of online newsOlder people are almost four times more likely to have shared fake news on Facebook than the younger generation, according to research published in the journal Science.On average, American Facebook users over 65... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-01-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #younger generation #research published


Facebook users cannot avoid location-based ads, investigation finds

No combination of settings can stop location data being used by advertisers, says reportFacebook targets users with location-based adverts even if they block the company from accessing GPS on their phones, turn off location history in the app, hide their work location on their profile and never... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #investigation finds


Facebook e-mails reveal Zuckerberg deliberations on user data

Facebook is being accused by U.K. lawmakers of offering access to its users and their data based on the amount of money a prospective partner would spend, following the latest document dump painting its leadership team in a potentially unflattering light.On Wednesday, British lawmaker Damian... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2018-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #offering access #user data #leadership team #internal emails #including correspondence


Facebook exempts news publishers from its archive on political ads

Facebook says it will stop including some publishers' advertising in its political ad archive following months of criticism from news organizations.Next year the social media giant will no longer require publishers who want to buy ads boosting exposure to their articles on politics to go through... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2018-11-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #political ads #news organizations


Outgoing Facebook Employee Slams Company for Treatment of Black Employees and Users

A former manager at Facebook published a scathing memo on Tuesday criticizing the social media giant for its treatment of its black users and its black employees. Mark Luckie, a former partner manager for global influencers at Facebook who focused on underrepresented voices, wrote in a memo to... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2018-11-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #black users #facebook published #black employees #underrepresented voices


NBC, Fox News and Facebook stop running Trump's anti-immigrant campaign ad

NBCUniversal said Monday that it is pulling President Trump’s controversial anti-immigrant campaign advertisement, hours after the spot ran prominently during “Sunday Night Football.” Fox News said it decided to stop running the commercial as well, and Facebook stopped accepting it as a paid ad,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-11-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #fox news


Facebook Is Expanding Its Test of a Breaking News Tag to Publishers in More Countries

Facebook is expanding the breaking news tag it began testing in March to more markets and displaying the resulting breaking news label in more countries. The social network kicked off the test in March with more than 50 publishers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Australia. Product... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2018-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #latin america


Facebook’s and Google’s subscription tools offer publishers modest improvements

The subscription lift has been modest, and the tools can be cumbersome to implement, limiting their impact, publishers say. The post Facebook’s and Google’s subscription tools offer publishers modest improvements appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2018-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #post facebook


‘We’re giving them a harder time’: Axel Springer tries to turn up heat on Facebook

Publishers like Axel Springer are giving Facebook a harder time after user trust in Facebook dipped following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The post ‘We’re giving them a harder time’: Axel Springer tries to turn up heat on Facebook appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2018-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #facebook appeared #axel springer


Facebook says 50 million user accounts have been affected by a security breach

Nearly 50 million Facebook accounts have been affected by a security breach that enabled hackers to take over users’ accounts, the social media giant announced Friday. The new breach comes as Facebook strives to convince its more than 2 billion users that it can be trusted. It is grappling with... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-09-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #security breach


Facebook shares more details about its massive security breach -- after blocking people from sharing news about it

The Guardian was among many outlets to write about the huge Facebook vulnerability and attack reported yesterday, and people were understandably keen to share the story on the social network. However, many people found that they were unable to do. Large numbers of Facebook users who tried to... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2018-09-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #facebook shares #facebook users #sharing news #large numbers