There are even more changes coming to Facebook...

We can't keep up

This year we've seen the 'like' button updated, unearthed a hidden inbox and had our Facebook emojis given a make over. But there are going to be even more changes coming to your Facebook news feed, people.

Today, Facebook announced that it will be making changes to its algorithm so it will favour posts by the friends and family of users. The changes will affect all kinds of content, including links, videos, and photos.

'When we launched News Feed in 2006, it was hard to imagine the challenge we now face: far too much information for any one person to consume,' wrote Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s vice president of Product Management, in a blog post detailing the changes. 'In the decade since, more than a billion people have joined Facebook, and today they share a flood of stories every day.'

Mosseri said that the reason stories in our feeds are ranked are so 'people can see what they care about first' and don’t miss out on the 'important stuff from their friends.' It would seem that there may have been some complaints. 'If the ranking is off, people don’t engage, and leave dissatisfied,' he wrote. 'So one of our most important jobs is getting this ranking right.'

Research has shown Facebook that people look to be both 'informed' and 'entertained' when they look at their news feeds. 'Our aim is to deliver the types of stories we’ve gotten feedback that an individual person most wants to see,' Mosseri wrote in the blog post. 'We do this not only because we believe it’s the right thing but also because it’s good for our business.'

Facebook engineering director Lars Backstrom added in a separate blog post that the changes may negatively impact traffic for Facebook pages. 'Overall, we anticipate that this update may cause reach and referral traffic to decline for some Pages,' he wrote. '. . . We encourage Pages to post things that their audience are more likely to share with their friends.'

From the editors of HelloGiggles