Facebook has announced yet another update to its News Feed algorithm, that aims to show more informative content first.
The social network made the change because of results from its Feed Quality Program, a user survey that asks tens of thousands of people what they like and dislike about their News Feeds, and why.
The company discovered that one of the main reasons people enjoyed content on Facebook was because it made them feel “more informed” about the world around them.
So, Facebook decided to make an update, “adding another of many signals we take into account when ranking feeds – to do a better job of showing people stories they find informative.”
The change brings a new ranking system that aims to predict what is most informative to users, and places that content higher in their News Feeds.
To do this, people in the Feed Quality Program first rate stories on a scale of one to five, one being “really not informative” and five being “really informative”.
After this, Facebook combines the rankings with how relevant the story is to you personally, based on things like your relationship with the poster or publisher, or what you click, comment on or share.
“That could be anything from recipes, to local issues, to global current events. The stories people rate as informative and really informative help create a new prediction about how informative we think you’ll find each story.”
Despite this, however, Facebook said that most Pages shouldn’t see “significant changes” to their distribution in News Feeds, saying: “Some Pages might see a small increase in referral traffic, and some Pages might see minor decreases.
“Pages should continue to post stories that are relevant to their audiences and that their audiences might find informative.”
The news comes shortly after Facebook announced a number of changes to its New Feed algorithm, including pushing clickbait content further down and bringing information from those closest to users further up the feed.
To find out more about the “ranking signal” please click here.