Facebook's 'newsfeed' feature to get facelift

Reuters. Facebook update: A new look for newsfeeds will be unveiled March 7. IMAGE

3/1/13 By Alexei Oreskovic

The social media site will showcase the new look at a media event on March 7.

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook Inc. will unveil a new look for its popular "newsfeed" next week, the latest move by the Web company to revamp key elements of its 1-billion-member social network.

Facebook will showcase the newsfeed makeover at a media event on March 7 at its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, the company said in an emailed invitation sent to reporters on Friday.

The event will be Facebook's second high-profile product event this year, following the rollout of its social search feature in January.

Facebook's newsfeed, which displays an ever-changing stream of the photos, videos and comments uploaded from a user's network of friends, is one of the three "pillars" of the service, along with search and user profiles, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said.

The last major update to Facebook's newsfeed was in September 2011. Since then, the company has incorporated ads directly into the feed and the company has shifted its focus to creating "mobile first experiences," as more people now access the social network on mobile devices than on desktop PCs.

The mobile version of Facebook still lacks many of the features available on the PC version, said Brian Blau, an analyst with industry research firm Gartner. "So maybe this is a way to bring some of that together," he said.

Shares of Facebook, the world's No.1 social network, were up nearly 2 percent, or 52 cents, at $27.77 in midday trading on Friday.

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