The Facebook X-Factor

The Facebook X-Factor

june 27 2015

Would you be surprised to learn that Facebook is changing its timeline algorithm again? Even though it hasn’t been very long since they announced another timeline change.

We all know that Facebook (and pretty much every website of sorts) stores a lot of information about the user. And while we might be a bit uncomfortable to let a website (and the company running it) know so much about us, but… we all do it anyway? So this time the idea is that your information is what’s going to help the new dynamic Facebook timeline algorithm to serve you stories you want?

To get a bit more technical, Facebook has introduced a new factor to determine what’s interesting for the user: time spent on a story. Since our attention span on the internet is really short and we don’t wish to waste a second, time spent on a story should be a greater indicator of what you are interested in. Are you asking yourselves what will happen with those who have slow Internet connections? Facebook says that they’ve got it covered.

How is it going to work?

Until now, the social signals determining how important a post is were likes, shares and comments. Now, if you spend more time than usual on a story, the dynamic algorithm will learn your preference and show you more stories that match with that story and so on. Enjoy!