What's new with Facebook?

Today, Facebook introduced a few new features. Here's a list of what they are and why they're implemented:

New Suggestions
Found in the right-hand corner of your home page, it's easy for you to help your friends find other friends they may know. This is obviously a good tool in helping people who are new to Facebook. But, let's be honest - the only people new to Facebook nowadays are your moms. And I mean that factually.

Some friends need help becoming more active on the site. For those people I say, "stop having a life and come join the party online." Really, WE'RE the ones who probably need to be more active in LIFE, forget about Facebook. But alas, Facebook now lets you know whose wall is empty sans posts, who still needs to update their information or who really needs to get around to posting a fairly decent picture.

NEWS FEED
It seems like Facebook is always trying new ways to make this better and more user-friendly. Of course, the point of Facebook is undoubtedly simple: You get to know each other's business. From now on, Facebook offers a two different views of News Feed: a summary view of the most interesting activity that's happened in the last day and a real-time view that shows you what is happening right now. The former, of course, is for people who don't sit on Facebook all day everyday, who are, let's say, unemployed - while the latter, seemingly, is for people who are addicted to their website.

Do you understand what I'm telling you here? It's like they are encouraging people to live by Facebook. Think about it - If I missed a day's worth of status updates for my blog, I'm no longer going to have to sit and hit "show more" at the bottom of the page -- I can see the most popular things that happened on Facebook. Here's how it works:

Day's Worth of News Feed
When you log into Facebook, you'll see the most interesting things that happened in the last day in the "News Feed" view. News Feed picks stories that they think you'll enjoy based on a variety of factors including how many friends have liked and commented on it and how likely you are to interact with that story. BIG BROTHER! WHAT'S UP?

Live Feed
Once you've caught up on what you missed, you can click through to "Live Feed" to see what's happening right now. As long as you remain logged into Facebook, you'll continue to see posts and activity from your friends in real-time. You can edit what appears in this view by clicking "Edit Options" at the bottom of the home page.

I'll give Facebook credit, though. They are always listening to feedback and changing up their site accordingly. People want to see their friends tagged in photos in the News Feed again? CHECK! People want to see who has become a fan of which page? CHECK! Did Susie Peters RSVP to the Halloween party next weekend? CHECK! Facebook heard you loud and clear, folks. They even made birthdays and events more visible in the right column of the home page - which you KNOW is uber-important. I mean, I don't know people's birthdays without the help of Facebook!! Clearly, I'm exaggerating there.

Sure, it may disruptive when all these things are moved around - but as long as you understand what's happening and why, peace on Earth can surely be restored.