Gadgetory

facebook gives a facelift I'm Bridget Carey and this is your cnet update facebook is changing things up again the social network is rolling out a new look for the homepage news feed that clears out some of the side clutter and makes photos posts and activity much larger with more imagery so if you share a story you're going to see a larger thumbnail on a larger headline if you check into a location a map will show up Facebook feels that bigger is better of course that also means advertisements will also be larger but first let's break down what's changing you still have the main news feed but since the main news feed only shows you selected highlights now you can toggle between more specific fields to get every post there's an all friends feed that will show you every single post from your friends in chronological order but there's also a following feed for all the news outlets personalities and companies you follow the photo feed shows every photo shared and the music feed will show everything related to music and the musicians you said you liked and all these changes will be the same on the desktop website as in the mobile app in fact the main website redesign was inspired to be more like the app experience with a side navigation bar that slides out it's nice that Facebook is clearing up the sidebar clutter for a fresh presentation but the fees are the bigger deal here with several feeds to scroll through you'll stay on the site longer engage with more posts and of course run into more advertisements in the process if you want to be among the first to get this go to facebook.com slash newsfeed there have been a few other social media updates the Twitter app has a new feature called top tweets when you search for something it will recommend a tweet it thinks is popular and Foursquare just updated the iphone app making it easier to check into places when you see a list of venues to check-in app you just press and hold on the name of the place and then you're instantly checked in without the prompt to have to write something about the place now if all these Facebook changes have you annoyed there are alternatives out there take for example path path is a social network design for you to share updates with only the people closest to you your limited to 150 friends within the path network because the point is the only share of people who actually care about what you have to say what a concept well path just got an upgrade at least you have a private chat between multiple friends and you can send messages in new ways like with a voice a location map even cute stickers but you got to buy those stickers a post on paths can be shared on Facebook Twitter Foursquare and tumblr so you can still reach out to those wider networks that's your tech news update you can find more details on these stories at the blog cnet com / update from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey