Facebook changes the way it tallies “likes”

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In an attempt to stop the manipulation of “likes”, Facebook is switching around some code which regulates how the system tallies them.

Facebook likes are about to get an overhaul, at least when it comes to pages for celebrities or business. The website claims new measures will stop tallying ‘likes’  from people who have died or deactivated the accounts as to prevent manipulation, considering part of their algorithm for picking users tailored to each user is based on them. These new numbers will help accuracy and give advertisers and promoters a better understanding of a page’s audience.

Now we have to test Facebook and see if the quality of posts improves or not, as this is far from the first time the social media giant toys around with newsfeeds and the way we get our stories – sometimes, despite liking a webpage users won’t be seeing the content on these on their newsfeed. Facebook’s previous effort had been aimed to remove click-bait titles and stories as they felt like advertising to many members of its userbase.

On the otherhand, what this means is that paying Facebook to advertise becomes more and more of a necessity if a page means to stay afloat by providing new tools like video, or the touted “buy” button. Whether it is a good change or not, we’ll see in time.

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Facebook cracks down on click-bait: “you’ll never believe…”

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Facebook has just announced a series of measures to crack down on clickbait in an attempt to help users decontaminate their feeds of shoddy journalism.

One of the worst tendencies in modern blogging and journalism is to create headlines that don’t really say anything about the story, but instead “bait” users into having to click to see what a story is all about. This practice, aptly deemed “click-bait”, is the key to success for some sites that expertly craft headlines that don’t say anything in order to get their pageviews. Well, it turns out this will be the end of an era, as Facebook has heard its users, and deemed the practice annoying.

The image illustrating this story is an example straight from Facebook’s blog, where they also explain why they are not too happy about this practice. In their own words, “[W]hen we asked people in an initial survey what type of content they preferred to see in their News Feeds, 80% of the time people preferred headlines that helped them decide if they wanted to read the full article before they had to click through. Over time, stories with “click-bait” headlines can drown out content from friends and Pages that people really care about.”

The newsfeed algorithm will be modified so stories that don’t hold readers’ interest after clicking, or don’t get comments and shares aren’t shown as often. The idea? That you see more of your friends, and the things you care about instead of junk clogging your newsfeed. Are you happy about these changes? Let us know about it in the comments section.

Via The Mary Sue

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