The feature TIME once compared to “a glitzy laundry list” is now the crux of Facebook’s success.
Facebook’s News Feed launched in September 2006, about a year and a half after the launch of the site. At first, people thought of it as a timeline of mundane details about their friends’ lives. But it’s evolved into what TIME has more recently called “the most valuable billboard on Earth” — for brands, publishers, celebrities, and the rest of us.
In an effort to provide the best experience possible, the algorithm behind the News Feed has grown increasingly complicated over the years. In a nutshell, it scans and collects every single post put out by your Facebook friends, the people you follow, the groups you belong to, and the pages you’ve Liked. Then, it does its very best to rank posts according to each user’s preferences…
20 Fascinating Things You Didn’t Know About Your Facebook News Feed
