Facebook just announced a dramatic update to the way that it ranks its News Feed content that will have users seeing more news articles and fewer cute meme photos, like LOLCats.
The company cites an internal survey that apparently showed that people prefer clicking links to high quality articles (about current events, sports, whatever) over the latest memes.
"Starting soon, we’ll be doing a better job of distinguishing between a high quality article on a website versus a meme photo hosted somewhere other than Facebook," the blog post reads. "This means that high quality articles you or others read may show up a bit more prominently in your News Feed, and meme photos may show up a bit less prominently."
It's not clear how facebook is going to make its "quality" judgment. But it appears that you'll be seeing a lot less of LOLCats, Good Guy Greg and 9Gag.
Also, after you click on a link to an article, Facebook may suggest up to three related articles below the post to help you discover more stories.
The new update will also highlight stories that lots of your friends are commenting on. For example, even if you've clicked on and read an article, it may show up again in your News Feed later because a lot of people are commenting on it, with the new comments highlighted.
