Dear Mr. Facebook: Less Application-Spam and More Group News in My Feed, Please
Jay Parkhill February 1st, 2008
Facebook’s news feed is, in my opinion, the best thing about the platform. I understand that lots of users happily bounce around among friends’ profile pages, but that isn’t something that interests me at all. Let’s say I’m too busy for that- though in truth I bounce around to various web pages elsewhere a bunch. I guess I just don’t use my “down time” that way.
This is why I am frustrated that the news feed has been taken over by application-spam. I really don’t care that someone scored __ on a Flixter quiz, or that so-and-so challenged someone to something or other.
On the other hand, there are loads of FB groups and fan pages that do nothing for me because I don’t use the site that way. I belong to a handful of groups, but I’m not even sure why since I never visit the group pages.
Putting these two observations together, then, here is my request to Mr. Facebook:
1) Let me opt out of application spam. I don’t even have the Movies application and I still get spammed by it in my feed.
2) Publish updates from my Groups pages. I joined the darn Paris-Roubaix group so I’m interested in it. Tell me when people post messages or upload new photos. If you show me there is activity happening I’ll be more likely to visit the page.
Feel free to show me ads based on my group interests too. I’ve already self-selected my interest in certain topics, so I’m more likely to click through on ads reflecting those interests.
I’m not sure if this goes against the current on how Facebook monetizes traffic. Everyone seems focused on applications (probably because this is the only- and weak- hope for third parties to make money on FB), but I find them really superficial and transient. Groups (and possibly fan pages) represents lasting interests. Let’s see them get some more love from Facebook.