Facebook announced a revamp to its News Feed today that places more emphasis on photos, video and other visual content that surfaces in users’ feeds, along with other changes aimed at making the Facebook feature the "best personalized newspaper."

The redesign’s focus on images and video could help generate more interest in listings real estate agents market on the social media site.

Facebook announced a revamp to its News Feed today that places more emphasis on photos, video and other visual content that surfaces in users’ feeds, along with other changes aimed at making the Facebook feature the "best personalized newspaper."

The redesign’s focus on images and video could help generate more interest in listings real estate agents market on the social media site.

The announcement comes as Facebook continues to roll out its search engine, Graph Search, a tool that’s also expected to help real estate agents and others generate more leads on Facebook.

"News Feed has become primarily about visual content," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, when unveiling the redesign today. "The design of your News Feed needs to reflect this evolving face."

The redesign makes visual content more prominent primarily by enlarging the size of images that appear in a user’s News Feed. Those images include those posted individually or as albums as well as those associated with stories and pages.

"It works really well for pages and brands and businesses," said Julie Zhuo, director of design at Facebook.

Screen shot demonstrating the greater emphasis on visuals in Facebook’s revamped News Feed. Image via Facebook. 

In addition, the spruced-up News Feed caters more to third-party apps, Zhuo said. Zhuo and Zuckerberg both mentioned Pinterest as an example of one website that the revamped News Feed aims to empower.

Zhuo said photos from the image-driven social media posted to News Feed "will be more reflective of that content that you’re sharing."

News Feed’s new focus on Pinterest may provide more of an incentive than ever for real estate agents to embrace the site, which some have criticized for not removing copyrighted images of listings that are posted without agents’ permission.

But even if more agents do not sign up for Pinterest, News Feed’s emphasis on visual content in general could spur more agents to post listing photos. Due to its redesign, such photos could pack more of visual punch and make a larger impression on prospects.

Enhancement of visual content was just one aspect of the retooled News Feed that Facebook introduced today. The revamp now hosts several news feeds that users may toggle between. Those feeds, which include an "all friends feed," allow users to isolate certain categories of information, something that many users have said they would value, presenters said.

The redesign also has a function that aggregates the most popular stories from news outlets a user follows based on other users’ reactions to stories that run in those outlets. And it allows a user to see conversations among friends revolving around a posted video by moving a cursor over the profile photo of the poster.

Show Comments Hide Comments
Sign up for Inman’s Morning Headlines
What you need to know to start your day with all the latest industry developments
By submitting your email address, you agree to receive marketing emails from Inman.
Success!
Thank you for subscribing to Morning Headlines.
Back to top
×
Log in
If you created your account with Google or Facebook
Don't have an account?
Forgot your password?
No Problem

Simply enter the email address you used to create your account and click "Reset Password". You will receive additional instructions via email.

Forgot your username? If so please contact customer support at (510) 658-9252

Password Reset Confirmation

Password Reset Instructions have been sent to

Subscribe to The Weekender
Get the week's leading headlines delivered straight to your inbox.
Top headlines from around the real estate industry. Breaking news as it happens.
15 stories covering tech, special reports, video and opinion.
Unique features from hacker profiles to portal watch and video interviews.
Unique features from hacker profiles to portal watch and video interviews.
It looks like you’re already a Select Member!
To subscribe to exclusive newsletters, visit your email preferences in the account settings.
Up-to-the-minute news and interviews in your inbox, ticket discounts for Inman events and more
1-Step CheckoutPay with a credit card
By continuing, you agree to Inman’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

You will be charged . Your subscription will automatically renew for on . For more details on our payment terms and how to cancel, click here.

Interested in a group subscription?
Finish setting up your subscription
×