Facebook today announced some pretty dramatic changes to its News Feed feature, to be implemented almost immediately. We here at Unique Photo watched the live stream event and, to be honest, we're pretty excited. Why? Because it's going to be much better for photographers and videographers.
Facebook has (finally) recognized that text-heavy stories are quickly going out of style, and is now embracing that fact by making images the predominant items on your News Feed. Both photographs and videos will appear as large icons, with text unobtrusively appearing in the corner. Albums will be featured with a large cover image and smaller thumbnails below it for a broader look at what the album contains. Not only that, you and your friends now have access to separate feeds, one of which is specifically for photos. For us photographers and videographers, this is fantastic news since our work will stand out from the text rather than needing to fight it for attention. Facebook has been decried in the past as being "cluttered" and "distracting", and these new changes look like they may just remedy those gripes; people can now see our work in a much cleaner and more efficient sharing space.
As in the above and below photos, the viewing experience of Facebook will be the same across all platforms, making it more consistent and easy to access needed information. So, there you have it folks: changes to Facebook that are much more appreciative of those of us who make a living or a hobby with visual media. It may take some time to adjust, but if the live stream was any indication, Facebook has once again defined itself as the ideal social media platform for our work. Look for the changes to come almost immediately and into the weekend.
Tim Kauger is a blogger and photographer based in Short Hills, NJ. You can visit his website here.