Facebook’s “News Feed” is not any extra. After greater than 15 years, the corporate is formally renaming its central function, which can now be identified merely as “Feed.” The firm introduced the identify change in

The change, which comes simply months after Mark Zuckerberg introduced he was renaming the corporate , is yet one more signal Facebook is making an attempt to shift the notion of its core merchandise. In a press release, a Facebook spokesperson stated the brand new moniker was meant “to better reflect the diverse content people see on their Feeds.” They added that the brand new identify received’t change how the function works within the app.

Still, the elimination of “news” from the identify will doubtless be seen as symbolic of the corporate’s altering priorities because it appears to be like towards a future centered on the metaverse, not its social networking app. Facebook’s dealing with of news stories has lengthy been a thorny challenge for the corporate. Company executives have for years argued that information is just a of what folks share on the platform, and the corporate fully reoriented its feed to deal with Facebook associates fairly than publishers. (That change got here with its personal unintended consequences, in line with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. ) 

More lately, Facebook has tried to counter perceptions that polarizing content material, significantly from far-right personalities, dominates its Feed. The firm has printed stories on “widely viewed content,” that argue political content material isn’t . And in response to a extensively cited Twitter account that ranks the highest Facebook Pages utilizing analytics knowledge from CrowdTangle, the corporate has printed its personal tackle which publishers have the largest attain on the platform. Those questions have additionally been central to researchers’ combat to know how content material spreads on Facebook. Of course, a superficial identify change does not resolve any of these points, however it may assist Facebook additional bolster its claims that the corporate is embarking on a brand new period that will not be outlined by the social networking app now seeing declining engagement.