How To: Filter the Noise From Your Facebook News Feed

Update: We’ve published a new edition of this article for the updated version of Facebook.  Check that out instead.

Facebook has made some interface changes lately which have caused some frustration with its core users.  Most recently, they’ve removed the ability to exclusively view status updates on the Friends tab, which leaves you with only the “full firehose” of the homepage’s News Feed.  Since the News Feed displays all recent activity, my homepage has become completely inundated with quiz results and “Top 5” lists which completely obfuscate my friend’s status updates.

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Since the only thing I really care about on Facebook is what my friends are up to, I found a simple way to display only status updates on the homepage by default.  To do this, navigate to your Facebook homepage and look for the Status Updates widget in the top left corner.  If the widget isn’t visible, click the “More” button and look for it in the expanded list.

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Click and drag the Status Updates widget above the News Feed widget, which will cause it to be enabled by default.  From now on, your Facebook homepage will only display your friends status updates.

Have any tips that have improved your Facebook experience?  Share them in the comments!

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Evan Wondrasek

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Comments

16 responses to “How To: Filter the Noise From Your Facebook News Feed”

  1. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    the other option would be to just have fewer people on your 'friends' list

  2. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    the other option would be to just have fewer people on your 'friends' list

  3. rodlie Avatar
    rodlie

    wow….i've been searching for this for a long time! i can finally breathe again in facebook!!!

  4. rodlie Avatar
    rodlie

    wow….i've been searching for this for a long time! i can finally breathe again in facebook!!!

  5. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    Most people suggest to create a friend's list for filtering, but I find your way the simplest and fastest! Thanks for sharing!

  6. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    Most people suggest to create a friend's list for filtering, but I find your way the simplest and fastest! Thanks for sharing!

  7. Junior Avatar
    Junior

    then again it is not possible to use it as a filter together with other filters, such as groups etc..

  8. Junior Avatar
    Junior

    then again it is not possible to use it as a filter together with other filters, such as groups etc..

  9. Derrick Avatar
    Derrick

    facebook killed it

  10. Derrick Avatar
    Derrick

    facebook killed it

  11. How to Filter Your Facebook News Feed with the New Version of Facebook | Techerator

    […] a year ago, I wrote a guide to filtering the noise from your Facebook News Feed that worked for the old version of Facebook.  The News Feed can get really messy when a lot of […]

  12. Jay M. Avatar
    Jay M.

    The article is out of date. Facebook has even removed the Status widget since this was written. They seem to want to force me to see all of the noise rather than just the content.

  13. Evan W. Avatar
    Evan W.

    Hi Jay,

    We've written an updated version of this article for the new Facebook, you can check it out at http://techerator.com/2010/04/how-to-filter…

    Evan

  14. Terri Avatar
    Terri

    Just use firefox or chrome with the ffixer addon for greasemonkey. It works and you choose what you want to see.

  15. Terri Avatar
    Terri

    Just use firefox or chrome with the ffixer addon for greasemonkey. It works and you choose what you want to see.

  16. Laura-in Avatar
    Laura-in

    Does anyone now know the way to filter for Status Updates with the newest FACEBOOK release….All I get now are junk…I’d also love to be able to filter for friends photos or links as well….this “social media” has become social junk, not letting you get what you want when you want it, it’s much more confusing now!

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