Facebook’s confusing news feed and live feed features

A number of Facebook users are confused by the recent changes in the social-networking site’s feature, particularly news feed and the live feed. A common question is, What’s the difference between the two?

You can find a more detailed explanation here, but here it is in a nutshell:

The news feed aggregates and broadcasts, as it were, what Facebook thinks are the most interesting content posted by y0ur or your friends, whether these were done an hour ago or a day ago. Facebook uses an algorithm to determine which goes to the news feed.

Live feed, on the other hand, shows everything that your friend posted, linked to, commented on, liked, etc. in real time. This includes the important and the mundane.

On Facebook, someone asked: Would my status updates be on the news feed or the live feed? Depends on the content, really. Facebook’s algorithm, such as it is, determines that. But everything you put on your status updates will reflect in the live feed, not necessarily on the news feed.

Setting Facebook’s privacy controls and tweaking it to suit your needs and taste can be daunting. But I suggest everybody explored it if they intend to use Facebook for a long time. My sense is that, as Facebook becomes part of our everyday online life, exploring these controls and settings is a must.