Facebook's Big Push to Put Advertising in Your News Feed

Facebook plans to change its news feed from a curated stream of information to unfiltered mayhem, reports The Wall Street Journal's Shayndi Raice and Emily Steele. Currently an algorithm decides what you see in your feed -- generally the feed shows the activity of your friends with whom you interact most. And while users might like that the system hides "Friends" who aren't friends, advertisers don't appreciate the veil -- they want those valuable eyeballs. Facebookers will likely resist the changes -- as they do when Facebook makes any design tweaks -- but this time Facebook admittedly doesn't care about the people. It's now an advertising-first company.

Advertisers have recognized the value of 750 million users, but Facebook has resisted splattering the site with tacky banner ads; as Justin Timberlake (as Sean Parker) noted in The Social Network, "You don't want to ruin [Facebook] with ads, because ads aren't cool." But now the social network's not worrying as much about being cool and would like to cash in. Advertisers can try to get their message in front of that huge user base with the "Like" button and on brand pages. But the feed's ability to hide certain (annoying) information has limited the reach that advertisers seek, explain Raice and Steele.

Read the full story at The Atlantic Wire.