Facebook has tweaked its algorithms which show what stories pop up on people's news feeds and now factors in the amount of time people spend on a particular news story. "Just because someone didn't like, comment or share a story in their News Feed doesn't mean it wasn't meaningful to them. There are times when, for example, people want to see information about a serious current event, but don't necessarily want to like or comment on it," Facebook explained on its blog. The social networking company also said that the new changes also factor in slow internet connections for time spent on a news story and the system will compare how long users look at a particular story versus your general browsing habits. The company says that this can better identify which posts are actually relevant to users. The feature is currently rolling out and will continue to do so over the next few weeks. Lighthouse Insights points out that the move will make publishers more happy with the move as it could mean that a user spending more time on say The New York Times rather than a listicle on BuzzFeed could see more stories from The New York Times despite the fact the Buzzfeed story has got more likes and is more widely shared. Instant Articles It will be interesting how the changes in the algorithm will play in with its Instant Articles feature where certain publishers' stories will be displayed inside the mobile app. It’s worth noting that Facebook had reduced the…
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