Facebook rolled out some new tweaks this week, like adding a real-time “ticker” of all your friends’ updates in the right sidebar, and making pictures bigger in the news feed, along with a few other tweaks. Some people woke up to them and promptly starting making Facebook status updates on how much they hate the new Facebook. Well, there’s a few ways to roll them back and get the “old” Facebook.
The other changes include subscribe to people’s news feeds you’re not even friends with, and, in a Google+ inspired move, organizing friends by what kind of friend they are. And it’s a bit easier to change who can see each individual item you post. For instance, you might not want your ex-boyfriend to know about the awesome kiss you just had with the guy you met at the party.
Sound like too much? If you simply want to get rid of the news ticker and use the Chrome web browser, you can give installing the Facebook News Ticker Remover a whirl. For even deeper controls over your Facebook user interface, there’s Better Facebook and F.B. Purity, among others.
On Firefox, the easiest way (which is also the way that worked the best for me) involves using AdBlock Plus, and adding the following custom filters in the extension’s preferences.
www.facebook.com##[id="pagelet_rhc_ticker"]
www.facebook.com##[id="pagelet_ticker"]
Then, refresh Facebook and you should be in business (that is, the news ticker should be gone).
Every time Facebook makes an overhaul, users complain that they want the “old” Facebook back. Then when Facebook makes more changes, users complain that they want the “old” Facebook back, the same one they were complaining about being changed before. Hardcore people will figure out how to undo the changes, but most people will just accept them, because if you want to be connected online, you pretty much have to be on Facebook.
But these changes are just the beginning. It’s been widely rumored that Facebook is adding several new buttons in addition to the “Like” button. A source tells Techcrunch that the new buttons will be “Read,” “Listened,” “Watched,” and “Want.” It’s supposed to give users a more granular control over how their recommendations show up to others and make it easier for people to discover new media based on what their friends are checking out. It will also be another data mining bonanza for advertisers and marketers. The news is supposed to come out at Facebook’s big developer conference today. Expect another big privacy discussion to follow thereafter.
There’s still no “Dislike” button, though.