Since its launch in 2004, the Feed - Facebook's main page interface - has changed many times, most recently adding the "original" feature.
Last weekend, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he had added a Friends tab to Facebook, an area that only shows content from friends, an element that made the social network attractive when it was launched. He emphasized that this was one of the first steps to bring back the old Facebook features, called "OG Facebook".
In two decades, Facebook has changed the interface of its home page about 10 times.
The first website interface launched by Mark Zuckerberg was called Thefacebook, which only included simple features such as registration, login and additional information. Initially, the website was limited to students at Harvard University, where he studied. He later dropped out and developed the social network with some friends.
By 2006, Thefacebook had been shortened to Facebook, and a rudimentary home page interface that displayed content from friends was introduced. The social network added a host of features such as personal pages, groups, friends, messages, etc. Facebook employees were said to have expected the feature to be well received. But in reality, many people initially hated it, even intending to boycott the site. The anger prompted Zuckerberg to write a lengthy post to explain. "We think this is a great product, but many of you didn't support it right away because it was too messy," he wrote. "We listen to all suggestions to improve the product. Everything is brand new and still in development."
By 2009, the interface added real-time updates in response to a similar feature from Twitter - a social network launched in 2006, bought by Elon Musk and renamed X. Previously, users were forced to refresh their browser to see new news from friends.
The Ticker feature appeared in 2011, located on the right side of the interface, allowing users to instantly update posts, likes, shares, comments, and check-ins of friends "without delay". However, many years later, Facebook removed this feature.
In 2013, with the goal of "bringing people the world's best personalized newspaper," Facebook's interface continued to change, with posts organized by topics such as news, music, photos, videos, and events. Photos and videos also appeared larger and more frequently.
Three years later, the social network introduced a new reaction system alongside the "Like" button, including "Love", "Laugh", "Shock" and "Angry". The "Love" button was also added later.
By 2018, Facebook was reorganized with a focus on connecting with friends. "We've heard from our community that public content like posts from businesses and media are crowding out personal moments. We're making changes to create more meaningful social interactions," Zuckerberg wrote on his blog at the time.
In 2021, Facebook first categorized and displayed in tabs to "clean up the data source". Initially, there were three tabs including Home, Favorites and Recently Visited. The menu allowed users to select content more easily. After that, the interface continuously changed. That same year, Facebook changed its name to Meta.
In 2022, Facebook dropped the name "News Feed" for the main interface, replacing it with "Feeds". Although it did not change much in terms of aesthetics, it was considered to represent an adjustment in the way Facebook wants users to view information on the social network.
The latest update was on March 27, when Facebook added a Friends tab that only shows content from friends. Instead of the current "suggested content." Previously, Zuckerberg has repeatedly hinted at bringing Facebook back to the way it was. "I'm excited to get back to the OG Facebook," he said in Meta's Q4/2024 financial report in January. "I think we're going to build some amazing features that shape the future of human connection." Video: Meta