The Facebook Blog

During the 2006 election, more than 1.5 million of you participated in our special political features that let you indicate which candidates you supported and which political issues mattered most to you. For the 2008 election, we have partnered with ABC News to create the 'US Politics' application that has even more features to get involved in the race. If you haven't already, add US politics to your account; it serves as a central place for all of our election features.

Some of the features this time around may sound familiar, and some are... new:

Since News Feed launched last year, it has proven to be an extremely useful way to find out what is happening in your friends' lives, both online and offline. But as the number of potential stories and story types grows, we wanted to make sure you continue to see the stories that matter most to you.

This morning we launched feedback controls on all News Feed stories to allow users to tell Facebook what they think of a story. Did a particular story make you smile? Give it a thumbs up. Did a story annoy you? Click on the x icon and the story will... be collapsed and your opinion will be used to make similar stories less common. News Feed will use this feedback to further tailor stories for you and to identify the types of stories and applications you might like to see in the future.

News Feed will respond over time to this feedback, but the response won't be immediate as the system needs time to learn and process the feedback data. We're trying to make feedback as useful and responsive as possible; so expect improvements to the feature itself. Keep checking back in and providing feedback and News Feed will continue providing the stories that matter most to you.


Tom Whitnah is a software engineer at Facebook and gives this story a big thumbs up.

Facebook has always been about helping you stay connected with the people that matter to you, and then helping you keep up with the interesting things those people are up to. Last year, we decided to improve your ability to do both of these things by opening up the site to anyone with an email address (so all your friends could join) and launching News Feed (so you could see the most interesting stories about your friends).

It's been a year, and even though all of your friends can join, there are still real-world relationships you have with... things other than people. And there are still interesting things that friends are doing somewhere other than Facebook. So, time to open things up some more.

More relationships.

Now, we've built a way for you to connect to things other than people, without cluttering your Friend List. I love the Indian restaurant downstairs from Facebook HQ, and now that Junnoon has a Facebook Page , I can become a fan. This is useful, not just to let Junnoon know I love their food, but also because my friends can see this affiliation on my profile or in their News Feeds and then go to Junnoon's Page to learn more about it -- or even make a reservation, thanks to an OpenTable app installed right on the page.

We've made it possible for you to establish connections and interact with all sorts of things in the world in new and interesting ways. Express your support for (RED). Or check out the Page that the Dave Matthews Band created, where you can listen to over a dozen full songs for free, watch videos of concerts, and browse their extensive discography. If you become a fan, you can choose to receive regular updates from the band about upcoming tour dates.

These profiles aren't just mini-websites. We've tried to make these pages into full social experiences that are truly useful, not just another opportunity for companies to make a sales pitch. For example, most pages contain a Reviews box that page owners cannot disable. Any reviews your friends have written, even if they're less than stellar, will show up at the top of that module.

It'll take a little while for all the bands, movies, brands, artists, businesses, restaurants, clubs, and everyone else to get on, but, once they do, we hope you'll find their presence on Facebook as valuable as you find the presence of your friends on Facebook.

More actions.

As we mentioned above, not all the interesting actions your friends take happen on Facebook. Since Leah and I are friends, it's already easy for me to check out her newest vacation photos or read her latest status message, either actively by going to her profile or passively by reading my News Feed. But it's also really interesting to learn about the blog posts she's creating on LiveJournal, or the reviews she's writing on Yelp, or the concert tickets she's buying at LiveNation.com.

So we've worked with those companies and many others to help them get stories about what you do on their sites back into your Mini-Feed on Facebook and your friends' News Feeds. Of course, sometimes you don't want all your friends to know about some of those actions, so we give you two opportunities (once when you perform the action, and again when you come back to Facebook), to choose not to publish each story.

By opening up the kinds of things that can participate in Facebook beyond just people, and opening up the kinds of actions that appear on the site beyond just those that happen inside of Facebook.com, we hope Facebook will be even more useful in helping you keep up with all the meaningful things that are happening in your life. And if you're a business owner, a musician, or manage anything that could use a home on Facebook, get started by creating a Page.



Justin Rosenstein, technical lead for Facebook Pages and Facebook Beacon, is a fan of the amazing teams that did all the hard work in building these products.

Today we announced an entirely new advertising solution for Facebook. Right now, we want to make clear what's changing—and what's not—for you.

First of all, what's not changing:

• Facebook will always stay clutter-free and clean.
• Facebook will never sell any of your information.
• You will always have control over your information and your Facebook experience.
• You will not see any more ads than you did before this.

Here's what is changing:

• You now have a way to connect with products, businesses, bands, celebrities and more on Facebook.
• Ads should be getting more relevant and more meaningful to you.
• You now have the option to share actions you take on other sites with your friends on Facebook.

Engaging with businesses and buying things are part of your everyday life. Advertising doesn't have to be about interrupting what you're doing, but getting the right information about the purchases you make when you want it. We believe we've created a system where ads are more relevant and actually enhance Facebook.

You now have a way to connect with things you are passionate about. We've launched Facebook Pages, which are distinct, customized profiles designed for businesses, bands, celebrities and more to represent themselves on Facebook.

We noticed people wanted to connect with their favorite music, restaurants, and brands; but there was no good place for these types of affiliations to exist. Now, there is a place for them and you can become a fan of whatever pages you choose in order to interact with your passions in new ways. You can post reviews for a local restaurant, buy tickets to a new movie, or be the first to get a heads up about new promotions.

Ads will be getting more relevant and more interesting to you. Instead of random messages from advertisers, we've launched Social Ads. Social Ads provide advertisements alongside related actions your friends have taken on the site. These actions may be things like "Leah is now a fan of The Offspring" (if I added The Offspring to my music) or "Justin wrote a review for Sushi Hut" (If Justin wrote this review on the Sushi Hut page). These actions could then be paired with an ad that either The Offspring or Sushi Hut provides.

A sample Social Ad.

Behind the scenes, we've instituted a system that tailors ads to you and your interests, which should make ads more appealing. Advertisers never have access to who is seeing their ads, personal information about you, or even what social actions accompany their ads. In other words, all of this completely respects your privacy, while providing you with a better Facebook experience.

You now have the option to bring actions you take outside of Facebook back in. Just as Facebook shares your on-site interactions with your friends through News Feed, we now give you an option to let News Feed share your off-site actions with your friends as well.

This is the notification you'll see whenever another site wants to send a story to Facebook.

For example, adding the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to your queue on Blockbuster.com might be something you want your friends to know about, so you can have a marathon. As usual, you have complete control over this information. Affiliate websites always notify you of any stories they want to send, and you'll have two opportunities—one on the website, and one on Facebook—to opt out of that story. Facebook always gives you the choice to decline a story the next time you log in.

We want Facebook to reflect and enhance all your real-world relationships—the movie you see this weekend as well as the friends who are seeing it with you. If you have any questions or suggestions for how we can improve this, let us know.



Leah, the Product Manager for Facebook Ads, spent hours agonizing over which band reference would make her seem cool. How did she do?