Facebook is updating the home page with the goals of providing immediate news about your friends and giving you more control over the information you receive. With the new design, we hope that the home page will contain stories that are most relevant to you. We also want to simplify the site and make it easier for you to share content with the people you care about.

The real-time stream on your home page will allow you to see what your friends are doing right now. You will be able to choose what types of stories appear by using the Filters in the left sidebar to sort your stream by Friend Lists or applications. The highlights section in the right sidebar will contain information that Facebook thinks you’ll find most interesting. We’ve also made it easier to share content by adding the publisher to your home page and friends’ profiles, as well as your own profile.

As always, your privacy settings will remain in effect to ensure that stories about you are only visible to the people whom you wish to see them.

How does the Publisher work?

The Publisher lets you share content on Facebook. It is located at the top of both your home page and your Profile page. Both locations offer the same functionalities.

Typing in the Publisher text box and clicking "Share" updates your status. Clicking inside the text box displays additional types of content that you can share:

    * Link (add a web address to external content)
    * Photos (upload a photo, create an album, or take a webcam photo)
    * Video (upload a video or record a webcam video)
    * Note (add from Facebook’s Notes application)
    * Import (add external blogs or RSS feeds)
    * Gifts (add from Facebook’s Gift Shop)

Once you have added content, you will still need to click "Share" in order to publish a story. To exit the submenu for a specific type of content, simply click the "X" in the upper-right corner of the Publisher box.

If you type in the Publisher box and then add content (e.g., a link or a video), the text will appear as a comment above the content you have shared. It will not appear as a new status update or replace your current status.

How is the Publisher different when viewing it on a friend’s profile?

Why do certain story types (like people's status updates) appear so frequently on the home page?

Where are application stories on the new home page?

Where are events and birthdays on the new home page?

Where are requests and invites in the new home page?

How does this affect my privacy?

This doesn't affect your privacy. The new stream is designed to show people all the posts their friends want to share in real-time, but it is subject to the privacy restrictions you set at the time of creation. For example, if you create a photo album and restrict it from certain friends, those friends will never see that photo album in their stream.