Read all about it! Facebook reveals details of its news feed algorithm

It's one of the mysteries of life. It may not quite rank up there with who shot JR or why the word "monosyllabic" has so many syllables, but there can be few Facebook users who have not wondered why particular stories appear where they do in their news feed. Now, Facebook reveals details of the secret algorithm that determines how content is ranked.

According to the social network there are around 1,500 stories waiting for the average user to see upon logging into their Facebook account. Few people have the time to scroll through all of them, with research showing that users manage to work through just over half of the stories. Prioritization is needed and this is where the algorithm comes into play.

The secret formula takes into account not only how frequently users interact with each other, but also how popular a post is proving globally and whether users have expressed an interest in similar content. This enables Facebook to pull out around 300 posts it thinks you're most likely to want to read.

But the algorithm post is about more than how things have and do work; for the algorithm is changing. To help ensure users don’t miss out on stories, older items will be pushed further up news feeds -- assuming they are gaining sufficient likes and shares from other Facebook users, that is.

Tests have shown that this change results in a 'like' increase of between 5 and 8 percent -- great news for anyone, or any business, using Facebook to interact globally as it helps to minimize the problem of working in different time zones.

So in a nutshell, the news from Facebook is old is the new new.

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