Mini-feeds have a few problems. Not because people don’t like them and not because of the privacy issues it raises. Facebook has been tracking this relational data for years now, and this new feature is merely making that information available to its users. Facebook has a good enough product that people will use it regardless of whether they keep mini-feeds or not. We see people joining “I Hate the Facebook” group, but the irony is that are making that group on the Facebook. Essentially, the user (and their annoyance) doesn’t matter.
There are two potential scenarios that will result from this update.
One possibility is that this new update may drastically reduce the number of page views. Since Facebook’s main source of revenue is advertising, they rely on traffic which is measured in page-hits and unique visitors. While the number of unique visitors is not likely to drop, the number of page-hits may drop since people may sign on the homepage, read the updates, and sign off. They will have no need to page hop and view all their friends’ profiles to check for updates.
The other possibility, which Facebook sees more probable, is that users visit each individual profile to view what updates were made. They are banking on user interest in knowing what friend A wrote on friend B’s wall. This may be true, may not be.
My prediction: Mini-feeds will stay but within the next month we will see options that allow users to unclutter their homepage. We will see options to hide certain types of information from the front page (such as hide ‘Group Information’) or even features that allow users to customize what information they are interested in on a per-user basis. Users may be interested knowing who wrote on their significant other’s wall or who recently befriended them, but may not be interested in updates from friends back in high school.
However, don’t ever expect the Facebook to stop collecting this data. This relational data is what makes Facebook worth the billions it is today. Their revenue stream doesn’t rationalize their market value, only the information they currently possess.
Contrary to popular belief the world will go on, Facebook will still grow, and the majority of users will start to like the mini-feed. I know I do.