Facebook opened its F8 conference in unconventional fashion on Thursday, with Saturday Night Live actor Andy Samberg parodying Mark Zuckeberg on stage.
His parody did include on very real stat though: Facebook has passed 800 million users (which Facebook measures as users that have logged in during the past 30 days). That means Facebook has added about 50 million users since July. Zuckerberg took the stage a few minutes after Samberg and offered another stat, noting that Facebook had recently seen its first day in which half a billion people logged into the site.
Zuckerberg is expected to reveal a number of major features during today’s keynote, including media sharing and an overhauled user profile. You can follow the latest updates on our live blog.
Facebook's new design highlights posts that you'll likely find important, and prioritizes them at the top of your feed when you log in. The top stories are designated by a blue tag in the upper left corner of the post. From what we can see, however, top stories don't regenerate much throughout the day -- especially if you keep Facebook open in your browser like your Twitter ticker.
Above your top stories you'll find the option to expand more recent posts, much like Twitter's "47 new tweets" real-time notification bar.
However, the new post notification bar doesn't refresh as often, but instead automatically expands new stories much like the older version.
In the drop-down tab on the upper right of every post, you still have the option to hide posts (whether to delete the individual story or to hide that person's updates altogether). In the new version, you also have the option to mark a post as a top story, thus increasing the likelihood that that type of post or friend will appear in your Top Stories feed.
The new ticker on the upper right of your homepage condenses real-time posts. Hover over any story to expand and view likes and comments.
If you expand your chat sidebar (whether or not you're online), the ticker attaches to the top. That way, any page you navigate away from the home feed will still display real-time updates. Adjust chat/ticker proportions by hovering over the gray bar between chat and the ticker.
Last but not least, Facebook has made album design a bit more aesthetic. Albums that appear in your newsfeed stack three photos for a more creative viewing experience.
