Facebook just announced Interest Lists, a new way to create customized news feeds filled with stories from people and pages you’re subscribed to. Interest Lists can also include people you’re friends with, but Facebook recommends creating some lists surrounding topics you enjoy. Facebook has already built Interest Lists you can follow like “Art Critics,” “Fiction Authors,” and “Movie Stars.”

Interest lists can help you turn Facebook into your own personalized newspaper, with special sections—or feeds—for topics that matter to you. You can find traditional news sections like Business, Sports and Style or get much more personalized—like Tech News, NBA Players, and Art Critics.

Any Facebook user can create their own list while other Facebook users can subscribe to that list and keep track of updates from a specific subset of pages. As lists gain more subscribers, these lists are propelled to the top of the Facebook search function in addition to being featured on the main archive page of lists. This allows the majority of Facebook users to avoid having to subscribe to a large quantity of Facebook pages in order to view all updates.

When viewing the main Facebook feed, updates from the pages followed within the subscription are grouped into blocks rather than spamming the feed with all updates from the pages. Similar to any other update within the feed, users can like, share or comment on the update from a page, but without first becoming a fan of the page.

Facebook users can also click on a specific category under the new Interests section in the navigation on the left side of the page. These links bring up all updates from the pages within the Interest List and help separate these page updates from status updates or photos from friends and family.

In the coming weeks, you’ll see the Add Interests link in your left-hand bookmarks. When you do, you can subscribe to lists on almost any topic. For example:

  • If you love football, subscribe to the NFL Teams interest list for a gridiron-focused feed. No need to check on each team in the NFL, your favorite athletes’ profiles, and ESPN.
  • If you’re into politics, subscribe to the 2012 US Presidential Candidates interest list to see updates from all the campaigns, or get posts from major newsoutlets like CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and the Wall Street Journal.

Don’t see a list for one of your interests? Make your own lists to organize your favorite content or help others discover new topics. Just go to the Interests page, and click Create List. Choose to let others subscribe to your new list, or keep it private.

Source : Facebook