Facebook has begun testing a slew of changes to News Feed, including friend list filters and smart lists that automatically categorizes your friends.
The changes seem to be aimed at making the content within News Feed more relevant. These changes, as far as we can ascertain from screenshots sent to us, show that Facebook is dividing News Feed into lists, much like Google+ has done with Circles. “Feed filters make it easy to see a selected set of friend’s updates in one place and share exclusive with them,” Facebook’s guide to the new feature states.

A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment on this story.

One of the most interesting aspects of the revamped News Feed is the addition of Smart Lists. Smart Lists automatically sort your friends into a work list, a list for classmates and a list for friends who live within 50 miles of your current city. This makes it easy to post updates just to your college friends or to talk about a local party with just your nearby friends.

The changes are likely to be construed as a response to the rise of Google+, whose Circles feature makes it easy to share content with smaller groups. Facebook has always had Friend Lists as a feature, but less than 5% of users utilize them in any meaningful way. These changes are designed to fix that.

Check out the screenshots below, and let us know what you think of revamped Facebook News Feed in the comments.

SORCE!!!~ http://mashable.com/2011/09/08/facebook-news-feed-changes/?utm_sour...

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Facebook List Feed Filters

Facebook's List Feed Filters let you filter your news feed by specific groups of friends, much like Google+ Circles.