Facebook does an about-face, brings back old news feed

Remember when Facebook used to let you sort your news feed (the list of updates from your circle of friends) by most recent stories? Those were the good ol’ days. But wait! Just when you thought the option was gone for good, it’s back and more prominent than ever.

Facebook announced Wednesday that it would allow users to once again sort their stream of news feed stories by most recent items first.

Facebook made several dramatic changes to the news feed a few weeks ago. One change merged the “Most Recent” and “Top News” news feed options to better highlight interesting stories. As usual, the alteration caused quite the stir among the site’s user base.

Now, Facebook is doing a bit of an about-face and branding today’s update as a “new way to sort” the news feed.

“We’re starting to roll out an update that gives people a new way to sort their News Feed: most recent stories first. This option will appear at the top of News Feed,” a Facebook spokesperson told VentureBeat. “People can continue to view highlighted stories first, followed by recent stories, like what they see today.”

“We hope this update makes News Feed easier to navigate while still showing all the news in one place,” the spokesperson added. “The update will be rolling out slowly and should be available over the next several days. As always, we will listen to feedback and refine as needed.”