Facebook ready to launch new news feed

Facebook is holding a major press event Thursday, which means that Mark Zuckerberg and company are going to make at least one big announcement. That is expected to be a big change to our news feeds.

Sources close to Facebook told TechCrunch on Wednesday that the new News Feed intends to keep us reading and seeing new posts for as long as we continue to scroll down on our homepages.

The News Feed will have a new Photo Feed that will present bigger photos and Instagram photos. A Music Feed will give you more instant access to the music your friends listen to and the concerts they attend. These new additions will make sure that we rarely see any repeated content.

Facebook is also reportedly set to include bigger ads as a way to entice advertisers. As The New York Times notes, this is a particular change that Zuckerberg spoke about with investors in January. He teased that a new News Feed might have “more engaging ads,” adding, “Advertisers want really rich things like big pictures or videos, and we haven’t provided those things historically.”

This is another way to generate more revenue for the company, following its controversial plan to allow users and companies to pay to have their posts promoted.

Mashable also notes that New Zealand users recently saw a change to their Timelines that included a new about widget under the profile picture and a new toolbar.

Facebook hasn’t confirmed the reports, so we’ll have to wait for official word from the company after its press event. But expect a change to come soon.

UPDATE: Mashable reports that Facebook did unveil the radically different news feed. Zuckerberg called the news feed "the most personalized newspaper" and that "the stories around you deserve to be displayed with more than just text."