Facebook to show less links to slow-loading websites

In the coming months, Facebook is updating its News Feed to show more weblinks that load faster and less stories which take time to open.

In a blog post on Wednesday, Facebook executives said they had heard from people how frustrating it is to click on a link that leads to a slow-loading webpage.

"In fact, even more broadly on the Internet, we have found that when people have to wait for a site to load for too long, they abandon what they were clicking on all together. As many as 40 per cent of website visitors abandon a site after three seconds of delay," the blog post read.

Facebook will take into account the estimated load time of a webpage that someone clicks to from any link in News Feed on the mobile app.

"Factors such as a person's current network connection and the general speed of the corresponding webpage will be considered," the social media giant noted.

If signals indicate the webpage will load quickly, the link to that webpage might appear more in a user's News Feed.

Facebook said it had taken similar factors into account in the past also to ensure people quickly see relevant stories to them.

"For example, if you are on a slower Internet connection that won't load videos, News Feed will show you fewer videos and more status updates and links," the blog post read.

In order to load stories faster on a poor Internet connection, Facebook said it prefetches stories by downloading mobile content before someone clicks a link.

This, the company said, can shorten load time for webpages by more than 25 per cent.

--IANS

qd/amit