Refresh alerts come to Facebook's home page 'stream'

Right at the top of my Facebook home page, it now lets me know when there are new items from my friends that I can see if I refresh the page.

(Credit: Facebook)

Well, this is helpful. On Friday evening I noticed that my Facebook home page was displaying a "Show (number) new posts" alert after I left the site open for a while and some of my friends have posted new status messages, links, or what-have-you. This is something that had been notably missing when Facebook debuted its redesigned, "stream"-focused home page this spring.

It looks like this went live earlier this week, per Facebook's official blog, but it doesn't appear to have rolled out on everyone's accounts immediately (I tend to leave a Facebook window open all day, and I hadn't gotten alerts until now).

Facebook says this was one of the most-requested features from users when it rolled out its new design. The social network calls it "auto refresh," but the term is a little misleading--it won't actually keep refreshing your home page (thank goodness), but it'll give you the option to do so.

This is the same kind of "reload alert" that you'll see on a Twitter Search query or on other interfaces like the Tumblr Dashboard--but thus far, not on Twitter.com itself, the interface that most people point to as the chief inspiration for Facebook's new home page design.

That's probably not a huge priority for Facebook, though. Most avid users access Twitter with a third-party app, something that you'll be able to do more widely with Facebook very soon.

You may now commence making snide remarks about the fact that my Friday nights consist of noticing new features on Facebook's home page.

This post was updated at 9:12 p.m. PDT.

[Allaniceman]

Just saw this on mine. Friday nights FTW!

[caroline.mccarthy]

I think I need to get a life

[Mweaver2k9]

I started receiving the New Post messages about a week ago. Thought it was rolled out to everyone.

The new design is still a failure, although I suppose everyone will just have to live with it. They still have updates scattered all over the place and little control over the content we want to see on our home page.

Is it just me or is the Facebook iPhone app getting a little quirky? Selective twitter status updates don't even show up on for me anymore, just the icon.

[Hep Cat]

Yep - mine's been showing this for over 24 hours - first saw it last night. I think it's a good move toward better usability.

[JasonGooljar]

I wonder if the reason Twitter hasn't been able to add a auto-refresh or update notification feature is because of the immense load it would cause to their server city (I'd imagine it's like a city lol). I mean after all they sometimes run into problems just running the site as-is.

[Gasaraki]

Thanks Caroline!
I'm sure you have a life. =)

[transcends-snow]

I would love for the home page's filter to be adjusted a bit. Why is every single quiz to determine "what _____ you are" a separate application that I have to ask it not to show me anymore?

[LorraineJason]

I've found this useful. Thanks Caroline.