Facebook to show less links to slow-loading websites

San Francisco Aug 3 (IANS) 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
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