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Facebook doubles down on size of news feed photos

Putting greater focus on the esthetic sense of the social network's news feed, the company brings larger photos, larger text, and more prominently displayed album photos.

Dara Kerr Former senior reporter
Dara Kerr was a senior reporter for CNET covering the on-demand economy and tech culture. She grew up in Colorado, went to school in New York City and can never remember how to pronounce gif.
Dara Kerr
How news feed photos were displayed before the roll out of larger photos. Screenshot by Dara Kerr/CNET
How images are displayed after the roll out. Screenshot by Dara Kerr/CNET

Facebook's news feed may have seemed a little different today...that's because it is. The social network has begun to brandish its new feed with larger photos.

"Starting today, we're rolling out an improved design for posts in news feed on the Web," a Facebook spokesperson told CNET. "Photos are up to two times larger and when a friend adds photos to an album, you'll be able to enjoy more of those photos directly from your feed."

Besides enlarging all photos, the new display also changes how albums are seen. Now, it will show one large photo on top and three smaller photos on the bottom.

This is the latest in Facebook's new focus on amping up the use of photos on the site. In April, the company increased the size of users' profile photos to make them more pronounced.

According to TechCrunch, which first reported this news, the social network also rolled out larger photos for its mobile news feed last month. In that upgrade, Facebook may have been looking to its recent acquire Instagram for how the photo-only social network prominently displays images on its mobile-only feed.

In addition to enlarging photos, Facebook is also making the text in status updates more pronounced. "Status updates are easier to read because the text is bigger and more widely spaced," the Facebook spokesperson said.