Facebook starts rolling out new Home page

The much awaited Homepage that Facebook promised early this month, got finally released today. This refresh brings a revamped page with an improved share box (called the Publisher), new filtering controls, a real-time stream, and a highlights area that shows important items from the stream.

One of the biggest changes is that Facebook is getting rid of the distinction between private profiles and public pages. The 5,000-friend limit will be dropped from the public pages. Facebook doesn’t want Twitter to become the way large companies and public figures connect to fans. Up until now, Facebook Pages haven’t really been the place fans go to connect with their favorite celebrities or brands. For that, they’ve started going to Twitter, where they can get updates in real time.

Thanks to updates to Facebook’s privacy settings, users will now also be able to follow others without having to become actual ‘friends.’ This is basically the same ‘friendship’ model that Twitter has implemented on its service.

It will take a while before all the accounts will be moved and new interface will be rolled out. So be patient until it arrives to everyone.