Opinion: The next lesson for Facebook: Let users control the news feed

It was about time Mark Zuckerberg realized that Facebook could afford only so much arrogance toward its users before they would seek out other online social media venues. On Thursday, Facebook announced that it would set the default for new users to friends only, rather than public, as a nod toward the demand for more privacy. Existing users will find it easier to stay on top of their own privacy settings.

This came just weeks after the company said it would enable the anonymous use of outside apps.

It’s all good. Now all Facebook has to do is make its news feed worth reading. The list of postings from friends (and advertisers) has gotten less and less appealing the more the company has exercised control over what users see.

At this point, users have two unappealing options for seeing their friends’ posts. They can choose “Top Stories,” in which case Facebook edits which friends’ news shows up on the feed. In order to keep up with those friends, the user must look up each one individually.

Or users can go for “Most Recent,” which means that every time someone comments on a post, it bumps back to the top of the list and viewers end up seeing the same posts over and over, while the new items are buried.

Neither one works, and users have been posting complaints for many months, to no avail. The idea that the customer comes first, or has any say at all, is only starting to get through to the folks at Facebook. But it will surely be considered by other social media sites looking to grab some of Facebook’s share. See, guys, there’s this thing called competition…