Seems Google+ (and the immediacy of Twitter) is nudging Facebook to make changes to compete. Facebook has just changed one of the most used features, your personal News Feed. It has also introduced a sidebar “Ticker” to instantly display your new Feed updates in real time.

These changes have been rolling out to coincide with F8, Facebook’s annual convention for developers that opens tomorrow in San Francisco.

I always found it annoying on Facebook to switch back and forth from my Friends’ newest updates to the “top stories” (which Facebook-determined as most interesting). Here’s what’s changed now:

FACEBOOK NEWS FEED MAKEOVER

1. All your News Feed items since your last visit are displayed in a single list.
2. The ‘top’ items are listed first under TOP STORIES, each marked with a blue corner.
3. Beneath, under “RECENT STORIES” are your latest feeds in the order they arrived.

FACEBOOK INTRODUCES ‘TICKER’

1. In real-time at the right sidebar, you’ll see instaneous Friend updates.
2. Just click to jump in and add your two cents without losing your place in News Feed.
3. Your real-time feed will always be at your side as you travel about on Facebook.

Not everybody calls these changes improvements. See users complain about new News Feed, and user complaints in Facebook Discussions

Here’s the Facebook FAQs on Ticker.

And here’s Facebook’s rationale for changing your News Feed and the Facebook FAQs

What do you think? Improvements OR Fixing What’s Not Broken?

I’d like to hear.