Facebook’s 2006 feature for displaying friends’ updates in one central stream was called News Feed.
Facebook launched News Feed in September 2006. Before it appeared, users generally had to visit individual profiles to see changes or new activity. News Feed collected updates into a continuously changing page, making activity from friends easier to discover.
The launch caused an immediate privacy backlash because some users felt the feature exposed activity too broadly or too quickly. Facebook responded with controls and explanations, and the feature remained a central part of the service.
News Feed is sometimes confused with Timeline. Timeline was a profile redesign introduced years later, while News Feed is the stream of posts and activity shown to users. Facebook later changed the name News Feed to Feed in some product branding, but News Feed is the established historical name for the 2006 feature.