Facebook users got an eyeful on Wednesday when they launched their Web browsers to be greeted with a new home page interface containing some changes. In a posting on the Facebook Blog, engineering manager Mark Tonkelowitz explained some of the recent changes.

The Facebook home page “News Feed” has, up to now, shown new content in chronological order. This offers a benefit to frequent users who can regularly refresh the page, but if you don’t, you’ll miss out on what’s going on with the people you’re connected to.

Tonkelowitz describes the new News Feed as “your own personal newspaper.” The News Feed now shows top photos and statuses that have been posted while you’ve been away, so it won’t matter as much if you visit the site multiple times a day or just once in a while.

A new sidebar Ticker shows what’s going on with your friends in real time; when they comment, ask a question or share new content, you’ll see it continuously updated there. You can adjust who can see your updates, and users of wider screen computers can slide a grey bar between the ticker and chat to adjust how many updates they see at a time.