Customize Facebook with Social Fixer

We've all encountered things on Facebook we wish we could change. Thanks to Social Fixer, now we can change them. Social Fixer, developed by Matt Kruse, is a browser extension for Facebook which gives users extra settings for better control over how Facebook behaves. With Social Fixer you can force Facebook to sort stories automatically by "Most Recent First". Use its Friend Tracker to see if anyone has un-friended you. You can hide sponsored ads, change the theme, and much more. I've been using the extension for a few weeks, and I don't ever want to be without it.

When you install the extension, a Setup Wizard shows you how to customize Facebook. It starts by allowing you to choose whether you'd like options that most users prefer or whether you'd like to choose everything yourself. Either way, you'll be guided through the setup. Once you finish the initial setup (or skip it if you wish), you will see Social Fixer's main window which has several categories of options to choose from. These are just some of the highlights of the extension:

Popular

In this category you'll find the most popular features. This is very convenient. These features, alone, will make Facebook a lot more enjoyable. The other categories show you more in-depth settings. If you like Facebook games and apps, Social Fixer can put them in separate tabs automatically. This keeps them from cluttering your news feed and makes them easier to keep track of. You can also add a "Reply" link to comments. Social Fixer will float the Reply to the appropriate comment.

Layout

The Layout category allows you to set up your Facebook home page so that it's specific to your needs. You'll be able to add quick links to the navigation menu in the left column. A compact control panel is available to float at the top of your news feed stories that lets you mark stories as Read, Show/Hide Stories, and Mute All.

Social Fixer offers a Friend Tracker (Unfriend Notifier). It also allows you to hide the "Games You Like" and "Sponsored" boxes. One of my favorite settings hides friends' real-time gaming activity.

Posts

This category offers many ways to customize your Facebook news feed. You can hide sponsored ads and duplicate stories. Hide notification of comments, and stop Facebook from auto loading more posts as you scroll down the page. There is even a setting that lets you use Ctrl-Z to "undo". An option is available to show the exact time posts were made instead of seeing "about" how many hours ago they were posted. The setting to open links from posts in a new window is very helpful.

Timeline

For your convenience, Social Fixer can condense the way you see your timeline by hiding your cover photo, your Friends box, and your Map Check-Ins. Other people will not see these changes. It also allows you to change the background color.

These are just some of the categories and options Social Fixer features. You can set your own filtering rules to determine what is shown in your news feed and by whom. There are also advanced features available. Social Fixer doesn't make you search for support, either. You have the option to add Social Fixer User Support and Social Fixer News links to the left navigation bar. This extension was a wonderful find for me, and I highly recommend it. It definitely makes Facebook friendlier!

Click to download Social Fixer

Full disclosure: I neither work for Social Fixer, nor am I paid to promote it.

For more help with Facebook, read my Hub entitled How to See More Friends' Facebook Status Updates.