If you’re a facebook user, you’ll soon notice a different look when you log on.  Facebook is expected to unveil a fresh design for its news feed at a press conference at 1 p.m. EST today from facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California.  In its current form, the news feed is a chronological stream of updates from friends, celebrities and companies that users follow, with few options to organize the content.  Technology news site TechCrunch reported the social networking company will offer new ways to filter your news feed, allowing users to switch between different categories.

The facebook news feed has not changed significantly since 2006.  The long-awaited update is expected to make the social networking site more attractive to advertisers.  Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in facebook’s fourth-quarter earnings call that the news feed design was evolving to create new opportunities for advertisers.  “Advertisers want really rich things like big pictures or videos and we haven’t provided those things historically,” he said.  IDC analyst Kevin Restivo says, “it’s a direct shot across the bow at Google.  Those two companies are mortal enemies and this just brings them into greater competition against each other.  The battleground is the advertising field.”