Install the Firefox web browser
Feed Filter is an add-on for the Firefox web browser. In the future, I hope to have versions for other browsers as well, but right now it only works in Firefox.
Install Feed Filter
To install the add-on, go to the Feed Filter home page and click the link to install. Then restart Firefox to complete the installation.
Configuration
Once Feed Filter is installed, you can get to its Options window by clicking Firefox’s “Tools” menu and selecting “Feed Filter Options”. Or you can click the little down arrow on the toolbar button, and select the same thing from there also.
The topics below explain all the various features on the Options window.
- General
- Expand filters (Messages, Events, Friends…)
- Move Applications to top
- Add helpful links (Pages, All Friends, Phonebook)
- Expand long posts and comments (with “See More” links)
- Hide all comments
- Hide duplicate posts
- Show number of characters typed while posting
- Debug log
- Add Feed Filter button to toolbar
- News Feed(hide posts by type)
- Words to hide (hide posts containing words or phrases)
- Apps to show (apps that should never be hidden)
- Apps to link (show posts from one app at a time)
- Right Sidebar
- More help
Expand filters (Messages, Events, Friends…)
All filter links on the left side of the Home page are automatically expanded to show all subitems.
The Applications list is moved to the top of the left side of the Home Page.
Add helpful links (Pages, All Friends, Phonebook)
A “Pages” link is added to the left side of the Home Page, for quick access to all the pages you “like”. Also, links for “All Friends” and “Phonebook” are added under the “Friends” item (visible when the “Expand filters” option above is enabled).
Expand long posts and comments (with “See More” links)
Posts and comments with “See More” links are automatically expanded to show the full text.
When enabled, all comments on all posts are hidden.
This feature hides duplicate News Feed posts. This is especially useful when displaying posts from just one application at a time (see Apps to link), where Facebook often repeats posts.
Show number of characters typed while posting
When enabled, a counter is displayed at the bottom of the box where you enter your message while posting, to display the number of characters typed so far. When the max limit is reached, the counter changes to red to indicate that Facebook will not accept the post until some characters are removed.
The Debug log can be used to see messages and errors from Feed Filter. After enabling the Debug log, go to the Firefox Tools menu and select “Error Console” to open the debug window. Then select the Messages tab to see messages that Feed Filter displays. Try reloading the Facebook News Feed page and you should see several messages.
Add Feed Filter button to toolbar
This feature adds a custom button to the toolbar, making it easier to enable and disable Feed Filter, and get to the Options window.
Click the toolbar button to toggle the add-on between enabled and disabled:
Enabled: 
Disabled: 
News Feed (hide posts by type)
Various types of posts on the News Feed can be automatically hidden.
All posts from applications such as Mafia Wars, FarmVille, etc. are hidden. If you want to see posts from specific applications, add the app names on the “Apps to show” tab.
Highlight posts in yellow instead of hiding
Enable this feature to see what kinds of posts will be hidden, without actually hiding them. Then later when you have things configured like you want, you can disable the feature to go back to hiding posts.
Words to hide (hide posts containing words or phrases)
Posts containing words or phrases on this tab are hidden from the News Feed. Enter a word such as: politics. Or a phrase such as: i love cats. Case is not important.
Apps to show (apps that should never be hidden)
Posts from applications listed on this tab are always shown in the News Feed, even when the “Hide applications” feature is enabled on the News Feed tab. To add an application to the list, enter the name in the box at the top and click “Add App”.
Apps to link (show posts from one app at a time)
Applications listed on this tab will have links created for them automatically under the little down arrow next to the orange Feed Filter toolbar button. Clicking an app link displays News Feed posts from just that one app. Since these apps have dedicated links created for them, they’re always hidden in the normal News Feed unless you also add the app’s name to the “Apps to show” tab.
Links created automatically on the toolbar button menu:
To add an application to the list on the “Apps to link” tab, click the “Add App” button. Then select the “App Name” from the list of known applications. If your app isn’t in that list, type in the name of the app, and then type in the app’s ID number.
To locate an app’s ID number, find a post from the app in your News Feed and click the app’s name to go to its page (you can also search for the app by name, but this method usually works better).
Be sure it takes you to the actual application page, and not just a fan page for the application — you’ll know you’re on the right page if you see a blue “Go to Application” button on the left side (but don’t click it). Then click the app’s picture in the upper left corner, to go to its Photos page. There may or may not actually be any photos there, but it doesn’t matter. Then look in Firefox’s location bar at the top, and you’ll see you’re now at a URL like this:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?profile=1&id=10979261223
The long number after “id=” is the app’s ID number. Copy just that number to the clipboard, and then you can paste it into Feed Filter when adding a new application on the “Apps to link” tab.
Sidebar sections on the right side of the Home page can be displayed normally, hidden, or moved to the center of the page above the News Feed.
An example of the Requests and Events sections moved to the center above the News Feed:
There’s also an FAQ page with lots of answers to common questions.
If you need more help, please feel free to contact me and I’ll be glad to help!