Facebook updates its notification tab to keep users on its platform
Facebook has updated its notifications tab to include more information about friends, interests and events etc. The notifications tab now even reminds you which TV shows to watch, offers restaurant suggestions, reports the weather and highlights local events. By expanding the notifications tab offerings Facebook is trying to keep users on its site, negating the need for users to visit other apps to check the weather, for example. This updated feature makes Facebook notifications similar to Google Now. 

Facebook has gradually been adding information to its "notifications" tab to make it much more than just a place to check what photos you've been tagged in or which friends wrote on your Wall.

Now, the company is ramping up those efforts with new updates to the notifications tab to make it more of a hub for all the information you might want about your friends, interests, and events happening around you.

For example, you can now change your notifications settings to have the tab include TV reminders, suggestions of where to eat nearby, the weather, or things that are taking place in your local community.

Facebook will let you personalize your settings, and notifications like weather or local events will only work if you have your Location History turned on.

With this new hub, Facebook is essentially trying to wipe out the need to check your weather app, Fandango, Yelp, or any sort of news aggregator.

Here's what the notifications tab might look like:

Facebook

This push makes Facebook notifications much more similar to Google Now, the virtual assistant and information center that tries to serve helpful information to users like local weather and traffic conditions or trending news stories.

For Facebook, including more information in notifications will help keep users inside the "Big Blue App" as much as possible and encourage the use of features like Places, which Facebook has been expanding over the last year.

Here's are the options that Facebook will allow users to include:

Friends' milestones, like birthdays and life events

Sports scores and TV reminders, based on Pages you've liked

Upcoming events that you've joined

Things happening around your community, like local events and news that is popular in the city you live in

Weather updates, like current conditions and severe weather alerts

Movies playing in theaters near you

A list of nearby places to eat, with links to the places' Facebook Pages and reviews

Here's a little video demo of what it will look like:

A More Useful Notifications Tab on Mobile from Facebook on Vimeo.