Facebook should allow its users to prioritise their contacts so they can choose who they see news from first, said Intel in a blog post on Thursday.

The social networking site should also allow users to block updates and information from certain contacts without them knowing, the post said.

Additionally Intel advised Facebook to allow its users to 'drop' a contact from their relationship, yet for the contact to continue to think that the relationship is still there, a kind of "stealth mode", according to Intel application engineer Dale Taylor.

"Someone you don't want to offend, but perhaps this relative posts updates a little too frequently for your tastes," he said.

"Small changes add up to big differences in what you see and experience when using social networking software.

"Facebook needs to address this because life just isn't that simple, and we need a way to manage our connections better."