Facebook – turn off notifications to others when someone posts on the wall

It looks like Facebook has done another update so everyone gets more notifications. This thread on the Facebook forum has a couple of solutions suggested, this one seems to have the most love:

Go to the top of your screen and click the little globe symobol where you can view your recent notifications. Hover over one of the them on the top left and click the X. It'll ask if you want to turn off "top friend" activity notifications. Click yes. They will still appear in your news feed, you just won't get notifications for it all.

On a side note I think the icons you've circled in the first picture have more to do with identifying the notification than close friends (photos & status get the star, links get the pin).

Updated

Click the Notifications globe at the top of the Facebook window and when the drop-down drops click the Settings link (the little X's next to each notification have been removed recently). In the "What You Get Notified About" section, you can edit and turn off "Close Friends activity"

Stop receiving notifications from a Facebook page

1. Click on the cog in the top right of any page on Facebook
2. Click "Account Settings" from the menu that appears.
3. Click on "Notifications at the side".
4. Click "Pages You Manage"
5. Find the page you no longer want notifications from and uncheck the "On" checkbox next to it.
6. Click "Close" when you are done.