Well I think it's supposed to allow you to find and interact with your "friends" when you're on the site, but to be honest I don't think it has ever worked as expected.
In the new software all of your "friends" (people you "follow") activity is shown in one place so you can quickly catch up with what they've been doing, where they've been posting, status updates, etc.
You'll find it in your username drop-down on the test site -
Your News Feed:
http://www.cyclechat.net/newccxf/
Cheers,
Shaun