Tag: Facebook

Facebook Launches “Floating Videos”, Integrates Location Pins From Google Maps

Posted on by Lab Team

Facebook continues its push into videos by testing a “floating video” feature on its desktop site. Taking a page out of Tumblr’s video playbook, Facebook now allows users to pop videos out of their place in the feed to hover in the corner as the user continues to scroll. Facebook is clearly hoping this feature will get more users to watch more videos for more time as it continues to compete for video ads dollars with YouTube, which added similar detachable video player on its mobile apps back in 2013.

In related Facebook news, the social network and its spun-off chat app Messenger now integrate with Google Maps to allow easy share of locations across the two platforms, a feature previously not available to anyone with an iOS device. As Facebook continues to expand its platform, especially its mobile messaging platform, we expect to see more similar cross-service integrations pop up in the future.

 

Source: The Next Web & CNET

Facebook To Challenge YouTube With New “Suggested Videos” Stream

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original article on: Re/code

Continuing its effort in eclipsing YouTube’s video ad revenues, Facebook has announced a new initiative to start sharing ad revenue with some of its most popular video creators. Despite setting the revenue split at 55%-45%, the same ratio as YouTube, two significant differences set the two platforms apart for advertisers.

First, unlike YouTube, Facebook won’t run pre-roll ads, but instead will put video ads in between videos within its new “Suggested Videos” stream, a feature it started testing last week. It offers a stream of content, so a user might watch three videos before seeing an ad. An implication of this is that ad revenue on Facebook would be divided among multiple video creators, whereas on YouTube, the 55% of revenue split goes to a single creator.

Second, Facebook seems to be taking a stricter approach towards video monetization. Unlike on YouTube, where any user can easily add pre-roll ads to their videos with a few clicks, Facebook is only partnering with some established content creators like the NBA, Hearst, and Funny Or Die on this new revenue share program. Although it leaves out the rest of user-generated video content that usually dominates News Feed, such selective measures may help ensure the content quality of the video stream, therefore giving advertisers more control over the type of content that their ads would appear with.

Facebook Tweaks Video Ranking Algorithm, Promises 10 Seconds Ad View

Posted on by Lab Team

Facebook has been making strides in eclipsing online video views from YouTube, with reports claiming that at least for brands, native Facebook video posts have completely overtaken YouTube video posts. This week, Facebook unleashed a one-two punch to further improve its video ad unit.

Officially set to rolled out next Tuesday, Facebook will soon offer marketers an option to only pay for video ads that are viewed by users for at least 10 seconds, instead of charging advertisers immediately when video ads came into view and start autoplaying.

Moreover, Facebook is also adjusting its news feed algorithm to more accurately reflect viewers’ attentions. In order do that, the company will expand on the traditional metrics such as like, comment and share, and start including new metrics like whether people are activating audio, making video full screen and other actions that indicate interest.

Videos And Articles, Facebook Want Them All

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: The Verge & WSJ

In a continuous effort to expand its platform and build its own version of the Internet, Facebook has been actively pursuing media owners to host content directly on its network. Earlier this week, HBO becomes the latest content provider that opts to put their videos on the social network, as the premium cable channel announces two of their newest comedy series Baller and The Brink will be streaming their pilot episodes exclusively on Facebook for a limited time.

After a few weeks of dormant inactivity, publishers that signed on for the Instant Articles initiative are now gearing up to start scaling up content distribution on Facebook. The New York Times is reportedly preparing to publish about 30 articles per day and NBC News plans to post between 30 and 40 articles daily in the coming days.

New Facebook Tech Can ID You Without Seeing Your Face

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: The Next Web

Facebook’s facial recognition algorithm was first developed to enable easier “tagging” in photos to facilitate party photo sharing on the social network. Fast forward to now, however, the tool has become so powerful that it can recognize users in pictures when their face is not in shot. Instead, it identifies people based on their hair, clothing style, and other physical traits that it compares with old images already stored in its database, all to an astonishing 83% accuracy.

Facial recognition has been receiving a lot of press lately. The news comes a week after several prominent privacy groups terminated negotiations with the U.S. government and the tech industry after failing to agree on even basic privacy protections around facial recognition. Moreover, dozens of churches worldwide are reportedly using facial recognition to track if its members are attending their services.

Here at the Lab, we have always been interested in the development of facial recognition technology, believing in its potential in enabling more personalized consumer experiences. But we also firmly believe that this technology should only be applied with clear consent from the consumers, preferably on an opt-in basis. Anything less would be a violation of consumer privacy, and should not be tolerated.

Facebook Continues To Expand Its Platforms

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: TechCrunch

Upholding the promise of expanding its platforms made at the Facebook F8 Conference (read event recap here) back in March, the social network has now officially added the first mobile game app on its Messenger platform app list, making “Doodle Draw Game” the first true game available since the platform launched in April. Messenger app has been logging a healthy growth rate, adding 100 million users in the last three months.

Meanwhile, Facebook is also accelerating the rollout of its in-stream “Buy Buttons”. Up until now, Facebook has only been testing the “Buy Button” with a few selected test merchants, but is now opening it up to any retailer on Shopify‘s ecommerce platform. The speed-up came just days after Pinterest unveiled the new “Buyable Pins”, and it almost seems like a reactionary move from Facebook to keep up with the race of social ecommerce.

Still, all things considered, Facebook is doing a great job, arguably the best among all social media platforms, at expanding its platforms with new features, be it in-line video player, Instant Articles, messaging apps, and games, all working to keep users inside its own cyber ecosystem and never need to leave.

Turning Point For VR Gaming: Xbox Games Coming To Oculus Rift

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: TechCrunch

At a special press event this Thursday, Facebook-owned VR headset maker Oculus announced a new partnership with Microsoft, which will soon allow players to stream Xbox One games to the Rift and play them using a special Xbox One controller. Oculus is expected to ship its first consumer-facing model early next year, which the VR-compatible controller will ship with.

As VR and AR technologies continue to mature, increasingly ready for the mainstream consumer market, this partnership between Microsoft and Facebook makes perfect sense. By adding support for Oculus, Xbox gains a strong new selling point, while Facebook find a great launch partner for Oculus, easing VR headsets into mainstream market through video gaming.

Why Facebook Is Giving Free Beacons to Retailers

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: Re/code

Facebook announced on Monday that it was expanding its new hyperlocal feature Place Tips to include all businesses in the United States, and as part of the expansion, Facebook will be handing out free beacons to retailers and businesses. It’s noteworthy that Facebook is producing and distributing these beacons for free, which will surely help the adoption of in-store beacons. Although retailers can’t advertise through Place Tips at them moment, it seems safe to assume that the company will add monetization to the Place Tips feature in near future, as it has done with most of its platforms.

Facebook Tests New Feature To Facilitate Customer-Business Contact

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: TechCrunch

As a follow-up to its initiative to get consumers to communicate directly with businesses on its Messenger app, Facebook is now testing a new feature called “Saved Replies,” which will allow brand Page owners to use customizable canned messages when communicating with their customers over Facebook.

While this new feature could certainly help handling large volume of customer requests, brands also need to be mindful of its implementation so as not to appear robotic and perfunctory. This is only the latest in Facebook’s considerable efforts to make its platforms more brand-friendly, and we expect more useful features to pop up.

Facebook Adds Critics’ Reviews To Restaurant Pages

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original article on: The Verge

Continuing its grand plan of swallowing digital publishers and creating its own ecosystem, Facebook has started adding food critics’ reviews from to pages of restaurants. By partnering with publishers like Bon Appetit, Conde Nast Traveler, Eater, and New York Magazine, the social network is looking to leveraging its newfound access to editorial content into influencing the restaurant choices of its users.

With competition from Yelp and Google, Facebook’s local-search product has yet to gain much momentum. This new addition should give it a boost, while also becoming a testing ground for more Facebook-sanctioned editorial content to appear on other brand pages. While the sheen of critical validations could work wonders, brands also need to be aware of the risk as Facebook says that it will unselectively show all reviews provided by the publishers, negative ones included.