Matt McGee says, “As Facebook continues its focus on video content, it’s helping Page owners come along for the ride with a new set of tools announced today that will help video publishers control and manage their video content. The upgrade means a new video upload process, and that’s where Page owners will see many of the new tools. Those include the options to: exclude videos from the News Feed and Timeline, and publish the videos only to the Page’s Videos tab prohibit the embedding of videos on third-party websites set a video as “secret,” which will make them accessible only... [...]

Karissa Bell says, “You’ll soon be able to buy a lot more stuff on Facebook. The social network is testing a shopping experience that allows users to buy items directly from business’ Facebook pages. The new shopping feature, first reported by BuzzFeed, will allow retailers to turn their Facebook pages into mini storefronts outside of their main websites. Facebook confirmed the new shopping features to Mashable Wednesday, saying it’s currently being tested among a small number of users and a handful of retail and e-commerce companies“. Facebook will let you buy products... [...]

Greg Finn says, “Facebook wants you to use the network for keeping up with friends, staying abreast on news and now to shop? According to a BuzzFeed report, Facebook is building shops within Facebook Pages — something still in a test phase. The Facebook Pages will feature micro e-commerce experiences with the entire shopping experience occurring within Facebook itself. According to the reports, the shops will appear directly underneath the “about” section, as shown in the mocked-up example above. Last year, Facebook debuted the buy button; a beefier commerce experience is a natural... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “Marketers frustrated by the effects of Facebook’s algorithm change have a new tool in their arsenal. The world’s largest social network has unveiled an update to its news feed that allows users to select the friends whose posts will always appear at the top of the most valuable real estate in the social media universe. Those preferred friends can include brands whose pages users have liked. According to Facebook, the new functionality is designed “to help prioritize stories, and make sure you don’t miss posts from particular friends and Pages,”... [...]

JP Mangalindan says, “You can already use Facebook Messenger to pay your friends and chat with certain retailers, but the social network may soon also let you order products and research local services from inside the app. Facebook Messenger is reportedly developing a digital assistant, according to a report in The Information on Monday. It would allow users to connect with “real people” inside the service, who would research and order products, as well as perform other tasks. The service is currently being called Moneypenny inside Facebook, according to the report, named after... [...]

David Nield says, “Facebook has announced changes to its iOS app that let users take more control over their News Feed, the central stream of information around which the rest of the service is built. The same changes are coming to Android and desktop Web in the coming weeks. The move is notable because of the way Facebook has relied on smart algorithms since the earliest days of the News Feed to work out what users are most interested in: who they interact with most, what kinds of content they skip past, the popularity of posts with mutual friends, and other factors are all taken into account. This... [...]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “This morning, Facebook announced three updates to users’ News Feed preferences that give users more control over the content they see in their News Feeds. These updates are available today on iOS and will be rolling out on Android and desktop over the next few weeks. This is part of their continued effort to show Facebook users the stories that matter most to them. To do this, Facebook ranks stories based on how interesting they think the stories are to users — all based on whom users interact with and which kinds of content they Like and comment... [...]

Stan Schroeder says, “If Facebook‘s ever-flowing News Feed does not satiate your thirst for videos of babies and weddings, you’ll like the platform’s new feature. The site now lets you detach a video from the News Feed and move it anywhere within the browser window, so you can scroll Facebook while watching. The option is accessible via an icon in the lower-right hand portion of a video (accessible on mouse-over while the video plays). When you click the icon, the video becomes movable — though you can’t pull it out of the browser window. The feature only works... [...]

JP Mangalindan says, “Facebook continues to experiment with organizing the Trending area on its homepage by different topics, a test it began in April. Currently, the social network has five topics that users can toggle between — All News, Politics, Science and Tech, Sports, and Entertainment — and are represented by small, recognizable icons, including a soccer ball for Sports and an old-school film camera for Entertainment“. Facebook now wants you to explore what’s trending in 5 topics Mashable  [...]

Seth Fiegerman says, “You can hear the mix of glee and wonder in New York Times CEO Mark Thompson’s voice when he gets on the phone and immediately says, “I’m surrounded by developers.” What journalist isn’t these days? But Thompson is speaking literally: he made the pilgrimage to Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, where the tech giant revealed a host of updates to its music and maps services. Perhaps more importantly for Thompson — and an entire industry of journalists who frequently feel that they’re under the boot of Facebook... [...]