Tom Brant says, “Facebook — like Snapchat and Instagram before it — is getting an ephemeral, video-based Stories feature. The social network is testing Stories in Ireland, where as of today members can use the new format to share videos and photos with their friends that will disappear after 24 hours and won’t automatically show up in their News Feeds. The idea is that people will use their Facebook iOS or Android app to add photos and videos from their smartphone throughout the day, and their friends will tap through the stories to see what they’ve been up to. It’s... [...]

Tamar Weinberg says, “As always, Facebook is constantly refining the user experience for the benefit of both content creators and consumers. Today, Facebook shared some information regarding changes made to the way videos are ranked in the News Feed, specifically addressing the value it gives to how much a video is watched so that users can find the best possible videos on the social network. Various signals are evaluated to determine prominence, including live video status and engagement based on length of time watched, as a metric known as “percent completion.” A video that is watched... [...]

Patrick Kulp says, “Facebook can only pop so many advertisements into your News Feed before it drives you crazy. But it needs to keep selling more and more of them to keep up its juggernaut growth. And the company is worried that it could run out of ad space in its News Feed this year. That’s probably why Facebook is now turning to some untapped real estate: its Messenger platform. The company announced Wednesday that it’s testing new ads in Messenger that look a lot like ones you might see in your News Feed. The ads are carousel-style, meaning that users can swipe sideways through... [...]

Tamar Weinberg says, “Facebook is currently testing out a feature that appears to be a dagger into the chest of Snapchat. Reported by Business Insider, Facebook is taking the idea of Instagram Stories and bringing it to its larger and more popular social network. This limited beta opportunity is currently testing on mobile browsers in Ireland but Facebook will be rolling it out to other countries in the coming months. Placement of the stories will appear on the top of the app, similar to what is currently on Instagram. Stories on Facebook, just like Instagram and Snapchat Stories, are built... [...]

Tamar Weinberg says, “Facebook is constantly refining their Trending tab. Today, the company announced a number of refinements that build upon the evolving feature. The main elements encompass the addition of a publisher headline below each topic name, an improved system to determine what stories are trending and regional targeting of stories. The headline addition simply alludes to the type of source that is being cited in the story. Similar to an older version of Trending where more information was provided, which was announced in September, this newer and very welcome change seems to indicate... [...]

Bloomberg team says, “Facebook Inc. hasn’t been shy about copying Snapchat, its smaller social-media rival. Now it’s unveiling the biggest and boldest clone so far: a feature resembling Snapchat’s Stories, directly within the Facebook application. Snapchat Stories are short annotated videos and photos that people post to their entire audience, viewable for 24 hours only. The feature was already knocked off by Instagram, Facebook’s photo-sharing app, in August—and that version is now used by 150 million people daily, about as many as use the entire Snapchat application. Facebook’s... [...]

Tim Peterson says, “Facebook is about to max out the amount of ads it can slot into people’s Facebook feeds, so it’s been ramping up its roll-out of ads elsewhere: to Instagram, to others’ apps and sites through its ad network, to Groups and now to Messenger. In a test, Facebook has started placing ads on its messaging service’s home screen, the company announced on Wednesday. For now the ads will only be shown to a “very small group of people in Thailand and Australia,” according to a company blog post. The ads announced on Wednesday are different from the sponsored messages... [...]

Adario Strange says, “Earlier this month, I told you about the emerging world of social networking in virtual reality. But lurking on the sidelines of this newly active space is Facebook’s own social VR behemoth known as Oculus Rooms. This is where the strategy behind the marriage of Facebook and Oculus begins to reveal itself. In some ways, the mobile version of Oculus Rooms is as powerful an experience as the Oculus Home app on the higher-end Oculus Rift. Currently only available for Gear VR users, Oculus Rooms first brings you to the same virtual apartment displayed when using the... [...]

Lucas Matney says, “Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees virtual reality as a future computing platform that his company has a chance to own, though he admits it may take 5 – 10 years to bring it to the masses. Members of the press had a rare opportunity to get a more unfiltered view into the future of Facebook’s virtual reality ambitions as Zuckerberg took to the stands today to testify in a $2 billion lawsuit surrounding the origins of Oculus, a VR company it acquired in March of 2014. At the heart of its case is the claim that Oculus acquired information from former ZeniMax employee and... [...]

Brent Freeman says, “Circumstances dictate actions, right? Well, that’s especially true in the ecommerce field. By most standards, ecommerce is a young industry. but as the option goes deeper into its 40s in 2017, the slightest hint of an unfamiliar hue turns the dye a completely different color. The reference is to the Indian marketplace. That country’s emergence in the ecommerce marketplace has it set to overtake the United States in less than two decades, with “digital” sales expected to reach $63.7 billion by 2020. This offers American ecommerce companies a big opportunity... [...]