Facebook tests splitting its News Feed into two

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook Inc said on Monday it was testing the idea of dividing its News Feed in two, separating commercial posts from personal news in a move that could lead some businesses to increase advertising.

The Facebook News Feed, the centerpiece of the world’s largest social network service, is a streaming series of posts such as photos from friends, updates from family members, advertisements and material from celebrities or other pages that a user has liked.

The test, which is occurring in six smaller countries, now offers two user feeds, according to a statement from the company: one feed focused on friends and family and a second dedicated to the pages that the customer has liked.

The change could force those who run pages, everyone from news outlets to musicians to sports teams, to pay to run advertisements if they want to be seen in the feed that is for friends and family.

The test is taking place in Bolivia, Cambodia, Guatemala, Serbia, Slovakia and Sri Lanka, and it will likely go on for months, Adam Mosseri, the Facebook executive in charge of the News Feed, said in a blog post.

Mosseri said the company has no plans for a global test of the two separate feeds for its 2 billion users.

Facebook also does not currently plan to force commercial pages “to pay for all their distribution,” he said.

Facebook, based in Menlo Park, California, frequently tests changes big and small as it tries to maximize the time people spend scrolling and browsing the network. Sometimes it makes changes permanent, and other times not.

Depending on how people respond, two news feeds could mean that they see fewer links to news stories. News has proved to be a tricky area for Facebook, as hoaxes and false news stories have sometimes spread easily on the network.

The test has already affected website traffic for smaller media outlets in recent days, Slovakian journalist Filip Struhárik wrote over the weekend in a post on Medium.

Publishers might need to buy more Facebook ads to be seen, he wrote: “If you want your Facebook page posts to be seen in old newsfeed, you have to pay.”

source: interaksyon.com

Twitter brings Periscope live videos to news feed

Periscope, the live video streaming app launched in March 2015 and bought by Twitter even before the public launch, sees it this way: “A picture may be worth a thousand words, but live video can take you someplace and show you around.”

On Wednesday, Twitter announced that Periscope’s live videos shared on its news feed will broadcast itself or autoplay right within the tweet. Previously, only the link is visible and users need to tap it to play the video.

“When you tap the video, it goes full-screen and shows Periscope comments and hearts from other viewers,” Twitter said in a media release to announce the integration.

Twitter believes this will give Periscope broadcasters a window to a much bigger audience – specifically Twitter’s 320 million monthly active users worldwide.

While the Periscope app is available on both iOS and Android devices, the new autoplay feature will be available initially on iOS devices. Android users may have to wait, but Twitter gave assurances that the feature will be rolled out on all platforms as soon as they are ready.

Since its launch, Twitter disclosed that Periscope’s active users have already created over 100 million live broadcasts, and there are actually now 40 years’ worth of live video consumed every day on Periscope worldwide.

Integrating Periscope on Twitter seems to be the logical next step for the social media site which of late has been testing the waters for some radical innovations, including the reported plan to expand the 140-character word limit to 10,000 characters, which has spurred a hot debate among users.

The autoplay feature of the Periscope live broadcasts appears to be a more welcome move. A scroll through the live broadcasts for the day shows that they are indeed giving Twitter, already acknowledged as an excellent medium for breaking news, a feel and more heightened sense of the real-time.

Currently, Periscope broadcasters include celebrities and journalists, as well as media companies, especially the tech press, and major brands.

On the first day the autoplay feature went live on Twitter for iOS, ride-sharing app Uber live broadcasts a tour of Dubai aboard an UberChopper. The X-Files News live streams some parts of the Red Carpet premier of the X-Files. Periscope’s own team also broadcast live some of the scenes of the launch from its headquarters in San Francisco.

On New Year’s Day this year, the Periscope team bared their favorite broadcasts from 2015. These include a sunset scene in an unknown island, a penguin parade, a leopard relaxing on a tree branch, tributes at the Place De La Republique the day after the Paris attacks, and interaction sessions with a neuroscience PhD candidate.

The team said it is looking forward to allowing users in 2016 to “discover more of the world through someone else’s eyes.”

source: interaksyon.com