Facebook is taking a page right out of Twitter's book by showing trending stories right in your news News Feed. The new feature will show up in the top right corner of your feed, and display some of the most popular topics around the Internet. An example would be the recent Clayton Kershaw deal with the Dodgers, or J.C. Penney's decision to shutter 33 stores around the U.S. I have yet...
Facebook launched a revamped Messenger app not long ago, and it also owns Instagram and Facebook Home for Android. Those are just a taste of the social network's big goals to get in front of mobile users, however, and according to The Verge it has plenty of new apps planned for this year. In fact, apparently Facebook has an entire "suite" of mobile apps coming down the pipeline. One of...
New data gathered from a study by anthropologist Daniel Miller suggests teenagers are sick of using Facebook, and in some instances are even “embarrassed” to be associated with the social network. According to Miller, who conducted a 15-month study of social media in eight different countries, the reason teens are shunning Mark Zuckerberg’s online playground is because parents and other...
Facebook for Windows Phone was already pretty good, though the versions on iOS and Android have long offered far more features. Now, Facebook is rolling out a huge update to Windows Phone users that help to make it more powerful than ever before. The update promises “faster and more reliable” notifications, includeing Toast notifications for Facebook Chat messages. The primary Live...
A new contract between Facebook and T-Mobile subsidiary GoSmart will help provide prepaid users with free data access. There's one catch, though: you can only use the data to access Facebook. The new service launches in January, offering unlimited access to status updates, event invitations and embedded videos, though if you follow a link off the social network's website you're on your...
Mark Zuckerberg doesn't want Facebook to be among a group of apps on your device; he wants it to be the only one. Instead of a traditional lock/home screen, Zuckerberg has created an experience that rewires how you and I use a phone. This isn't about apps, or even about basic calling functionality. Home is about the people you care about most, all the time, everywhere. If you're not a...
Following reports that the first autoplay video ads had hit Facebook’s News Feed, the company confirmed the news today in a blog post. Like most of Facebook’s updates, the new feature is being tested on a subset of the site’s users, who should start seeing autoplay commercials for Divergent, an upcoming science fiction film, on their desktops and mobile devices. Facebook has actually...
Facebook has big plans for 2014 when it comes to video advertisements, at least according to a leaked internal document obtained by TechCrunch that details the company’s strategy to launch video ads on a revamped platform come early 2014. The 32-page document, designed to help sell Facebook video ads, reveals the social network’s plans to beat both traditional television and YouTube ads...
Instagram is different today. The photo-sharing app, which is now 150 million users strong, has added a new direct messaging feature that allows users to send photos and video to individual users and groups. It’s similar to Snapchat in execution—or Twitter’s latest messaging initiative—though images don’t disappear after a set time; the anti-Snapchat, if you will. This is more like your...
Instagram on Thursday officially announced Instagram Direct, a messaging system that lets you send photos to your friends directly through the app. "Photos alone are just art, photos when transmitted become communication," CEO Kevin Systrom said during a press conference in New York City. "Sometimes, you want to be able to share not with everyone, but just with a specific group,"...