Amazon’s messaging app – Anytime, Will it thrive?

It seems that Amazon has decided to step out of their realm in conquest. According to AFTVnews, the e-commerce giant is about to launch their new chat app with the name Anytime. Even though there’s no official confirmation the news has created a huge buzz on the internet. 

Source: AFTVnews

The report also states that Amazon is already conducting an extensive survey to get an idea about the need of their users in order to create a perfect app.

If the news is true the impact of the app would be game changing as it has been specifically said in the news that Anytime might include a section for e-commerce with chat bot assistance to guarantee maximum customer satisfaction.

In short, unlike other chat app’s which focus on Audio, Video, Message, Filter, Sticker, Smiley etc. Amazon Anytime will have vivid applications, different than that of its predecessors.

The strangest part of this news is that a  leaked photo is circulating online which has the list of features of Amazon Anytime. People are suspecting its authenticity because of a typo in the text.

Source: AFTVnews

Amazon’s recently introduced messaging and calling feature to their Alexa devices. Making Alexa app a pretty decent chat app. Rumor has it that the success of this feature might the driving force behind Anytime.

Addition to this rumor, Amazon’s enterprise chat app Chime has intrigued many people. They are saying that Anytime might be built upon the skeleton of CHime.

If Anytime happens the biggest hurdle in front of the app would the persuasion tactics they should use so that people will start using it on a daily basis. The fate of Hangout and Allo has to be remembered as they also created similar buzz when they arrived.

Whatsapp became a successful standalone chat app due to its simplicity and its swift response time. Nowadays Telegram is gaining trust among people due to the same reason.

So if Amazon Anytime has any chance of survival they should focus on this basic factors the most.

Behold!! Facebook Messenger Ads are coming

Facebook with its 2 Billion connection is undoubtedly the undisputed king of social media. Like any other social media website, Facebook’s main income is their Ad revenue. To yield maximum revenue they have successfully managed to plant advertisements in their news feed without causing any annoyance to their users.

Latest news is that Facebook has started placing advertisements on the home screen of Messenger app, creating mixed emotions among the public.

However, those who feel that the advertisement is being crammed up in between their messages can hide it by clicking the right bottom end of the Ad.

When asked about this, Facebook Messenger product head Stan Chudnovsky’s words as per media reports were like this,

“Advertising is not necessarily everything, but it’s definitely how we’re going to be making money right now. “

Talking about mixed reactions, some online portals were seen furious about the whole change. They are saying that Facebook and Google already channel 70% of the ad revenue from all over the world to their pocket. And this new implementation is nothing less than greed.

Rumor has it that Facebook expects a revenue decrease from news feed Ads and this insight is the driving force behind this new implementation.

To cover up the future loss and as an extra income, Facebook is expecting their Messenger Ads will earn them a jaw-dropping $US11 Billion by 2020. (According to Barclays Capital)

Facebook Messenger ad is not something which they have implemented in haste. They have already tested it in Thailand and Australia for 6 months and has the backing of promising results.

Instagram photo-sharing app owned by Facebook was the first one to try this method. They introduced advertisements slow and steady instead of implementing it once and for all.

Regarding the types of Ads, Facebook is planning to place two kinds of Ads in their messenger. Numero uno will be their normal advertisement similar to that of Facebook’s news feed Ad. After a while, they are planning to introduce chat bots as an effective interactive advertisement medium.

Advertisers can use these Ads in two ways: They can drive traffic to their website as well as they can answer queries of their customer via chat bots which might lead to a purchase.

YouTube Introduces Mobile Live-Streaming To More Users

YouTube, the king of online videos have introduced mobile live-streaming to more users.

Though they are the exceptional providers of online video, the platform has witnessed an increase in competitors of late. Facebook and Snapchat have billions of daily viewers for their videos now. Also, Twitter and Instagram are focusing more on video, particularly live video content. This has forced YouTube to extend its mobile live streaming service to more users.

Even though, YouTube introduced a new mobile live-streaming option last year, they allowed access to its selected partners only. This is what Facebook did when they introduced Facebook Live initially.

Currently, they’re expanding access to mobile live streaming option for more users, meaning, all You Tubers with more than 10,000 subscribers are able to use the tool. YouTube explained this move in this way “hundreds of thousands of talented creators, giving them a more intimate and spontaneous way to share their thoughts, lives, and creativity.”

Did you notice the colourful comment there in the GIF? Surprised! That’s YouTube’s new Super Chat function. Super Chat enables viewers to purchase a chat message that’ll be pinned and highlighted in bright colours at the top of the chat window for at least five hours.

New Google Maps Update For Android App With Real- Time Traffic Info, Nearby Places & Bus Schedules

Google has updated its Google Maps app for Android on February 6, 2017. Three additional tabs have been added to show real-time info on nearby places, traffic conditions and public transit schedules.

According to Google, the new update will show a Places tab, a Driving tab and a Transit tab on the home screen when you swipe up from the bottom of the Google Maps.

The Places Tab gives you a selected list of nearby restaurants, with an additional data of other essential needs, such as nearby ATMs, pharmacies, petrol bunks and grocery stores.

Now, moving on to the driving tab. This tab displays, nearby traffic conditions and ETAs. So, you will get a real-time traffic route when you tap on the ‘start driving’ option.

You can use the transit tab to know bus and train suggestions. You will get suggestions based on your saved home and traffic addresses. If you need information regarding bus/train schedules to alternative locations, you just swipe down to display nearby stations and schedules.

New Changes In Facebook News Feed To Fight Fake News

It has been reported that Facebook is changing its News Feed in order to curb fake news. According to reliable sources the popular social networking platform is updating and adding signals to its ranking algorithm.

Facebook asserts, the new change in the news feed will help them to offer genuine content by reducing the posts that are misleading. To be precise, it is going to tackle the fake news problem.

These are the changes made by Facebook so far,

According to Facebook, here are some of the features changing now

Updating New Signals To Ranking Algorithm

Facebook assures that more authentic posts will appear in your News Feed with the new update to its ranking algorithm. It seems great, no? Now, you may think what is authentic news?

To make it clear, Facebook began by classifying pages to find out that any pages were publishing content in order to persuade users to like, comment, and share posts. Further, they used posts from those pages to identify if posts from other pages are authentic.

Real Time Signals Updated

News or posts which become popular within a short duration will also appear more in your News Feed.

For instance, suppose a popular team wins a game and lots of people are sharing their views about the game via posts, then those posts will get a short-term momentum.

Facebook believes that News visibility for most pages will find slight changes owing to these updates.

Facebook To Introduce Snapchat-Like Stories Function Into Their Main App

It’s reported that Facebook is going to introduce Snapchat like stories into their main app.Adding new stories option within Facebook itself will be a new experience for its 1.179 billion daily active users.

Though Instagram and Snapchat had introduced stories to its users earlier, with Facebook Stories, it is going to introduce Stories feature to a lot of people who aren’t aware of it. It’s because the total users of Snapchat and Instagram together is only less than half of Facebook’s 1.8 billion total active audience.

This clearly shows that there are audience who’ve never been exposed to Stories feature before. So, this would be an amazing experience for Facebook users.

It’s expected that Stories function would increase sharing activity on the platform. This feature could offer a new possibility for brands to generate reach on the platform.

Currently, Facebook Stories function is only available in Ireland as part of a trial.

 

Google Permanently Bans 200 Sites for Promoting Fake News

According to Google’s 2016 bad ads report, it has banned 200 websites from its ad networks for promoting fake news. Reports show that Google’s recent policy against ‘misrepresentative content’ is affecting publishers.

It was Google’s Scott Spencer, director of product management for sustainable ads, revealed in a blog post that it has banned 200 advertisers from accessing its AdSense service for posting fake news.

Google added that it had banned websites which included content such as:

  • Ads for illegal products
  • Misleading ads
  • Bad ads on mobile
  • Ads trying to deceive Google
  • Ads promoting and profiting from bad sites

The report also reveals that approximately 1.7 billion ads were removed in 2016 for violating Google’s policies, which is twice the number of bad ads removed in 2015.

 

 

 

Book Previews On Google Mobile Search

You might have seen the “book preview” feature on Google desktop search. Now, the company has introduced this feature to its mobile search as well. It was Google’s Satyajit Salgar who announced the new updation via Twitter. Google will display the “preview book” link, if a book has previews available within Google Book search.

Here is a screen shot of the book preview icon:

This is possible for every query done on a book/title that has a book preview available in Google’s index.

If you click on the preview icon, it instantly direct you into the Google Book search preview mode. So, it is very mobile friendly as well.

Source

 

Facebook Testing New Mid-Roll Video Ads

It has been predicted that Facebook News Feed would become “all video” in five years. Then Facebook likely needs more ads to make money off those videos.

According to recent reports, Facebook is testing new mid-roll video ads. The new ads will be displayed after a user has watched a video for 20 seconds. The new mid-roll ads will not appear unless the videos have duration of 90 seconds.

In order to encourage publishers to create compelling and longer videos, Facebook had offered 55 percent of ad sales to them. This is equivalent to the revenue split that YouTube offers.

As per the report by Marketing Land, the new mid-roll ads will be tagged as “In- Stream Videos”. Advertisers will be allowed to select categories of videos where they need their ads to appear.

According to marketing experts, mid- roll videos will be one of the trends in social media in 2017.

Source

Google Has Officially Killed Off Their Link Operator

Google has officially announced that their link command no longer works. They advised SEOs and webmasters to stop using the link operator as it is officially dead and not functioning properly.

Google added that as the feature is officially dead, if you use a link: www.domain.com will likely show inappropriate results.

It was a year ago , Google affirmed that the link command “is not dead”. Now, it officially saying the link command is essentially dead.

Source