Snapchat Adds ‘Ground Transformation’ AR Effects, Showcasing Evolving AR Capacity

Snapchat Adds ‘Ground Transformation’ AR Effects, Showcasing Evolving AR Capacity

Snapchat has launched a new ‘Ground Transformation‘ AR effect, which, as it sounds, can change the ground in your Snap camera view into water or lava, or other variations. As explained by Venture Beat, the new option utilizes Snapchat’s evolving AR tools to create the visual effect: “The real-time ground segmentation system uses machine learning models to understand geometry and semantics, isolating obviously ground-based objects from contrasting backgrounds.” Snap has used similar in the past for sky segmentation, isolating specific elements in your field of view through advanced visual understanding. And while the practical applications for such seem fairly limited, they demonstrate Snap’s advancing capacity in this respect, which is […]

Facebook Publishes New Data on The Growth of Messaging as a Business Tool [Infographic]

Facebook Publishes New Data on The Growth of Messaging as a Business Tool [Infographic]

With messaging use on the rise, it’s logical that we’re also seeing a change in attitudes towards using messaging for commerce, and getting in touch with businesses while on the go. Indeed, Facebook says that more than 20 billion messages are sent between people and businesses on Messenger each month, while 64% of people now say they would prefer to message rather than call a business. Messaging may not have become the transformative business option that Facebook envisioned when it first launched its Bot platform back in 2016, but it’s clear that more people are looking to connect via basic text. And with some 40 million companies now active on Messenger, […]

Twitter’s Testing a New Notification Tag on Identified Misinformation

Twitter’s Testing a New Notification Tag on Identified Misinformation

After recently launching tags to signify manipulated media in tweets, Twitter is now also considering new labels for identified misinformation, with large tags on ‘harmfully misleading’ reports, and links to reference material to cross-check. As explained by NBC News: “In this version, disinformation or misleading information posted by public figures would be corrected directly beneath a tweet by fact-checkers and journalists who are verified on the platform and possibly by other users who would participate in a new “community reports” feature, which the demo claims is “like Wikipedia.” As noted here, this is just one of possible variations of the tag which Twitter is testing, and none of them might […]

Shopify Puts its Support Behind Facebook’s ‘Libra’ Cryptocurrency

Shopify Puts its Support Behind Facebook’s ‘Libra’ Cryptocurrency

Honestly, I was starting to think that Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency project might never become a thing, but there is still some hope that we may see it reach the next stage. This week, eCommerce giant Shopify has announced that it’s joining the Libra Association, which is the support group that will oversee Facebook’s crypto governance. As explained by Shopify: “Our mission is to make commerce better for everyone, and to do that, we spend a lot of our time thinking about how to make commerce better in parts of the world where money and banking could be far better. That’s why we decided to become a member of the Libra […]

Facebook Considers Tougher Transparency Rules in Response to Tactics Used by Bloomberg Campaign

Facebook Considers Tougher Transparency Rules in Response to Tactics Used by Bloomberg Campaign

We’re less than a month into the official US Presidential campaign cycle, and already Facebook’s advanced rules around political content are being tested. A week after implementing new rules around the use of memes by political candidates, in response to tactics being deployed by the Bloomberg campaign, Facebook is now once again being forced to re-assess its process, this time with respect to how Bloomberg is using campaign staffers to distribute his messaging through their personal networks. As per CNBC: “Bloomberg’s campaign is hiring more than 500 deputy field organizers, a job which includes mobilizing supporters for get-out-the-vote efforts and engaging friends to support Bloomberg for president – which can include […]

Facebook Launches New Creator Studio Mobile App

Facebook Launches New Creator Studio Mobile App

Facebook this week launched a new, mobile version of its Creator Studio tool, with a separate Creator Studio app to help better manage your Facebook Pages on the go. NEW! Facebook launches Creator Studio App on iOS + Android https://t.co/mMADtJVUq4 – FB gave me pre-release access to the app – Creators will find it useful, but it needs full post creation / publishing capabilities… Facebook suggest this is likely coming soon ???? Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/RR4tidLyoV — Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) February 20, 2020 As you can see from the video above, via the new app, you’ll be able to manage and edit Page posts, view performance analytics and respond to messages – […]

How to Convert Your Social Media Leads: 4 Useful Tools

How to Convert Your Social Media Leads: 4 Useful Tools

Getting people to engage with you on social media is only the first step; next, you also want to turn them into leads. And even better, convert them into customers. At the end of the day, you want to understand how much social media contributes to your company’s bottom line through acquired customers and sales. Without this information, it’s difficult to calculate your social media ROI. Of course, a majority of businesses engage in social media marketing. But most of them can only boast of vanity metrics that have little to do with sales. To ensure you drive your social media leads from the top of your sales funnel to the […]

Twitch Is Predicted to Boost Monthly Users 14% to 37.5M This Year

Twitch Is Predicted to Boost Monthly Users 14% to 37.5M This Year

The facts: Twitch will boost its regular viewership 14% to 37.5 million this year and reach about 16% of the U.S. audience for digital video, researcher eMarketer said in its first estimate of the audience size for the Amazon-owned livestreaming platform. Twitch will continue growing to hit 47 million viewers by 2023, according to the forecast. Twitch’s growth rate will steadily fall from about 24% last year to 6.3% by 2023 as the livestreaming industry matures and the platform loses audience share to rivals such as Google’s YouTube Gaming, Microsoft’s Mixer and Facebook Gaming, per eMarketer.​ The researcher defines Twitch viewers as internet users of any age who watch its […]

New local SERP live in Europe

New local SERP live in Europe

In April 2019, Google was experimenting with a new local SERP that highlighted alternative directory sources for the same query. At the time, we saw an example in the wild for Germany. Now, an updated version of the SERP featuring branded directory buttons appears to be live in the UK, Belgium, Spain, Greece, and France – if not already throughout Europe. A more prominent directory box. Below is an example screenshot from a UK search, showing directory links above the map and local pack. SERP showing results for ‘asbestos removal Halifax UK‘ This change in the SERP grows out of Google’s continuing effort to comply with the European Commission’s antitrust […]