Tag: Facebook

Reddit has the secret to fixing facebook

Dianne Jacobs

Reddit somehow seems to fly under the radar for the average person, despite being the sixth most popular website in the world. But while its ugly aesthetic – and often, ugly content – is alienating to many, there is much to admire. In fact,  Reddit provides a model for how to create a more interesting, fairer web. A model that doesn’t drag down other publishers in the process. Reddit’s system – where users upvote things they like, and downvote things they don’t – is about as transparent as it gets…

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Facebook Gaining Popularity among Old People as the Young Leave

Dianne Jacobs

A report shows that Facebook is for old people as teens and young adults are ditching the social network while the over 55s are joining. In 2018, 2.2 million 12- to 17-year-olds and 4.5 million 18- to 24-year-olds will regularly use Facebook in the UK, 700,000 fewer than in 2017, as younger users defect to services such as Snapchat, according to eMarketer. A surge in older users means over-55s will become the second-biggest demographic of Facebook users this year. The report says that while Facebook has so far been successful…

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Facebook bans all crypto-currency ads

Dianne Jacobs

Facebook has said it will block any advertising promoting crypto-currency products and services. The company said it was open to emerging technologies but many companies were not acting in “good faith” when extolling the virtues buying into virtual currencies. Recently, a wave of new currencies have emerged, seeking to piggyback Bitcoin’s huge increase in value. Facebook urged users to report any ads the company’s security measures missed. It admitted it would not always catch every ad for a crypto-currency. “We want people to continue to discover and learn about new…

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How publishers will survive Facebook’s news feed change

Dianne Jacobs

Facebook announced on January 11 that it would change its News Feed algorithm to prioritize posts from friends and family over public content. Say goodbye to never-ending sponsored posts from Tasty, CNN, and other brands that have embraced the platform. Time to say hello to more personal posts featuring commenting and sharing from your friends. Sounds like the original version of Facebook, no? Facebook’s News Feed change pushes hard to create a better user experience for its users by focusing on meaningful interactions between people. This is critical for its…

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Full-body Tracking at Facebook Suggests Broader AR/VR Ambitions

Dianne Jacobs

It is worth noting that Facebook is big on both Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), both for entertainment and communication purposes. And new research suggests it is working on AR applications that could not just modify or replace your face, but your entire body. A blog post today has the AI Camera Team showing off a bit of work clearly aimed at doing full-body replacement or tracking in a VR or AR context. “We recently developed a new technology that can accurately detect body poses and segment a…

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Facebook invents new unit of time called a flick

Dianne Jacobs

A Facebook engineer has invented a new unit of time called a flick. The flick has been designed to help developers keep video effects in sync, according to a description on the code-sharing site GitHub. A flick, derived from “frame-tick”, is 1/705,600,000 of a second – the next unit of time after a nanosecond. A researcher at Oxford University said the flick wouldn’t have much general impact but may help create better virtual reality experiences. Flicks are defined in the programming language C++, which is used to generate visual effects…

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Facebook to use surveys to boost ‘trustworthy’ news

Dianne Jacobs

Facebook has announced it will prioritise news sources deemed to be more trustworthy on its News Feed. The firm said the social network community would determine which outlets are reliable via the use of user surveys. Founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said news content would soon make up around 4% of what appeared in people’s News Feeds – down from 5% before. The move is the latest attempt by the company to quell the spread of so-called fake news and propaganda on the network. As part of that continuing…

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Only one in four trust social media, says survey

Dianne Jacobs

Only one in four Britons trusts social media and users would like to see tighter regulation, according to the annual Edelman Trust Barometer. Its survey found two-thirds of Britons believe platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are not doing enough to prevent illegal and unethical behaviour, including cyber-bullying and extremism. But faith in traditional journalism rose sharply in the last year. Edelman said it was time social media companies sat up and listened. “The public want action on key issues related to online protection, and to see their concerns addressed…

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Facebook appears to axe feed for tracking your friends’ activity

Dianne Jacobs

As Facebook continues to tinker with its layout and services to spur more interactions and engagement, it seems that not even the most well-known or oldest features are spared. In the most recent development, it looks like Facebook has quietly removed the Ticker, the box that used to appear to the right of your News Feed to summarize what all your friends have been liking, commenting on, and generally doing on the social network. The removal has come after several weeks of people reporting the feature suddenly disappearing for them.…

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Facebook, Google and others join The Trust Project to fight Fake News

Trojan

Fake news” and other misinformation, online propaganda, and satirical content people believe is true have filled the web via search engines and social media, and have caused a rift in how people perceive today’s news organizations and the quality of their coverage. A nonpartisan effort called The Trust Project is working to address this situation by helping online users distinguish between reliable journalism and promotional content or misinformation. Today, a key part of that effort – called “Trust Indicators” – are going live on Facebook, offering easy-to-access, transparent information about a news…

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