Facebook confirms autoplay video ads are coming to your News Feed
They’ve been a long time coming, but Facebook’s new video ads are finally here. Confirming an earlier report from the Wall Street Journal that said they’d launch this week, the company said it will start rolling out promoted videos to a limited number of users’ News Feeds, kicking it off with mini trailers for the new film Divergent. Leaning on a model utilized by Instagram, Facebook’s video ads will automatically play when they appear onscreen — although sound will be muted on both the desktop and mobile unless you deliberately click on the video. While you won’t be able prevent the new ad units from popping up, they can be avoided with some quick scrolling, just like you did with Facebook’s other sponsored content.
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Filed under: Internet, Facebook
Source: Facebook Newsroom
Weekly Roundup: Instagram Direct, Jawbone Up24 review, Samsung’s EMC lab and more!
You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Qualcomm’s Raj Talluri on wearables
Engadget sat down with Qualcomm SVP of Product Management, Raj Talluri, earlier this week to chat about the company’s Toq smartwatch. Click through to read the rest of the story.
Jawbone Up24 review
Jawbone’s latest fitness tracker, the Up24, touts much-needed upgrade: wireless syncing. But is that improvement enough to win back the hearts of those disappointed by the original Up’s performance? Click the link for our review and find out.
Instagram Direct announced
CEO of Instagram, Kevin Systrom, took the stage at a New York press event last week to announce Instagram Direct. This new feature allows users to limit certain videos and photos to groups of up to 15 friends. Follow the link for all the details.
Samsung’s EMC lab (video)
Engadget’s Mat Smith took a stroll through Samsung’s EMC lab where future products are tested for interference levels. Click on through for the video tour.
Instagram debuts Direct, letting users share photos and videos with select friends
Invite blocks in hand, we’ve braved the cold New York weather to pop by Instagram’s big event. Naturally, the photo sharing service kicked off with some bullish numbers, noting that it has grown from 80 million to 150 million users this year. But the company’s CEO, Kevin Systrom, noted that today was all about looking forward to 2014. The big news was the announcement of Instagram Direct, a way of limiting specific photos and videos to select groups of up to 15 friends (a number the CEO noted serendipitously, is the same as the number of seconds you can shoot in Instgraam video) . The feature exists as a module in the Share To section of the app, showing a drop down of your friends. From there you can select who you want to receive a specific image or video, so if you want to, say, take a picture of your brunch, not every single follower has to look at your scrambled eggs.
All of the “moments” shared through the feature live in an inbox, so you can check out all of those photos in a private feed. Only people you follow can send you images and photos through direct and vice versa. If someone you don’t follow attempts to send you something, you’ll see a request from them. If you know the person but aren’t interested in following them (too many scrambled eggs photos, no doubt), you can chose to receive direct moments from them without following them — and you can always take them off that list at any time. When the user is still in pending mode, you wont be able to see the image they’re sending, making it easier to ignore them.
You can send photos and videos with text, but not text alone, naturally. Images and videos, Systrom added, is what the new feature is all about. According to Systrom, the new feature is all about “connecting people around moments.” Once a friend looks at the image, you’ll see a check mark next to it. If they like it, you’ll see a heart. It’s not quite the ephemeral Snapchat-inspired update a number of outlets were predicted, but it’ll likely push Instagram usage up even further, as users become less selective about what they send through the service. The update is available in the 5.0 versions of the iOS and Android apps today, by way of the Apple App Store and Google Play, just in time for selective holiday image sending. More info can be found in the source link below.
Filed under: Software
Source: Instagram
How to Buy Instagram Followers and Build an Online Network
Running with the big dogs in today’s competitive business world means taking advantage of all the online marketing tools available. Social media marketing is one such tool that no one should neglect. Huge numbers of people turn to social media every day and you can be right there waiting…
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