Mediaboss Marketing

Facebooklike Snapchat and Instagram before itis getting an ephemeral, video-based Stories feature.

The social network is testing Stories in Ireland, where as of today members can use the new format to share videos and photos with their friends that will disappear after 24 hours and won't automatically show up in their News Feeds.

The idea is that people will use their Facebook iOS or Android app to add photos and videos from their smartphone throughout the day, and their friends will tap through the stories to see what they've been up to. It's an opt-in approach, although if you want to make your story harder for people to ignore, you can set it to show up in people's News Feeds.

There will be camera effects, too, like masks and frames that you can add to videos and photos. Your friends can reply to or comment on your stories with a new accompanying feature called Direct, which is essentially a chat room. Like Stories, it is separate from the News Feed that makes up Facebook's bread and butter.

If the stories concept sounds familiar, that's because it is: Snapchat pioneered it nearly four years ago with its own Stories feature, and Facebook-owned Instagram copied it last summer. It's hardly surprising, then, that it would eventually show up on the world's largest social network, which described it as an evolution of how people share their lives online.

"The way people share today is different to five or even two years ago it's much more visual, with more photos and videos than ever before," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. "We want to make it fast and fun for people to share creative and expressive photos and videos with whoever they want, whenever they want."

For now, Facebook Stories is only available in Ireland, which has also served as a testing ground for some of the company's other recent projects, including a beta version of Direct. Facebook said that Stories will arrive in additional countries "in the coming months," along with some other new camera-related features.

Also today, Facebook overhauled how its Trending stories section displays, promising to show everyone the same items.

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Facebook Follows Snapchat, Instagram With its Own Version of Stories - PCMag India

Facebook will no longer personalize the list of trending topics it displays to users.

In a Wednesday blog post, the social network said that everyone will now see the same stories in the Trending section, regardless of location. Facebook is making this change "to help make sure people don't miss important topics being discussed on Facebook that might not show up in their News Feed," VP of Product Management Will Cathcart wrote.

Facebook is also rolling out "an improved system to determine what is trending," Cathcart wrote. And finally, trending topics will now feature a publisher headline below each category.

The company's algorithms will determine what's trending by looking at the number of publishers that are posting articles on Facebook about the same topic and engagement around that group of articles. In the past, topics might have trended due to high engagement around a single post or article.

This new method "should surface trending topics quicker, be more effective at capturing a broader range of news and events from around the world and also help ensure that trending topics reflect real world events being covered by multiple news outlets," Cathcart wrote.

For the uninitiated, Facebook's Trending section shows you popular topics being discussed on the service. In the latest version, you'll see a news headline under the name of the topic to give you more insight about why it's trending, a highly requested feature.

"The headline that appears is automatically selected based on a combination of factors including the engagement around the article on Facebook, the engagement around the publisher overall, and whether other articles are linking to it," Cathcart wrote. Previously, Facebook used the space under each topic to display the number of people talking about it.

Like before, you can click on any of the topics to see additional sources and posts about it.

The changes are rolling out now and should reach everyone in the US in the "coming weeks," Cathcart wrote.

Initially, Facebook had a team of human curators who selected topics that appeared in the Trending box. Amidst reports that the team favored liberal news outlets and supressed conservative voices, Facebook in August ditched human editors for algorithms. But that created another problem: fake news. The social network has pledged to crack down on that, too, with reporting tools it rolled out in December.

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Facebook Overhauls Trending, Will Show Same Topics to Everyone - PCMag India

Mashable

Facebook's VR social network is surprisingly stunning Mashable Earlier this month, I told you about the emerging world of social networking in virtual reality. But lurking on the sidelines of this newly active space is Facebook's own social VR behemoth known as Oculus Rooms. This is where the strategy behind the ... Facebook's Oculus Rooms on Gear VR is good for chat, TV and gamesWareable all 16 news articles »

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Facebook's VR social network is surprisingly stunning - Mashable

Photo: Blake Engelhard / The Daily Pennsylvanian

2015 Wharton graduate Blake Engelhard aims to use "swipe culture"to create valuableconnections and friendships throughNecter, a new social networking app.

The app is a connection/introduction app, College senior Olga Belyanina said, who is in charge of business development, so connections are made through mutual friends.

These mutual friends are the key to how the app works. The app gives users three categories to choose from: work, dating, and friendship. Friends can introduce mutual friends looking for the same thing whether that be someone to go to the gym with, a formal date, or just a study buddy.

Really what we see is creating a movement around being open about what youre looking for and helping others find the things that they need, Engelhard said.

Engelhard first gotthe idea for the app in January 2016 when he wastraveling for a consulting job.

Moving from city to city its really hard to meet new people, Belyaninasaid. [This is] a platform where you could meet people with a purpose.

The company is building off the recent success of companionship apps, which have tripled in the last two years, according to research from theDating Apocalypse.

The swipe culture and the swipe way of life is a way of connecting, Peter Groverman, an advisor to the company said. People are getting more and more connected every day that passes.

Groverman has been a part of focus groups that have helped develop different components of the app.

Its really easy to use, its very intuitive, Groverman said. You can navigate it with complete ease.

This ease of use didnt happen overnight. For the past year, Engelhard has worked to assemble a team to make his idea a reality.

Penn hasbeen an unbelievable resource in terms of having students come into the office and do focus groups and test the prototypes and things like that, Engelhard said.

The result is an app based on connections made by mutual friends, which Engelhard described as like Tinder, but less creepy, a little less weird.

Belyaninasaid something similar:In Penns environment we kind of find our little niches, we have our little bubble, she said. This will make it possible to build a community and raise awareness about whats going on in other areas.

Penn is the first campus the app is launching with, and it was officially released on theApp Store on Monday.

Necter is hosting a launch event at Allegros Pizza on Thursday from 10 pm to 1 am and plans to turn Penns late night pizza place into a club, complete with a band, a DJ and freebeer and pizza.

Groverman feels optimistic about the app's potential.

[Venmo] started in a dorm room and then boom it exploded and became such a phenom, Groverman said. This has all the hallmarks of that.

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Swipe right: Penn's new social networking app - The Daily Pennsylvanian

Hornet, the worlds premier social networking app, just unveiled the addition of social profiles and a discover feature, which will roll out across the Hornet network starting today on iOS, Android and the web. The addition of social profiles is the first time a gay social app has introduced follow and feed features, creating more opportunities to interact on a profile versus simply look at someones pictures.

The social profile feature is a great way to dynamically share new photos, updates and profile details to stay in touch beyond a static user page. Users will now see a scrollable profile feed on their and other users profile pages, and be able to follow their favorite guys latest updates and photos.

Sharing is caring: Users can also search and follow other users via their unique username, and keep up with their updates in their social feed. Users will be able to see what the latest buzz is with the guys theyre following, from the latest photos to profile updates, creating more opportunities to connect and socialize.

Hornets new discover tab feature also gives users a chance to discover who might be around them. Here, you can find guys through the app that may have a similar taste as you when it comes to drinks, parties and other events and common interests.

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Gay Social Network Hornet Unveils Social Profiles and Discover Feature - Unicorn Booty (blog)