Facebook And Google Join Hands In Mobile App Search

Google and Facebook collaborate for Mobile app search.

Nothing is better when your core rival becomes your biggest ally. Alphabet Inc. is trying its best to bolster its search engine business particularly in the world of mobile apps. However, now things are different since Facebook Inc. has joined hands with the giant to push it to newer heights.

Facebook is the largest operator of social media across the globe. Recently the company allowed the search engine giant to index and crawl its mobile application as reported by a spokeswoman belonging to Google.

As per the agreement, the results that will be obtained via Google searches on the cellular devices will have the ability to showcase exclusive content from the application of Facebook encompassing the public profile data. These searches will show as “deep links” that will navigate the user to the part of the app which is relevant reported the spokeswoman.

This is a mirroring of how Google will index the information obtained from the Facebook profiles that are public over the Internet. Moreover, the company will also get access to the business platform of FB like Events, Groups and Pages.

Google has been restricted to display the shared content that is via private or logged in session. This clearly means that the tech giant can only get its hands on the public content and is catually restricted from going close to the secure content. In case the users want those searches then they will have to use Facebook’s search platform to achieve that data.

At this point of time, it is actually a major breakthrough since the cooperation by Google is a sign that the company is making ways to cope up with a massive challenge which is searching the insides of an app. Google, is the uncrowned king in the world of search engine on the web but it still faces immense difficulty when it comes to categorizing the data inside the app. It is important to get hands on this data as mobile users spend a great chunk on this platform.

Google now needs to motivate the app developers to peep inside their apps.

According to the Co-founder of Button- a mobile app discover startup, “In mobile their position as the online starting point is at risk.” He further added, “If people lose faith that they will find things they need by searching on Google, that’s bad for the company. Anything Google can do to maintain that position is good.”

So the alliance between the two tech giants is actually fruitful.

Twitter, Inc. and Alphabet, Inc. To Get Head On Competition By Facebook Search Soon

The social media giant is coming to make it big again and take on its competitors with its Search Engine; having over 1.5 billion search every single day.

Facebook, Inc. is soon to have its own Search option; this Search option is directly to take on Twitter, Inc. and Google Search. Earlier last year during the earnings call of 2014, Mark Zuckerberg happened to mentioned what products the company will be working on for the coming year, along with mentioning Instagram Messenger, WhatsApp – the youngest chief executive officer happened to mentioned Search. On further questioning about this “Search”, Zuckerberg dodged the question at the time Most recent, this Chief Executive officer has started talking about this Search engine all over again. Earlier he told his investors about the Search mentioning that about 1.5 billion searches are being done on Facebook’s platform almost every day by the social media network’s users. Since the beginning of the year, the Search engine on Facebook has been revamped without the users even noticing it. Basically, once we search a name or organization every post that it has been used it starts to appear in the search, mostly the posts that the users might have missed on their news feed. This new feature is a direct hit on Twitter, Inc.’s and Google’s search engine and could be a treat to both the social media. This search is quite similar to desktop version of Twitter’s Moments but rather more personal than it. But it is safe to say that it is directly competing with Twitter’s search now and since, evidently, there is more user engagement on Facebook than there is on Twitter, it has become a formidable treat for the micro-blogging website. Furthermore, Facebook, Inc. might be taking Google market share as well. Since Google claims that most of the searches done by users are done on smartphones and since more time of a specific user is spent on Facebook while on its smartphone, it is likely that more percentage of people will start to prefer Facebook Search over Google. Although, on a personal note, it’s a long short for the social media website to take Google’s market as it has been embedded in almost every users brain to conduct searches on Google or whatever it is that they are looking for will be found on Google and nowhere else. But despite, only if users are able to feel that they can get the entire information that they are looking for on Search then only they might consider it over Google. After the launch of Facebook’s Articles, there is a chance that it might be able to take on Google’s market if it delivers a more pleasurable mobile experience than Google can. Additionally, the social media website has commented that at this point it does not plan on monetizing search but as per estimates by analysts if the social media company plans on doing so, from advertising the company will be able to make at least $5 billion, which is an opportunity it should not miss. This estimation has been done on the information that Mark stated that over 1.5 billion search on Facebook every-day. On the other hand, if not monetizing Search, the Social media giant is making good money from its valuable vertical search “Shopping”.

Is Facebook Trying Its Luck In the E-commerce Industry?

The social media giant seems to be thinking of making another try to succeed in the e-commerce business which the analysts do not approve of.

According to the most recent Facebook news, it has come around that the social media giant is yet again trying to enter the e-commerce industry through its media site, something that is not being taken positively by the analysts covering the business and stock activities of the giant. The firm has already tried to carry out the same step before and even then things did not work out for the company.

Analysts believe that it is not taking its past in consideration and going towards this production without much insight. The media company only wishes to have users on the social media site for as long as it can be made possible which is why it is looking for new projects every day that will serve the purpose. However, this is something that the firm has already tried but did not find any success in it.

In the past, Facebook business experienced some harsh times related to the e-commerce industry. As per the records, the media firm initiated a project through which small companies could showcase their products on stores that they opened on the social networking site, and a pay online option was also granted to the user. However, it was seen that out of all the three stores that started business on the media site, all of them announced discontinuation of their activities on the site as things did not seem to be working according to plan. This incident showed that the efforts put up by the management of the company turned out to useless and a total flop. The recent news shows that the media giant still has not given up and wants to give another try in the business.

Facebook management recently announced that it will be introducing a buy button on its website through which users will be allowed to shop directly from the media site without going over to a third page or another party. This shows that the firm will be becoming a platform through which users will be able to make direct buys of products that they see on the site.

The fact that the site has a massive 1.5 billion users now is not ready to make the analysts change their minds about how the firm should not be coming in to the business all over again and how it is not going to work for it. The analysts have also started calling it the ‘f-commerce’ business in which the ‘f’ is being used for flop. The firm needs to re-evaluate its decisions of going into the business before things go out of hands again.

Facebook Becomes An Imminent Threat To YouTube

Facebook is imposing great threat on the market leader YouTube in the online video sector.

Facebook Inc. is the biggest social media forum in the industry. The company is miles ahead of its market competitor Twitter and is doing a tremendous business. A few months ago, the founder of the social media platform, Mark Zuckerberg, announced that his project will have more videos in the future instead of images or text on the timelines. Hence it can now be seen that the company is dedicated to make it happen. Gradually, Facebook is becoming an imminent threat to YouTube than it ever was.

There is no doubt in the fact that YouTube still remains the uncrowned king of online video market but the company owned by Google is facing some serious competition now from a very unlikely competitor, Facebook.

Facebook is a platform where most of the videos shared are in the form of embedded videos. These videos are taken from either YouTube or any other online video platform such as Dailymotion or Vimeo and nowadays mostly Facebook videos are uploaded through its own video uploader. Furthermore, 70 percent of the videos that are now being posted on the social media network are directly uploaded video. This figure was only 25 percent in February 2014.

All of this shows that the company is rapidly becoming a video-centric platform and YouTube must and should be keeping a close eye on it as it may strike on it sooner or later. According to BGR “Mark Zuckerberg delivered a surprising statistic when he said that Facebook product users watch 4 billion videos every single day. When coupled with the fact that most new videos aren’t coming by way of YouTube, it increasingly becoming apparent that Facebook poses a strategic threat to YouTube’s well-deserved video dominance.” This came out a few months ago where it was made clear that Facebook had more of its own video than YouTube.

Mark Zuckerber has previously proved that his website will keep up with the advancing technology world hence he realizes how important videos are to a social media platform and consider them as a strategic asset.

The founder has explained previously on many occasions about why videos are a bi priority nowadays. He stated “Most of the content on Facebook is things that people are sharing with their friends and the people around them. So I think we’ll continue to see that in video as well.”

It’s a matter of time now for the company to flood in users’ timelines with more videos and less texts and images.

Facebook Video Advertisement To Attract Users

Facebook is all set to make ground in order to gain traction in video advertisements.

Facebook Inc. is the biggest social media network currently. The company does not see Twitter as its competition and is ahead of the micro blogging platform by miles in terms of users, monthly active users, revenues, and advertisements. It is believed that advertisements and videos on a social media network are necessary. Facebook generates a major chunk of its revenue from advertisements only and is leading the market of digital advertisements with Google, and YouTube on par and Yahoo, and Twitter behind it. The founder of the company previously mentioned that there will be more videos on the medium than text and images.

Hence according to Reuters, Facebook is working hard to gain traction in video advertisements. Reportedly, the company is making its space in the video advertisement segment. The company is gaining momentum as well as looking for possibilities to expand its reach in video ads in order to take on Google and YouTube in the same sector.

Furthermore, as company is making ground to gain traction, many large companies are in talks with the social media giant in an attempt to display their ads through online video on the network. Facebook has received the tremendous response so far.

According to a media research firm, Ampere Analysis stated “The competition between the social media company and online streaming service will soon intensify in the video ad space. Facebook has monthly active users (MAU) of 1.4 billion as compared to YouTube that has MAU of 1.3 billion.” This rising competition will allow the users to see a diversified range of ads on Facebook in the coming times.

Ampere Analysis further mentioned that the time is up for television advertisements and it will soon be replaced by the internet in over 12 key markets. This will amount up to a massive 28 percent being spent on advertisements by the end of 2017. However, another media research firm Zenith Optimedia commented that its research expects the advertisements spending to touch the $531 billion mark by the end of 2015.

The director at Ampere Research, Richard Broughton commented on Facebook’s video ads. He stated “If the social media network’s own video ambitions are to be realized, and if it is to convince content owners it is a viable alternative to YouTube, it must deliver comparable returns.”

Facebook’s product has attracted immense big name advertisers on its platform. It is believed that the company’s intentions to make more ground in this segment will prove to be beneficial in the coming times.

Facebook Gives Another Try To Bring Diversity In Employees

The social media giant has decided to follow the Rooney Rule in order to employ workers from minorities.

Facebook has been experiencing some issues regarding not hiring employees with equality for quite some time now, something that the social media network has been looking forward to change. The staff of the firm that needs diversity is being given special attention by the company this time around. Reports that have recently been circulating the industry are talking about how the ‘Rooney Rule’ is being applied by the media giant.

The Rooney Rule was a plan carried out by the National Football League in 2003, which was launched for a similar purpose. The company was recently seen to report its plan to diversify its network of employees and not give preference to any particular race or color. A spokesperson of the social media website was seen to confirm the news in a press release.

The Rooney Rule, back in 2003, was launched in order to involve people from even in the minorities to take part in recreational activities as well. The Rule helped the minorities in a lot of ways, as they were even offered high positions of not only coaches but also designations of general manager and above. Under this rule, the number of black people receiving jobs in the football world also increased by a mile.

A similar approach is being adopted by Facebook business in order to shun down the previously increasing criticism regarding the company’s racist behavior towards minorities. To show that the firm is not racist, this step is going to be followed by the media company soon. Taking into consideration the previous few months, it will be seen that the social media network has been attempting to apply this rule in some of the departments being run in the company’s management presently.

Apart from minorities, the fact that tech giants like the media firm and more of its kind do not hire women on an equal basis has groped quite a lot of negative attention from the general public which is why this problem is also being looked after now. Many giants in the industry are now looking for ways to offer more jobs to women and minorities both at the same time, in order to give a positive reply to all the criticism.

Facebook currently has an employee base of around 10,000 people and the networking firm was seen to declare that to increase the women in its work force needs a lot of time and work. Also, the Rooney Rule is being appreciated by analysts all over the industry and it is being expected that this would soon be followed by other companies as well.

Facebook Share Is Believed To Be Valued Up To $108 By Analysts

The social media giant is expected to turn out to be stronger on the stock index in the coming time, given the number of ventures it is currently carrying out successfully.

Facebook Inc has recently been covered by analysts who seem to believe that the firm has a strong chance of staying strong on the stock index in the near future. The success that the social media platform has been witnessing since the past couple of years has groped the attention of its rivals in the industry which are still at an arm’s length to reach the position the media firm has managed to obtain.

Following the successful first quarter of 2015, the networking giant has been receiving many positive returns in the form of cash which is one of the reasons why the analysts are so bullish about its stock activities. The firm has reportedly been bringing about huge changes in its system and by turning out to be one of the most innovative firms of the media industry; it has managed to grow at an alarming rate.

Furthermore, Facebook business has made its success in the industry something that the rivals need to be reckoned with. This is being said due to the companies that it acquired recently which increased its revenue growth by a huge difference. These companies include Instagram and Whatsapp, and both the platforms have been experiencing constant growth for the past couple of years. Through the launch of the Messenger app that the media firm launched some time back, it has secured another position in the field of communication that users prefer using over any other app.

According to an analysis made by analysts at Brean Capital, it has been seen that number of smartphone apps that Facebook has so far reported to own seems to be growing more and more, and this has made the firm quite strong. The analysts also believe that currently, the Wall Street analysts are not taking into consideration the full impact the social media company is capable of making on the stock index, and it is to be believed by the analysts at Brean that the firm is being under-estimated by a mile as all the apps it owns are expected to raise quite a lot of revenue for the next quarter.

Facebook was also seen to announce a few weeks ago that it widening the ad space of Instagram, making it available for more advertisers now. This step is being taken by the analysts at Brean in quite a positive manner, as this is going to open up a space for the firm to raise even more revenue than it was before from the app. The analysts also predicted that once Whatsapp has a proper user base, the media company will find additional ways to raise revenue out of it too.

Facebook Launches A Photo Sharing Application

Facebook decides to launch Moments- its photo sharing app.

Facebook Inc. the social media giant is constantly innovating in order to acquire more users that ensure growth. The company not only boasts of Facebook as a success story but has other great ventures that are disrupting the market. This includes WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger etc. the company constantly wishes to grow and diversify its portfolio therefore the company now rolled out its on photo sharing application that will be equipped with facial recognition technology reports sources.

This news was reported by the popular web-based platform, Re/code. The company has now unveiled another breakthrough application known as Moments. The application will make sharing of pictures relative easier since it will use facial recognition technology. The app will examine the complete gallery of pictures for faces so that they locate pictures and making the tedious picture sharing process relatively easier.

So once the app is opened, it will preview all the photographs that will be categorized on the basis of events. The time specific data present in the phones makes it easier for the categorization of the picture album/ so now once the app has recognized some individual, it will then ask you to share the picture with them. Also, users of Moments can add friends in case the app can’t locate the user or picture.

Facebook has unveiled its app “Moments” in the United States that will work as a companion application to Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. Moreover, all the pictures can then be saved in a completely separate secured album where the user can also contribute.

Facebook is constantly modifying its services so that it can provide users with a more diverse and engaging platform. The new Facebook app, features are playing a significant role in attracting more users to the web-based platform. The company previously also launched a new feature called “Instant Article”. This particular feature allows the consumer to navigate, read complete articles, browse without switching browsers. The idea behind this initiative is to increase the Monthly Average Users (MAUs).

Thus, according to recent Facebook news, the Belgian Privacy Commission is also giving a tough time to the company as they have this perception that FB is not really complying with the current privacy legislation. Facebook stocks are also staggering where they were down by 1.01 percent with a trading stock price of $80.71. The company’s stock has increased 1.88 percent this annum.

Hence in a nutshell, Facebook’s effort to diversify its services are commendable that will help them attain their target in the times to come.

Analysts At Raymond James Believe Instagram Can Help Facebook Grow Further

The social media company is expected to raise massive amounts of revenue from Instagram's ad platform in the coming months, according to analysts.

Facebook Inc has been under close inspection of analysts for quite some time since the social media company is always carrying out activities to bring about positive changes in the firm. Recently, analysts at Raymond James carried out a research on the stock and business activities of the media firm and resulted in suggesting an ‘outperform’ rating to the firm. The social media giant has also managed to score a price tag of $90 by the equity firm analysts. The social networking platform has recently announced that it will be using Instagram as an enhanced advertising platform, something that it was not doing before.

A few days ago, Facebook expressed its interest in expanding its advertising business to Instagram as well and discussed the possibilities of making the platform an easier one for the companies who wish to advertise on the app. Raymond James analysts are of the opinion that through the newly found advertising platform, Facebook sales can shoot up to no end and it would be advisable for the firm to carry on with its plans to make things work in this regard. If all goes according to plan, then it has been speculated that the social media giant will be able to raise huge amounts of revenue from the platform in the coming months, as it did in 2013.

Instagram is Facebook’s recent acquisition which was first met with criticism from analysts but later on, keeping in mind the increasing active users on the app, the analysts changed their opinions and started seeing it as another way through which the firm can boost revenue generation. The social networking giant has also emerged to have great plans where it wishes to cash out fame that the photo sharing app has been receiving over the period of time. It is also to be believed that the increasing fame of the app is going to attract all the more advertisers towards it.

From the announcement that was made by Facebook regarding the expansion of Instagram where it discussed the process of making it a platform for advertisers, analysts have become quite bullish about the perspective of the media company widening its position in the advertisement industry, which is why the ratings have been notably increased on the price targets.

Raymond James has shown its expectation from Instagram to grow to over a $500 million by the end of the current year. Furthermore, the revenue is still expected to increase in 2016 to $1.1 billion and in 2017, it is expected to reach a mind-boggling $2 billion on a yearly basis.

Youtube Could Be 'Eclipsed' If Facebook Video Tackles Piracy

MCN regularly sees its videos uploaded without permission to the social network: "I'm shocked that a rights holder with deep pockets has not sued", says Strompolos.


The boss of the multi-screen channel network 'Fullscreen' has called on Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) to regulate its native video app, which has the features to potentially “eclipse” past YouTube, by ensuring that the videos uploaded are done so with the permission of the creators.

Chief executive, George Strompolos, has alleged in his Twitter message that the world’s largest social networking website has been ripping apart some of the network’s popular videos and uploading them on Facebook without mentioning the credits.

Fullscreen is an MCN that has built up a big amount of audience on YouTube, boasting a network of over 70,000 channels, in turn accumulating over 635 million subscribers.

He sounds optimistic that he could straighten up Facebook (he has all due respect for Facebook) for this, pointing out that YouTube was also sued by Viacom for over a billion dollars in conducting a similar illegal activity that has made it hard to monitor, let alone figure out how to monetize the amount of traffic that is streaming through.

He also points to the fact that it takes a lot of time and energy to investigate and hunt down the videos that have a 50MM+ view counts and is stolen by individuals on Facebook, as well as some other media outlets.

Before he takes Facebook to the court, Mr. Strompolos has called on the social media giant to develop a system similar to YouTube Content ID feature, which alerts rights holder whenever their content has been uploaded by YouTube users, so that they can either take it down, leave it intact or try to make a money out of it with the help of social media advertising around it. In other words, to give the users control over the videos, they upload and to release them only with their consent.

Mr. Strompolos further said that the idea made sense but demists that it will require monetization to ensure that the content is not removed all the time and the fact that YT spent time and money in developing this system, which is the reason why the site was not sued to oblivion.

Strompolos’s view is not off the mark to say the least: Facebook has reported more than 4 billion views of the videos that are uploaded directly on its sites and the company has expressed its interest for popular YouTube users and their MCNs to experiment with direct upload.

Facebook’s stock price ended the day at $81.78, a drop of 0.32%.

Facebook Expected To Go Higher On Stock Index

Analysts are of the opinon that the social media giant is soon going to surprise everybody by going up on the stock index, following the different business activities being carried out by the firm.

Facebook Inc has reportedly shown signs of improvement on the stock index which has brought the analysts who are making coverage on the social media giant’s stock a little bullish than before. The fact that the social networking company has been constantly experiencing a rise in the user base on its social networking site is an indication to the analysts that the future plans of the company are quite strong which is why the previously negative comments that were being received by the media platform have now changed to positive ones. With an impressive portfolio of all the products that the firm is providing, the company is all set to win the hearts of the equity analysts. As compared to the previous year, it should be taken into consideration that the firm’s stock value has gone up on the scale by around 3 percent.

A recent report was launched by comScore, in which it was shown that in April Facebook Services that were used by the smartphone users, totaled up to around 24 percent of all the users in the United States. On the other hand, the most important acquisition that was made by the social media giant was of social photo sharing app called Instagram, which has resulted in generating a huge amount of revenue for the firm and still shows massive signs of growth for the future. Instagram has managed to reach around 300 million users that have helped it go upwards in the social media competition, gaining more users than Twitter as well.

Facebook has made plans to increase its revenue in the smartest way possible and to diversify its actions and functions. Only recently, it was seen that the networking firm collaborated with International Business Machines Corp which was for the purpose of giving an improved platform for the clients who wish to exhibit their ads on the social site. Mark Zuckerberg was also seen discussing on a number of forums about Internet.org, which is a new venture of the firm launched in countries like India and Pakistan.

The CEO of the media company was seen declaring that through this useful app, his company will be providing a chance to the customers who were previously deprived of the luxury of using the internet. This has gained quite a lot of popularity in the said countries which has turned out to be quite a massive success for the tech giant, despite the whole debate of ‘net neutrality’ that surfaced in the South Asian countries after the launch of the new venture of the company in the region.

Facebook Launches Animated GIFs Option In Users' News Feed

The new GIF styled News Feed that is soon going to be updated by the social networking site is sure to interest the users.

According to the most recent news about the social networking site, Facebook was seen to plan the launch of new interesting GIFs in the News Feed on the social media site which will provide a whole new platform for the users to enjoy as now their interaction with their friends will be becoming all the more exciting. As per a spokesperson of the media company, it was announced that with the help of the updated GIFs, the users will be able to be more expressive with their views and moods on the networking platform now and this in return will make the experience quite a lot of fun for them.

In a recent press release, Facebook was seen to announce that from now onwards it will be adopting the GIF style on the feed that appears on the homepage of the users. These animations will in return be improving the way the user’s home looks like, as it will also be upgrading the look to a more graphic dominated page than before. On the other hand, it has also been released that the firm will be incorporating this new feature gradually which is why all the users will not be able to view such changes on their news feed. The media company is still working to fully establish this on its network base, therefore, all the users will not be able to view the changes all at once.

The fact that Facebook has agreed to adopt the GIF style for its social networking site has turned out to be a surprise for the analysts and it is has been taken as an important step taken by the company. This is being said because previously, the media firm had refused to adopt the graphic style news feed for its users, dismissing the suggestion saying that it will be making the media website too chaotic.

Keeping in mind the past of Facebook, it can easily be seen that the firm has always paid more attention to its video streaming option more than it ever gave to GIFs. Two years back, the networking company was seen to release auto-playing videos along its web content and the support it launched for those videos did not make the management of the social networking firm accept the interference of GIFs to improve the features.

For users who wish to try this feature on their Facebook homepages, all they have to do is put a link from any graphically oriented website into their status bar and post it. This would help the graphic content to appear on their personal profiles without a glitch.

Facebook Increases Userbase Through Internet.org In India

The social media giant has quite smartly managed to increase its user base in India by offering a free internet app to users.

Facebook Inc has been carrying its activities in India for quite some time, hoping to penetrate deeper into one of the most populated countries of the world. Only recently it was seen that the social media giant announced a new venture for the developing software and internet industry in the South Asia’s region and planned to provide free internet to the users in order to attract more and more users.

At first this idea was opposed by quite a lot of companies as proposing a project in which free internet is offered is rather dangerous for firms that are earning from selling internet to the customers. Despite the criticism, the media company managed to provide free internet and browsing service through Internet.org to the users in India where the market still shows massive signs of growth.

According to recent news, it has emerged as a pleasant surprise for Facebook that the service that the networking site was previously opposed for has been working quite perfectly for the firm as it has seen a huge number of users flowing in using the free service. Through Internet.org, the social media company has been enjoying the user base of around 800,000 users which has come around to be quite a success for the firm. The new app that has been made available for customers through a number of telecom services operated in the country is being used by users which are not showing signs of slowing down.

Internet.org has helped Facebook make quite a few revelations among which one of them shows that around 20% of users who are now using the free app were not using apps on smartphones before. So by using Internet.org, they are reaching out to the social media giant which is turned out to be a huge step considered by the company. This app has resulted in being quite a useful one where the users do not face any connectivity issues and in a country where internet usage is still growing and developing, this has turned to be quite a significant step towards progress in the field.

Internet.org was established in India in February 2015 in collaboration with Reliance Communications and was offered to customers living in cities like Gujrat, Mumbai and Chennai.

On the other hand, this app has been receiving negative remarks from all over the country considering that it is affecting the net neutrality system in the state. Also, it being a zero rating app has resulted in affecting the business and usage of other apps of its kind.