Facebook Cracks Down On News Feed Clickbait
Facebook wants to put an end to clickbait headlines, which are driving some users away from their feeds.
The company on Thursday said it is updating its news feed algorithm to show users noticeably fewer clickbait headlines and reduce the ranking of spammy links that exaggerate what readers will discover in a story or leave out crucial information in order to get readers to click — for example, headlines like “We Tried This Diet And You Won’t Believe What Happened Next.” The change shouldn’t reduce the total volume of articles in users’ feeds, but should lead users to see a higher number of informative, clear headlines over the coming weeks.
Twitter Gives Users More Control Over Their On-Platform Experience
In order to give users more ways to control their on-platform experience, Twitter has announced that they’re rolling out their “Quality Filter” tool to all users.
The quality filter option has been in testing for more than a year, with selected verified users getting access to the tool last May.
Well, that's an interesting & welcome addition, Twitter! (Was prompted about this on opening the app.) pic.twitter.com/Ka2VDvqwNf
— anildash.com (@anildash) March 23, 2015
Facebook Tests New Snapchat-Like Camera Atop ‘News Feed’
In its latest push into video, Facebook is testing a camera that automatically opens atop “News Feed,” a move that could boost original sharing on the social network by making it easier to post photos and videos.
Starting today among a small number of users in Brazil and Canada, the company is testing a new open camera, which will appear at the top of news feed, taking up about a third of users’ mobile screens. The camera disappears as users scroll down their feeds and will also come equipped with a suite of drawing tools, masks, filters and frames.
Instagram adds two new features in subtle update
Instagram has released an app update for both iOS and Android users — and while the quiet announcement may seem minor in the wake of the addition of the Snapchat-esque Stories, the update adds two pretty significant video features to the app’s camera.
The update now allows users to zoom while recording a video by swiping up or down. The feature is similar to what Snapchat has had for over a year, but it’s new to Instagram’s 3-to-60 second video clips. The feature was added to both the iOS and Android versions.
Apple users get one more feature — during a recording, users can double tap the screen to switch between the cameras. That means users can swap from the front-facing selfie camera to the back camera, shooting both themselves and something else of interest in the same clip.
