Facebook is testing a second news feed with ‘Rocket’ icon; show users content that may interest them

Image: Reuters

Social networking giant Facebook recently added a new icon – that of a rocket – on selected users’ home screens without any hint about what to do with it or what it means, said a media report on Tuesday. On clicking on the rocket, it leads the user to an altered version of the News Feed while the traditional one also exists alongside it.

“The test was a way of trying out a complementary feed of popular articles, video and photos customised for each person based on content that might be interesting to them,” the Independent quoted a Facebook spokesperson as saying. “It was intended as a way of giving people an easy way to explore new content they haven’t connected with yet,” the spokesperson added.

The rocket icon is appearing for selected users on iOS and Android at the bottom of the app’s view. Facebook often secretly tests out potential new features on a selected number of users and the button appears to be part of such a test. “Many of those features don’t make it to the public version of the app and this might never be seen by normal users,” the report added. The icon appears to be similar to Instagram’s ‘Explore tab’ which shows posts that the company’s algorithms have determined to be relevant to users’ interests.

Publish date: April 4, 2017 5:13 pm| Modified date: April 4, 2017 5:27 pm

Facebook working on Snapchat-like Discover feature

Facebook Snapchat 

03 Dec 2016 , 15:38


In yet another attempt to take on photo sharing mobile service Snapchat, Facebook is working on a new feature which will showcase lists of curated content from publishers directly in the News Feed.

“The feature called ‘Collections’ functions similarly to Snapchat’s Discover section, showcasing news stories, videos and the company is reportedly asking publishers to create more content,” technology website mashable.com reported on Saturday.

Social networks have become a popular source of news for many, trailing only TV as a top source of information.
The move for the new publisher programme comes at a time when Facebook is trying to struggle between high-quality content from established media and fake news stories that go viral across the social network.

Earlier this year, Facebook has joined a network of more than 30 international media companies and organisations in an effort to filter out fake news stories and to improve the quality of information found online.

Seen everyday by more than 150 million users, Snapchat’s Discover feature lets users stumble upon channels from top publishers who curate content daily, watch ‘Live Stories’ from an event.

“Facebook, which has 1.8 billion users has told early ‘Collections’ partners that the content they create will be inserted directly into the News Feed, effectively giving them direct and potentially much broader access to the social network’s vast audience,” the report added.

IANS

Facebook Messenger launches Instant Games: allows you to play Space Invaders, Pac-Man and Galaga

By tech2 News Staff /  30 Nov 2016 , 09:46

Facebook has launched an HTML5 based Instant Games feature, that allows users to play games through Messenger or in the News Feed. Facebook has tied up with some of the best publishers to get games on the platform.

The developer partners at launch include Bandai Namco, Konami, Taito, Zynga, King and Gamee. The games available include classics such as Pac-Man, Galaga, Arkanoid and Space Invaders. There are brand new titles available as well, including Brick Pop and Shuffle Cats Mini.

Koichi Ishii, president at Taito Corporation said, “Back in 1978, the first game in the world which the enemy character attacks the player character was named, Space Invaders. This new cross-platform gaming experience combined with us, one of the oldest game companies in the world, will create a new formula for all game fans. We are very happy and excited about this partnership to let game players around the world play Space Invadersagain.”

Kimihiro Horiuchi, head of global marketing at Konami Digital Entertainment said, “We believe this new cross platform gaming experience provides a new and unique discovery surface for our games and will delight and entertain our players around the world.”

There are seventeen titles available at launch. Competitive play and single player mode is supported. The games can be initiated in group chat as well. A controller icon appears below the text input field, to start playing the game. Once a round is played, users can be challenged for a rematch, or you can post and share your scores. You can play solo in the News Feed. The games can be searched for in the Facebook Messenger search field. The Instant Games feature is a follow up on the Basketball and Soccer games previously released on Messenger.

The games support leaderboards for multi-user chat within Messenger. The games are HTML5 based, and are loaded on demand. This does not increase the file size of messenger, but there is a delay every time a title is started.

Facebook says new titles and new ways of playing are coming soon. For the developers, Instant Games is a closed Beta program, and interested parties who want to bring their gaming content to Facebook Messenger or News Feed can do so by registering here.

In October last month, Telegram had launched an HTML5 based games on its instant messaging platform.

Gamee is one of the few developers providing gaming content on both conversational platforms. Telegram features persistent leader-boards in group chatting and solo play as well, but did not manage to partner with the major publishers that Facebook has got on board.

The update is supposed to be available in thirty countries around the world from today, but the rollout does not seem to have reached India as yet. We will be keeping a watch to try out the new games ourselves.

Tags: Chatbots, Facebook, Games, HTML5, Messenger, news feed