Facebook Portal aims to connect all of our online lives
The Facebook Portal device is adding to its range of functions.
As well as having Alexa and video chat functionality built in, the Portal now has YouTube functionality too.
With one eye on the future, Facebook is also trying to tie up integration with Google’s Home personal assistant.
Facebook’s Rafa Camargo says: “We view the future of these home devices as where you will have multiple assistants and you will use them for whatever they do best.”
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New app adds options for short-form films – Lasso
Facebook has launched a new app – Lasso – to cash in on the new teen craze for lip-syncing.
Lasso is a standalone app for short-form, entertaining videos — from comedy to beauty to fitness. Films can be up to 15 seconds long and overlaid with popular songs, there is a catalogue of millions to choose from.
Films created can be shared on Facebook Stories and the option to share to Instagram Stories is coming soon.
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Redesign for Pinterest news feed
Pinterest’s friends feed has been redesigned to look more like Instagram.
The ‘news’ feed now shows a single column of posts and there are horizontal rows of Pinterest-recommended accounts to follow.
Each individual post now takes up more space on screen, replacing the former tiled images.
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Google Ads shows extra insight with new metrics
Google is introducing a new series of metrics to give clear insight into the success of ads.
The new metrics cover impressions and search and are Absolute Top and Top.
For impressions, this covers the percentage of impressions shown as the first ad above organic search results and percentage shown anywhere above organic results.
In search, it relates to impressions received in the top locations, divided by the number of impressions eligible for that slot.
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Home Hub is picture perfect for Google
Google’s Home Hub is many things – a personal assistant, smart speaker and display – however, its appeal also lies in its ability to be something altogether more retro: a digital photo frame.
The sharpness of the screen and lack of glare make it perfect for displaying hi-res images from Google Photos.
Meanwhile, the device is completely without a camera, unlike Facebook’s Portal, thus avoiding questions of invasion of privacy that are dogging many such devices as we move towards a completely connected way of living.
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