Facebook Ends Clone Wars; Twitter De-Verifies: Do Not Read Until Monday

We guarantee if you do, you will see the world from a whole new vantage point – Do Not Read Until Monday.

Facebook’s Clone Wars May Have Ended, But Is There A New Hope?

In a very non-shock move, Facebook this week merged its Messenger Day and Facebook Stories features. They were the worst performers of its Snap clones, even after Instagram allowed pushing its Stories to Facebook.

But it’s interesting to note Facebook jumbles up its Stories atop News Feed with live streams. Facebook Live seems to be the biggest hit of the “Facebook just steals idea now” era, or at least my brother-in-law uses it a lot. It’s also great for selling stuff, apparently. Facebook’s also pushing Live further by tempting vlogger influencers with a bespoke app, Creator, for prettying up their streams. Additionally, it’s beginning to offer those with sizeable followings an option to target their “Fan Club” directly when going live.

When combined with Watch – Facebook’s crack at TV – it’s hard to see what the end game is, but it seems to be a strike at YouTube, Snap, Periscope and … Well, maybe just everyone.

Twitter to White Supremacists: YOU SHALL NOT PASS

…Our New Verification Standards

Icons have had a pretty big week. First, following last week’s verification of sentient garbage pile Jason Kessler (he of Charlottesville ‘fame’), Twitter stripped him and other alleged humans of their badges. While it likely could have been handled better (hey, this is Twitter we’re talking about here), the idea it impacts their “free speech” seems slightly overblown.

In other tiny-symbol news, 75 news outlets have signed on to The Trust Project, an initiative aiming to stave off ‘fake news’ proliferating on social and other digital channels. Facebook and Twitter, along with Google and Bing, have also agreed to display “Trust Indicators” for links to stories 

On a related note, Freedom House also found that not five but 30 countries have misinformation ‘armies’, so, yeah, let’s hurry up and figure this ish out already.

This Week in Sn… [Did they do anything this week? Oh right, yeah, the audience targeting thing]

Evan Spiegel and Co. …erm, sorry, squad have kept a relatively low profile since getting their collective ass handed to them for the third consecutive quarter last week, then announcing a new strategy that flies in the face of everything the company once stood for.

Speaking of, the biggest news for the week furthers the type of activity Spiegel once termed “creepy” on the platform, ad targeting. Through new Audience Filters, advertisers can now target filters based on a user’s interests, age and other demographics. 

Also, SportsCenter now has a Snapchat edition, but it bizarrely can’t include any NFL clips, because legal. Actually, are we even allowed to say “NFL” in this newsletter? 

The Verdict: I’d love to drop an L for the sell-out nature of the move, but Audience Filters might actually be good news for platform revenue and interest, so here’s a W, Spiegel Squad.

 

Odds + The End

• Baidu’s smart speaker looks super cool.
• I bet it’s gonna stink though. (I’m so sorry.)
• Filed Under “As If You’d Want To”: You can now add Instagram Stories through mobile browsers.
• While that file’s open, g’head and drop “You can buy beauty products on Spotify” in there as well. Thanks.
• You might be able to make music on Spotify soon though.
• Don’t call it a comeback: Firefox might be the best browser in the market right now.
• Lyft is now international. But it’s Canada so like not really.
• Tesla‘s got a semi.
• Reddit wants to replace its current messaging with chat.
• …Hopefully Redditors don’t react the same way they did to EA defending its milking of fans’ cash in Battlefront II on the platform. Who says downvotes don’t change anything?
• Pop-up video suggestions are out on YouTube. Good riddance.
• Pinterest has its own QR codes now, but more importantly, is making leaps and bounds in monetizing visual search.
• Bravo! Or should that be браво?
• The next iPhone may have rear 3D sensors, setting it up for rich AR experiences.
• Twitter‘s hoping to make some scratch by selling cut-rate data access.
• It also still has no idea what to do with Moments.