Facebook’s Artificial-Intelligence Software Gets a Dash More Common Sense

Artificial-Intelligence Researchers – Learn some of the Basic Physical Common Sense

In an attempt to discover how computers could learn some of the basic physical common sense, artificial intelligence researchers have undertaken a project for the same. For instance to comprehend unsupported objects tend to fall or a large object does not fit inside a smaller one, seems to be the main way human tend to predict, communicate and explain regarding the world.

Chief technology officer of Facebook, Mike Schroepfer, state that if machines are to be more useful, they would need the same type of good judgment of understanding. He had informed at a preview recently of results, he would share at the Web Summit in Dublin, Ireland, that they have got to teach computer systems to comprehend the world in the same way. Human beings at a young age, tend to learn the basic physics of reality and by observing the world.

Facebook had drawn on its image processing software in creating a technique which learned to predict if a stack of virtual blocks would tumble. The software tends to study by gaining access to images of virtual stacks or at times two stereo images like those that form a pair of eyes.

Crafting Software – Comprehend Images/Language of Deep Learning

It had been shown in the learning phase, that several various stacks some of which had toppled while the others did not. The simulation showed the learning software the result and after adequate examples, it was capable of predicting for itself with 90% accuracy if a certain stack would possibly tumble. Schroepfer comments that if one runs through a series of tests, it would beat most of the people.

Facebook’s artificial intelligence research group in New York had done the research. It concentrated on crafting software which could comprehend images as well as language utilising a technique of deep learning. Recently the group also showed off a mobile app with the potential of answering queries regarding the content of photos.

The director of the group, Yann LeCun who is also a professor at NYU, informed MIT Technology Review that the system for predicting when block would topple indicates that more complex physical simulation could be utilised in teaching additional basic principles of physical common sense. He added that `it serves to create a baseline if we train the systems uncontrolled and it would have adequate power to figure thing out like that’.

Memory Network

His group had earlier created a system known as `memory network’ which could pick up some of the basic common sense as well as verbal reasoning abilities by reading simple stories and now progressed, in helping in influencing a virtual assistant that Facebook tends to test known as M. M has more potential than Apple’s Siri or similar apps since it is powered by bank of human operators.

 However Facebook expects that they would steadily tend to become less important as the software learns to pitch queries for itself. Schroepfer informs that adding the memory network to M is showing how that could happen. By observing the interactions between people utilising M as well as the responds of customer service, it has learned already how to manage some of the common queries.

Facebook has not made a commitment of turning M into a widely available product; however Schroepfer states that the results indicate how it could be possible. He adds that the system has figured this out by observing humans and that they cannot afford to hire operators for the entire world but with the right AI system, they could organize that for the whole planet.

Facebook Claims Future As It Builds On Chinese Rivals

Facebook doesn’t seem to sit back even after becoming the de facto social media giant in terms of daily active users and incredible reach round the globe. Facebook once again takes the world by storm by announcing its new feature for the Messenger users where they can order an Uber car from the Messenger app itself. Facebook has turned its simple messaging client into a wholesome platform and it is pushing it hard to be seen as a leader in the West.

How Messenger became a platform? 

The platform and its definitions have been heard since the inception of internet. First we have had CPU where operating system platform was heard, then Linux development brought the platform of kernerl and later on we were enveloped by the web as platform for the enterprise and finally even the web browser became a dominant platform in itself with the development of Chromebook. Facebook and some other websites are even proclaiming them to be a platform with various benefits and features.

Facebook has gradually worked and developed the Messenger to such a point where it is being pushed forward as a platform. The move of Facebook and Uber coming together on a single platform i.e. Messenger is interesting and it showcases the Messenger capabilities and might even help in making a dominant platform. But Facebook IM client-Messenger is not alone there are a lot of competition in Silicon Valley with players like WhatsApp, Apple Messages and Skype which offers more features, services and benefits as a platform.

Facebook takes the Chinese rivals head on

It will come as surprise for the consumers in west that Facebook and Silicon Valley is rather behind the curve on the idea of ‘’messaging as a platform”. China has been a remarkable force in the hardware production they have taken a huge leap in the ‘messaging as a platform’ by working on developer outreach, user education along with the commercial implementation and mass-market adoption. It was the China’s TenCent’s WeChat which came first as successful platform in messaging by offering voice and text messaging along with ability to purchase good and pay for various services. WeChat also allows a number of services to run on the top of the messaging app which makes it easier for the customers, clients and other businesses to interact with each other.

Messenger as a platform is soon to rise to the challenge

Facebook’s decision of allowing people to order an Uber cab via its Messenger opens up the idea of utilizing it as a platform on larger level. But competition will reach out to Facebook soon as other Silicon Valley companies are gearing up to allow running of more services on top of the messaging app. There is one distinct advantage which Facebook has over Chinese rivals that is Chinese platforms are mostly resting to China only which gives Facebook a whole world to try push its Messenger as a platform.

Facebook Scams Spreading Like Wildfire

Facebook Scams Flourishing

Presently three specific Facebook Scams are flourishing and even smart people are falling prey to it. There’s a whimsical deal such as you purchase a $10 holiday gift and sent to one person and you get up to 36 gifts back in return. No one would want to miss out on such types of gifts.

This generous offer has come up, courtesy of something known as the `secret sisters gift exchange’. There seems to be similar post doing the round which is focused on a book exchange for kids, though the basic idea seems the same. The instructions provide details of a classic two-deep pyramid scheme wherein you start by sending a gift to the first secret sister and thereafter you move the second secret sister to the first place. You send the instructions to six other females and the process goes on and on.

 Towards the end, you are promised gifts in a two weeks’ time. You need to stop right there since with each level, more people are needed to keep the thing going. By the time you tend to hit the 11th position, the whole population of the US will have to participate in order to make it work.

Pyramid Schemes - Illegal

At the fourth or the fifth position, the odds of getting a single gift in return after even sending one seems bleak.Moreover, the pyramid schemes are illegal and one may end up being fined or imprisoned since the federal government and several states as per the laws are against these types of schemes.

In order to avoid this type of scam one should be aware that anyone offering large return on any investment would be duping you. You should bear in mind that one cannot get something for nothing even if the idea sounds appealing. Should a person receive a message from a friend on Facebook stating that they have won $30,000 lottery on Facebook, they need to be careful and alert.

If a friend informs that they have won some money and you too can win the same, the best thing to be done is to call or email the person and get the facts from them. Avoid sending money to someone promising to get money or a prize back. This is known as `advanced fee’ scam which never ends well. One should avoid wiring money to anyone since once the money is wired; there is no hope of getting it back.

Hackers Use Friend’s Facebook to Dupe

A similar incident had occurred to a woman in Nevada and to several others around the country. In the case of Nevada, a person by the name Theresa Paddock contacted a woman to inform her that she had won the lottery and to get hold of her money she had to wire $150 for insurance coverage together with other fees.

The woman did so but did not get her winning amount. On the contrary an unknown man began contacting her, trying to extract more money. The same scam occurred in Indiana to a woman who in this case wiredan amount of $850 and was then asked to send more to get an even bigger prize. The hackers had taken over her friends’ Facebook page and utilised their relationship in order to dupe her. The victims in both the cases will, in no way tend to get their money back.

Facebook Launches Notify News App

Notify – Released By Facebook – News/Entertainment Stories

An app for iPhone usersknown as Notify has been released by Facebook that tends to collect news and entertainment stories in one regularly updated feed. Among the 70 organisation that would be providing stories to the app are CNN, Fox News and the Washington Post.

Those who intend to install the app can choose their own mix of sources which will post notification their feed. This competes openly with Twitter’s Moments and Apple’s News services that produce feeds of breaking stories. Facebook has mentioned in a blogpost that the feed of stories can be adapted on choosing from the various categories which comprise of movies, sport, music, news and celebrities.

Besides these, there are also categories for daily meditation exercises together with Getty picture library portraying iconic images from the same day in history. Presently the Notify service is only made available to iPhone users with Facebook account in the United States.

 It has not been mentioned by Facebook as to when or if the service is likely to be extended to the other areas of the world or other operating systems. Notification with regards to new articles had been seen on the lock screen of an iPhone and can be shard from that display.

Facebook – Jumping Off Point in the Digital Lives

Managing director of Analyst Company, Midia Research, Mark Mulligan, stated that the move made sense since Facebook had become the `jumping off point in the digital lives and the better a job it could do of this, the better it locks users in’.

He adds that it has seen standout success with spinning out Messenger and recognises that more touch points could develop with its users; the more it could create greater loyalty. Notify comes soon after Facebook had unveiled its Instant Articles service in May. This ought to hasten up delivery of off-site content by hosting it in its individual data centres.

Articles which have been featured on the service are from BuzzFeed, National Geographicand the New York Times besides six other media organisations. Initially, Instant Articles is available only on iPhones but a test of Android version has already started.

A rival company which is identical known as the Accelerated Mobile Pages – AMP initiative had been launched by Google and several other web firms in October. The AMP tends to store slimmed down copies of stories from dozens of news organisation to permit them to load quickly on portable devices.

Useful to Publishers/Readers

Facebook, in its official blog post had described its stations of notifications for 11 paragraphs prior to mentioning that `if you want to see more’ than the sentence or two on your lock screen, you could tap the notification to load it (around eight seconds) inside an in-app browser or one could just sit back and rely on this evolving medium to get updates.

It is likely that Notify seems like an experiment and Facebook would be utilising what it learns to inform the way it tends to build notifications in the Flagship Facebook app. Moreover, it would also be more useful to publishers and readers to enable users to subscribe to push notification from brands within Facebook of different levels of granularity.

This would help to separate those who desire to see everything from a publisher and from those who only prefer top stories and breaking news. Notify would perhaps help Facebook there. Meanwhile, should the user be in need of more push notifications on the phone, there are several publishers who would be ready to oblige.

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Facebook Adds 'Reactions' to Like Button Feature

Facebook Adds New Expressions & Animated Emojis

Recently, Facebook users in Ireland and Spain could express a fuller choice of emotions online with a group of new expressions and animated emojis. They comprise of a throbbing heart for `love, a fuming face for `anger’ a teary eyed for `sad’, a laughing `Haha’, a surprised `wow and closed eyes smile for `Yay’ and the new feature is called Reactions by Facebook – FB, Tech 30.

Facebook product manager Chris Cox has stated in an announcement recently that they had studied which comments and reaction were commonly and universally expressed across Facebook and then worked to design an experience around that which was elegant and fun. He added that as one can see, it is not a `dislike’ button though they hope it would address the spirit of request more broadly.

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, about a month back had announced that the company was near to testing a `Dislike’ button but did not give any specification on what format it would take. He stated that though a `dislike’ button has been one of the most asked for features, he did not desire to turn Facebook into aspace where people voted posts up or down.

Give Users Ways to Express Empathy on Facebook

According to him, the bigger goal was to give the user ways to express empathy on Facebook.He clarified that if one is sharing something that is sad, if it is something in present event, such as the refugee crisis, or if a family member has passed away, it may not feel comfortable to `like’ that post.

Facebook states that it would use tests of the Reactions feature in Ireland and Spain and improve the option with the expectations to give all users the capability of say `Yay’ and `Haha’ soon. Mark Zuckerberg, in September had made some waves when he had hinted that Facebook was working on a way of expanding its famous Like button, not with the addition of the `dislike’ option, but by making it more sympathetic, expressing sadness together with other emotions.

Facebook is rolling out `Reactions’ a set of six emoji which would sit alongside the earlier thumbs-up to enable user to respond instantly with anger, love, laughter, happiness, shock and sadness.

Reactions - On Mobile/Desktop Versions of the App, New Feed

Facebook has informed that the pop-up feature would start first as a test in only two markets, in Spain and Ireland prior to its decision of tweaking it and/or how to roll it out further. Adam Mosseri, director of product of Facebook gives his reason for these two countries stating that it was because both the countries have large national user bases without extensive international friend networks and work better as closed test groups.

Ireland is English speaking and Spain enables Facebook to test on how well the wordless emoji tend to play with non-English users. In September,Josh Constine, in the wake of reports which Facebook seemed to be working on a `dislike’ button had foretold that Facebook would offer instead a small section of emojis identical to the reactions buttons Path that was offered in 2012.

 It turned out that Facebook had also filed a patent for how these types of emoji response feature would work and look. The new set of reactions is said to appear on mobile as well as desktop versions of the app and on all post in the News Feed. These could be from friends, pages/account one tends to follow or advertisers.

How Facebook Plans to Make Money on Messenger

Facebook Messenger has already become a new revolutionizing way for the companies to communicate their business through its private messages. Just take a scenario a person buys a bag of chips and happens to find all broken and he just uses the Facebook Messenger private chat service to express his displeasure. Within six months of Messenger business features launch a large number of businesses had started utilizing this platform to engage with their customers and provide them with quick and active customer services.

Facebook’s head of ads and Pages executive, Andrew Bosworth has revealed the company’s intention to monetize the private chats for better returns. It was expected that sooner or later Messenger will help the Facebook in generating some valuable income and it has some incredible ideas to test out.

Facebook is trying some new ideas

Facebook for long had tried kept it away from any revenue generation model and focused on providing an exciting and commendable platform for social networking. But at last it has to monetize its platform in order to generate some revenue no for its own benefit but also for the investors. Now it is planning to make some money on the Messenger, which is tricky, but Facebook has some ideas to try out. Bosworth has hinted about few ideas, which can help business in driving by bringing in repeat customers, or offering them discounts over the Messenger.

Facebook to integrate M in Messenger
 
Earlier this month Facebook has unveiled its M, which is essentially an artificial intelligence assistant for the users. A number of companies are using Facebook to communicate with their customers and offer fast and quick resolution to their problems in a more interactive fashion. M can help a lot in automating the process of dealing with numerous customers on the social media platform. It should be noted that M happens to be more refined and robust artificial digital assistant who helps people in performing wide number minor to tasks like making restaurant reservation to ordering flowers.

More features can be integrated into Messenger

The digital assistant M makes it possible to add more core features to the Messenger, which will help in businesses in a productive manner. Click-to-message ad features are being testing out by the companies on the Message to assess its potential. It works in a simplistic manner whenever a user clicks on any one of these ads then it helps in launching a private Messenger conversation with that particular business. More hardcore features like payments and customer care services via Messenger are also possible. It is worth noting that Messenger service is utilized by more than 700 million worldwide each month.


Bosworth even said there is possibility of virtual reality integrating in future, as Facebook own the Occulis Rift, which is now making come riveting VR headsets for the consumers. Virtual Reality experience is also a great avenue to bring ads as human life does include ads. Having ads in the virtual sphere will be an exciting and remarkable in itself.

Facebook Tests a Human-Powered Digital Assistant M

In the traditional times, we used to have a secretary for managing our everyday tasks efficiently. But the technological advancement is going through such a rapid pace that it is hard to keep things organized with an assistant. Some major tech firms like Apple, Microsoft and Amazon are eagerly working towards making life much easier with focus on developing advanced digital assistant.

These digital will possess the capability to make it extremely easier and smooth to complete everyday tasks without facing any undue stress or hassle.

Now the social media giant Facebook is looking at the prospect of bringing such digital assistant for its billions of users spread all across the world.

Facebook testing new digital assistant named M

Facebook had recently announced that it is testing a relatively new service for its Messenger app. This new service is named as M, which essentially happens to be a digital assistant which is aimed at helping users perform simple tasks such as making reservation or ordering products and other actives with ease and grace. Once the testing phase is completed then this new service will be incorporated within its Messenger chatting app. Face Messenger app is high popular messaging app, which is used by more than 700 million active users throughout the globe.

With the help of the digital assistant M users will be able to text as well dictate question to the M, which will respond according to the users input. It can be even to asked to purchase some items from the internet or to book reservations at popular dining places or it can even recommends places which can be explored by the users.

Facebook to get stiff competition from other Digital Assistants

Facebook is arriving in the digital assistant M service after warming the bench for a long time within which Apple, Microsoft and Google had brought their powerful digital assistant. Apple already offers embedded Siri a digital assistant which works by voice processing and assists users in performing various daily tasks. Similarly Microsoft offer Cortana digital assistants in a range of devices which makes life quite easier and simpler for the users.

Google rides on the Google Now and Amazon offer Echo which performs the similar kind of services with ease and simplicity. It will be hard for the users to switch to another digital assistant or even take use of it when they already have Digital Assistant running on their phone, tablet or laptop.

More start-ups riding on the wave of digital assistant

Some start-ups like Magic and Operator are also working developing digital assistants by taking a new human powered approach and integrating it within their apps. The human powered approach allows them to fulfill users request with the help of real customer service representatives. While Facebook approach in developing its digital assistant is hybrid of two major approaches i.e., use of algorithms and real customer representatives which helps M in delivering much better and intelligent results. As of now Facebook M is in beta phase and a small group of people is testing it.

Behind the Scenes with Facebook's New Solar-Powered Internet Drone and Laser Technology

Facebook’s Large Solar Powered Aircraft

Facebook has developed a large solar powered aircraft in order to blanket the planet with Internet connection. According to Jay Parikh, Facebook, vice president of infrastructure engineering, during a media event at Facebook’s campus in Menlo Park, had stated that the unmanned aircraft known as Aquila has wingspan of a Boeing 737 though weights aboutthe third of a Toyota Prius car.

Aquila would be responsible to beam Internet signals back to rural locations on the Earth which tends to lack the type of communications setup required in maintaining internet connection. As per Parikh, about 10% of the population in the world seem to live in rural areas, some identified in certain regions of Africa and India, besides others, are unable to gain access to the web.

A team of Facebook engineers in the UK have spent around 14 months constructing the plane, though Facebook has refrained from disclosing the number of employees employed in the project. It is said that the Aquila’s wings seem to be made of a kind of material known as carbon fibre and when the material tends to undergo a type of heating process called curing, it get stronger than steel for the same mass of material, as explained by Yael Maguire, Facebook Connectivity Lab director, in a blog post. The material also explains why the drone seems to be so light.

Launching the Plane in the Sky with Big Balloon

Facebook intends launching the plane in the sky with the aid of a big balloon which could carry the aircraft to the stratosphere and will float between altitudes of around 60,000 to 90,000 feet. The aircraft at these altitudes would be far from the airspace of commercial airliners that fly as well as free from storms or other weather disturbances, according to Parikh.

Moreover, the Facebook team have also covered Aquila with solar panels, fitting the craft with batteries together with an electric motor in order that the plane stays in the sky for a period of 3 months. Within that period of time, the drone would be beaming the Internet down without any interruptions or even the need for refuelling. Maguire has informed reporters that when the plane comes back to the planet it would land like a glider due to its aerodynamic design.

Aquila will be accountable in providing the Internet to the people on Earth within a radius of 50 kilometres while in the air. Maguire had mentioned in a post that small cellular towers as well as dishes will tend to receive the signals that are sent by the aircraft and will convert those signals into a Wi-Fi or LTE network which people could connect to their cellphones as well as smartphones.

Breakthrough for Data & Information From Drone to Drone

Facebook has also mentioned that it has achieved a breakthrough for the data and information to be transferred from drone to drone and if Facebook tends to fly numerous planes it would be able to shelter bigger swaths of land.

With the use of laser communication technology, Facebook has apparently developed a system to stream data between drones at a rate of 10 gigabytes per second at a speed which is as fast as what fibre-optic services could provide to U.S. inhabitants, like those living in Minneapolis. Parikh clarifies that the discovery in laser communications is the outcome of the software based networking developments Facebook has been continuing out in its data centres. Maguire states that the communications signals that are sent through the sky seem to be so accurate that they can actually `hit a dime from 11 miles away’.

Accuracy seems to be important if drones are to be capable of sending signals to and from each other resulting in less Internet infrastructure, essential in building it on the ground. According to Maguire, this begins to look like a backbone of the Internet using lasers in the sky.

Aim to Setup Aerial Internet Infrastructure

It is important to remember that Facebook is not near to launching these planes to power the Internet but has only constructed on drone till now with plans for more in the pipeline. Parikh has not estimated when Facebook would fly multiple drones over the Earth but has only informed that this will be an effort which they will invest in for several years to come, but presently, the plan is to spend the second half of this year doing flight testing.

He has also pushed back on a query suggesting that Facebook could only permit the Facebook site or certain websites to be sent to rural locations through its determinedproject. Parikh has stated that Facebook has no plans in becoming an Internet service provider but aims to setup the aerial Internet infrastructure and thereafter enable major carriers to operate and distribute the web in the same way how they do so, on Earth.

Facebook’s Connectivity Lab had developed the drone project that comprised of earlier researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory besides others. The lab is said to be a fragment of Facebook’s Internet.org enterprise in bringing the Internet to places where connectivity is lacking.

Facebook Hackathon Gives Super Mario Millennial Touch

The nature and habit of playing games have changed a lot in the aftermath of introduction of internet and online gaming options. The erstwhile outdoor or indoor games have taken a backstage and online games are now in hot demand and not only children but people of all wakes and age are now addicted with various online games.

The ongoing and still flourishing online game has become a billion dollar business throughout the world and newer opportunities are opening up for online games and apps developers, who have the potential to carry forward this business to another level of success. Super Mario is one such online game, which entered in to the gaming world with a bang and immediately won the heart of millions and still considered one of the best games, produced ever.

A Brief about Super Mario game

The well known Japanese company, Nintendo Co., Ltd. developed, almost 30 years back, the famous platform video game Super Mario, which comes in a series as Super Mario series. The simple game follows the mascot of Nintendo, Mario in his adventures in the fictional kingdom of Mushroom, where Mario is essentially a player character, occasionally accompanied by the brother, Luigi.

The concept of the game is; Mario and his team use to run or jumps platforms at different level to beat the enemy for rescuing of Princess Peach from the clutches of kidnapper Bowser, the principal antagonist. As per the record up to March, 2011; almost 262 million copies of this game are being sold out and makes the Super Marion, the best selling game series in the history of online games.

The New Developments and Special Features

Some of the developers in facebook hackathon have developed the super Mario series, with some add ons, a far more interesting and exciting game, compared to the erstwhile version. The facebook hackathon is nothing but a time bound workshop or event, organized by facebook, where computer programmers, along with other associates, occupied themselves in development of computer software and hardware, which often involved professionals, such as, project managers, interface and graphic designers.

The intensive collaboration of different software developers and professional are the key issue in this hachathon, which is also known as kack day, codefest or hackfest. In all these events, there are lots of innovative or add on features are being developed by professionals and now they have developed the Super Mario to a new touch.
A team of well versed professional, who took part in the facebook hackathon, had taken the initiative to develop the Marion Super game to another level with more excitement and enthusiasm, according the present day scenario and available options.

Their main target was to give the already famous game some contemporary touches that can makes it popular among the millennial kids, most of whom born in this century. The original inventor and developer of the Super Mario series, Nintendo is planning to release the newest version of the game, with the millennial touch that developed in the facebook hackathon, on September 11, 2015 to mark the thirtieth year of anniversary of the game.

Facebook’s New Video Ad Feature Could Worry Google

These days Facebook is testing its new video advertising feature, which can be big challenge for the dominance of YouTube in the market of digital video advertising. On this project Facebook is working with selected media companies and video creators such as; Funny or Die and NBA.

It is expected that soon Facebook users will see a new section in their newsfeed known as "Suggested Videos”. And whenever users will click on the video, so pop-up will appear with recommended videos and scrolling stream, however; all the recommended videos will be the outcome of previous videos, which you may will watch in your newsfeed.

According to Facebook officials, “We are planning to split our revenue from video advertising as; 45 per cent will go to our social network and remaining 55 per will cent will go with video creator” (owner of content advertisement). As per the statement of a Facebook spokesperson, “Currently, we are running the test process for new video advertising feature, as it will help the users to discover more videos with similar choices. We are running a monetization test in suggested videos where we will show video advertisement in feed-style and share revenue with some of the media companies and video creators”. Currently, project is being tested for the people who are suing an iPhone in America.

Big challenge for Google: 

Currently Google’s YouTube is dominating on the digital video advertising market, but in future, Facebook’s new video advertising feature could be big challenge for Google because this social networking site has great number of followers. According to Facebook strategy, users will see only one advertisement for three videos. And in that particular case, 55 per cent revenue will split between three video creators and it will depend that for how much time you have watched their videos. According to tech experts, Facebook will focus on the news-driven shares as core strength, however; YouTube has strong search engine and channel based strategy.

However; its well known fact that YouTube has helped many stars to get dedicated number of followers and to watch latest clips you can easily switch to YouTube stars' page, but Facebook doesn’t have these kinds of pages.

Game changing payout structure: 

According to Richard Broughton, Research director of Ampere Analysis, “It’s true that Facbook’s pay-out structure is bit complex, but it’s good enough to attract content partners”. The more he added that Facebook is offering incentive for the content creators, if they will put their content on this social networking site and because of this content creators will create more content for this platform. It is expected that in 2015, video views will exceed two trillion, which is two-thirds of YouTube’s total views for same period, as per Ampere Analysis, which emphasis the social media advertisements.

From past two years Facebook is making big moves and now Facebook is testing on the video experience. Now Facebook is planning to show more content including auto-playing videos in newsfeed as it has one billion daily views in September 2014 and four billion in April 2015.

Police Deleting Thousands Of Facebook Posts In 'Operation Jasper' Piracy Crackdown

Enforcement Officers Taken Down Facebook Listings on Suspected FB Sellers

According to National Trading Standards, Enforcement officers have raided 12 locations over the past few weeks and are still involved in another 22 on-going investigations aiming at criminals who have exploited social media channels in order to sell dangerous and counterfeit goods, committing copyright theft, which is the biggest attempt of its kind.

The officers have taken down around 4,300 Facebook listings together with 20 profiles, issuing over 200 warning letters and delivered 24 cases, with letters to the homes of those suspected Facebook sellers. Some of the dangerous or deadlygoods seized were Android TV boxes together with unsafe mains chargers as well as hundreds of counterfeit Cinderella dolls comprising of high level of toxic phthalates.

In Worcester, two residential properties also contained `a host’ of counterfeit packaged computers, mobile phones, tablets, tracksuits T-shirts and trainers according to Trading Standards. Nick Boles, business minister informed that the `counterfeit and piracy of trademarked and copyrighted materials could harm legitimate businesses, threatening jobs, causing real danger to consumers. Hence strong action was taken to stop these criminals through the Government’s funding of the National Trading Standard e-Crime Team.

Operation Jasper – Important Psychological Blow to Criminals 

Criminals do not tend to act alone and are regularly connected to serious organised crime group and bringing about this awareness was essential to consumers who buy fake products online and the risk faced by them. Lord Toby Harris, National Trading Standards chairman stated that `Jasper has struck an important psychological blow against criminals who believe that they can operate with impunity on social media platforms without getting caught.

 It shows we can track them down, enter their homes, seize their goods and computers and arrest and prosecute them, even if they are operating anonymously online’. Criminals who tend to operate on social media tend to become shameless since they think that operating from their living rooms with laptops, without the need of being physically present on market stalls, would mean that they are less likely in getting caught.Harris is pleased that the operation had been successful in proving that their misconception as wrong and urges consumers to be vigilant and report any suspected online rogue traders to the Citizens Advice consumers’ helpline on 03454040506.

Crackdown by Officers – England/Wales/Northern Ireland 

Operation Jasper operated by the National Trading Standards e-Crime team alongwith the National Markets Groups with members of BPI, Federation against Copyright Theft and the Alliance for Intellectual Property Theft, is manned by officers from the police and government agencies and is apparently one of the largest operations of its kind. It has been focusing on criminals who tend to exploit social media in committing copyright theft and then sell dangerous and counterfeit goods.

The enforcement officers carried out a crackdown all across England, Wales and Northern Ireland against those offering pirate and counterfeit product through Facebook. Due to this occurrence among citizens of the UK, Facebook accounts have increased and have become more than just a place to manage their social lives and for some it is a means of distributing infringing content which had been overlooked by the authorities.

As per the latest government IP Crime Report, social media had become the `channel of choice’ for online pirate activity and for several months in the past, most of the leading torrent sites had problems with their Facebook accounts. The Pirate Bay’s account was closed in December 2014, May and June 2015 and accounts of Extra Torrent as well as RARBG were suspended on grounds of copyright infringement.

Facebook Users Can Now See Biographical Information from New Friends

The messenger application of Facebook has been updated and user will now be able to see publicly biographical information such as job title and current city right above the message thread, from contact they have not even chatted before.

As per sources, the update was launched on iOS Android in the U.S., U.K., France and India.The Messenger will be displaying the information about the sender together with the prevailing Facebook friend that one had not messaged earlier and this latest update is said to fill the gap which LinkedIn as well as other social networking sites seemed to have lagged behind on their mobile applications.

For instance, if a person has received a message form one who is not your friend, Messenger tends to show that they are a `Food Blogger from `Seattle’. This bit of information could help you to recall that perhaps you could have met that person some time back and make you more likely to reply and get on with the conversation. Moreover, Messenger also tends to retrieve this type of information for existing Facebook friends one has never messaged before.

This sort of information could be helpful when messages are received from friend one may have not contacted earlier but on the information provided through the Messenger application, it tends to get easy to get on with the conversation after knowing that you could have met someday, that long forgotten friend.

Whatever may be the situation, whether about non-friends or people already added, Messenger tends to display information that is public or else visible to the user on Facebook, and does not overstep the privacy terms.

The new feature which is referred to as chat ID follows the release of Facebook’s Hello, where Android only caller ID app tends to intercept the phone and are capable of showing the information visible to the user on Facebook with regards to the caller, or block it, if it is from some unknown spammer.

The chat ID as well as the caller ID features displays Facebook’s rising interest in connecting the user and providing context about the people in one’s life and not just friends. This could help in developing new friend connections on the social network.

However it could also place Facebook as a larger tool for professional life also. Earlier Facebook had been sensitive about messages from user who were not friends and in some cases directing them to the often forgotten,`Other inbox’, which was usually filled with spam.

Many are not aware about it and while it protected people from unwanted message it also caused a bit of a problem when the user tends to miss out on a message from a long lost acquaintance due to the message going into the `Other inbox’.

Facebook informs that nothing seems to be changing on how the `other inbox’functions and one has been able to use Messenger in contacting non-friends. Younger generation tend to seem less dedicated to LinkedIn that feels as if it is lagging behind with regards to mobile and messaging and Facebook could be happy to fill in.

Protests Grow Against Facebook's Internet.org

Debates on Facebook’s `free mobile date’ – Internet.org

The reaction against Facebook’s `free mobile data’, Internet.org scheme has become known all over the world and recently around 65 advocacy organisations from 31 countries have signed an open letter to Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg objecting on Internet.org in an effort to bring about free internet service to the developing world, stating that the project `could disrupt the principles of net neutrality, threatening the freedom of expression, equality of opportunity, innovation, security and privacy’.

With Internet.org, Facebook has been partnering with several wireless carriers as well as other organisations in providing an app which tends to offer free access to some internet services, which include Facebook, in developing countries on mobile phones.

However, in spring, some publishers in India have withdrawn out of the program stating that it violated the principles of net neutrality, the concept that all internet providers should be treating all online services in an equal manner.Zucherberg who has defended the project states that it could co-exist with net neutrality and to give more people access to the internet, it could be useful to provide some free services which he had mentioned in his April 16 post to Facebook.

Leading to New Kind of Digital Divide

He further adds that `if someone is unable to afford paying for connectivity, it could be better to have some access than none at all’.

A spokesman informed BBC that, he is convinced that as more and more individuals tend to gain access to the internet; they will see the benefits and would want to use even more services.’ They are of strong belief that that they have worked with operators offering basic services to people at no cost and convinced that new users would want to move beyond the basic service and pay for more diverse and valuable services. Presently, open letter debates that the limited access provided by Internet.org could be leading to a new kind of digital divide.

Internet.org enables subscribes of partner mobile networks to utilise limited number of online services without the need to pay in making use of the data involved which could include Wikipedia, The Facts for Life health site which is run by the United Nations children’s Fund, BBC New, Facebook, Accuweather together with a variety of local news as well as sports results provider.

Nine Millions – Utilised the Scheme

In order to access the facility, users should use special Android apps, Internet.org’s website, Android app of Facebook or the Opera Mini browser and the web pages that are provided should be basic to minimise the data use and high resolution photos, videos and voice chat facilities are not allowed.

The project has been launched in Colombia, Guatemala, Ghana, Kenya, India, Indonesia, Malawi, the Philippines, Tanzania and Zambia. Network operators have made their contribution since they are of the belief that users will pay for broader internet access when they get a chance to attempt the free content that is offered.

According to Facebook, over nine million users have utilised the scheme as of date. However, the open letter from the digital rights groups that have been published on Facebook, conveys that the activist all over the world have intention of challenging its expansion.

Facebook Introduces Anonymous Login For Apps to Let You Hide Personal Info

Towards an attempt to help safeguard the privacy of the user when they are sharing data with any third-party apps, Facebook has launched an Anonymous Login feature which will allow the users to login to apps without the need of sharing any of their personal information. Through this new way of login into any apps will increase the amount of control a user has over their personal info and they will be able to choose which of their personal information these third party apps should be receiving.

Apart from this the company also announced a newer version of the Facebook Login which will allow the users to choose the type of information they want as specific app to receive or check. For this they just need to check or uncheck specific categories one by one.

Through this new version, the user will have more control over what they want to be published on the Facebook post. The F8 developer conference saw a lot of different types of improvements which included redefining of the App Control Panel. According to the official blog of the company this App control panel is the center of focus for the users as it will help them to learn to manage all the apps they use.

Anonymous feature: 

Through the anonymous login feature the company is attempting to work towards the concerns raised by their users pertaining to sharing of personal information. There are users who are looking forward to try apps that are available but hesitant due to security reasons.

Even though the users have been able to enjoy free apps on the Facebook, there are growing instances from the perspective of the users highlighting the problem of granting permission to third part app to all the personal data. These third parts apps require the user information to allow them to create an account.

Anonymously logging into the app will give the users to control the apps in terms accessing it and at the same time not to worry about sharing any of their personal information with the app. Users will have the option of sharing specific or any additional information based on their preference during any stage of the app usage.

This feature is currently under test with some developers and the Company is planning to extend the testing for some more months by involving more number of developers. On the other hand the company is expected to roll out the new version of the login in the next couple of months but the updated control panel for the apps will be available for the users in the following weeks.

Facebook has over 1.55 billion of users around the world and it is apparent that the company has to take actions to control the growing concern of the people towards sharing of personal information. Considering the step taken by the company it will receive a warm welcome from growing number of users of Facebook. Safety has always taken utmost importance for the users.

Facebook Blames 'Bug' for Tracking Non-Users

Recently, Facebook made it clear that they could have tracked the non-Facebook users who are visiting the third party websites and links through the “Like” button of Facebook as it can embed without the permission or knowledge of those web users who are not using Facebook, but it was just due to “Bug” which is now being fixed.

The issue comes in existence when an academic report of Belgian Privacy Commission was commissioned by calming that Facebook, is violating the law of European Union as they are using the tracking methods and other contract terms.

According to blog post of Richard Allan, Vice President of at Facebook for Eurpian policies, At Facebook we are totally dedicated to dispute the recent findings of Belgian report that claims the Facebook is not providing a legitimate way for its users to opt out of being shown different advertisements to them on the platform of Facebook’s personal behavior techniques.

A team of privacy engineers and experts that analyze the recent findings of Belgian researchers stated that, we have find that report has get wrong on multiple points in analyzing and asserting that how Facebook is collecting and using the user’s personal information to provide better and relevant advertisements to more than billions of users in all over the world.

However; in response to claim that Facebook want to use the Social Plugins to add the files of cookies on the browser of people who are not using the Facebook website in any form, Allan stated that after a research Belgian researchers identified “datr” and thought that it is cookie, which we are using to track the non-Facebook users whereas; later they identified it as Bug.

He said we are not interested to track the non-Faccebook users as it’s not our practice, but researchers found that these bugs may have sent the files of cookies to some of the users who are not on Facebook.

As per the Facebook officials, this is not our practice to attach the cookies on the browsers of those people who are not using the Facebook and neither visited Facebook.com for sign-up purpose, but they has visited the Facebook site with Social Plugins.

However; Allan claimed that Belgian report has a number of misstatements such as; We provides an opportunity to opt out for behavioral and social advertising, while report is claiming that its misleadingly and tracking and violating the standard Web impressions.

However; most of the social networks use the cookies in three main ways, which is to personalize the Facebook platform for real time experience for existing users, to enhance the user security and for the purpose of advertising practice. Facebook is transparent about its cookie polices and they have long disclosed the use of cookies which meant to improve the real experience of users.

Facebook, Google and other major internet platforms has come under more scrutiny that how it tracks users to serve the ads for online products and services as they have got the more refined techniques with the help of purchasing and browsing behavior of any internet user.

Facebook Will Soon Be Able to ID You in Any Photo

Facebook’s DeepFace System

When one appears in a photo taken at any event, they are recognized most of the time but a machine may fail to do so unless a computer has been programmed to look for you and has been trained on several photos of the face with high quality images to examine you.

However, in Facebook, where one will find the largest collection of personal photographs, the technology is making some headway in that direction. The California based company besides several other corporate players in the field – Facebook’s DeepFace System, is presently as accurate as a human being with few constrained facial recognition tasks. According to Yann LeCun, a computer scientist at New York University in New York City directing Facebook’s artificial intelligence research, states that the purpose is not to intrude on the privacy of Facebook user which is more than 1.3 billion active users but to protect it.

When DeepFace tends to identify a face in one of the 400 million new photos which the users upload daily, ‘one will get an alert from Facebook informing them of their appearance in the picture. The user then has the option to blur their image from the picture in order to protect their privacy.

Automated Facial Recognition – Usage/Limitation - Unknown

Most of the people tend to get disturbed on being identified particularly in stranger’s pictures and Facebook has already begun using the system though its face tagging system reveals only the identities of their friends. Besides DeepFace, the U.S government has also been funding in university based facial recognition research while others in the private sectors, like Google together with other companies are proceeding with their own projects to identify individuals automatically who tend to appear in videos and photos.

How automated facial recognition will be used and its limitation on the law is unknown though once the technology takes shape it would create many privacy problems as it solves. Brian Mennecke, an information systems research at Iowa State University in Ames, studying privacy states `the genie is or soon will be out of the bottle and there will be no going back’.

Social Face Classification 

LeCun comments that identifying a face could be much harder problem than detecting it which unlike fingerprints constantly tends to change. By just a smile, the face gets transformed where the corners of the eyes wrinkle, nostrils flare and the teeth are seen. When the head is thrown back with laughter, the apparent shape of the face contorts and when one has the same expression, the hair varies from each photo particularly after a visit to a hair dresser.

Yet most of them are recognized without any effort even if they have been seen in just one photo. The greatest advantage of DeepFace and the aspect of the project which sparked off is its training data. The DeepFace paper mentions the presence of a data set called SFC – Social Face Classification, which is a library of 4.4 million labelled faces taken from the Facebook pages of 4030 users and though users have given permission to Facebook to use their personal data on signing up for the website, DeepFace research paper does not make a mention on the consent of the owner’s photos.

Facebook Adds Amber Alerts for Missing Kids

Last week, Facebook announced that it is going to start new effort, which will be helpful to find missing children by incorporating the Amber Alerts into the news feed of Facebook’s 185 million American users. This effort is the launched with the partnership of National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and with the help of technology alerts will be sent only those users who will be in targeted search areas. it will be visible on mobile devices and desktop and it will be shareable among users.


According to Facebook officials, Personal details, photographs and other details about missing kids will be included, and the links of National Center's missing-child poster will be included for each case. In 2014, an 11 year girl was safely recovered from an Amber Alert when a motel owner recognized her and her friend had shared on Facebook, said by Facebook's trust and safety manager. According to her relatives it was an amazing word-of-mouth efforts and success, which inspired Facebook to develop technology advanced and more systematic way to help those who want to find missing children with the help of Facebook.

Current statics: 

According to executive director and privacy lawyer of WiredSafety, “Amber Alerts are great initiative and had a long way”. In Canada, Facebook is working with Amber Alerts since 2010, as per Aftab, who is directly involved in the launch of this effort. In past 16 years Amber Alerts have been recovered more than 700 kids, so its clear that now Facebook is going to his effort to save the children’s.

If police will feel that case is good for an Amber Alert, so it will be directed to National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to distribute the news through Facebook for the users of that particular area by law enforcement. Amber Alerts will display all the available information like; photographs and personal details of missing kid, and a license plate number.

The alert will appear in the news feeds, but it will not trigger any phone specific notifications. According, to Facebook officials, a considerable amount of information is essential for case to qualify for an Amber Alert, or else it will not be effective. This is the fact that Amber Alerts are geo-targeted, within the size of limited area, which will determined by enforcement of law and if police suspect that target may headed in those areas.

New trend: 

In present, it’s not an easy thing to forget the sites like; Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram because they are the largest platform on earth, so it could be more effective to use these sites for good cause rather than using the television, radio and newspapers for same reason. According to, President of ofIgnite Social Media, Jim, “Amber Alerts are positive and solid move by Facebook and I like not because they are trying, but in actual they are doing this cause for the benefit of society”. We all know that Facebook love to participate for good cause in public service announcements, even now some of the Facebook users are saying that my smartphone gets Amber Alerts, why not my Twitter and LinkedIn feeds?

Facebook to Sell Real-Time Super Bowl Ads, Taking On Twitter

Super Bowl Facebook – All New Marketing Gaming Plan

For the first time during a football championship, Super Bowl Facebook is deploying an all-new marketing gaming plan which will help companies to purchase ads in real time. Facebook earlier had sold Super Bowl ads based on user’s prevailing likes, profiles as well as demographic information.

 This made it the first time that the site would be using new targeting features which would customize audience clusters for advertiser, as briefing with regards to the game is revealed. According to Reuters, video ads for instance, triggered by using certain keywords which members would mention in their post on Facebook, while watching the American football game, would automatically begin to play within the user’s news feeds.

Twitter’s platform has already been in real-time marketing for years but the strategy represents a first for Facebook. Tablets and smartphones have provision of a second screen for the Super Bowl’s 100 million television audience to comment, regarding the proceedings of the game, giving advertisers an appropriate option to target messages.

Twitter – Mantel of Real-Time Platform

Twitter has owned the mantel of a real-time platform though the sophistication of Facebook’s ad targeting is unparalleled, according to Noah Mallin MEC, head of social for North America, a media buying agency and a part of WPP. Twitter has been leading in this arena which other social media networks are seeking to match up with.Super Bowl marketers on Facebook, last year, couldaim ads to segment of members depending on their likes, demographic information and profiles and Facebook had introduced real-time targeting features thereafter.

The social network this year with around 155 million daily users in United State as well as Canada could customize audience clusters which advertisers could target in real-time at the time of the game. According to the head of social media at the marketing agency Eleven Inc.

Maura Tuohy, states that Facebook had to work hard to dispel the notion that people do not use the network while watching live tent pole events and that people are talking about the shows on Facebook.

Need of Strong Presence – Online/Mobile

According to the director of traditional and emerging media at Toyota, Dionne Colvin-Lovely, comments that the automaker is running two commercials at the time of the Super Bowl though has turned to digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Inc.’s YouTube as well as Hulu in order to generate a conversation around car buyers. Colvin-Lovely further adds that the TV is an important media which is not much dominant and there is a need to make sure of a strong presence, online as well as well in mobile.

For the Super Bowl, Twitter has been staffing `war rooms’ of 13 advertisers which includes PepsiCo as well as Anheuser Busch, triple the number of companies who worked directly with Twitter for the big game last year. Both Facebook and Twitter are speculating that by executing memorable real-time ads with a more concrete way in reaching consumers, would be an additional advantage in their long-time efforts to have a bigger slice of the estimated $66 billion television advertising profits. Several marketers are also turning to digital platforms which also include YouTube.

Facebook Buys Voice Recognition Start-Up Wit.ai

Facebook has recently announced that it had successfully acquired Wit.ai which a speech recognition and natural language processing service. The social media giant in last few years has acquired some of the essential start ups and highly performing tech companies both in order to eliminate the competition and to boost its resources and revenue. Acquiring the Wit.ai would help Facebook in developing various related features on its platform as well as it gives Facebook an opportunity to invest in new products.

What is Wit.ai? 

Wit.ai was founded by Alex Lebrun, Laurent Landowski and Willy Blandin in 2013 with a goal of building as service which would bring revolution in the wearable technological products. This start up mainly worked to make it easier and simpler for the developers to build voice interfaces for multiple numbers of gadgets and devices. It streamlined the voice interfaces for the mobile applications, wearable devices and the website which offer voice support for improved functionality. Interestingly Wit.ai had raised $3 million in October with funding round led by the venture capital firm Andreeseen Horowitz.

Wit.ai appeared to be extremely delighted and enthusiastic about the takeover by the Facebook. They see this acquisition as an incredible acceleration in the execution of their vision. They believe with Facebook unlimited resources and with their great talent they could create a new revolution. Wit.ai team had maintained that the platform will remain open and eventually it will become completely free for everyone.

How Facebook Will Benefit From This Acquisition

The buying of Wit.ai by Facebook suggests an indication towards reaching out to the consumers on almost every kind of gadget they might be using. Nowadays consumers use a wide variety of device to get connected to internet which ranges from traditional computers, tablets to smartphones. Wit.ai simply makes the much needed software which can understand spoken words and written text in splendid fashion. And it is already being used by hundreds of apps and devices at the moment.

Using this feature of Wit.ai Facebook is expected to make its website much more accessible from all kinds of gadgets. Facebook users would also get the ability to speak commands that could be converted as texts as posts or messages. It will help in increasing it wider penetration among the masses as well as it will be bringing in cosy revenue. This technology offers various implementation, advantages and usages; Facebook would certainly keep surprising its users in upcoming year.

The Future Prospects and Returns For Facebook

Facebook has announced its deal in the ongoing International Computer Electronics Show in Las Vegas where tech companies are showing off their upcoming devices. Facebook rivals mainly the ‘Big Three’ Apple Inc., Microsoft Inc and Google Inc already have an integrated voice recognition technology in to their mobile operating systems for mobile.

Facebook clearly understands that voice recognition would play a vital role in mainstream adoption of the internet connected devices and the wearable technological devices. Buying Wit.ai just keeps Facebook step ahead of its competitors.

“FacePile Read Receipts”- The Latest Feature in Facebook Messenger

When it comes to chatting, every millisecond counts. The lesser time is takes for the interaction, the more lively you feel in the chat room. However, when it comes to texting, concepts like hmmm, or nods have completely lost, there is no indication whatsoever to tell that the other person is listening to you.

Facebook’s Latest steps: 

Now Facebook messenger has taken a giant foot forward in terms of improvement in speed in their entire version apart from adding the new animation, which indicates the sender if their message is sending, sent, delivered, as well as read. According to the company, they have not followed the currently used concept of grey text indicating the information but the new animation will use the photo of your friend and indicate who is actually in conversation with you.

The company came up with the concept of Facepile design nearly 5 years ago and it was initially meant for a plug-in to show if your friend liked any website. It has now be modified for broader usage and to indicate as to which friend has seen and read your text messages. At present, the new messenger design will be rolled out in Europe and United States of America on Android and iOS platform. The company is planning for a worldwide release later on.

According to Lexy Fraklin, Product manager, they wanted a messenger, which will let the user feel Facebook messenger as the fastest and the most reliable mobile messaging product. In order to improve the efficiency of the application on all types of devices, the company has made lot of modification and put in lot of efforts towards minimizing the latency. As per Facebook’s new head of Messenger and former PayPal president, MarcusDavid, whether anyone agrees or not, speed is very important and everybody wants to feel the speed.

The FB is expecting to gain a competitive advantage with this new chat feature. When it comes to the slickest and the fastest chat application, KakaoTalk, WeChat, Kik and many among other are all racing together. Apart from messaging, Facebook have other global competitors in the form of Line’s stickers, Snapchat’s visual messaging, Twitter’s worldwide town square, and Google’s video chat. At present the company’s strategy is to focus on utility, which will drive lock-in to their completely social platform, while there competitors are still trying to pull out money from the direct messaging. The company has already been making lot of money from the number of ads that are being posted in the newsfeed.

What is more? 

The company has also launched “Stickered For Messenger”, which is an app for pasting stickers on top of photos before being sent. According to Franklin, the company has many things in their mind and working on more to make the user’s experience very cool. The first thing they have achieved is the fastest and clearest chat platform. Now the company is looking towards the newsfeed. The main aim of the FacePile was to ensure that you can check the message read as soon as possible and get on with work, rather then waiting for response.