Bidness ETC - Facebook Plans To Shift 'Instant Articles' Option On The Website

The social media company has decided to bring the Instant Article feature to the website now to make it more popular and known

The new feature that Facebook has reportedly been carrying out on its app known as the ‘Instant Article’ is now being updated by the social media company, as per the reports by Wall Street Journal. Previously, this feature was only made available on the FB app for smartphones carrying the iOS. However, the media firm has now decided to bring this feature to the website too now, in order to increase the number of articles that are being published on it every day. In the start, there were only a few publishing houses which helped the firm activate this feature in the first place. But after a little time only, the content to be published decreased and publishing eventually stopped.

Facebook, on the other hand, is in no plan to stop or discontinue the newly established feature and for that purpose, it has reportedly been looking for content that it can start releasing through the Instant Article feature, news confirmed by the WSJ. On the other hand, there are some names in the industry that have agreed to publish their content directly on the networking giant’s site through the article feature. One of them is none other than New York Times which, according to reports, is planning to shift the same feature now on the desktop website which will not only make this more active but it will also help the users on the desktops to view the daily articles being released on the web.

Along with the New York Times, The Atlantic has also shown interest in taking part in Facebook’s new venture and has decided to submit some of its content on the instant articles for an indefinite period of time. As per news released by the Wall Street journalists, it has also been informed that NBC has also agreed to work with the social media platform to speed up the new feature on the website. However, this collaboration has not yet been confirmed by the networking giant and according to the report, NBC is still waiting to receive an approval for around 30 articles that it plans to publish daily through Instant Articles.

Currently, there are other publishing houses as well who wish to release their content directly on the media company’s site but Facebook has emerged to show some restrictions on signing up with a lot of houses at the moment and plans to restrict itself to see whether the new feature is showing any success by the current number of articles being published on it. If things turn out the way the media firm has planned them out, then it is expected to appoint more published to release content through the new feature.

Bidness ETC - Google Acquiring Twitter Will Be A Safer Bet

Twoogle will benefit both the companies.

Since a while now, rumors about the acquisition of Twitter Inc. by Google Inc. have been in the air. The idea of Google acquiring Twitter has created immense disruption in the market where many social media enthusiast have been talking about the major disruption that awaits them. The concept behind Twoogle is not only enriching but extremely captivating too.

Mr. Chris Sacca, the investor at Twitter mentioned during an interview that the social media platform can readily benefit the search engine giant and is apparently an “instant fit”. Google’s portfolio is extremely dynamic and boasts of several great features, but it still lacks a potential social media platform which Twitter become.

Mr. Sacca who himself is a Twitter investor has been extremely critical about the company’s performance and considers it to be a disappointment that they have not been able to cope up with the expectation of Street analysts.

Twitter’s monthly user base in the fiscal year of 20015 during Q1 compounded to 302 million which is almost one-fifth of the total consumer base of Facebook. Moreover, Mr. Sacca also acknowledged that 1 billion of Twitter users stopped using the platform which indicates that the company has several shortcomings to deal with.

Mr. Sacca also understands that this market is currently dealing with a lot of competition. If Twitter does not come up with a better mechanism then other tech behemoths will soon take over the firm without leaving any room for redemption.

Apart from this Mr. Sacca also gave another interview to Bloomberg. Mr. Joshua Topolskt the digital editor at Bloomberg and Mr. Om Malik the web and tech writer considers Twoogle to be a massive breakthrough and are positive about this new rumored endeavor. According to Mr. Topolsky, the merger of Twitter and Google is extremely strategic and makes sense financially. Twitter at this point needs a safe haven along with financial cushioning which Google can provide. Simultaneously, Google can cash an active social media platform Mr. Malik expressed his opinion regarding the merger by stating, “The most viable option [for both companies] from an investor standpoint.”

BidnessEtc commented on the issue by stating Mr. Malik’s approach further, “The site needs more ways to create human interactions using better data-mining techniques and take on more risks. He maintained that Twitter’s product value has not gone down and just needs a little revival.”

On the other hand, Ms. Marrisa Mayers of Yahoo Inc. also believes that this endeavor will be a milestone for Google.