Facebook will change its News Feed algorithm to discourage oversharers of clickbait stories

The latest change to Facebook’s News Feed algorithm won’t affect most users but it’s an important step in trying to stop the spread of fake news and clickbait stories. The social network is going to limit the reach of people known to continuously post links to sensationalist sites and other spam content. According to Facebook this’ll affect a “tiny group” of people (around 0.1%) who share over 50 posts a day. This will also just affect the links they share and not their photos or other posts.

"Our research shows that there is a tiny group of people on Facebook book who routinely share vast amounts of public posts per day, effectively spamming people's feeds," said Adam Mosseri, Facebook's vice president for the News Feed, in a blog post. Other efforts to reduce spam on its service include giving lower prominence to links that have pages full of deceptive ads and the deemphasizing of stories with clickbait-like headlines.

Source: Fortune

Facebook brings ‘Find WiFi’ feature to all users

Facebook started testing its “Find WiFi” feature on its app last year in a few countries. The feature allows you to find businesses nearby that have free, public Wi-Fi. Now, the social network is expanding the feature to all users around the world and rolling it out to both iOS and Android users. When you have this feature on, you’ll get to see not just which establishments have Wi-Fi but also their business hours, network names, and what kind of place it is. But a business will need to opt in to the service on their Facebook Page for you to see them.

Source: Engadget

Facebook’s Aquila drone successfully completes second test flight

The first test flight of Facebook’s Aquila drone went a bit awry after a 20-foot section off the massive 113-foot wingspan broke off during landing. A gust of wind knocked the drone off its flight path and the autopilot attempt to correct its course had Aquila flying faster than intended. Facebook’s engineers seem to have learned from that mistake and was able to fly the Aquila for an hour and 46 minutes. More sensors were added to the drone to gather additional data. Its auto-pilot software was modified. Spoilers were to the wings to increase drag and reduce lift during landing approach. And a horizontal propeller stopping mechanism was installed to support the successful landing.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg conceptualized Aquila back in 2014 with the idea of using this large solar-powered, high-altitude drone to connect areas in the world where it’s hard to get reliable internet access. The eventual plan is to have the drone fly up for 90 days at a time and provide internet access to an area 60 miles wide.

Source: The Verge + Tech Crunch

Facebook reportedly developing a teen-centric chat app with parental controls

Steinar Engeland/Unsplash

Facebook is still adamant to get teens to use its services. And we know Snapchat has managed to capture the younger market. Now, it’s been discovered that Facebook might be developing a new chat app to attract the teenagers in your life. A report from The Information found code inside the main Facebook app that shows a new, unreleased app called Talk. One of the comments in the code says “Kids love using the creative tools in ‘Talk’ to play games and share fun masks with family and friends.” The app would most likely be restricted to users 13 years or older.

And its main differentiator is that it gives the parents of kids control over who they get to talk to. A line of code says, “Talk is a messaging app where you fully control the contacts.” One more line in the code says children will talk to parents in Messenger and it wouldn’t require a Facebook profile to use. But we’re not sure if this is something that will click, especially if parental controls are involved. Facebook declined to comment about this app and whether it is something they will release.

Source: Engadget