It’s time to recap over some of the latest digital updates from the past week. Making a starring appearance this week is Pinterest, Bing and Facebook, so let’s get straight to it…
New testing tool for Bing
Bing has always struggled to keep up with search engine competitor Google and now is no different. A year after its rival released its mobile-friendly testing tool, Bing has now (link: http://searchengineland.com/bing-launched-their-mobile-friendly-testing-tool-235953 text: finally launched its own smaller version) after delaying the release since May. The tool is used to evaluate pages on how mobile-friendly they are using a varied criteria, which includes points such as width of page content, readability of text on the page and use of incompatible plug-ins.
(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/bing.png alt: bing)
Face(book) recognition in your camera roll
Just when you thought Facebook couldn’t possibly add any more strings to its bow this week, it announced its latest experiment. The company is testing a feature called (link: http://mashable.com/2015/11/09/facebook-messenger-photo-magic/#7SfDI4H8F5qC text: “Photo Magic”), which uses facial recognition within your camera roll, making it easier to share photos with your friends straight away.
The concept is simple. When you snap a picture of your friends, Facebook Messenger will then send you a push notification nudging you to send the photo to the people in the photo that Facebook recognise via Messenger. These suggestions will follow the same ‘tag suggestions’ settings users have enabled in their main app, so if these are turned off they won’t be able to have their faces detected in friends’ camera roll.
This is being rolled on iOS and Android devices in Australia first. Users will have to opt-in to this feature by enabling it in Messenger when it starts to show next week.
(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Photo-Magic.png alt: Photo Magic)
Pinterest helps when you just can’t find the words
The latest update to the Pinterest mobile and web app now lets you visually search for products, (link: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2015/11/09/pinterest-lets-you-visually-search-pins-to-find-stuff-you-cant-describe-in-words/ text: when you just can’t find the words). If you see something that takes your fancy in a pinned image, like a piece of furniture, a cool piece of stationary or even a clothing item, you simple tap the search icon on the top right hand corner to select the item and then look up visually similar items. This is a huge step up in the world of image searching, and with the addition of ‘buy’ buttons to pins, it is going to make shopping on the site much easier.
(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Pinterest.png alt: Pinterest)