Facebook Gets Save and Share Extension on Chrome

Facebook has launched two new Chrome extensions that will allow users to put more content on the platform any website. Apart from these changes, the company has also redesigned its “like” button for webpages.

Facebook wants it to be a good experience for its users every time they share and save different content. The company said in its official blog post: “Sharing and saving great content are two things that people love to do when browsing the web. Improving this experience for people drives greater engagement and distribution of content for sites and keeps visitors coming back for more.”

Facebook users will now have the liberty to use two new Chrome extensions. Through one of the extension called Share to Facebook, users can easily share different content from websites to their Newsfeed, Groups, and Messenger. The other extension allows users to save websites for surfing through Save to Facebook option.

Share to Facebook Chrome extension has a Facebook icon next to the web address bar in the browser. It can be clicked to share any content as it directs users to a new window that will have the link that needs to be shared. Users can add their personal messages along with the content. Once the extensions have been added, users can retrieve articles through their Facebook homepage from the bookmarks tab. They will be notified about the articles that have been recently saved so they view them first.

Through the Save to Facebook extension, any content that a user might want to go through later can be saved. Users can save articles and can retrieve them instantly later on without wasting any time searching for them. The feature acts like a bookmark for all the saved content as it gives access to all such content instantly.

The feature has grown gradually since it was launched in 2014. It currently has more than 300 million monthly active users (MAUs).

The steps taken by Facebook to make sharing and saving easy are done to help the publishers. This way, publishers will have more traffic on their websites as people will share their links directly through an extension. Publishers themselves may put in their efforts to publish such articles through Instant Articles or Facebook pages so that they can also take advantage of Facebook’s ad business.

Apart from that, there are also changes done to Facebook’s Like button that we see on websites every day. The company will soon ditch its logo and will replace it with the thumbs up icon. The decision to replace the logo was taken after the company realized that thumbs up button increases user engagement as compared to the logo.

The like count for the page will also appear with the new thumbs up icon unlike the previous design where both the like and unlike count were shown separately. The company has also made changes to other social sharing icons as well that include Send, Recommend, Save, Follow, and Share. These changes are being done as 30% of the Like button impressions come from mobile phones.

These new buttons are set to redefine the social norms for Facebook. The company expects that with these new icons and design, it will be able to create an engaging environment for its users. In the near future, it will also start to integrate these social buttons within the instant articles.

Peter Thiel has been reelected to Facebook’s board as the company does not plan to give up on its prospects in China

Mark Zuckerberg can now officially remain in power at Facebook. At the company’s annual shareholder meeting, investors approved the new non-voting Class C capital stock, which will keep the CEO in total control of the social networking website. The group also approved the reelection of its board of directors including controversial investor, Peter Thiel.

Earlier, at the company's first quarter earnings, Mr. Zuckerberg proposed the introduction of new non-voting stock. With the help of the stock, the CEO will be able to donate 99% of his shares and continue his philanthropic work with his wife, Priscilla Chan. He will also continue to lead Facebook — the world’s most popular social network.

During the question and answer session at the meeting, Mr. Zuckerberg was asked if he would work with the social network alongside his philanthropic activities. He replied that he has plans to run Facebook for a very long time in the future. The social network’s performance has posted stellar results till now, and it has helped investors vest their confidence in the company.

Apart from the approval of stock, eight directors of the company were up for reelection, which also included Peter Thiel. All the directors were reelected by the company, with the limelight on Mr. Thiel, who has been a major investor in the company since its inception. However, over the last few weeks, he has been under fire for sponsoring a lawsuit against gossip website, Gawker.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg had earlier clarified that the actions of Mr. Thiel are personal and are in no way related to the actions of the company. He also confirmed that Mr. Thiel won’t leave the company any time in the near future. The longest standing board member of the company, Mr. Thiel, was not present at the time of reelection at the meeting.

It needs to be seen whether the reelection of Mr. Thiel would cause any rift between Facebook and its publishers. It may ignite a sense of concern among publishers that the director of the social platform has spent millions of dollars to fight a case against a media house. Gawker went bankrupt fighting the Hulk Hogan lawsuit which was backed by Peter Thiel.

For now, Facebook has no plans to merge WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. When asked if the two messaging platforms could be made one, Zuckerberg denied of any such possibility for now. He said both of them have a lot of potential to grow individually and both offer different services to the people.

China is one country where Facebook is not accessible as the social network is banned over there. At the meeting, the COO said that the company is studying the Chinese market for now. She informed that she was in China last week to meet with different publishers who use their platform for ads. Companies find it difficult to operate their business in the mainland due to strong regulations imposed by Chinese regulators, as they aim to promote local brands in the country.

Google launches new education tools

NEW DELHI:
                      Google showcased new tools to improve the experience of teachers andstudents. The company launched Cast for Educationapp, Quizzes in Google Forms and much more for classrooms.

The Cast for education Chrome app lets student and teachers turn the main computer, which is connected to a projector, into a main Cast destination. Both teachers and students can access the connected PC. Teachers also have the option to approve or disapprove connection requests from students.

The search giant also introduced the Expeditions app, which was available as a beta since September last year. The app is now available for everyone. Teachers can download the app on a set of devices and choose over 200 Expeditions for students. The app works in conjunction with Google Cardboards and is only there for Android. The iOS app version is said to roll out later.

Google Forms also received a new feature called Quizzes. It will let teachers automatically grade multiple choice questions. This would save time in manually grading students. Teachers also get the ability to add a review in the form of explanations, supplemental websites or review videos. There is also an option to disable students from sending a copy of responses to themselves.

The search giant also announced some new creative apps for Chromebooks aimed at schools. These apps include Explain Everything, Soundtrap and WeVideo. "We've worked closely with our partners to offer these apps to schools at a special price when all three apps are purchased together," Google said in a statement. These apps can be purchased along with the Chromebook or separately and are available as an annual subscription per license from Chromebook resellers in the US.

Ringing Bells Freedom 251 deliveries from June 30

NEW DELHI, INDIA: 
       Noida-based Ringing Bells has announced that will now hold a state-wise lucky draw in the country to sell the Freedom 251 -- the world's cheapest Android smartphone. This comes after the company said that it is ready to ship around 2 lakh units by June end.



The smartphone had received around seven crore registrations when it was announced in February. Earlier, the company had promised to finish all deliveries of Freedom 251 by June.