{"id":7866,"date":"2017-08-05T01:47:38","date_gmt":"2017-08-05T01:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/google-and-facebook-envision-stories-for-news-not-social.html"},"modified":"2017-08-05T01:47:38","modified_gmt":"2017-08-05T01:47:38","slug":"google-and-facebook-envision-stories-for-news-not-social","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/google-and-facebook-envision-stories-for-news-not-social.html","title":{"rendered":"Google and Facebook envision Stories for news, not social"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Stories taught us the joy of dictating the pace of content consumption. We fast-forward in 10-second increments, with a quick trigger finger let loose the moment we get bored. That\u2019s why soon, endless\u00a0paragraphs of text and time-consuming videos might not be the only ways to get our news.<\/p>\n

This week, signs were revealed suggesting both Facebook and Google believe Snapchat\u2019s Stories slideshow format could work well for sharing news. Snapchat has offered Discover channels for publishers to connect with teens since 2015, but its relatively small audience and mobile-only format limits its appeal and reach. Now the juggernauts of journalism distribution have a different dream for the future of Stories.<\/p>\n

TechCrunch first reported that Facebook has started letting public figures share Stories to their followers<\/a>, not just friends. While Pages aren\u2019t allowed to make Stories yet, this feature already allows individual journalists to string together photos and videos to create immersive slideshows from the field or office.<\/p>\n

We also broke news that Facebook is now testing Stories viewing on desktop<\/a>. It\u2019s also testing\u00a0Stories that let you go Live<\/a>, which could be useful for breaking news publishers if they get access.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal<\/a> reported today that\u00a0Google is preparing to soon launch \u201cStamp,\u201d which combines Snapchat\u2019s St<\/strong>ories format with Google\u2019s own A<\/strong>ccelerated M<\/strong>obile P<\/strong>ages. It will let news outlets share slideshows of photos, videos and text that appear in search results, but also can be hosted on a publisher\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

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Stories beyond teens<\/h2>\n

The Facebook updates seemed a little perplexing, considering critics have panned Facebook Stories as obtrusive and unnecessary. Facebook already has the extraordinarily popular Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status products that each see 250 million daily users.<\/p>\n

But Facebook Stories make more sense if you think of them as a news-focused complement to Instagram Stories. Because Instagram is all about visual sharing and has long-forbid links outside of Stories, it hasn\u2019t emerged as a journalism powerhouse like Facebook with its links and Trends and Instant Articles. Facebook could open Stories to publishers, and hope their content will make its Stories more popular and lure users into sharing their social Stories there, too.<\/p>\n

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Google, on the other hand, seems ready to leapfrog past social Stories entirely to focus on Stamp. That may be wise, as it\u2019s historically been terrible at social products like the flopped Google+, Buzz and Wave, plus its mess of fragmented messaging apps.<\/p>\n

Google reportedly floated a $30 billion offer to acquire Snapchat<\/a> both in 2016 and just before its IPO this year, Business Insider<\/a> reported yesterday. Axios\u2019 Dan Primack<\/a> and one of TechCrunch\u2019s own sources heard of Google\u2019s interest in Snap, too. Yet Snap\u2019s fiercely independent CEO Evan Spiegel has shown no interest in selling, emboldened by Snap\u2019s continued ascent after he rejected a $3 billion buyout offer from Facebook in 2013.<\/p>\n

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With Google lagging further and further behind in the Stories war, and Snap not keen on an alliance, leaning on its strength in search and surfacing journalism could get it back in the fight.<\/p>\n

If the two tech giants can popularize this new format, they could lure more publishers to their platforms, gain more data on what people care about and serve more lucrative video ads wherever Stories are shown. Anyone can display text or host a video. The technological requirements of Stories could make publishers even more dependent on Silicon Valley for content distribution.<\/p>\n

Snapchat might even benefit if the two titans encourage more newsrooms to produce Stories. A year ago it asked publishers to build 10-person Discover content teams. That wouldn\u2019t seem so crazy if they had other places to put those Stories. If Twitter doesn\u2019t get involved, it could be left in the dust. It\u2019s a pivotal moment.<\/p>\n

Owning the next journalism platform shift<\/h2>\n

Facebook and Google both know mobile is the future of content consumption. That\u2019s why they\u2019re competing to be not just where links get discovered, but to be the format that articles live on. Facebook\u2019s Instant Articles and Google\u2019s AMP load faster than traditional mobile webpages, so fewer people abandon them before reading the articles and seeing the ads.<\/p>\n

Yet Instant Articles and AMP both mainly port desktop web media into a sleeker, quicker form factor. Neither embraces what\u2019s inherently unique about mobile and the mobile era \u2014 better cameras, bigger screens, faster network connections and, most importantly, shorter attention spans.<\/p>\n

\"\"A wall of text isn\u2019t very inviting if you\u2019re merely looking for a quick fix for your content addiction while on the go. YouTube-style multi-minute videos and TV broadcast news segments can be annoying to consume, as you need sound plus enough time to burn because the value is often buried somewhere in the middle. There\u2019s no coherent way to skip around inside a video other than haphazardly scrubbing.<\/p>\n

Stories solve all these shortcomings. They force a more graphical approach to news, where text is broken up by or overlaid on images, and videos are cut as succinctly as possible. Those lengthy, worthless introductions get dropped or condensed. Captions make silent listening on the go easier. Videos can be broken up into sub-15-second chunks, idea by idea, so you can easily fast-forward with a tap if you get bored with certain details and skip to the next pertinent piece of the news.<\/p>\n

Plus, the visual communication style harnesses enhanced cameras, screens and connections to show you the news instead of telling it to you. The only problem is that newsrooms today are composed of writers and TV anchors, and would need to staff up on designers and storyboarders to get the content right.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s practically impossible to get bored watching a Story because you\u2019re in total control of the cadence. That\u2019s critical for watching amateur content from your friends, who might take five selfies or an endless sequence of concert videos before showing something funny. But Stories also could reinvigorate news consumption with flashier, no-filler style right when publishers are under siege by new distractions soaking up our time. They just have to let us set the tempo.<\/p>\n

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Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/Od-FwDI0ESk\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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