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Facebook acquires voice-recognition firm

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Facebook has acquired Wit.ai, a company that makes voice-recognition technology for wearable devices and internet-connected appliances. While a price for the deal has not been released, the 18-month old company, which is based in Palo Alto, California, is to move to Facebook’s offices in nearby Menlo Park, with Facebook set to hire a number of Wit.ai’s employees, including its three Co-Founders – Alex Lebrun, Willy Blandin and Laurent Landowski.

In an official blog post by Wit.ai, the team has noted “Facebook has the resources and talent to help us take the next step. Facebook’s mission is to connect everyone and build amazing experiences for the over 1.3 billion people on the platform – technology that understands natural language is a big part of that, and we think we can help.”

The company currently makes software that can understand spoken words as well as written text phrased in ‘natural language’, and highlights Facebook’s ambition to extend its reach beyond computers and smartphones by potentially integrating the software into apps and home-automation devices.

Promoted Pins to be made available to all partners

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As of January 1, 2015, Pinterest’s reservation-based Promoted Pins (available at a CPM) will be made accessible to all advertisers. Having launched a Promoted Pins beta for its brand advertisers eight months ago, the official announcement from Pinterest noted the following points that have been obtained from the beta –

  • Promoted Pins perform as good and sometimes better than organic Pins: brand advertisers achieved a 30% bump in earned media from their campaigns (that’s from people who saw a Promoted Pin and thought it was good enough to save to one of their own boards).
  • Engagement is strong: the average Pin is repined 11 times – this has also been found with Promoted Pins.
  • Promoted Pins perform long after a campaign ends: Pinterest saw an extra 5% bump in earned media in the month following the end of a campaign.
  • Auction-based Promoted Pins (CPC) are also seeing success: Many self-serve beta partners are seeing major gains in traffic and impressions. Pinterest is currently making tweaks to the product before it’s released to all businesses.

In addition to this, Pinterest has introduced the Pinstitute – a new program designed for brands to learn how to better connect with their target market, focusing on creative and measurement. As it stands, only a select number of brands and agencies have been invited to attend the quarterly held Pinstitute workshops, the first scheduled for March, 2015. However, a series of webinars and online learning tools are to be made available for small businesses.

Al Jazeera Arabic reaches 10 million FB followers

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Al Jazeera Arabic has become the first Arab news channel to reach ten million followers on Facebook. Having already secured its status as the most-watched Arab channel on TV, this Facebook achievement further highlights Al Jazeera’s goal to become the number one pan-Arab news outlet across all media platforms.

“The Arab viewer since 1996 has evolved from a TV viewer to someone who now absorbs news content on TV, tablets, desktops and mobile whenever and wherever they want,” says Yaser Abuhilalah, Managing Director, Al Jazeera Arabic. “Al Jazeera will always hold true to its values of journalism and fearless reporting, however it will change and adapt to new technology and platforms on which it is delivered. The constant evolution in news consumption is not due to the strategy of the channel but is due to the partnership with you, the viewer, the follower and the consumer. Each of the ten million followers on Facebook is a partner, same as anyone who shares our content on Twitter, Instagram and Google Plus, as well as the person who watches Al Jazeera on TV. I hope the partnership will expand and will continue to be enhanced.”

Al Jazeera Arabic’s Facebook page provides followers the ability to engage with the latest news, analysis and features. In December 2014, the page reach improved from appearing on 1.5 million timelines daily to 4 million. At the same time, the rate of engagement through comments, shares and clicks increased from 100,000 to 220,000 per day.

Jeddah to host Digital Media Forum 2015

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Jeddah has been appointed as the venue for the annual Digital Media Forum (DMF), to be held January 21-22, 2015, at the Park Hyatt Jeddah. Industry professionals, digital experts and industry leaders from the wider MENA region and globally will discuss the challenges faced and the dynamics in their respective markets, as well as examine the digital powers that are driving the future of media and what it takes to ensure fast market growth.

“We are delighted to bring the Digital Media Forum to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the first time, especially since the country has a predominantly young population that has made digital communications and social media a vital part of their everyday lives,” says Najla Mazboudi, Managing Director, SPOTON Media Services and Events and Founder, Digital Media Forum. “Also, it is the region’s biggest market, as the Kingdom’s huge commercial and retail sectors have been quick to adopt digital media platforms to reach out and get close to consumers. Building on the success of our four previous events, DMF 2015 will be a fully integrated forum that presents the latest developments in digital media and offers delegates the opportunity to engage and network with each other.”

Among the topics on the agenda for DMF 2015’s day one will include: digital customer service experience; challenges to implement a global practice; mobile: from footprint to footprint, and a panel discussion on coping with the speed of digital development. Day two will include a presentation on how to integrate different digital media platforms for a successful marketing strategy; a presentation on a consistent measurement of audiences across platforms as the precondition for a successful marketing strategy and a panel discussion on delivering the ‘right’ digital experiences.

Founded in Dubai, the Digital Media Forum Jeddah 2015 is supported by a number of sponsors, including Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Digital Media Services (DMS) as Strategic Partners and Dotmena as Gold Sponsor. TRACCS is the PR partner for the event in Saudi Arabia.

Al Jazeera moves satellite broadcast to Es’hailSat

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Al Jazeera Media Network is to permanently terminate broadcasting via satellites Badr-4 and Badr-5 as of January 1, 2015. With new channel bundles broadcasting through satellite Es’hailsat 1, this move comes as part of the network’s efforts to provide its viewers in the MENA region with uninterrupted satellite TV broadcasting, as Al Jazeera channels have seen deliberate jamming in the wake of its coverage of the Arab uprisings. Included in the move are Al Jazeera Arabic, Al Jazeera English, Al Jazeera Mubhaser-Misr, Al Jazeera Documentary Channel and Al Jazeera America.

“Al Jazeera has carefully investigated and considered the intentional jamming of its signal in recent years,” says Ibrahim Nassar, Manager of RF & Teleport Engineering, Al Jazeera Media Network. “The jamming is part of an orchestrated and multifaceted campaign to block the network’s signal and internet websites from it viewers.”

Es’hailSat covers the same geographic area as Arabsat and provides viewers with secure and uninterrupted transmission with more powerful abilities to hold off signal interference attempts. Nassar added that the move to Es’hailSat does not require viewers to adjust their satellite dish location or the satellite receiver.

Nilesat viewers can still watch Al Jazeera channels in the GCC, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Yemen, Sudan and Djibouti via Nilesat (EAST) 11636 V, FEC: 3/4 and Symbol Rate 27500; in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania, Al Jazeera channels are available via Nilesat (WEST) 10992 V, FEC: 3/4 and Symbol Rate 27500

Google revamps DoubleClick

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Google has undergone a complete revamp of its DoubleClick Verification to help marketers protect their brands, budgets and give advertisers more control over where their ads appear online. Originally launched by Google in 2012, DoubleClick Verification integrated into the DoubleClick Digital Marketing platform as a natural extension of campaign workflow, protecting brands and giving advertisers more confidence with their digital investment.

In Google’s official blog post, a number of features have been added and updated to DoubleClick Verification, including –

  • Ad blocking: There are several features Google has been working on surrounding ad blocking. Advertisers can now add to the pre-built set of exclusion lists and create custom categories known as Custom classifiers. This goes beyond just giving insight into where your ads appear, but allows you to specify where you do or do not want them to be served.
  • Spam filtering: Google has revealed updated spam filtering and fraud protection, made possible in part by its acquisition of fraud monitoring and analysis firm spider.io earlier this year. Google has updated spam filtering with pre- and post-bid filtering capabilities, which aids in avoiding the purchase of fraudulent impressions and automatically purging fraudulent impressions from reporting and billing.
  • Targeting content with Digital Content Labels: As with movie ratings, Google is implementing a digital ratings classification according to the brand safety of the content across all Google advertising products; this includes DoubleClick, YouTube, GDN and AdMob. Advertisers can target inventory in DoubleClick Bid Manager with labels that range from ‘DL-G’ – content suitable for general audiences, to ‘DL-MA’ – content suitable for mature audiences.

The update of DoubleClick Verification has been implemented at a time in which the success of digital marketing is based heavily on messages reaching an audience as intended, and ensuring that advertisers’ strategies are executed in the way that they are planned and paid for.

Facebook enhances its options for mobile app ads

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Facebook has added new buying, creative and targeting options to its mobile app ads. From this week, advertisers will be able to buy Facebook mobile app ads with highly predictable reach and frequency, allowing advertisers to boost awareness whilst controlling how often someone sees an ad.

According to the official blog post from the social media platform, with the increasing value of video at every stage of the buying cycle, video mobile app ads will now be played automatically in Facebook’s news feed, with advertisers given the option to purchase mobile app ads with video creative through Power Editor. Finally, the blog post confirms that device targeting on Facebook has been extended to include Amazon Fire tablets.

AOL secures acquisition of Vidible

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AOL has acquired Vidible, an independent cross-screen video management and exchange platform for digital media. Headquartered in Bellevue, with additional offices in New York City and San Francisco, Vidible allows content creators to expand the distribution reach and monetisation options of their video content, while publishers are given the option to source and manage content, creating new advertising-based revenue streams.

In AOL’s official announcement, the acquisition will allow the company to expand its video stack with new video content management tools; increase the availability and management of premium video to publishers and content owners via a self-serve platform; add a video content exchange that will plug into AOL’s monetisation platforms; and add a team of highly experienced operators, product and technical leaders.

“AOL is focused on transforming the digital media environment by creating an open marketplace for video,” says Dermot McCormack, President, AOL Video and Studios. “We are thrilled to welcome the Vidible team to AOL as we accelerate our mission of providing our partners with the platform and tools they need to better create, curate, syndicate and monetise their content across the globe.”

Tim Mahlman, President and Co-Founder of Vidible adds, “We’re excited to be joining AOL, a company that’s on the forefront of video. The combination of AOL Video and Vidible accelerates our vision of making content management and syndication available to video content creators and publishers everywhere.”

Al Jazeera launches Palestine Remix

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In commemoration of the UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Al Jazeera Media Network has launched Palestine Remix. The interactive website will allow users access to some of Al Jazeera’s best documentaries on Palestine, and enables people to cut-and-paste footage to tell stories and share it immediately through different social media platforms. The remix tool is a built-in simplistic video editing software that allows users to build their short films in minutes. The project also contains interactive maps and timelines, granting users a better understanding of the Palestinian issue and the opportunity to contextualise it.

“This project is not just about telling the important story of Palestine,” says Rawan Damen, Project Manager, Palestine Remix. “It’s about creating new ones. We want to give you a new way to understand, tell and share stories about Palestine. That why we’ve created Palestine Remix – to put the power of storytelling into your hands.”

The database provides the user the ability to watch full documentaries with their full transcripts, allowing the visitor to click on a word in the transcript and go directly to the specific point in the film. The user can also pick and choose, as well as mix and match the extracts of different films, view full films, or search the full transcripts using any word, name, place or concept. The database contains 84 hours in four languages, with more than 250 people, 580 places and a timeline that spans 215 years. It also provides drone footage of iconic places in historic Palestine – Jerusalem, Acre, Gaza and many others.

Palestine Remix is the first of its kind on the Palestinian issues, has a version specifically for mobile users and will be a mobile app before the end of 2014.

Twitter tracks users’ apps for ad targeting

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Twitter has begun collecting information about apps installed on individual users’ devices as a way to improve its advertising and content targeting. By default, the social network’s tracking is switched on to collect data on the mobile apps that its users have downloaded, but users can opt out of having the information collected at any time.

In a statement issued on Twitter’s help centre, Twitter will be using the information collected to build a more tailored experience on Twitter, including:

  • Improved ‘who to follow’ suggestions that share similar interests.
  • Adding Tweets, accounts, or other content to your timeline that Twitter thinks you will find interesting.
  • Showing you more relevant promoted content.

Twitter is currently only collecting the list of applications that an individual has installed, and will not be collecting any data within the applications.