The week in social: Video on Reddit, the hashtag turns 10, and Amazon influencers

Facebook makes 360 photos on mobile easier

360 videos have been available for some time, but Facebook earlier this week introduced a newer, more direct way to upload them that automates some of the process. Users are now able to tap the ‘360 Photo’ icon in their menu and the app provides directions on how to take the perfect panorama photo, while the app itself stitches it together and allows the users to choose the start frame. New features to the 360 photos include the ability to tag people within specific spaces on the desktop version, and that users can share 360 photos as their cover photo (although this feature is not available for brands yet).

More information on Facebook Community.

YouTube brings new controls to mobile minimized video

Satiating users’ needs to multitask on their mobile devices, YouTube is introducing new features to the minimized video that appears as an option for mobile users. Until now, when a video was minimized on mobile, no other actions could take place with that video itself, although users could continue browsing the main interface for other videos they wanted to watch. Now, when a video is minimized, there are pause and play buttons, as well as an ‘X’ to close the video all together.

More information on The Next Web.

WhatsApp now lets users post colorful text status updates

A move similar to what Facebook recently started letting users do on its platform (in-feed and now in Stories), WhatsApp now lets users post colorful text updates that let the user choose font, color, and choose a link if they wish. The feature rolled out in a test about a month ago, and this week marks its wide release to all users.

Facebook tries to push Stories with new camera feature

Although Instagram Stories has recently seen over 250 million monthly active users, its sister feature on Facebook has not seen the same response. To combat this, Facebook has released several new features for the Stories camera, including allowing users to go live, produce GIFs, and also full text posts. Full text posts in image format is a feature recently introduced to standard status updates on the platform. With the new features, the Facebook Stories camera will feel and function similar to the Instagram Stories camera.

More information on TechCrunch.

Amazon expands its Influencer Program to YouTubers

While the Amazon influencer program first launched back in March, only now is it allowing YouTube stars to apply to become part of it. The Amazon influencer program allows highly vetted individual influencers to promote products on Amazon and earn a commission based on sales of the product, and it has been in a closed beta since its inception. YouTubers who want to be involved need to fill out an online form, and that starts the vetting process from Amazon.

Facebook now puts publisher logos on trending news articles

As a way of enticing more more publishers to push stories through Facebook, the company now offers the ability to add a company logo all articles featured from the publisher. According to Facebook, the move will help news consumers more easily distinguish the source that they are viewing an article from as well. The feature is being released to all publishers, and publishers have the option of uploading multiple different brand logos into a media library. Research has further backed the decision, as the post from Facebook media cited, “A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that only 56% of respondents could recall the source of a new link viewed on social sites”.

YouTube introduces Breaking News as part of the home feed

Competing with the likes of Facebook’s Trending News, and Twitter’s Moments, YouTube has introduced a Breaking News section that will be featured in the home feed across all of its platforms. There is no news on whether or not the feature will activate for large global events, or if it will be a persistent presence on the home feed at this point.

The Twitter hashtag turns 10

This week marked the 10th birthday of the Twitter hashtag, being invented back in 2007 by a web marketer, Chris Messina, who just walked in to Twitter’s offices and suggested the feature to the founders. An official blog post from Biz Stone, one of Twitter’s founders remarks on the cultural impact that the hashtag has had. Since being adopted on Twitter, hashtags are used across every major social network, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and more.

More information on Twitter Blog.

Google video search now shows short previews of clips

Positioned as a way to help users decide if they want to commit to a full video, Google now shows silent 6-second previews of videos in the video search results for any particular query. Instead of just showing the first six seconds of the video, Google’s algorithm actually scans the entire video and then decides which clip will show some amount of meaningful information to help the decision be made. The clips do not feature advertisements, and will only be played when the user is connected to a Wi-Fi network.

More information on TechCrunch.

Native video to debut on Reddit

Reddit is following on a beta video platform, to help better serve its 100k+ communities on the platform. The new addition will let users upload and edit different types of video including GIFs and standard video. An official blog post from the company went on the cite the different actions that users can take, which include recording from the app itself, select video files to upload from a device, trim and edit videos, and more. The decision to offer a native video solution is in response to the challenges or posting video on the site through third-party means.

More information on Reddit Blog.