Shop, shop, shopping: Facebook’s social networks are increasingly becoming online trading platforms. Using artificial intelligence, the shopping experience is now supposed to become even better – and, of course, the money will flow more easily. Mark Zuckerberg himself shares several posts and comments on his profile and explains which function he uses himself.
Although all products on Instagram can already be linked to the respective brands and manufacturers, if this has not happened, searchers no longer have to ask the post creator in the comments, but can use Instagram Visual Search. Zuckerberg lets himself be carried away with the joke that he, who only wears gray shirts, uses the function to find more gray t-shirts.
AI as the best shopping companion
According to a blog post, Facebooks Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create the largest social media shopping platform on which billions of products can be bought and sold. The detection function is only part of that. Facebook has been working on it for a long time, and it was developed under the name GrokNet. It still has its limits: not the entire web can be searched, first of all this applies to similar goods from the seller’s catalog.
Soon, however, one tap on the picture should be enough to display products. GrokNet first identifies the products on a picture and divides them into product groups, such as a sofa, followed by the style and color and the search begins. The technology is already being used on the Facebook Marketplace. There it should help to answer search queries such as “Midcentury modern sofa” in the best possible way.
“If AI can predict and understand what can be seen in any given picture, people will one day be able to make every photo or video” shoppable “,” says the vision behind the function. This makes it easier for people to find what they are looking for, and for sellers to make their products easier to find.
Facebook shops for WhatsApp
Shops, Facebook’s recently established shopping service, is also moving into WhatsApp and the Marketplace. In selected countries it should soon be possible to show your own goods directly via shops in WhatsApp, announces Facebook.
With Shops Ads Solutions, shopping ads should be personalized just like all other content on Facebook. So there will be curated products, promotions and other offers for individuals are also planned. For the future, Facebook is also promising shopping experiences with augmented reality.
(emw)
