Daily Tech Snippet: Thursday, March 26

• Amazon’s On-Demand Services Marketplace Launches Monday: Amazon’s Angie’s List competitor, called “Amazon Local Services,” has been rebranded as “Amazon Home Services” ahead of a larger launch happening Monday, sources familiar with the plans tell TechCrunch. The site, which previously featured only a limited number of service offerings in a handful of select markets, has also recently expanded to include a much larger number of categories of services as well as additional cities around the U.S. As you may recall, Amazon Home Services quietly rolled out in late 2014 as the company’s initial foray in to providing a marketplace for services that would exist alongside its product offerings, offering the retailer another means of generating revenues outside of shipping physical products. Initially, the marketplace largely featured service providers whose businesses could help Amazon shoppers with additional needs that might follow a product purchase, however – like installers who could mount a new TV, for example. Now that expanded category line up is live – or at least it will be on Monday. On the rebranded “Amazon Home Services” website there are a variety categories beyond those that only relate to products Amazon sells. Top-level categories include Home Improvement, Lawn & Garden, Automotive, Computer & Electronics, and Lessons. There’s even a “More” category for those that don’t fit into the other groupings, which includes some more interesting services like “goat grazing” or “singing performances.” The idea here is to expand the marketplace to include any services a customer may need – even everyday needs like housecleaning or babysitting. In other words, with the official launch, Amazon is taking a big step to compete in the on-demand economy. But in our understanding, Amazon is partnering with some of these on-demand service startups, rather than trying to replace them entirely. This is a similar strategy to what Amazon has pursued with other initiatives, like its online art store or its Amazon Sellers program. Amazon could end up driving more business for some of these companies, the way it has provided additional customer flow for small retailers of physical goods. Also of note, Amazon hand-picks the businesses it includes on its site, and required all those who were listed to be licensed, insured and background-checked. The website previously said that Amazon would take a 20 percent cut of the services that cost under $1,000, and 15 percent for those over $1,000. But recently, the language on the website was updated, noting that, as of March 27, service fees are divided into three tiers: standardized, custom and recurring, each with a 5 percent transaction fee, and then with varying “service platform” fees ranging from 15 percent (standardized) to 19 percent (custom) to 5 percent (recurring). For consumers, the updated marketplace offers a number of features that could make it competitive to other providers, like Angie’s List, Yelp or Google’s business listings as a place to find providers. Because Amazon shoppers buy the services by placing them in an online cart, the company can verify the purchases leading to authenticated user reviews – meaning no one can slam a business out of spite or to take down a competitor. Instead, service reviews only come from real customers. Plus, the pros on the site offer Amazon the same pricing as if you dialed them direct, the website now claims – and if you find they offer a lower price, Amazon will match it. That change may be related to earlier complaints from consumers trying the service during its beta phase. Some found that they ended up haggling over pricing, and had trouble getting Amazon to pay up when they were given an incorrect quote.

• At developer conference F8, Facebook Opens Messenger for App Developers, Realtime Comments, New Ad Formats, Analytics for Apps,..: (more here and here) Today marked the first day of F8, Facebook’s annual developer conference, and the company announced a ton of stuff Messenger As A Platform: Facebook is opening up Messenger as a platform for developers. That means developers will be able to add in new functionality to Messenger — things like Giphy for on-the-fly GIF searching, goofy voice changers for voice messages, a drawing pad for doodling things up for your friends, etc. Think of it like a mini-app store within Messenger. New Realtime Comments System: Facebook’s Comment system (like the one you see in use at the bottom of this post) is pretty solid, but it’s been a while since it got much love. Today, it’s seeing a bit of an overhaul. New comments will show up in real time, comments will sync between the story page (this one) and the shared story item on our Facebook Page, FB Embeddable Videos: Facebook is making a move on YouTube’s turf, now allowing users to embed their Facebook videos on other sites. Will this mean less personal, home-video style content on YouTube? Maybe. Will Facebook start tapping these embedded video streams as yet another place for them to stick an ad? Almost certainly. Spherical Video: In a curious move, Facebook will now support 3D, spherical video in the newsfeed. You can pan around the video with your mouse cursor. While spherical video looks a bit strange on a flat screen, the key here is Facebook’s purchase of the Oculus Rift. Parse For Internet Of Things: FB launched Parse for Internet Of Things — a set of SDKs that act as the backend brains for IoT projects. It’s compatible with Arduino first, with other platforms on the way. LiveRail: Last year, Facebook bought LiveRail — an ad exchange that fills ad space within apps and sites to the highest bidder. Today, they made two changes: they’ll support mobile display ads in addition to video, and will be able to tap into a pool of anonymized Facebook data to determine which ad to show. Analytics For Apps: Facebook knows a lot about the users of their apps. Now they want to help developers figure out who is using their apps. Are most of the people playing your game female? Are they teenagers? Are those teenagers spending money in game, or are most buyers in their early 20s? Facebook’s new analytics platform helps you figure that out.

• Uber, Ola stare at a possible IP address block in India: (more here) The Delhi government has asked India’s information technology ministry to block the taxi-hailing apps of Uber and Ola in the national capital, news agency Reuters reports, quoting an unnamed government official. Yesterday, Delhi transport officials asked Uber and Ola to cease operations if they want their applications for radio taxi licenses to be processed. The officials had earlier asked the central government to block Uber’s IP address in India if the company does not abide by the law on running taxis. A block of the IP address would prevent passengers and drivers from accessing the app. Now, Ola too seems to be caught in this regulatory fix. Taxi-hailing apps hit a roadblock in India when an Uber driver raped a passenger in Delhi three months ago. This led to a ban in several Indian cities, and a close scrutiny of safety measures, driver screening, and liabilities that these ride-hailing companies assume. Uber had given in to a transport authority demand to apply for a radio taxi license in India, after initially insisting that it is not a radio taxi company. But its application fell short of what was required. The bone of contention is Uber’s insistence that it is just an internet platform connecting owners and drivers of cars with their customers, while regulators are equally insistent that it has to follow rules like any other taxi service. The transport authority refused to give a license to Uber unless it met the licensing conditions. On its part, Uber said it is “evaluating the perceived deficiencies in the time period provided to us by the government.” Uber tied up with First Advantage to do background checking of its drivers and included two new panic buttons on the Uber app – only in India – to persuade consumers and authorities that it is serious about safety. Earlier this week, it got into a “commercial marketing arrangement” with The Times of India Group to help ease its rollout across India.

• Tinder hacked, results in matches of unaware straight men, odd conversations: Flirting can be hard, especially through a screen. But these guys never had a chance, considering they were chatting with other heterosexual male users as part of a clever technological ruse. A hack on Tinder isn’t anything new. More tech-savvy folks have actually dug into the app to automatically swipe right on every potential match, and then there are all the marketers that are tricking folks into chatting with a brand instead of a human. But the Verge reports that a hacker recently set up a program that would use female dummy accounts to put heterosexual men into conversations with each other. Using Tinder’s API, the programmer was able to channel messages from one unknowing man to another, with both parties in the conversation believing instead that they were talking to a woman.

• 3 Pinterest Features Retailers Need to Know: Pinterest should, if not already, be an integral part of your e-commerce strategy. The site’s visual nature can help you provide detailed images to buyers, share products and information, draw buyers to your website and ultimately increase sales. It’s an ideal fit for brands and retailers looking to boost product visibility and purchases. Because of its relatively young age, Pinterest is still expanding at a considerable rate. Below are three innovative Pinterest features to have on your radar. Price Notifications: Price notifications are a recent practical addition to the social network. Users who pin a Rich Pin — pins that are available to business accounts and include extra information like a title, price and availability — that is later reduced in price will receive a notification alerting them to the price drop. This is a unique way to notify shoppers about price changes and to interact with potential customers. Because both Rich Pins and Pinterest business accounts are free of charge, we strongly recommend trying them out. Promoted Pins: promoted pinsCurrently a reservation-only program for US-based businesses, Promoted Pins are Pinterest’s foray into advertising. Retailers can promote specific pins to targeted audiences so that they show up in relevant search results and in users’ home feeds. You’ll be charged when people click through to your site. Pinterest has been testing the program in beta, and the company reports that advertisers experienced about a 30% increase in earned media from their Promoted Pins campaigns. Buy Button: Pinterest is following in the footsteps of Facebook and Twitter by adding a Buy button, which allows users to order and pay for products without leaving the social network’s website or app. Essentially, it’s a tool to reduce the steps in a consumer’s path to purchase Even though Pinterest is entering the social commerce game late, it has an advantage over Facebook and Twitter because its users are already coming to the site for product ideas and inspiration. When the act of pinning occurs, people are signaling some interest — if not clear purchase intent. Over the past five years the social giant has proven itself to be a big player in e-commerce. Think about it — 70 million active users are searching, sharing and “pinning” images of products. As Pinterest continues its rapid growth, more consumers will continue to trust the network to recommend quality products. This social channel is an ideal match for online retailers.