Five for Friday: Facebook’s Payment Feature, DuckDuck Go, & More!

July 10th, 2015 by Search Influence Alumni

1. Facebook Messenger Payments Service Is Nationwide – Mashable

Facebook’s vice president of messaging products, David Marcus, recently announced that Facebook Messenger has rolled out its payment feature. Users can add their debit card information in the Messenger’s settings. You can then send payments by starting a conversation with a friend and clicking the “$” icon followed by the “Pay” button. If you are on the receiving end of this transaction, you will be prompted to accept the payment at the appropriate time. Marcus has been quoted saying that the payment feature is “easy and safe.”

Facebook Messenger Payments Image - Search Influence

2. Google Earth Turns 10 – Google Blog

Google Earth celebrated its 10th birthday on June 29, 2015. Google Earth allows users to see the world from a variety of viewpoints, from 3D versions of cities across the globe to striking photos of our planet shot from space. Happy belated birthday, Google Earth!

3. Google: Panda Refresh Coming Soon – Search Engine Roundtable

It looks like we’ve made it through the holiday weekend without seeing the newest Panda update, but the “refresh” is coming soon. During a recent Google Hangout session, John Mueller announced that he expected the Panda refresh to happen in a few weeks. (The Panda update was first introduced in 2011 with the goal of preventing sites with poor quality content from ranking in Google’s top search results.)

4. DuckDuckGo Surpasses 10 Million Search Queries – Search Engine Land

DuckDuckGo, a search engine launched in 2008, hit the 10 million daily query mark on June 22. The company has promised not to collect or share your information while searching—a rare feature for any company in the search engine industry. DuckDuckGo has also announced that they will be giving out 10,000 t-shirts to users who promote their search engine to three additional users!

Duck Duck Go Search Engine Image - Search Influence

5. Instagram Makes Content More Accessible With Place Search – Search Engine Watch

Instagram has granted users the ability to search by location, allowing them to access other users’ location-tagged photos from the Explore page. Now, anyone with an Instagram account can peer into the most interesting places in the world. This new search feature also allows users to search people, places, and tags simultaneously.

Image sources:

Facebook Messenger payments

DuckDuckGo image