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Facebook ( FB ) will capture loads of attention, starting Tuesday, at its annual two-day conference for software developers, which is led off each year with a keynote address by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. This year’s F8 Developer Conference in San Francisco features more than 40 sessions, along with product announcements and interactive demos. As he did last year, Zuckerberg is expected to make the widely-used Facebook Messenger chat service a key part of the conference. Two sessions are dedicated to Messenger — the first is at noon Tuesday and is titled “Messenger: Connecting People and Business.” At this event, Facebook is expected to announce plans to integrate so-called chatbots into its mobile Messenger platform. Chatbots are digital characters infused with artificial intelligence that can mimic human conversation. The idea is that businesses on Messenger could use them to interact with customers with automated response systems that could help boost sales. Messenger is one of Facebook’s fastest-growing products, with more than 900 million users. A second session on Messenger takes place Wednesday at noon, entitled “Messenger: The Future of Communications.” Facebook is also expected to pump up the volume on its Live video-streaming service for mobile device users. Facebook recently expanded the Live feature to all users, following an exclusive arrangement with celebrities and other public figures, and it is aggressively promoting the service to businesses that use Facebook. Facebook Live is a rival to Twitter ( TWTR ) Periscope. One session is titled “The Future of Video on Facebook.” Another focus will be on Oculus, the maker of virtual reality headsets that Facebook acquired for $1.9 billion two years ago. The Oculus Rift VR device began shipping last month, and Facebook could provide information on sales. Facebook has two sessions on Oculus and virtual reality, one geared toward getting software developers to create more immersive, 360-degree videos for the device. Facebook has seven sessions centered on the topic of growth and monetization of services. They include “Best Practices for Advertising on Facebook and Instagram,” and other topics related to mobile user engagement and advertising. Another big focus is on the topic of data analytics. Facebook stock was near 110, down a fraction, in early afternoon trading in the stock market today . The stock has reversed since reaching 116.99, just short of an all-time high, on March 30, but it could be forming a cup-with-handle base. Scalper1 News
Scalper1 News