Meta recently made drastically different adjustments to its two major social media platforms. Facebook received a significant update to its interface and functions, attempting to make it more intuitive. However, Instagram was exposed by foreign media for using AI to generate "farm-style" titles and descriptions hidden in its code in order to achieve better SEO rankings on Google search, without users' knowledge.
Facebook: Reels and marketplaces take center stage, personal profiles transform into "interest radars"
Firstly, regarding Facebook, Meta announced adjustments to the app's most frequently used tab bar. In the future, frequently used features such as Reels, Friends, Marketplace, and Profile will be moved to the most prominent position (C position) of the tab bar, allowing users to access them more quickly. Meta also promised a cleaner menu interface and a simpler notification design.
In terms of post creation, Facebook has placed popular tools such as Music and Friend tagging in more prominent positions, while advanced options such as text background color have been moved to a lower-level menu. In addition, the post and Stories publishing interface will place greater emphasis on "audience" and "cross-platform publishing" settings, making it easier for users to control the visibility of their content.
Interestingly, Meta seems to want to give "profiles" more social networking features. When users update their profile information, the system may proactively recommend friends who also have expertise in these areas, thereby promoting communication. Of course, if users feel that Meta knows too much, they can still choose not to share this information.
Instagram: Is it using AI-generated headlines to boost SEO?
Compared to Facebook's public redesign, Instagram's move appeared somewhat subtle and controversial. According to...404 Media and other websites reportedIt is pointed out that Meta appears to be using AI technology to generate sensational titles and descriptions for Instagram users' posts without authorization, thereby acting as "SEO bait".
These AI-generated texts are not displayed directly on the app interface, but are hidden in the <title> tag and code on the web version. The main purpose is to make it easier for Google search engine to crawl them, thereby improving the ranking of Instagram content in search results.
However, the quality of these AI-generated contents is far from satisfactory, even containing factual errors. Furthermore, a video by renowned author Jeff VanderMeer about rabbits eating bananas was labeled as reminiscent of a content farm, and uploaded photos were given mediocre and uninspired AI descriptions, which troubled the creator, who felt it failed to represent their work.
Meta has not yet made an official response, but this practice of "speaking on your behalf" without the user's consent will likely reignite the controversy surrounding AI ethics and the use of user data.
