Google Fuchsia, Spark gets smarter, and hiding Likes: this is issue 205 of The Tech Landscape, a weekly collection of news about consumer digital technology. Stories are selected by me, Peter Gasston, with a little insight and opinion where appropriate.

The newsletter’s a bit shorter than in recent weeks, as there was a bit of a news lull following the Google IO and Snap Partner Summits. As such, I don’t have a lot to write about. Instead I’ll do a little PR for myself by letting you know that I’m quoted in the latest Digiday Content Commerce report—so if you want to read me talking about social e-commerce along with lots of other actually interesting things you should download the report.

Right, on with the newsletter. Here are seven news stories and a stat, and then you can get on with your day. Hope you’re well!

Top Stories

Google is updating its original Nest Hub smart display to use the new Fuchsia operating system. Fuchsia is an all-purpose OS that Google is developing in the open, but barely talks about. It has the potential to power all kinds of devices, including phones, so could replace Nest, Android, and ChromeOS—but we really don’t know what Google’s long-term plan for it is; even this update of the first generation Nest Hubs came as a bit of a surprise. Something to keep an eye on.
9to5google.com/2021/05/25/google-releases-fuchsia-os-nest-hub/
Smart Home

Google announced major features for retail across Search, Shopping, Images, Maps, and YouTube. They include new brand pages with Stories and video, integration with loyalty schemes, a new page showing promotions, and integration with WooCommerce, GoDaddy, and Square. Google is running to catch up with Amazon, Facebook, and Pinterest—which means there’s never been a better time for small businesses selling online.
blog.google/products/shopping/gml-2021-build-your-brand/
Commerce

Facebook’s Spark AR platform can now change background, hair, and clothes simultaneously. All three classes were available to modify separately, but Multi-class Segmentation (as it’s known) lets Spark developers build new categories of effects—although even Facebook isn’t quite sure what yet. Snapchat has been leaving Spark behind in terms of AR technology, so it’s instructive to see how Facebook’s platform is fighting back.
tech.fb.com/three-part-harmony-sparks-new-multi-class-segmentation-tech-enables-more-realistic-and-complex-ar-effects/
XR

Everything Else

Facebook and Instagram is giving users the option to hide public Like counts. Users can choose to hide Likes from all accounts, so they see no-one’s, or from their own, so no-one sees theirs. Apparently they surveyed users and some loved hiding counts and some hated it; so they’re giving everyone the choice (which still won’t please everyone).
about.fb.com/news/2021/05/giving-people-more-control/
Social

Developers can now build Google Maps in 3D. Previously only available in top-down 2D tiles, Maps can now be tilted and rotated using WebGL technology, which also allows developers to add 3D objects to the map layers—opening it up to completely new use cases.
cloud.google.com/blog/products/maps-platform/google-maps-platform-announcements-google-io-2021
Maps

Twitter users can now join Spaces on the Web. They won’t be able to start a Space or discover them through Fleets, but can listen and speak, or set a reminder for a scheduled Space. The speed with which Twitter is implementing Spaces continues to be bad new for Clubhouse.
twitter.com/TwitterSpaces/status/1397688581846568961?s=20
Social

Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming add dual-screen support for the Surface Duo, turning the foldable device into a handheld gaming console. One screen for games, the other for controls. This is actually a fairly smart idea and the first practical use case for foldable phones.
theverge.com/2021/5/24/22450941/microsoft-surface-duo-xbox-mobile-xcloud-cloud-gaming-dual-screen
Gaming

Stat of the Week

Amazon’s advertising revenue is 2.4 times the size of Snap, Twitter, Pinterest and Roku combined. Amazon is the third largest advertising company in the US, which is why Facebook and Google are concerned about it.
cnbc.com/2021/05/25/amazon-ad-revenue-now-twice-as-big-as-snap-twitter-roku-and-pinterest-combined.html

Thanks for reading to the end! If you’ve found this newsletter valuable, why not buy me a coffee? I appreciate every single one. Alternatively, perhaps you could consider telling a friend or colleague about this newsletter instead? That’s just as valuable to me, honestly.