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Snap debuts a search tool as first major product since IPO

Then the app will analyze your snap for things like location, caption text, time, and even the photo or video itself to categorize it.

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Facebook copied Snapchat Stories for its subsidiary, “Instagram”, and the impact was for all to see.

So far, the new searches have been organic but, eventually, Snapchat would have to give into publishers and creators as a means to garner financial support to develop yet more distribution reach.

Perhaps the best part of Snapchat’s collection though is the various overlays that also record audio and alter your voice, making a serious discussion about worldwide development rather more enjoyable thanks to a clown face and high pitched whining. In other platforms with the “story” feature, it works like this – when a friend watches your “story”, which will be there for just 24 hours, you know who’s being creepy and showing undue interest in your profile.

While Facebook has been copying for months, Snapchat’s April Fools’ filter is the first time it’s really acknowledged the issue at all. You don’t have to worry before snapping, as your snaps will not be automatically available to searches.

On the other side of the coin, seeing that person you’re always stalking’s name pop up on that viewed list could be strangely addictive…

Snapchat already has more than a million Stories-and has been curating them for many years. Given that the company had tried to acquire Snapchat years ago, we guess this is their way of incorporating some of Snapchat’s features without actually buying the company.

Ironically, the new search is relatively similar to Facebook’s. “It’s less about its ad-targeting capabilities and more about reach”.

How easy are they to use? The company needs to churn out new updates and services because Facebook is steadily cloning Snapchat’s most-popular features.

Which one should I use? You’ll see Chat is above Stories in the photo above.

The motivation for this update, per Snapchat, was to do something with all the snaps they received but couldn’t previously put into a singular narrative, according to a Snap Inc. spokesperson.

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Have you ever been caught out snooping on someone on social media? At the moment this puts Facebook in prime position.

Asa Mathat  Recode