Meta launches Forum as standalone app for Facebook Groups
Meta Platforms has launched a new app called Forum that focuses on group-based discussions and community conversations, in a move that seems to reflect how social media platforms are increasingly building products tied to their AI ambitions.
The app, linked to Facebook groups, is designed to create a separate space for discussions, recommendations and community interactions, resembling the format popularised by Reddit.
According to its description on Apple’s App Store, “Forum, a Facebook app, is a dedicated space for the conversations that matter most to you, built for the groups you already love and those you have yet to discover.”
Users can sign in with their Facebook accounts, with their groups, profiles and activity carrying over to the new app. The platform also allows users to post using nicknames. Content shared on Forum will remain visible within Facebook groups.
The app’s feed is organised around conversations from groups rather than broader trending content. Meta said the app is designed to help users “see what real people are saying, not just what’s trending.”
YouTube updates unique reach calculation
YouTube has added a new Unique Reach metric for creators, which will provide another way for creators to demonstrate the value of their audience to potential brand partners.
The new measurement is designed to better reflect expanded audience exposure, particularly for CTV viewing, which often has more than one viewer.
As explained by YouTube’s Creator Liaison Rene Ritchie: “Unique reach is a new metric, and it’s different from the existing unique viewers metric. Here’s how: Let’s say you’re watching this video right now on your phone, and you come back to watch it two more times. Analytics will count that as three views, but only one unique viewer. Now, let’s say you’re watching the same video on your TV. You view it once, but two of your friends are watching it with you at the same time. Analytics will count that as one view, but now three co-views for unique reach.”
So you get three co-views on CTV, versus a single unique view on the app, regardless of how many people are actually viewing.
So how can YouTube provide an accurate count of viewers if it has no way of knowing how many people are watching on a TV set?
YouTube said that it will be using its own models to predict the number of viewers, “based on factors like demographics, video genre, even time of day.”
Google upgrades AI search ads
Google has frequently emphasized how generative artificial intelligence is making search habits more winding and complex, transforming a channel that remains the core pillar of its business. A wide-ranging suite of advertising and commerce products announced at the company’s Marketing Live summit Wednesday show how the tech titan is adapting brand experiences to better gel with a more conversational era for search while reducing friction between AI agents and purchases. Some of these new tools also enable advertisers to tap into agentic marketing capabilites underpinned by Gemini for more seamless campaign creation, management and reporting.
Take Ask Advisor, which rolls out later this year and is positioned as providing a unified entry point for in-product agents across Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Marketing Platform and Google Merchant Center. A haircare brand that wants to identify a new set of customers could tap Ask Advisor to draw up product details from Merchant Center and launch a Google Ads campaign in one swoop, explained Dan Taylor, vice president for global ads at Google. Similarly, Ask Advisor could automatically compile a performance report based on data from both Google Ads and Google Analytics without the marketer needing to do a deep dive into each platform individually.
One-third of new websites are now AI-generated
- A new study has found that about 35% of new websites published by mid-2025 are AI-generated.
- Over 20% of these sites are fully AI-generated.
- This shift has resulted in a reduction in unique ideas and an increase in artificial positivity.
It looks like proponents of the Dead Internet Theory may have been onto something — a new study has found that, since 2022, a third of new websites are AI-generated. The study was performed by a team of researchers from the Imperial College of London, the Internet Archive, and Stanford University.
To arrive at its conclusions, the researchers used the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to examine a sample of websites published from mid-2022 to mid-2025, with an eye on the launch of the feature-packed ChatGPT in late 2022. What they found is eye-opening, if not entirely surprising: the percentage of AI-generated websites has risen dramatically from zero before ChatGPT’s launch to around 35% by mid-2025. Over 20% of these sites are fully AI-generated.
The study also looked at how these AI-generated sites have impacted the quality of content on the web. This research was based on common criticisms of AI writing — for example, it can feel sanitized, generic, and lacking in unique viewpoints.
Google introduces Gemini Omni for AI-generated video creation & editing
Google has introduced Gemini Omni, a new multimodal AI model designed for video creation and editing using combinations of text, images, video, and audio inputs.
The first model in the Omni family, Gemini Omni Flash, is being rolled out to the Gemini app, Google Flow, and YouTube Shorts.
According to the company, the model allows users to edit videos through conversational prompts, with each instruction building on previous edits while maintaining continuity across scenes, characters, and visual elements.
The tool also supports video generation using multiple forms of input references, including images, drawings, video clips, and voice inputs. Google said support for additional audio input formats will be added later.
Myntra’s new ‘Affiliate’ feature targets the next million creators
Fashion e-commerce platform Myntra has launched a new “Affiliate” feature within its content-to-commerce programme Ultimate Glam Clan (UGC). Until now, creators could post content on the Myntra app and earn from it. With the affiliate layer, they can now take that same content beyond the platform—onto YouTube, Instagram, and other social channels—to unlock far greater scale.
Sunder Balasubramanian, chief marketing officer, Myntra, says, “This expands the ecosystem beyond Myntra, enabling creators to grow their reach, build their identity, and multiply their income. In many ways, this completes the journey—from shopper to creator to entrepreneur.” He was revealing the update during a media roundtable.
Users can unlock the new Affiliate feature after creating their first three UGC posts on Myntra and earn commissions for eligible sales generated through their affiliate-enabled content. In addition to in-app earnings, creators can earn commissions of 8–12%, depending on their tier, on sales driven through their social content.
Award season for BC Web Wise
That’s on the digital media news front. And from bcwebwise super excited to share that we come back from Goafest Abby One Show with a Gold, Silver, Bronze and a Merit for work done across Tata Power’s CSR initiatives!
And just as we were reeling in the thrill of it, waiting for us back on our home turf was a Gold for Best Paid Search campaign at the Exchange for Media Performance Marketing Awards for Ads. Times of India!
So while we soak in the recognitions, you have a good week ahead and here’s to bringing in more metals for your brand in the coming months.
