Skip to main content

Facebook Marketplace gets smarter with new A.I.-powered tools

Facebook Marketplace has become a major online source of discovering secondhand and even new items, and now the online sales listings will use artificial intelligence for smarter sales. On Tuesday, October 2, Facebook announced new A.I.-powered tools for Marketplace that allow users to find a suggested price and even search for sale items using a photo.

Recommended Videos

For selling, new A.I. tools will suggest prices and categories for the listing. Facebook says that the prices are based on what a similar item recently sold for in the area. Along with suggesting a price, Facebook will now suggest a category based on the description and the photo. Both tools are designed to streamline the process of adding a new listing, Facebook says.

Facebook is also introducing a handful of tools for buying from Marketplace — though these tools are only in testing for a limited number of users. Camera tools inside Marketplace could make it possible to search for an item by taking a photo — similar to Pinterest Lens or even shopping Amazon from the Snapchat camera. After snapping a photo, the tool suggests similar items for sale nearby.

Facebook says that the camera tool could one day go even further, like to suggest furniture based on a photo of what’s already in the room. Facebook says the tool would use the image to look for furniture that’s appropriate for the size and layout of the room.

Facebook is also putting its A.I. to work for the safety of its users, as the tool helps to remove listings that violate the network’s policies. 

Buyers and sellers will also be able to rate transactions and leave feedback on the purchase. The community ratings, Facebook says, have two goals: To help users decide who to buy from, and to encourage more responsible behavior inside Marketplace. 

The update also enhances the reporting tools and adds more types of listings that are from businesses rather than other Facebook users. Facebook says they are still exploring new options to potentially bring to Marketplace in the future, including a tool suggesting a nearby public place for a meet.

The social media giant says more than one out of every three U.S. users browse the 2-year-old Facebook Marketplace at least once a month.

Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
Nvidia’s supercomputer may bring on a new era of ChatGPT
Nvidia's CEO showing off the company's Grace Hopper computer.

Nvidia has just announced a new supercomputer that may change the future of AI. The DGX GH200, equipped with nearly 500 times more memory than the systems we're familiar with now, will soon fall into the hands of Google, Meta, and Microsoft.

The goal? Revolutionizing generative AI, recommender systems, and data processing on a scale we've never seen before. Are language models like GPT going to benefit, and what will that mean for regular users?

Read more
How to get your share of Facebook’s $750M settlement
A silhouetted person holds a smartphone displaying the Facebook logo. They are standing in front of a sign showing the Meta logo.

Meta (formerly Facebook) might owe people who used the social media site between 2007 and 2022 some money due to privacy infringement, according to Mashable.

The social media giant has reached a settlement in a class-action lawsuit where it admits no fault in the claims against the company, but has agreed to pay out $725 million in damages. The money is available to all who submit a claim by the appropriate deadline of August 25, 2023. If you are (or were) a Facebook user, here's how to know if you're eligible and get your share of the settlement.
How to know if you're eligible
There are various stipulations you should take into consideration, including that the $725 million award will be truncated after Meta pays its legal and administrative fees. There are also eligibility, filing, and opt-out dates you want to note.

Read more
What is a Facebook Pixel? Meta’s tracking tool, explained
A silhouetted person holds a smartphone displaying the Facebook logo. They are standing in front of a sign showing the Meta logo.

If you have a website for your business and you're wondering how well your ads are reaching prospective customers, you'll probably want to be able to measure that to make sure that the money you've spent on advertising for your business is money well spent. Meta (the parent company of social media platforms Facebook and Instagram) offers a tool that can measure that by capturing how your customers interact with your business' website.

At one point, this tool was known as a Facebook Pixel. But since the technology company's recent rebranding to Meta, the tool also underwent a name change and is now known as the Meta Pixel.

Read more