networking
Google Thinks The Future Of The Web Is . . . Email
Google is making email a lot more interactive, to save you all those confusing clicks.
Snapchat’s Marketing API is now available to all developers
Snapchat first opened its API to a limited number of advertisers back in 2016, enabling third-party technology and creative companies to deliver ads on behalf of brands and agencies. It represented Snapchat’s first moves in the programmatic advertising realm, meaning that ads could be bought and sold automatically, and advertisers could experiment with different kinds of ads through A/B testing to see what works best. Or, for example, a retailer could optimize their ads based on their inventory — if stock runs low on one product, they could automatically switch ads to promote another product.
Source: Snapchat’s Marketing API is now available to all developers | VentureBeat
Is The Internet Of Things Dead, Or Is It Growing Up?
The internet of things has never quite found its footing, and some proclaim the once-hyped concept is dead. Even as tech companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google pour money into smart speakers, there’s no real, tangible use for them. Other companies have tried–to little avail–to sell us dumb smart products like smart refrigerators and smart water bottles. And smart homes? They spy on users–and they’re just plain annoying.
For Matt Webb, a technologist at R/GA London, the potential of the internet of things isn’t inside your home. It’s outside of it. “It’s where we can finally start assembling parts to make products or services or companies with a smaller number of people or with greater ambition than before,” he says. “IoT is solving problems in the business space really clearly.”
Source: Is The Internet Of Things Dead, Or Is It Growing Up?
Snapchat’s New Update Triggers Revolt by Millions of Teens
A new update by the tech company has pissed off teens and celebs alike, and may put the fragile company in more trouble.
Source: Snapchat’s New Update Triggers Revolt by Millions of Teens
Facebook lost around 2.8 million U.S. users under 25 last year. 2018 won’t be much better.
Facebook is losing young users even quicker than expected, according to new estimates by eMarketer. The digital measurement firm predicted last year that Facebook would see a 3.4 percent drop in 12- to 17-year-old users in the U.S. in 2017, the first time it had predicted a drop in usage for any age group on Facebook.
The reality: The number of U.S. Facebook users in the 12- to 17-year-old demographic declined by 9.9 percent in 2017, eMarketer found, or about 1.4 million total users. That’s almost three times the decline expected. There were roughly 12.1 million U.S. Facebook users in the 12- to 17-year-old demographic by the end of the year.
Source: Facebook lost around 2.8 million U.S. users under 25 last year. 2018 won’t be much better. – Recode
Inside Facebook’s Hellish Two Years—and Mark Zuckerberg’s Struggle to Fix it All
How a confused, defensive social media giant steered itself into a disaster, and how Mark Zuckerberg is trying to fix it all.
Source: Inside Facebook’s Hellish Two Years—and Mark Zuckerberg’s Struggle to Fix it All | WIRED
How Facebook Is Killing Comedy
Last month, in its second round of layoffs in as many years, comedy hub Funny or Die reportedly eliminated its entire editorial team following a trend of comedy websites scaling back, shutting down, or restructuring their business model away from original online content.
Hours after CEO Mike Farah delivered the news via an internal memo, Matt Klinman took to Twitter, writing, “Mark Zuckerberg just walked into Funny or Die and laid off all my friends.” It was a strong sentiment for the longtime comedy creator, who started out at UCB and The Onion before launching Pitch, the Funny or Die-incubated joke-writing app, in 2017.
Facebook is building out its original TV ambitions with an Elizabeth Olsen series
The series was created and written by Z: The Beginning of Everything writer Kit Steinkellner
Source: Facebook is building out its original TV ambitions with an Elizabeth Olsen series – The Verge
A Guide to Snapchat for People Who Don’t Get Snapchat
Snapchat has an unearned reputation for being difficult to use, but it’s not, if you get the basics.
Source: A Guide to Snapchat for People Who Don’t Get Snapchat – The New York Times
Many Users Will Stop Viewing Content That’s Slow to Load
Nearly 80% of the 1,011 US adults Adobe surveyed in December 2017 said that if a piece of content takes too long to load, they will either stop viewing it altogether or switch to a different device. Survey respondents expressed more sensitivity toward slow loading times than they did to other issues, like broken links or content not displaying properly on a device.
Source: Many Users Will Stop Viewing Content That’s Slow to Load – eMarketer
Snapchat Will Let You Make Your Own Custom Lens For $10
The crown jewels of millennial social media are finally up for sale, and not just to brands. Starting today, every Snapchat user can stamp their name on the company’s most successful product: the face-distorting, ferry-rainbow-ironman-vomit filters known as Lenses.
Source: Snapchat Will Let You Make Your Own Custom Lens For $10
Twitch is tightening its policies around harassment and sexual behavior
Twitch is enacting stricter policies in the interest of curbing harassment and sexually suggestive behavior. The company announced today that its new rules will kick into effect on February 19th at 9AM PT — time intended to give users enough warning to remove any clips or videos on demand that violate new guidelines. “During the transition period, we’ll be reaching out to some streamers whose current and past content may violate these new guidelines to help you be successful on Twitch,” the company says. “Our goal is to ensure everyone understands and adheres to the updated Community Guidelines so you can keep creating content for your communities.”
Source: Twitch is tightening its policies around harassment and sexual behavior – The Verge
Facebook confirms test of a downvote button for flagging comments
How can Facebook promote meaningful interaction between users? By letting them downvote inappropriate comments to hide them. Facebook is now testing a downvote button on a limited set of public Page post comment reels, the company confirms to TechCrunch. But what Facebook does with signals about problematic comments could raise new questions about censorship, and its role as a news editor and media company.
Source: Facebook confirms test of a downvote button for flagging comments | TechCrunch
The New Neural Internet is Coming
So, at the end of the day, we are going to see a fully personalized content everywhere on the Internet.
Everyone will see fully custom versions of all content, that is adapted to the consumer based on his lifestyle, opinions, and history. We all witnessed arousal of this Bubble pattern after latest USA elections and it’s gonna be getting worse. GANs will able to target content precisely to you with no limitations of the medium — starting from image ads and up to complex opinions, tread and publications, generated by machines. This will create a constant feedback loop, improving based on your interactions. And there is going to be a competition of different GANs between each other. Kind of a fully automated war of phycological manipulations, having humanity as a battlefield.
The driving force behind this trend is extremely simple — profits.And this is not a scary doomsday scenario, this actually is happening today.
A Field Guide to Fake News and Other Information Disorders
Recent scandals about the role of social media in key political events in the US, UK and other European countries over the past couple of years have underscored the need to understand the interactions between digital platforms, misleading information and propaganda, and their influence on collective life in democracies,’ writes First Draft, an online journal published by Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.
Why Twitter is now profitable for the first time ever
There’s no indication that Twitter benefited from changes to Facebook’s algorithm, analysts say.
Source: Why Twitter is now profitable for the first time ever – The Washington Post
Conversational Commerce: Why Consumers Are Embracing Voice Assistants
What do consumers think of Conversational Commerce, and how can retailers and brands devise a sound voice-driven Conversational Commerce strategy?
Source: Conversational Commerce: Why Consumers Are Embracing Voice Assistants
Instagram tests resharing of others’ posts to your Story
Instagram purposefully lacks a “Regram” button to promote original sharing, but it’s easing up on that philosophy when it comes to Stories. Instagram now confirms to TechCrunch that it’s testing an option that lets you share public feed posts from other users to your Story. This could let you add commentary and overlaid stickers to a meme, celebrity post or even a friend’s photo. For users whose lives aren’t so interesting, resharing could give them something to post.
Source: Instagram tests resharing of others’ posts to your Story | TechCrunch
Snap reports Q4 2017 earnings
Snap, the company that makes the Snapchat app, reported a big earnings beat that sent the stock soaring more than 20% in after hour trading. The company said it now has 187 million Daily Active Users, thanks to improvements made to the Android version of the Snapchat app. Snap’s CEO Evan Spiegel says Snapchat’s delayed redesign is testing well and will launch for everyone during the first quarter of this year.
Ensuring Brand Safety Is a Perennial Problem
Last year’s brand safety controversies stirred fears that advertisers would back away from platforms like Facebook and YouTube, but spending has continued to surge. Here are some ways that marketers are stepping up efforts to ensure their placements are brand safe.
Source: Ensuring Brand Safety Is a Perennial Problem – eMarketer