Number of Posts: 47
Posts 11 - 20
Farhad's and Mike's Week in Tech: A Snap and Google Tie-Up?
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 5.8.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Facebook, Google, Instagram, marketing, Snapchat
Summary | There is a rumor that Google might be interested in acquiring Snapchat. Instagram copies all features of Snapchat. Facebook has built a huge marketing company with Facebook itself and Instagram. Facebook is also working on improving its artificially intelligent chatbots so that they get better at understanding natural speech.
Image Description | Google and Snapchat logo.
Image Tags | Google, logo, Snapchat
YouTube battles ISIS with a redirect strategy
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 25.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | marketing, politics, threat, YouTube
Summary | YouTube is redirecting people who search for extremist materials to videos that show the pain terrorism causes in order to act against new people getting radicalized. While this may be a useful strategy, it is problematic that this move was incited by companies. YouTube had been struggling with advertisers pulling their ads from controversial videos.
Image Description | N/A
How Silicon Valley Pushed Coding Into American Classrooms
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 27.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | computer programming, marketing, school
Summary | The Partovi brothers who are early investors in some major tech companies have started inversting in computer programming teaching. They advocate that all public schools in the US should teach students coding. Of course tehy have a personal interest: the more skilled coders there are, the better their field wil develop.
Image Description | Illustration of a man in front of a computer screen and a man teaching little children.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s), male(s)
YouTube Sets Policies To Restrict Extremism
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 18.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Google, marketing, threat, YouTube
Summary | Google has been using artificial intelligence to weed out offensive videos from YouTube and take them down. It is quite good at detecting nudity, graphic violence, and copyright violations. However, other less straightforward offensive material remains on the platform such as cultish sermons by extremist muslims. These are however not being monetized by displaying advertising next to them.
Image Description | An image of the London Tower and a portrait of a man.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)
The 'empowered consumer' doesn't get much say
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 16.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | marketing, privacy, social media, threat
Summary | The perceived multiplication of choices in consumer culture, for example when buying a plane ticket (optional luggage fees, insurance fees, prioritized boarding fees, etc.), just looks like an advantage for the consumer on the surface. In the end, we end up paying more and giving away our data. The data will in turn be used to milk consumers even further by knowing to which advertisements they are particularly susceptible.
Image Description | Airport check-in area.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)
How to Protect Your Privacy as More Apps Harvest Your Data
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 2.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | law, marketing, privacy, smartphone, threat
Summary | Many smartphone apps can be used for free, or rather one does not have to pay money to use it. However, if the app is not from a non-profit organization, users pay in some other way that may be obscure to them. Usually free for-profit apps collect data abou their users that they can sell to advertisers. The only way to protect oneself from this is to carefully read the terms and conditions, even if they are in legalese. If one does not like the level of privacy provided by an app, the only certain way to avoid data exploitation is not to download the app.
Image Description | Illustration of a hand holding a smartphone where eyes are hidden behind the app icons.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone
Gaming the System: Bots Inflate Instagram Egos
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 7.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Instagram, marketing
Summary | The author of the article posted a picture of the New York Times headquarters on Instagram, and got 11 comments from strangers, and none of them is related to the author. There is big marketing reason behind those comments; if a user follows or likes a public account's post, those accounts can in return use their automated liking and commenting. This is a marketing tactic used by companies in hopes that random Instagram users will like those automated public accounts in return. Small businesses want to have a lot of likes and followers in order to get some attention. However, the follower count is not representative of true following or of the work done by the business.
Image Description | N/A
Major Banks Team Up On Network That Allows Instant Digital Payments
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 13.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | marketing
Summary | Major American banks are ready to introduce Zelle, a new app that allows customers to transfer money. But Zelle is already facing competition with other apps such as Venmo. Zelle actually has some advantages: big banks have teamed up behind Zelle for marketing reasons. Also, Zelle will be fast (faster than Venmo), ubiquitous, and free. Customers who would like to send money to other people need their phone number or email address. If their recipient's bank is part of Zelle's network of banks, they can make the transfer.
Image Description | N/A
An App for Our Inner Cheapskate
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 23.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | marketing, privacy, social media
Summary | The app Venmo is a payment service app that allows money transfers between people who have their bank accounts connected to their phone. Margaret Pennoyer is an elementary school teacher who had to pay the organizers of a bachelorette party $31.98 and $20.62. The fact that the amount was calculated to the penny surprised Pennoyer. She said that this app ''changes friendships and makes them more transactional''. The app also promotes the "everyone for themselves" idea. People seem to be less generous now; everyone has to pay exactly to the cent. Venmo is also like any other social networks; you can see what other people's transactions are. For instance, Margaret Pennoyer saw through the app that her cousins socialized recently and didn't invite her.
Image Description | N/A
Little Expressions on the Big Screen
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 28.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis, marketing
Summary | The Emoji movie tells the story of a "meh" emoji named Gene who can express more emotions than just the blasé feeling. The emoji leader wants to get rid of Gene because of his versatility. The movie is idiotic, and shows that Hollywood still thinks that the idiotic can seem less so just by hiring famous actors and by polishing it up a little.
Image Description | N/A
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