Apr 212016
 

One of the most crucial roles for advertising agencies today is leading a path through what is changing and what is not for clients. It’s vital that instead of clamouring for solutions, jumping to conclusions and joining bombastic “X is dead” conversations, that we understand these changes further. We need to understand the motivations, the behaviours and, most of all, establish the opportunities and threats. It’s from deep understanding and real empathy that we can create solutions and strategies.

via Adblocking could be the best thing for the advertising industry | Media Network | The Guardian.

 

Feb 092016
 

Multi-account switching on the mobile version of Instagram is now possible on the iOS.

Instagram officially announced the update via a blog post on Monday. It might not come as big news to some, but it’s definitely something that frequent users of the photo-sharing app have been waiting for.

The feature isn’t exactly new, though. The beta update version 7.12.0 that brought it to the table rolled out back in November 2015, but it was only available to Android users. This time around, everyone can use it.

“Starting this week, you can quickly and easily switch between multiple accounts on Instagram!” the company says, addressing all users on every mobile platform and noting that the feature is part of version 7.15.

via Instagram Officially Turns On Multi-Account Switching For Mobile, And This Is Why It’s Important : PERSONAL TECH : Tech Times.


 

Jan 272015
 
facebook

Basically, before an ad campaign launches, advertisers can create two test groups: a control group of Facebook users who won’t see the ads, and a second group of users who will. Then, after the campaign runs, advertisers can compare the behavior of the two groups.

The new service move is just one way that the giants of the net—and a wide range of other companies—are working to show that modern technology can not only deliver ads in more pointed ways, but actually prove that people are responding to ads. Google, Twitter, and Adobe are the other big names here. But for Forrester analyst Richard Joyce, who closely follows the online advertising market, Facebook is uniquely positioned to track the success of ads, because it collects so much personal data about its users.

“This can be very powerful,” Joyce says. “It’s hard to create this kind of 360-degree view of the user without the kind of data that Facebook has.”

via Facebook Rolls Out a Tool for Testing Ads With Control Groups | WIRED.

 

 


 

Oct 072014
 
google+

Though Google+ will apparently be around “for the long haul,” the social network is still being decoupled from many of Google’s other services. Google+ sign-ins are required to comment on YouTube videos, but use of your real name to create a Google+ account is not.

Businesses using Google Hangouts no longer need to give their users Google+ accounts. Creating a Gmail account no longer requires you to create a Google+ account. Reports suggest that the Google+ Photos service will eventually be separated from Google+ as well.

So even if Google+ itself isn’t actually going away, it’s clear that it’s no longer as central to Google’s product strategy as it once was.

via Google+ isn’t going anywhere, says guy in charge of Google+ | Ars Technica.

 

 


 

Oct 072014
 

google+

In short, Google seems to be backing away from the original Google+ strategy. The report states that Google+ will no longer be considered a product that competes with Facebook and Twitter, and that Google’s mission to force Google+ into every product will end. With this downgrade in importance comes a downgrade in resources.

TechCrunch claims that 1000-1200 employees—many of which formed the core of Google+—will be moved to other divisions. Google Hangouts will supposedly be moved to Android, and the Google+ photos team is “likely” to follow. “Basically, talent will be shifting away from the Google+ kingdom and towards Android as a platform,” the report said.

The strange part is that both of these teams create cross-platform products. So if the report is true, there will be a group inside the Android team making iOS and Web apps, which doesn’t seem like the best fit.

via Report: Google to end forced G+ integration, drastically cut division resources | Ars Technica.

 

Aug 182014
 
facebook

 

For the past few months, brands have experienced a decrease in the organic reach of their Facebook fan pages. Initially, many thought this was Facebook’s push for more paid advertising and paid promotion, but then the social network finally released its own explanation for why reach is decreasing.

Organic reach is important to all brands as it greatly impacts the potential audience of its updates and the resultant value Facebook can provide, whether it be simple engagement in the forms of “likes” or comments, or the wider advocacy of sharing and more tangible results of clicks, site visits, or actions.Facebook also stated, “To choose which stories to show, News Feed ranks each possible story from more to less important by looking at thousands of factors relative to each person.”

This relative importance is a key message that every page needs to consider, and it can be condensed into a simple mantra: Are you posting the right content to the right people at the right time? Here are five key tips that could help you to achieve greater reach and page engagement.

via 5 tips to increase organic reach on Facebook – iMediaConnection.com.

 


 

Jun 102014
 
random-numbers

 

If someone tapped your Internet connection, what would they find out about you?

It’s been just over a year since Edward Snowden became a household name, and his disclosures about the reach and extent of the National Security Agency’s online monitoring programs led to headlines around the world.

But one big, basic question remains more or less unanswered: What exactly does the NSA’s surveillance reveal?

To try to answer that question, I had my home office bugged. This was an experiment NPR designed to learn what exactly the National Security Agency could see about a person if it cared to look.

Working with Sean Gallagher, a reporter at the technology site Ars Technica, and Dave Porcello, a computer security expert at Pwnie Express, I had the Internet traffic into and out of my home office in Menlo Park, Calif., tapped. We installed something called a Pwn Plug to monitor the data flowing to and from my computer and mobile phone.

The box is a little wireless router that basically captures and copies all the traffic into and out of any device that connects to it. That data were sifted and analyzed by software automatically.So for a little more than a week, Porcello and Gallagher stepped into the role of NSA analysts and spied on my work.

via Project Eavesdrop: An Experiment At Monitoring My Home Office : All Tech Considered : NPR.

 

 

Jun 032014
 
chrome-logo-2011-04-27

A browser is one of the most resource-intensive things you can run on a computer. Start a multi-tab workload and it’s not uncommon to quickly gobble up multiple gigabytes of RAM. To help deal with the Web’s ever-growing thirst for system resources, Google is catching up with the Internet Explorers and Safaris of the world by releasing a 64-bit version of Chrome.

The new version was announced on the Chromium blog, along with a list of benefits that the switch to 64-bit brings to the table. Thanks to compiler optimizations and a more advanced instruction set, Google says it is getting big speed boosts.

via 64-bit Chrome is faster, more stable, and more secure | Ars Technica.

 

 


 

Jun 022014
 
facebook

facebook

It’s becoming clear that brands looking to get their way into more fans’ and users’ News Feeds, there are two main options — advertising and getting a friend to share a message. Referral marketing is one way to get that important share.

Facebook announced recently that explicit shares from a third party app now hold more weight in its News Feed algorithm. But how can you get a Facebook user to willingly share your content with their friends? Offering some kind of reward or incentive works, according to Extole Vice President of Marketing Chris Duskin. He said that Extole’s clients have seen a lot of success with referral marketing, motivating fans and customers to share content and have the message spread across Facebook.

For Extole customers in Q1, 33 percent of acquisitions happened within an hour of a friend receiving a referral message from an existing customer. While referral marketing may be a little easier to do via email, Duskin talked with Inside Facebook about ways that brands can use this technique to get back into the News Feed.

via How can referral marketing counter Facebook’s organic reach problem? – Inside Facebook.

 


 

 

 

Jun 022014
 

Pixar announced last week that it will be releasing a free, noncommercial version of its Renderman package. All of the many elements that make up Renderman will be made available to download as part of Pixar and Disney’s initiative to set Renderman up as the 3D imaging industry standard.

Renderman comprises a large batch of software and an API, and it works with Autodesk products like Maya to expand on tools for modeling, lighting, texturing, shading, VFX, and animation. Renderman also includes tools for setting up a render farm across multiple computers and servers.

via Pixar will soon release a free version of Renderman | Ars Technica.