Items tagged with Advertising
The recent feud between Apple and Facebook has been well documented. The companies have been at odd for years, but tensions between the two came to a head most recently when Apple detailed its newest privacy guidelines at WWDC 2020. Those guidelines would force companies to disclose how a customer's data was being used by its apps and require users to Opt-In, to allow gathering of personal data. To date, apps have been able to leverage the Apple Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) feature to analyze user data and provide targeted advertising. This week’s launch of iOS v14.5, however, changes the paradigm. Instead of having to jump through hoops to Opt-Out, with Apple’s latest iOS update,...
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The battle for paying new publishers in Australia has ramped up today after Facebook took some drastic measures. The social media company has now blocked Australian news from being shared on the platform globally after the threat of new rules loomed from the country's government. Interestingly enough, this action has swept up unrelated Facebook pages in the ensuing commotion. Yesterday, Facebook made a blog post about the proposed "Media Bargaining law," claiming that it "fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content." As the Australian government contemplates the law, Facebook was left with the choice of preparing to comply...
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If you looked away for a split second, you might have missed it, but Reddit ran its first Super Bowl (or "Superb Owl") advertisement yesterday. Within a flash, a text box that looked something like a Reddit post appeared. During the short five-second timeframe, the ad hailed the /r/WallStreetBets escapades and explained what Reddit is to the millions of watchers. The advertisement shared on social media opened with a stereotypical running herd of horses video with a narrator talking, but it quickly “glitched out” and went to a panel that looks like a Reddit post with an orange background. The first lines read, “Wow, this actually worked. If you’re reading this, it means...
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Facebook has been working hard to adhere to Apple's new privacy policy that will soon be implemented across its iOS and iPadOS platforms. Apple's goal is to give users more granular control over what personally-identifiable data can be obtained and used by installed apps. And that pertains to all third-party apps; no one is going to be getting a free pass here. Well, with the exception of Apple apps, which we'll discuss a bit later. This of course is of obvious concern to a company like Facebook, which has built an entire business model around knowing just about everything possible about you and your likes/dislikes to build a global social networking behemoth. But after Apple announced the elimination...
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Cookies of the edible kind are delicious and comforting, whereas cookies of the technological kind can save, store, and track data in web browsers across browsing sessions. Companies can use them for good or bad things depending on the implementation from a website, like Twitter, Facebook, or others. When it comes to advertising on the internet, some cookies get to hitch a ride on other websites and then get placed on your computer, which leads to privacy concerns. Therefore, Google is ending support for third-party cookies and replacing the technology with the “Federated Learning of Cohorts” (FLoC). In 2019, Google announced the “Privacy Sandbox,” hoping to find better...
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Both Facebook and Google have come under scrutiny in recent years over antitrust and privacy abuses. In late October, the United States Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, alleging that the company was abusing its power as a "monopoly gatekeeper" to the internet for "billions of users and countless advertisers worldwide." Facebook, on the other hand, is facing antitrust lawsuits from 48 states and the FTC over what is described as a "buy-or-bury" strategy aimed at third-platform services trying to access the social networking behemoth. Now, however, it looks as though both Google and Facebook have another problem to deal with concerning...
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Months after the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election concluded, there are still allegations that Russia meddled in the process to help sway voter opinion. Google has been running an investigation to see whether Russian operatives might have exploited its advertising system in an attempt to interfere with the election. According to people who claim to be familiar with the investigation, evidence has been found that Russian operatives did indeed use the advertising platform to spread disinformation. The sources claim that Google found tens of thousands of dollars were spent on ads by Russian agents during the elections across multiple Google products including YouTube. Other places the ads showed...
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Companies can be a little overzealous when it comes to serving up ads. Even so, HTC appeared to hit a new low when its TouchPal keyboard that comes pre-installed on some Android devices started pushing out ads to users. This did not sit well with affected users, many of which took to posting their grievance on Reddit. Doing so attracted a lot of negative attention. It also resulted in an apology from HTC, which chalked the ads up to some kind of "error.""Due to an error, some HTC customers have reported seeing ads on their phone's keyboard. This is absolutely not the experience we intended, and we're working to immediately fix the error and remove the ads as quickly as possible," HTC said in...
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Feel left out not seeing advertisements in Facebook's Messenger? Don't fret: that's going to be changing real soon. Following what Facebook touts as being a successful test in Australia and Thailand, the social media giant is planning to expand advertising in its Messenger service to the rest of the world. For advertisers, this is a great move, although the verdict remains out as to whether or not it will cause Messenger fans to revolt. In an example provided, it appears that the advertising never appears inside of chats, but will instead be nestled in the contact list screen. Located here, the ads wouldn't be too intrusive - especially not to the extent they would be if they broke up one of...
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It is often said in regards to free online services such as Facebook that if you are not paying for a product, then you are the product. Fair enough, but that does not mean there are no lines that can be crossed. Facebook seems to have stepped over one with a sophisticated algorithm that lets advertisers target teenagers during vulnerable states, such as when they are feeling "insecure" or "worthless." This came to light when The Australian got its hands on a confidential 23-page Facebook document outlining how the world's largest social playground is able to identify "moments when young people need a confidence boost." Like every other creepy thing that happens when a company has widespread...
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YouTube remains a free service for all (well, as long as you aren’t a subscriber to YouTube Red), so we have to put up with ads from a time to time to enjoy our daily allotment of cat videos and other time wasters. However, Google has finally gotten the hint that one particular format for its video advertising may be annoying viewers a bit too much. The company announced this week that it will no longer bombard YouTube visitors with TV-style 30-second ads. "We're committed to providing a better ads experience for users online,” said a YouTube spokesperson in an interview. “As part of that, we've decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that...
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In no uncertain terms, Facebook says "discriminatory advertising has no place" on the world's largest social network. To keep it off of there, Facebook last fall started providing better education to advertisers about its prohibition against discrimination. It also beefed up the procedures it uses to enforce prohibition. Now it is taking things a step further by implementing strong enforcement tools and testing machine learning solutions. This is not a new frontier for Facebook, or technology companies in general. Machine learning is one of the hottest areas of computing right now. Just last week, Facebook explained how it was using machine learning and artificial intelligence to understand the...
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This past weekend, we talked about how Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg were planning to combat the "fake news" problem we've likely all seen on a regular basis. This comes hot on the heels of Donald Trump becoming president-elect, as it's a no secret that this political season has been rife with misleading headlines and information. Well, Zuckerberg isn't immune to irony, and has just been hit with what might be his biggest dose. In the very post where he talks about his company's plans to eradicate fake news, two blatantly fake news posts could be found right beside it: What makes this truly ridiculous is that these ads were paid, and Facebook is supposed to give the a-OK to all ads...
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If you're responsible for creating advertising campaigns for a website or a Web service, you need the confidence that you're going to see a good return-on-investment. To gauge that, you're going to listen to the promises of the company or site that hosts the advertising platform. Unfortunately, those promises are sometimes inaccurate - even if it's by accident. Such is the case with Facebook. The world's largest social network has just admitted to fudging up the view counts of videos used for advertising, though it insists that no one has been ripped off. The crux of the problem is that Facebook counted a video as a "view" for a mere three second watch. It's safe to assume that in three seconds,...
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If Google had been hoping that the European Union would back off on its pursuit of proving that it's anti-competitive, it appears that the company hasn't been hoping hard enough. Today, the EU shot another set of charges at Google for anti-competitive practices, this time squarely targeting its AdSense for Search platform. Previous antitrust charges against Google have involved Android, search, and shopping, with this third set expanding on the latter two. Anyone who's ever browsed the internet will have likely passed by an AdSense advertisement, as they're simply everywhere. We reinforce Google case on search/shopping comparison with new, strong evidence and send statement of objections t Google...
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For nearly a decade, Verizon ran a series of ads featuring actor Paul Marcarelli delivering the tagline, "Can you hear me now?" It's still a phrase that's familiar to many people, but in case you haven't heard, it's 2016 and apparently "every network is great," or so says the former Verizon pitchman who's made the switch to Sprint, the fourth largest carrier in the U.S. High profile defections in advertising sometimes happen, though it's not an everyday thing. For one, it requires a successful initial ad campaign, which Verizon certainly had. It also requires that the initial company that used a recurring pitch person maintain relevance long after the ad campaign has run its course, and again...
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If you enjoy seeing recommended apps in your Windows 10 Start menu, then you're going to love the fact that the upcoming Redstone update doubles the number you'll be able to see. Who knew Windows 10 could get even better? Alright, so that's a bit of an exaggeration, but considering the fact that it is happening, it does make us wonder what Microsoft is actually thinking. As it stands today, if you open your Start menu in Windows 10, a couple of recommended apps might appear. The goal is obvious: to lead user to the Windows Store to download an app or two. Ultimately, Microsoft hopes that you may eventually find your way towards paid software, for which it'd get a cut. In the current iteration,...
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While much of the autonomous buzz right now revolves around vehicles, the ever-evolving world of technology will see many other sectors become automated in the future -- including simple things like customer service. The problem, of course, is that most businesses can't invest in advanced 'chatbots', either through purchasing a solution from another vendor or developing it themselves. That's where Facebook wants to help. The social media giant already offers a number of tools to businesses, but according to a leak, it will unveil chatbot and Live Chat solutions at its upcoming F8 developer conference. When launched, these chatbots will run through Facebook Messenger, a piece of software that...
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Have you ever noticed that your online activities affect the types of advertising you see when surfing the web and using online services? That's called targeted advertising (or stalking, if you prefer), and AT&T's partnering up with a company called Videology to bring the same type of creepiness to television. I'm calling it creepy because advertisers sometimes tend to know and share more than they should. This is anecdotal, but I recently typed the world "Mucinex" in an email to colleagues (it was in reference to me being sick) and later that day my Facebook feed was splattered with sponsored ads for Mucinex. Go figure. Let's give AT&T the benefit of the doubt that it's not going to...
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Facebook's Messenger app isn't the most-liked on the planet. Why? Well, the company thinks that everyone is a-OK with the fact that two separate apps need to be used for the same service, something that caused quite a stir in the summer of 2014 when the company forced people install the Messenger app in order to keep in touch with friends and family. Well, if you haven't liked Messenger up to this point, just wait until you see what's in store for Q2: advertising. According to a document that was leaked to TechCrunch, Facebook is planning to bring advertising to its Messenger app, which up to this point has been completely devoid of anything resembling an ad. However, this is a case where it...
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Users of the Chrome beta for Android are in for a bit of a treat, as the latest version has added support for "Physical Web" beacons. Don't worry if you've never heard of these, because most haven't. Google did talk about it a bit last summer, and it seems like a feature that could be incredibly useful at times. The logic behind the name of "Physical Web" is that data is distributed locally; not over the Internet. The goal is to relay information to those nearby that would prove useful. Say, for example, you're in a restaurant, and as you wait for a seat, a beacon beams the menu to your phone so that you can get a head-start on your choices. Or, you're waiting in line at the airport, and use...
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It seems certain that we've all managed to wind up on a website at some point in time that had misleading elements, such as fake download buttons. While piracy is going to be the first thing that springs to many minds when this kind of sketchiness is brought up, it's hardly exclusive to that area. Some websites that host completely legitimate software still have misleading advertising, and let's face it: we've been dealing with it for way too long. Well, if Google has its way, we're not going to have to worry about such misleading advertising in the future. Back in November, the company released an update to its Chrome Web browser that helps protect users from deceptive tactics (causing you to...
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