7 Social Media Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2015

By Jason DeMers at Forbes: 

It’s that time again: When I look ahead to 2015 to predict social media marketing trends we can expect over the coming year. If you want to see what I predicted for 2014 (and whether those predictions came true), you can do so here:

But without further ado, here are my top 7 social media marketing predictions for 2015!


1. We’ll witness the rise of Ello

What we couldn’t have predicted last year was the emergence of a new social platform intended to go head-to-head with social media giant, Facebook. The platform, which is still in public beta (meaning invite-only), has caused quite a stir; dubbed by some as the ‘hipster social network’, Ello offers a forever ad-free experience and promises to never sell its users’ information to third parties. Their website states: “Collecting and selling your personal data, reading your posts to your friends, and mapping your social connections for profit is both creepy and unethical. Under the guise of offering a “free” service, users pay a high price in intrusive advertising and lack of privacy.”


It’s unclear at this point whether the extreme buzz around the platform is simply because of its positioning as the ‘anti-Facebook’, or whether it has the substance, design and functionality to actually become a serious competitor for Facebook. Engagement on the platform doesn’t seem to be high at this point, and some are pointing out the current weaknesses of the platform, including the lack of video-integration and meaningful conversation and engagement.

Regardless, Ello is likely to grow in 2015, both in terms of numbers and engagement, and many will be watching closely. For more background on the platform, see my article,

Ello: What Is It and Why Does Everyone Want an Invite?


2. Facebook ad pricing and demand will significantly increase

It’s no secret that Facebook post reach is significantly decreasing, and has become a serious problem for business owners who are using the platform for marketing purposes. This steady decline in reach is what has been coined the Filtered Feed Problem.

As Facebook continues to limit the number of posts page fans actually see, the demand for promoted posts and ads will continue to increase. And with this increased demand will come increased pricing. According to an Ad Week article earlier this year, 2014 Q1 Facebook ad pricing was up 10% over 2013 Q4 pricing. This trend is likely to continue into 2015 as organic post reach continues to fall.


3. Twitter’s new business advertising model will skyrocket in popularity.

With Twitter’s move to offering businesses more choice and flexibility in how and what they pay for in terms of advertising, more small and medium sized businesses will jump on the Twitter ad bandwagon.  The new fee structure allows businesses to pay for certain performance-based actions rather than just retweets or clicks.

These objective-based campaigns, which are still currently in beta, will offer more flexibility including tweet engagements (retweets, replies, etc.), website clicks or conversions, app installs, new followers and leads. These campaigns will be particularly appealing to small business owners who want to pay for results, not just for brand visibility.


4. Google+ will begin to fade into obscurity

With the failure of Google’s Authorship experiment, Google+ now brings no unique value that Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook don’t already provide. After the highly publicized departure of Google+ chief evangelist Vic Gundotra earlier this year, along with TechCrunch declaring Google+ “The Walking Dead”, the platform is quickly making the descent into obscurity.

In fact, according to Tech Crunch, Google+ will “no longer be considered a product, but a platform — essentially ending its competition with other social networks like Facebook and Twitter.”

For an in-depth conversation on the rise and fall of Google+, see my post Is Google+ Really Walking Dead?.


5. Instagram will become essential for image-based social media marketing

Instagram isn’t showing any signs of slowing down; not by a long shot. With 200 million monthly users, Instagram has become the network when it comes to image-based social media marketing. Research confirms this, although perhaps not to the same extent: According to the Social Media Marketing Industry report, 42% of marketers are planning to increase their use of the platform this year, compared to 38% in 2013.

Instagram will also continue to grow in the micro-video space. With both Vine and Instagram vying for billing as the top video networking site, the platforms have continued to differentiate themselves from the other offering different features, video lengths and editing capabilities. However, I believe we’ll see Instagram begin to outpace Vine as we enter 2015.

And with the recent emergence of Instagram’s in-feed video advertising, marketers will now have the option of paying to target their 15-second videos to users based on age, gender and country. While some have called the new video ads incongruous, the new feature is a welcome addition for marketers looking to promote their wares to Instagram’s young, affluent user base.


6. LinkedIn will widen the gap as “the” B2B social network

LinkedIn has been the top network of choice for the B2B crowd for years already, and I believe we’ll see the gap between LinkedIn and other networks continue to widen in 2015.

While B2C marketers report LinkedIn as being significantly less important than Facebook or Twitter for their marketing efforts, the numbers are quite different for the B2B crowd: according to the 2014 Social Media Examiner survey, 88% of B2B marketers are using LinkedIn, compared to 89% for Facebook and 86% for Twitter. I believe 2015 is the year LinkedIn will surpass Facebook for B2B marketing.

For guidance on using LinkedIn for your business, see my article, The Definitive Guide to LinkedIn Groups for Marketing.


7. Social media marketing will finally be embraced as a core pillar of content marketing

In 2015, marketers will finally realize that there are two core pillars of a content marketing strategy: publication and distribution. Marketers will learn that social media is the most effective method of expanding the reach and visibility of their content, and because of this, will come to view social media as more of an “amplifier” for their published content rather than as the content itself.

In 2014, we saw marketers succeed at realizing the importance of creating and publishing content with the rise of “content strategy” as a buzzword and core focus of online marketers, but many failed when it came to designing and executing a successful content distribution strategy. I discussed this trend in my article, Why No One’s Reading Your Marketing Content.

So, while the content marketing buzz continues to pick up steam, marketers needs to remember that a distribution strategy for that content is just as important, if not more important, than the content itself.


Conclusion

These predictions aside, I’m curious to see the state of social shopping in 2015, particularly as it relates to Pinterest and to Facebook’s new ‘Buy’ button. I’ll keep an eye on this and other trends, and keep you posted as we venture into 2015 and beyond.

Google Launches Translate Community

By Chris Crum at WebProNews:  


Google just announced the launch of a new Translate Community aimed at helping the company improve its translation quality for the 80 languages it already supports.

The community is aimed at multi-lingual language enthusiasts, who will also be tasked with helping Google launch in additional languages.

“In the new community, you’ll find options to help with a variety of things, including generating new translations and rating existing ones,” says Google Translate program manager Sveta Kelman. “Over time, you’ll find more ways to contribute, as well as get more visibility into the impact of your contributions and the activity across the community. We will also localize Community pages to support your preferred display language. If you have feedback and ideas about improving and growing our community, we’d love to hear it so please don’t hesitate to submit it via “Send feedback” link on the bottom of the page.”

Translate Community will also give people who don’t necessarily want to volunteer their time to dedicate to the cause a place to let the team know about problems they encounter while using Google’s products.

Users can click an “Improve this translation” button, and then “Contribute” to submit a suggestion. It will incorporate corrections over time.

26 Questions EU Regulators Want Google to Answer

By Sam Schechner at WSJ:

PARIS—European Union privacy watchdogs grilled Google Inc. and other search engines for two hours on Thursday on how they are implementing the bloc’s new “right to be forgotten” online–and then gave them homework to do by next week, too.

The main body that joins together the EU’s national data-protection regulators called the Brussels meeting with Google, Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc. amid rising discontent from some regulators over elements of Google’s application of the surprise May court decision that gives Europeans the right to ask for the removal of links from search results for their names in some cases.

Regulators  touched on some hot-button issues in six oral questions and another 26 written ones, with answers due by next Thursday. They asked Google to describe the “legal basis” of its decision to notify publishers when it approves right-to-be-forgotten requests, something that has led to requesters’ being publicly identified in some cases. They also asked search engines to explain where they take down the results, after complaints from some regulators that Google does not filter results on google.com. That means that anyone in Europe can switch from, say, google.co.uk to Google.com to see any removed links.

In response to another question, Google told regulators Thursday that it has been removing just over 50% of the items that people have asked to be unlinked from searches for their names, while rejecting just over 30% of requests, and asking for more information on 15%.

But for the most part, data protection officials avoided a more in-depth, controversial discussion during Thursday’s meeting, saving the tough decisions and orders for a set of guidelines the regulators aim to publish in late September or early October, attendees said.

“We didn’t tell the search engines to do anything. We were gathering information,” said Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, head of France’s data-protection authority, and chairman of the pan-European group of authorities.  “The goal was to help inform our decision on the guidelines.”

Read the full list of questions here, as provided by France’s data-protection authority:


Questions asked during the meeting

1. What information do you request from a data subject prior to considering a delisting request e.g. URLs, justification? Do you ask further motivation from the data subjects to substantiate their request?
2. Do you filter out some requests based on the location, nationality, or place of residence of the data subject? If so, what is the legal basis for excluding such requests?
3. Do you delist results displayed following a search:
a. Only on EU / EEA domains?
b. On all domains pages accessible from the EU / EEA or by EU/EEA residents?
c. On all domains on a global basis?
4. What criteria do you use to balance your economic interest and/or the interest of the general public in having access to that information versus the right of the data subject to have search results delisted?
5. What explanations / grounds do you provide to data subjects to justify a refusal to delist certain URLs?
6. Do you notify website publishers of delisting? In that case, which legal basis do you have to notify website publishers?


Additional questions to be answered in writing by July 31

7. Do you provide proper information about the delisting process on an easily accessible webpage? Have you developed a help center explaining how to submit a delisting claim?
8. Can data subjects request delisting only using the electronic form that you provide, or can other means be used?
9. Can data subjects request delisting in their own language?
10. If you filter out some requests based on the location, nationality, or place of residence, what kind of information must be provided by the data subject in order to prove his nationality and / or place of residence?
11. Do you ask for a proof of identify or some other form of authentication and if yes, what kind? For what reason? What safeguards do you put in place to protect any personal data that you process for the purpose of processing delisting requests?
12. Do you accept general claims for delisting (e.g. delist all search results linking to a news report)?
13. When you decide to accept a delisting request, what information do you actually delist? Do you ever permanently delist hyperlinks in response to a removal request, as opposed to delisting?
14. Do you delist search results based only on the name of the data subject or also in combination of the name with another search term (i.e. Costeja and La Vanguardia)
15. How do you treat removal requests with regard to hyperlinks to pages that do not (no longer) contain the name of the data subject? [Examples: hyperlink to anonymised ruling, hyperlink to page where name of data subject was removed]. Do you immediately recrawl the sites after a removal request?
16. Does your company refuse requests when the data subject was the author of the information he/she posted himself/herself on the web? If so, what is the basis for refusing such requests?
17. Do you have any automated process defining if a request is accepted or refused?
18. What technical solution do you use to ensure that links to material to which a removal agreement applies are not shown in the search results?
19. Which of your services do you consider delisting requests to be relevant to?
20. Do you notify users through the search results’ page information that some results have been removed according to EU law? In that case, which is the legal basis for this? What is the exact policy? In particular, it appears that this notice is sometimes displayed even in the absence of removal requests by data subjects. Can you confirm or exclude that this is actually the case and, if so, could you elaborate on the applicable criteria?
21. Have you considered sharing delisted search results with other search engines providers?
22. What is the average time to process the requests?
23. What statistics can you share at this stage (percentage of requests accepted / partially accepted / refused)? How many have you answered in total? How many per day?
24. Will you create a database of all removal requests or removal agreements?
25. What particular problems have you faced when implementing the Court’s ruling? Are there particular categories of requests that pose specific problems?
26. Could you please provide us with contact details in case we need to exchange on a specific case?

Lisa Fleischer contributed to this article. 

Google Analytics Finally Gets an iPhone App

By Josh Wolford at WebProNews:  


In pretty big good lord, finally news, Google has released a native Google Analytics apps for iOS. Available in 39 languages, Google Analytics for iPhone promised to let you “access all of your Google Analytics web and app data from your mobile device, monitor recent changes with Real Time reports, and easily get your Analytics data anytime, anywhere.”

Considering Android has had a version of a Google Analytics apps for years, it’s high time that iOS was invited to the party.

The app is plain but functional, with an overview tab that shows real time visitors to pages, total audience visits and a location breakdown, traffic sources, and a pageview grid.

How to Install Google’s Awesome Android L Update Right Now

By Zach Epstein at BGR:


Google’s I/O 2014 keynote certainly had its ups and downs earlier this week, but the clear highlight as far as we were concerned was Android L. Google’s next Android build, likely named Android 5.0, will feature a number of key changes.

Google won’t release Android L to the general public for some time yet, but the developer preview is already available and thanks to some handiwork from the hackers on the XDA Developers forum, anyone can install it right now.


All you’ll need is a rooted Nexus 5 and some time on your hands. You’ll also need to be somewhat savvy — this procedure is not for beginners and missteps can end up doing real damage to your phone.





Read the full story >>

Most Important Things Google Announced at I/O

Via TheVerge:

MATERIAL DESIGN: A BRAND-NEW LOOK FOR EVERYTHING GOOGLE
Google’s web products and its own Android mobile operating system haven’t always meshed very well in terms of their visual design, but no longer. At I/O 2014, the company unveiled a unified design language called "Material Design," which will carry the same visual style across the web, Google’s Chrome browser, and all Android mobile devices — including Google’s new pack of wearables. Material Design is, in essence: colorful, minimalistic and airy, with lots of wide open spaces with more breathing room for text. But it’s not totally flat: boxes of information slide over each other and disappear when not needed, and there are dramatic, almost movie-like animations for switching between tasks. It’s clearly inspired by Google Now, the company’s predictive personal assistant for Android phones. Google even created a whole new website showing off Material Design so that third-party developers can better tailor their apps to fit Google’s new unified visual style.


A sneak peek at Google’s new OS

ANDROID L, A NEW OS FOR YOUR PHONE, CAR, TABLET, AND TV
Google today showed a sneak peak of the new version of Android coming this fall, codenamed Android L. L is a fresh look at how a software operating system should work, no matter what device you’re using it on. L works inside cars, TVs, and mobile phones, and incorporating all the principles Google laid down in its Material Design principles while maintaining your favorite things about Android. The lock screen, for example, has been redesigned to show a notifications stack hovering over your wallpaper, which you can interact with or swipe away. Every button reacts when you tap it, and every card or button flies off-screen when you swipe on it, like Google’s new interactive notifications. There are also some new, less design-centric features. With L you won’t need a passcode to unlock your phone if you’re wearing a smartwatch that you’ve paired, or if you’re in your car. "Personal unlock" searches for familiar things nearby to check if your phone’s with you, or if it might be somewhere else. Another important feature: when you Google something, relevant results might pop you directly into an app you’ve already installed.

UNIFIED MULTITASKING FOR YOUR APPS AND CHROME TABS
It’s time to mix up your tabs. Android L includes a feature called "recents" that stacks windows from Chrome, as well as your recently used apps, into one carousel that looks like a sheaf of little cards. It replaces Google’s current app-switching interface, and while we don’t yet know how useful it will be, it’s supposed to give you an easier way to multitask. After all, Google is all about putting web content and phone apps on equal footing, and it wants you to be able to access both easily.


SEARCH
Google search for the mobile web is getting a visual makeover with Material Design, the company’s new unified visual style. Now when a user searches for any term that’s visual — a movie, a historical figure, a piece of artwork — Google search will present the first result in its own carousel at the top of your phone or tablet’s screen, with a colorful backdrop that automatically matches the colors of the image in front of you. The carousel of results is animated live on the web, allowing you to scroll through results from left to right smoothly. Google also says it’s improved search within apps, so if you tap a restaurant reservation it will automatically open the OpenTable app, for example.

PRECIOUS BATTERY LIFE
Battery life has been a common complaint in the world of Android, and phone-makers like HTC have developed their own battery-saving apps. Now, it’s an official component of Android L. Project Volta is Google’s name for an overall battery-optimization push, and there’s also a power-saving mode, which will supposedly help you wring some more life — Google says about 90 minutes — out of your phone.


REMOTE WIPE AND SECURITY
Android L includes a new "kill switch" that lets users remotely wipe their device even if it’s been stolen and restored to factory settings. The feature, already implemented in iOS, has contributed to a decrease in thefts since it launched with iOS 7.


Android Wear

DESIGN AND UI
Today Google gave its first deep look at how Android Wear devices will actually work. In short, Android Wear is all about glanceable information, and about what Google Now can help you with at any given moment. For example, swiping up and down lets you navigate through Google Now cards like recent messages, reminders, notes, music controls, alarms, your heart rate, and a step counter. By tapping once on a sleeping Android Wear device, you can turn on voice controls to say something like "Okay Google, call me a car" (with the Lyft app). You can swipe horizontally to see more about any card, or swipe downward to turn on "do not disturb" mode so your phone and watch won’t ring while you’re at dinner or in a movie.


GOOGLE’S FIRST SMARTWATCHES ARE HERE TODAY
Google and its partners have spent the past months showing off the smartwatch models that could run Android wear. Today, you can actually order two of them. The LG G is a large but modest-looking black square, a style we’ve already seen variations of from Samsung, Pebble, and others. But most of the buzz so far has been around the Moto 360, a large, round piece of glass and stainless steel that actually sort of looks like a traditional watch. You’ll have to wait until summer to order the Moto 360, but LG’s model will be available for order this afternoon. You can also order the Samsung Gear Live, which looks like an Android Wear version of the existing Tizen-based Galaxy Gear line. We don’t yet have pricing and availability for the LG G, but the Gear Live will be shipping on July 7th for $199.99. The Moto 360, meanwhile, is rumored to be selling for $249.


Google in your car

ANDROID AUTO IS COMING THIS YEAR
Phones, tablets, smartwatches, and TV — none are particularly unexpected for a computing platform. Android L, however, is also coming to your car. Google has officially announced Android Auto, which takes the familiar phone features people illicitly use while driving and puts them on an integrated display. You can "cast" your phone to the car’s screen, which is supposed to be able to control the rest of the dials and buttons in the vehicle. It’s focused on "navigation, communication, and music," along with a Google Now-style home screen that can give you a basic overview of what’s going on. It’s optimized for voice commands, which can be used to navigate with Google Maps, send messages with a speech-to-text API, and find and play music, among other things.

Google is trailing both Apple and Microsoft with this announcement. Apple’s CarPlay — a simple, Siri-based iOS system — is officially coming to cars from Honda, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, and others later this year, and Microsoft is testing a Windows-based interface; all three companies are hoping to replace automakers’ default infotainment systems. Android Auto will be released along with Android L, both of which are coming before the end of 2014.


APPS AND PARTNERS TO DRIVE ANDROID AUTO ADOPTION
Google’s bid to take over your car’s dashboard, Android Auto, won’t be available until later this year. But it’s already off to a rolling start, securing the support of major automakers including Dodge, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Audi, and even Bentley. As for the apps that will work in your car, Google has a bunch of partners lined up here too: Spotify, Songza, Pandora, Pocket Casts, the MLB’s At Bat app; all will be available for you to call up while driving using only your voice. The apps should also support touchscreen controls while you’re stopped, and Google has a new SDK to get even more developers making Android apps for the car.

In the living room

GOOGLE TRIES AGAIN TO WIN YOUR LIVING ROOM WITH ANDROID TV
Google announced Android TV, the company’s new software that runs on your TV or third-party set-top box. Android TV is like a Google Chromecast combined with an Apple TV. You can broadcast content to your TV, but also see a grid of popular content, apps, and games. Android TV is of course tied in closely with voice search and Google Knowledge Graph, meaning a voice search for "who played Katniss in The Hunger Games" or "Oscar-nominated movies from 2002" yield instant responses. There’s now one Android software-development kit for all the company’s Android form factors, so expect to see lots of Android TV apps soon. Apps work across Android platforms, too, so you can battle friends in NBA Jam from your TV even if they’re using an Android phone. Sony and Sharp are producing Android-powered TVs and set-top boxes for launch in 2015.


CHROMECAST STREAMING ‘THROUGH THE CLOUD’
The $35 Chromecast TV dongle was announced just under a year ago, and Google brags that it’s a top seller on Amazon and is outstripping sales of other streaming devices at retail stores. It’s also adding a few new features. The most interesting one is the ability for users to stream content from anywhere instead of needing to be on the same Wi-Fi network as the Chromecast. We don’t know exactly how it does this, but it gives users control over who can stream to their TVs and operates "through the cloud." A feature called Backdrop can run feeds of photos, news, weather, or art while you’re not using the Chromecast, like a classy TV screen saver. And a "cast screen" button lets you directly mirror anything on your Android device to your TV as long as you’re using a supported phone or tablet from Samsung, HTC, LG, or the Nexus program.


Desktop and more

ANDROID APPS ON CHROME
Later this year, some Android apps are going to start working on Chromebooks. Based on Google’s demo of apps like Evernote and Vine, apps work very smoothly, and even let you take advantage of local hardware and cameras. In other words, you can shoot a Vine on your Chromebook. But this also means there’s no touch-and-go interaction. To navigate through Flipboard you’ll have to click and drag. Google says that it’s still in "the early days" of letting developers port their apps to Chrome, however.


GOOGLE TEARS DOWN THE WALL BETWEEN OFFICE AND DRIVE
You can finally edit Microsoft Office files natively in Google Drive. It was always possible to switch between the two programs, but an update to Drive will remove the speed bump of converting and reconverting. There’s also a new "suggested edits" feature, which will let multiple people write a document at the same time and track their changes, commenting on what other editors have written.


GOOGLE FIT TRACKS YOUR FITNESS TRACKERS
Earlier this month, Apple announced HealthKit, a meta-tracker for all iOS fitness apps. Now, Google is doing the same thing for Android with Google Fit. A set of APIs lets app and peripheral makers feed data into a centralized fitness stream, as long as the user gives permission. Google has gotten some major partners on board, including Nike, which is even adding its "Fuel" number to the Fit stream so other apps can use it.


GOOGLE VR
How do you end three hours of talking about mobile operating systems, programming, smartwatches, cars, and cloud storage? With virtual reality goggles, obviously. Google wrapped up its event by giving attendees a cardboard frame, which they could put together and pair with an Android phone for a makeshift VR headset. If you’re willing to buy some lenses and other simple components, you can build your own at home. This is far from a new idea -- it’s been one of the go-to methods for homemade virtual reality -- but it was a fitting end to an I/O that covered just about everything Google’s software does.

Google Glass Arrives in the UK for £1,000

By Nick Summers at TNW:  


Google Glass, the head-mounted wearable computer unveiled more than two years ago, is finally available outside the US. After appearing in a support page linked to hardware availability, Google has launched the long-awaited device in the UK.

The Explorer Edition is being sold through the Google Play store for £1,000 and is available in Cotton, Charcoal, Tangerine, Shale and Sky. Google is also selling the frames from its Titanium collection as an optional add-on. Each Explorer Edition comes with an extra frame or shade for free; otherwise, the frames are being sold for £175 each, while the shades cost £120 individually.



Read the full story >>

Google Launching 180 Satellites for Global Internet Service

By Rich McCormick at The Verge:  


The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is planning to spend more than $1 billion on satellites that will offer internet access worldwide from space. The publication's sources say that Google will begin with 180 small satellites that will orbit the Earth at a lower altitude than most other craft, before possibly expanding the fleet in the future.

Google has been hiring new staff from satellite companies in an effort to get its space internet scheme off the ground. The project is reportedly being run by Greg Wyler, who founded satellite startup O3b Networks. O3b, in whom Google has invested, has been experimenting with 1,500-pound satellites, but people familiar with the project say the devices Google intends to use will weigh less than 250 pounds. The WSJ's sources say the costs for the venture could top $3 billion as Google makes tweaks to the network and revises the number of satellites it needs to offer internet in unconnected parts of the world.




Read the full story at The Verge

Google Accused Of Stealing Money From Publishers

By Chris Crum at WebProNews:


Someone claiming to be a former Google employee has accused the company of stealing money from AdSense publishers.

In a “leak” on Pastebin, this person says, “To sum it up for everyone, I took part in what I (and many others) would consider theft of money from the publishers by Google, and from direct orders of management. There were many AdSense employees involved, and it spanned many years, and I hear it still is happening today except on a much wider scale. No one on the outside knows it, if they did, the FBI and possibly IRS would immediately launch an investigation, because what they are doing is so inherently illegal and they are flying completely under the radar.”

It’s a pretty lengthy and detailed explanation. Here’s a portion:

In the first quarter of 2009 there was a “sit-down” from the AdSense division higher ups to talk about new emerging issues and the role we (the employees in the AdSense division needed to play. It was a very long meeting, and it was very detailed and intense. What it boiled down to was that Google had suffered some very serious losses in the financial department several months earlier. They kept saying how we “needed to tighten the belts” and they didn’t want it to come from Google employees pockets. So they were going to (in their words) “carry out extreme quality control on AdSense publishers”. When one of my fellow co-workers asked what they meant by that. Their response was that AdSense itself hands out too many checks each month to publishers, and that the checks were too large and that needed to end right away. Many of the employees were not pleased about this (like myself). But they were successful in scaring the rest into thinking it would be their jobs and their money that would be on the line if they didn’t participate. The meeting left many confused as to how this was going to happen.

What did they mean by extreme quality control? A few other smaller meetings occur with certain key people in the AdSense division that furthered the idea and procedure they planned on implementing. There were lots of rumors and quiet talking amongst the employees, there was lots of speculations, some came true and some didn’t. But the word was that they were planning to cut off a large portion of publisher’s payments.

After that point there was a running gag amongst fellow co-workers where we would walk by each other and whisper “Don’t be evil, pft!” and roll our eyes.

What happened afterwards became much worse. Their “quality control” came into full effect. Managers pushed for wide scale account bans, and the first big batch of bans happened in March of 2009. The main reason, the publishers made too much money. But something quite devious happened. We were told to begin banning accounts that were close to their payout period (which is why account bans never occur immediately after a payout). The purpose was to get that money owed to publishers back to Google AdSense, while having already served up the ads to the public.

This way the advertiser’s couldn’t claim we did not do our part in delivering their ads and ask for money back. So in a sense, we had thousands upon thousands of publishers deliver ads we knew they were never going to get paid for.

Google reaped both sides of the coin, got money from the advertisers, used the publishers, and didn’t have to pay them a single penny. We were told to go and look into the publishers accounts, and if any publisher had accumulated earnings exceeding $5000 and was near a payout or in the process of a payout, we were to ban the account right away and reverse the earnings back. They kept saying it was needed for the company, and that most of these publishers were ripping Google off anyways, and that their gravy train needed to end. Many employees were not happy about this. A few resigned over it. I did not. I stayed because I had a family to support, and secondly I wanted to see how far they would go.

From 2009 to 2012 there were many more big batches of bans. The biggest of all the banning sessions occurred in April of 2012. The AdSense division had enormous pressure from the company to make up for financial losses, and for Google’s lack of reaching certain internal financial goals for the quarter prior. So the push was on. The employees felt really uneasy about the whole thing, but we were threatened with job losses if we didn’t enforce the company’s wishes. Those who voiced concerned or issue were basically ridiculed with “not having the company’s best interest in mind” and not being “team players”. Morale in the division was at an all-time low. The mood of the whole place changed quite rapidly. It no
longer was a fun place to work.

The bans of April 2012 came fast and furious. Absolutely none of them were investigated, nor were they justified in any way. We were told to get rid of as many of the accounts with the largest checks/payouts/earnings waiting to happen. No reason, just do it, and don’t question it. It was heart wrenching seeing all that money people had earned all get stolen from them. And that’s what I saw it as, it was a robbery of the AdSense publishers. Many launched appeals, complaints, but it was futile because absolutely no one actually took the time to review the appeals or complaints. Most were simply erased without even being opened, the rest were deposited into the database, never to be touched again.

Several publishers launched legal actions which were settled, but Google had come up with a new policy to deal with situations such as that because it was perceived as a serious problem to be avoided. So they came up with a new policy.

There’s much more to the explanation. Read the whole thing here.

Obviously Google denies the whole thing. Google has given several news outlets the following statement:

This description of our AdSense policy enforcement process is a complete fiction. The color-coding and ‘extreme quality control’ programs the author describes don’t exist.

Our teams and automated systems work around the clock to stop bad actors and protect our publishers, advertisers and users.

Google’s Matt Cutts has been defending the company on Hacker News. He wrote:

Everything about this post strikes me as a conspiracy-laden fake, from the typos to wrong terminology to untrue policies to the lack of specific names of people. I passed this pastebin to the ads side to confirm for sure, but I would treat this as completely untrue.

Added: Yup, I’m hearing back from multiple people on the ads side that this is pretty much untrue from start to finish.

Also notice that the “rmujica” account that submitted this item has never submitted any other story or written any other comment on Hacker News before today.

In another comment, Cutts added:

I’ve worked with the people this post talks about since 2005. Even though I’m the head of the webspam team, I’m familiar with how AdSense deals with fraud.

For example, I often see disgruntled publishers complaining on the web, and from time to time I’ve followed up on specific blog posts to get the other side of the story. In addition, the group that manually fights webspam at Google is a sibling organization to the group that fights adspam.

Finally, I passed these claims directly to the ads side and so far I’ve gotten three (now four) different “this is fake” responses from people I trust and have worked with in different capacities for years, including an engineer that I worked with in search quality who later went to work in ads.

Someone commenting a Valleywag article said, “I never participated in adsense (fuck google) but I was part of a big online group who used it hard. Thousands were banned without reason in a single sweep near their payout date. It matches this description perfectly. I always suspected foul play and now this describes exactly what happened around that exactly time. Coincidence. I don’t think so…And what a group of small people could do against mighty Google?”

This person continued in another comment, “I didn’t participate in it as I was just a witness to the uproar. But what people were saying at the time matches what this guy is saying. It was a forum called WarriorForum, dedicated to Internet Marketing. I was planning on selling apps for them but nothing came out of it but it was around the time the ban fest happened.”

It’s unlikely that the “leaked” story will be proven, unless more of the mentioned employees come forward with real identities. At the same time, it could be difficult for Google to prove its case beyond a “you’re going to have to take our word for it” kind of scenario.

AdSense is said to account for roughly a third of Google’s revenue.

What do you think? Conspiracy theory or not?

Google Launches Chrome Remote Desktop App for Android

By Emil Protalinski at The Next Web: 


Google today launched a Chrome Remote Desktop app for Android, which lets you remotely control your computer using your smartphone or tablet. You can download the new app now directly from Google Play.

The app’s description says you can “securely access your computers from your Android device” but doesn’t elaborate on the security features. Instructions are fairly straightforward though:

- On each of your Windows or Mac computers, set up remote access using the Chrome Remote Desktop app from the Chrome Web Store.

- On your Android device, open the app and tap on any of your online computers to connect.

Chrome Remote Desktop first launched out of beta in October 2012, but it only let you remotely access your machine from another laptop or computer. There have been rumors of an iOS version coming as well, but Google didn’t reveal anything about such an app today.

Google Launches Standalone Camera App

By Chris Welch at The Verge:


Google has just launched its own Camera app in the Play Store. Simply called Google Camera, the app looks a bit different from the camera software currently shipping in Android 4.4 KitKat. Google has made a number of improvements and refinements here, introducing a much cleaner interface "that gets out of your way" with a prominent shutter button.  A brand new Lens Blur mode promises to achieve "SLR-like photos" offering a shallow depth of field.

"Lens Blur replaces the need for a large optical system with computer vision algorithms and optimization techniques that are run entirely on the mobile device, simulating a larger lens and aperture in order to creating a 3D model of the world," Google said. (The company has published a blog post offering more details on exactly how the Lens Blur effect was created.) Google Camera packs in signature Mountain View features like Photo Sphere, and also brings the viewfinder back to 100 percent, meaning what you see will always be what you get in your final shot.

10 Things to Know About Google's Project Ara Smartphone

By Roberto Baldwin at The Next Web:


The Build-it-yourself modular Google smartphone is one step closer to giving you the chance to build your perfect phone. It’s not going to be available this year. But, 2015 could be the beginning of a significant shift in the smartphone landscape.

Project Ara is part of the Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group. The group is what Google retained in its sale of Motorola Mobility to Lenovo. The project is a bold plan to create an open-source smartphone hardware platform. Users would start with a piece of base hardware known as an Endo. Features would be added to the Endo as plug-and-play modules.

These modules can be a camera, battery, wireless radios, really anything partners can come up with. The hot-swappable modules give users the power to create a phone that works exactly how they want. For power users, a second battery module could be added to an Endo. If your phone is your main camera, you can add the best camera module available.

Those modules will be built by the developers using the MDK (Module Developers Kit) released today at the Project Ara event. It’s a new way of building a smartphone that could benefit users and developers. This is what we know so far.

1- Availability: The phone is still in the early phases of development. But an introductory phone is expected sometime in 2015.

2- Cost: Google is hoping to introduce an entry-level Grey Phone into the market that will cost $50 to produce. Paul Eremenko, head of the Project Ara was quick to point out that the street price of the phone would be determined by commerce partners. Google is also planning a high-end phone with a $500 production cost. Like the Grey Phone, that is a manufacturing cost not the street price.

3- Size: Google showed off the “medium” Ara prototype today. The size is inline with an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S5. A mini phone is also outlines in the MDK and a large phone for fans of the Samsung Galaxy Note line is on the product roadmap.

4- Modules: The feature tiles known as modules will connect to the phone’s skeleton, known as the Endo via electropermanent magnets. When the magnets are hit with an “On” electrical pulse they will create a solid bond between the Endo and module. When they are hit with an “Off” pulse, the magnets will release the bond and you can replace the module.  The magnets don’t need a constant charge to keep a bond. These modules will be created by various developers using the open source MDK that was released today. Cameras, antennas, batteries, processors, and anything that can be fit into a module shell will be available. The shells of those modules will be 3D printed to a user’s specified design.

5- Buying Modules: Google will have a ecommerce site that will work alongside the Google Play store. Like purchasing an app, you will be able to purchase modules online. To help you decide which modules to purchase, Google has three potential systems. One is to sell the Grey Phone and allow users to purchase modules via an app that demos module functionality. The second is to use a friend’s phone in guest mode to test out modules on that phone. The third option is physical pop-up kiosks.

6- Updating Android: Currently, Android doesn’t support a modular system, but the operating system is being updated to support it, with an expected release date of early 2015.

7- Prototype: A pre-production prototype will be shown off in September of this year. The current prototype shown off at the Project ARA event doesn’t have the electropermanent magnet system. It uses clips to keep the modules in place. The power bus is also still being worked on. And unfortunately, today’s prototype had a cracked screen. (haha wut??) Although Paul Eremenko joked that the phone’s screen could quickly be replaced with a different module in the future.

8- Modules can have multiple functions: A module can support as many features as a developer can cram into it. A rear-facing display module could also be a tiny battery to offset the power drain of the display. If it fits within the module’s physical constraints, it’s good to go.

9- Why you should care:  Project Ara phones are expected to have a life of five to six years – far longer than your current smartphone. Instead of updating your phone every two years, you save up for the latest modules. The goal is that when a new processor or high-megapixel camera is introduced, it’ll be available as a module for Ara owners to purchase. Plus, like the prototype at today’s event, when you break the screen, you can quickly replace it with a module.

10- Why should developers care: The modular system is a way for developers to create a device that plugs directly into a phone with having to design and build a third-party piece of hardware. It removes the much of the industrial design elements and having to deal with Bluetooth or Wi-Fi radios for connectivity. Plus, there would be a built-in market of users ready to customize their phones with whatever niche functionality developers can build.


Google is betting on a future where functions are what you update, not phones. It’s also hoping to get a bare-bones Ara phones into the hands of feature phone users. If it can get developers to start building modules, your next phone could be more like individual Lego blocks instead of a single brick.

Anti-Glassholes: The Movement Against Google Glass

By Simon Hill at Digital Trends:


We named Google Glass our best mobile product of 2013 because of the game-changing potential, but not everyone agrees. There is a growing movement that firmly opposes it. What is it about Google Glass that has businesses pre-emptively banning it, an anti-surveillance group campaigning against it, and even a software subscription service called Anti-Glass?

What Glass is: Currently only available in prototype form, Google Glass costs $1,500 for early adopters. You wear it like a pair of glasses and there’s a small glass prism that sits over your right eye, allowing you to glance up to see a 640×360 pixel color display that’s translucent. It’s designed to be tethered to your smartphone. You can use voice controls to record video, take photos, perform Web searches, get directions, make video calls, and thanks to app support, it can do new things every day.

The Anti-Glassholes

There’s a Stop the Cyborgs campaign online that is encouraging businesses to ban Google Glass over concerns about surveillance and invasion of privacy. Japanese researchers have even developed “Anti-Glass” glasses that use infrared LEDs to prevent you from being identified. There have also been moves to ban driving with Google Glass, a clash with a Glass-wearing customer in a Seattle cafe, and a host of other Google Glass bans.

All of these bans are focused on the fact that Google Glass has a camera built-in, and for the most part they’re the same bans that have been applied to smartphones, or any other recording equipment. It is the potentially surreptitious nature of Glass recording that seems to generate most concern. The fact that people may not be able to determine when they are being recorded or scanned is a real issue.

“We swiftly saw the potential for Google Glass to be used to personally identify strangers against their wishes,” explains Eric Schiffer, chairman of ReputationManagementConsultants.com and creator of a service called Anti-Glass. “Technology should not advance to the detriment of the public.”

The Anti-Glass service is designed to prevent people from being able to identify you using Google Glass. “It’s a set of proprietary algorithms that our engineers put together, essentially what it does is, it works much like a radar jamming device,” says Schiffer.

Schiffer’s Reputation Management consultancy claims to protect the privacy of top CEOs, celebrities, and rock stars. This is achieved in various ways including by “suppressing negative search listings” according to the website. Now for “anywhere from $3,000 to $15,000 for a year” clients can enjoy anonymity in the face of Google Glass wearers.


“The people we want to protect are women, children and people who want their privacy,” says Schiffer, and he cites a worrying scenario where a predator might use Google Glass to identify a woman, access her online data, and use it to gain her trust. It’s hard not to be reminded of the short film Sight: Contact Lenses with Augmented Reality.


Is facial recognition inevitable?

Google has already denied that facial recognition software will be made available on Glass, a point it reiterated a couple of weeks ago in an official post on the Google Glass profile on Google+, “As we’ve said before, regardless of technological feasibility, we made the decision based on feedback not to release or even distribute facial recognition Glassware unless we could properly address the many issues raised by that kind of feature.”

You’ll note that the statement doesn’t preclude Glassware like this coming out in the future. As Schiffer points out, “it’s naïve for anyone to think that facial recognition software isn’t coming.”
In fact there are already cloud-based services like ReKognition and the NameTag app. Other companies like Lambda Labs are also working on solutions. That’s before you consider the possibility of developers deliberately side-stepping Google’s policies.


Why the fuss?

There are a lot of different issues at play here and people have a right to their privacy, but there are also a few things worth keeping in mind. Google Glass really can’t do anything that existing smartphones can’t do. Cheap spy cameras that can secretly record are already freely available. Facial recognition software that identifies you and pulls up online information is already out there, and can access public profiles and freely available data.

These privacy concerns also seem to laser focus on a single issue and ignore the potential good that Glass might deliver. It’s already being trialed by doctors, police officers, and even Virgin Atlantic’s airport check-in staff. There’s definitely room for a device like this to assist professionals and create a better experience for all of us. There’s also something to be said for the ability to record video and shoot snaps hands-free.

“When cameras first hit the consumer market in the late 19th century, people declared an end to privacy. Cameras were banned in parks, at national monuments and on beaches.  People feared the same when the first cell phone cameras came out.” argues Google in The Top 10 Google Glass Myths, “Today, there are more cameras than ever before. In 10 years there will be even more cameras, with or without Glass. 150+ years of cameras and eight years of YouTube are a good indicator of the kinds of photos and videos people capture — from our favorite cat videos to dramatic, perspective-changing looks at environmental destruction, government crackdowns, and everyday human miracles.”

It’s easy to shrug off these issues as barriers to the advancement of technology, but no one really wants to be recorded without their permission. If you imagine someone sitting in a bar holding their smartphone up and pointing it at you, it’s not hard to see how it might make you feel uncomfortable or even angry. Right or wrong this is how some people feel about Google Glass right now.

Google Starts Blocking Access to Paid Search Keyword Data

By Jennifer Slegg at Search Engine Watch: 


Many of us have been concerned about the possibility of Google expanding "(not provided)" to also encompass paid search. Until now, AdWords advertisers have gotten full access to keyword data, whether it's through Google itself or through one of the third-party tools using the API for this data.

When Google made the move to secure search, and effectively turned off the ability for webmasters to know exactly which keywords were driving organic traffic to their websites from Google, the next obvious question was when would this hit AdWords advertisers, and how Google would handle it.

That answer came today. In a blog post, Google said the following:

Today, we are extending our efforts to keep search secure by removing the query from the referer on ad clicks originating from SSL searches on Google.com.

Advertisers will continue to have access to useful data to optimize and improve their campaigns and landing pages. For example, you can access detailed information in the AdWords search terms report and the Google Webmaster Tools Search Queries report.


Some felt it was double standard, where AdWords got to keep their keywords while organic did not. However, while the loss of this data would be felt – and has largely been expected – the change isn't as doomsday as some are making it out to be. The impact with the loss of organic keyword data was significantly greater.

Advertisers will continue to have access to keyword data within the Google AdWords dashboard – it isn't a case where advertisers would be flying blind without any data at all. Advertisers who don't use a third party management tool likely won't notice a difference, aside from potentially needing to utilize AdWords tags if they aren't already.

At SMX West last month, Amit Singhal from Google hinted in his keynote that we would be seeing some changes to paid versus organic when it came to "(not provided)", although he was light on details.

Over a period of time, Sridhar [Ramaswamy], the Head of Ads, my friend, and I we have been looking at this issue. And we're also hearing from our users that they would want their searches to be secure. A lot has happened in the world, as you all know. And keeping user's searches secure is really important to the users. We really like the way things have gone on the organic side of search, because we are hearing and responding to what our users want. We really like where we are at.

Sridhar and I are looking at our world, and finding the right solution for our users who want their searches secure and are advertisers, so I have nothing to announce right now, but in the coming weeks and months as Sridhar and I find the right solution, expect something to come out of us.


Discussion about this change began earlier this week when A.J. Ghergich published a blog post detailing that AdWords will no longer be supplying third parties with paid search query data.

Because of the way Google AdWords does their tracking, they can still easily remove the referral keyword string from the referring AdWords URL, to provide secure search in regards to preventing those keywords from showing up in the website logs. But Google still has all that data within the AdWords dashboard, and can provide that information to advertisers.

Regardless of how they provide the keyword data within the Google AdWords dashboard, we won't see a day where advertisers get no keywords whatsoever, because the price would drop down as advertisers lose confidence in the transparency of what they're bidding on and what they're getting traffic from.

Ghergich reported that an anonymous source provided him with the information regarding the change to paid search query data. The details from the memo include:

- Google will cease supplying 3rd parties with paid search query data
- Reports within AdWords will remain unaffected
- This will also have an affect on website analytics packages but we've not yet heard about anything with Google Analytics
- Services that use this query data may have no way to access it anymore

Could they turn off access within Google Analytics? It's hard to say because some third parties use Google Analytics data, if they are truly trying to tighten down on any of that data for privacy concerns.

There is the possibility that they could be changing the API where Google would charge for paid API access, under the guise of "keeping it secure", or simply tightening down the number of companies that have access to the data currently.

What other reasons could Google have besides privacy concerns, which was the reason for the organic "(not provided)" change? According to Ghergich, his source feels that "another possible motive for the change by Google is that less data leads to less accurate AdWords decisions which increases ad spend."

Prior to Google making the change official, Search Engine Watch reached out to several companies who are currently using this paid search query data from Google AdWords, to get their take, and their thoughts if Google was to make a change to their current third party access to paid search query data.


Marc Poirier, Acquisio co-founder & EVP, business development told us:

This information is critical for search marketers, it helps them see how search queries map to keywords and to make the necessary adjustments such as adding negatives or exact match keywords to help continuously improve performance. Taking this away will seriously impede the discovery process and will promote the massive proliferation of exact match keywords and the accelerated death of broad match and even phrase match keywords. In other words, if this is true, it will likely have a dramatic impact on the number of keywords needed to find success in paid search.

Jon Henshaw, Raven Tools co-founder, told us:

We keep a close watch on the AdWords API to make sure that Raven complies with its terms of service, which Google takes very seriously.

We have not heard from Google about changes to their AdWords API related to search query data. But I really can't speculate or speak for any other third party provider about this.

In our case, online marketing agencies use Raven to manage AdWords campaigns and report campaign performance to their clients. The AdWords data that our customers value most in Raven is related to that, not whatever paid search query data that they may use for research. If this specific rumor turns out to be true, any impact on Raven's customers would be minimal.

All that said, our software evolves as the industry does.


Matt Ackley, Marin Software CMO, also told Search Engine Watch that they won't be greatly affected by the change.

We are aware of the reports circulating that Google may cease to provide search query data to third parties. The bulk of Marin Software's services involve keyword data. While search query data is related to keyword data the two are distinct. As such, bidding, reporting, tracking, and campaign management - the features and capabilities that set Marin Software apart as a powerful digital marketing platform - would be unaffected should Google no longer provide search query data to its paid search API partners.

Waze CEO Confirms Google Paid $1.15B For the Company

By Jon Russell at TNW:

Google completed its acquisition of Waze last June, but only now has the price tag that it paid for the Israel-headquartered social mapping startup and a hint at why the company sold out been revealed.

A blog post on LinkedIn from Noam Bardin, who is CEO and co-founder of Waze, confirms that Google agreed to a $1.15 billion deal to buy the company. That’s notable since it is the first time that a member of either company has confirmed a figure — media estimates had varied from $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion — although it isn’t clear how that broke down over stock and cash.

In addition, Bardin also provides some interesting context on the deal. He hints that pressure from investors — who seem to have held significant stakes in the company — was a key factor in Waze deciding to sell:

One of Waze’s mistakes was the valuation of its A round which significantly diluted the founders. Perhaps, had we held control of the company, as the Founders of Facebook, Google, Oracle or Microsoft had, Waze might still be an independent company today.

Waze raised its $12 million Series A funding round in March 2008. It went on to raise a further $30 million in 2011, which took it to $67 million in private funding in total.




Read the full story >>

Exclusive: This Is Android Living Room TV

By Sean Hollister at The Verge:

very so often, some enterprising computer company will claim they’ve finally fixed the TV. They’ll talk about how they’ve turned a dumb terminal into a smart computing platform that extends your work and play to a gigantic screen. Then, we’ll watch as the idea flops because they fail to line up content deals or wind up delivering a confusing, haphazard experience. That was the story of Google TV, which became the laughing stock of the industry after Google chairman Eric Schmidt bet that it would ship on the majority of new televisions in 2012. (He was sorely wrong.)

But what these companies seem to be realizing as their content deals fail is that they don’t need to “fix” TV quite yet. The proper opening salvo may simply be to put desirable content in front of people who use television the same way as ever.

Enter Android TV.

According to documents obtained exclusively by The Verge, Google is about to launch a renewed assault on your television set called Android TV. Major video app providers are building for the platform right now. Android TV may sound like a semantic difference — after all, Google TV was based on Android — but it’s something very different. Android TV is no longer a crazy attempt to turn your TV into a bigger, more powerful smartphone. "Android TV is an entertainment interface, not a computing platform," writes Google. "It’s all about finding and enjoying content with the least amount of friction." It will be "cinematic, fun, fluid, and fast."

What does that all mean? It means that Android TV will look and feel a lot more like the rest of the set top boxes on the market, including Apple TV, Amazon’s Fire TV, and Roku.

Google’s new vision for Android TV is less ambitious and easier to understand. The company is calling for developers to build extremely simple TV apps for an extremely simple set-top-box interface. While Android still lives under the hood, the interface will consist of a set of scrolling "cards" that represent movies, shows, apps, and games sitting on a shelf. You use a remote control with a four-way directional pad to scroll left and right through different suggestions, or up and down through different categories of content, each with their own shelves. Much like on other set top boxes, each item will be like a miniature movie poster or book cover, and you’ll pick the one you want. The controller will also have Enter, Home, and Back buttons to help get around, and there will be "optional" game controllers.

Android TV will also support voice input and notifications — though Google is encouraging developers to only use notifications in very limited cases. In total, Android TV is remarkably similar to Amazon's just-released, Android-based Fire TV.

What makes it a Google product is that Android TV will suggest those pieces of content on the homescreen itself. While you can dive through a collection of apps and games if you want, the goal isn’t to have a user select an app like Hulu and then browse through things to watch. Google wants to proactively recommend things to you — including the ability to resume content you started watching on a phone or tablet — as soon as you turn your TV on.

"Access to content should be simple and magical," reads one Google document, which adds that it should never take more than three clicks or gestures to go from the homescreen to enjoying a new piece of content. Even search appears to be secondary to intuitively understanding what you want and delivering it as soon as possible, though search will still be one of Android TV’s primary tools. In addition to universal search, pressing the Search button on the controller will let you search from within individual apps as well.

Assuming the documentation we’ve reviewed is correct, Google is currently courting select app developers to create apps and games for Android TV and encouraging them to create apps with consistent interfaces. Screenshots we’ve obtained show Google’s own apps like Play Movies, YouTube, and Hangouts; but also third party apps like Vevo, Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, and games.

"Android TV is Android, optimized for the living room consumption experience on a TV screen," writes the company, but the focus is on simplicity for now. Google is stripping away unneeded features like telephony, cameras, touchscreen support and near-field communication to keep developers focused, and handing them ready-made interfaces where they can hopefully just plug in shows, games, photos, music, and films. Perhaps there’s room for inventive new applications that harness the big screen, but the entry point is people lazing on the couch.





Read the full story >>

Thank You, Google, For Being So ‘Evil’

By Zach Epstein at BGR:

Using Google’s “don’t be evil” slogan in articles criticizing the technology giant’s hunger for private data is a pastime tech bloggers and journalists have long since worn out. Yes, we know Google is an advertising company. Yes, we know nearly every single product and service in Google’s massive portfolio is used in part to collect personal data from the company’s massive user base. Yes, we know that data is then used to build profiles of each Google user. And yes, we know those profiles are used to serve targeted advertisements.

Advertising is Google’s business, and business is good. Google’s net income came in at about $3.4 billion last quarter on massive revenues totaling $16.9 billion.

Because advertising is Google’s core means of earning money, the company is able to offer most of its services for free. “Free,” of course, always has a cost. In Google’s case, that cost is our data. Whether or not you’ve read them, the terms of service tied to all of Google’s products make this very clear.

Since private data is essential to its business, Google always finds creative new ways to learn more about us. Google’s recent Nest acquisition, for example, could end up being the most creative one yet.

As has been the case with Google’s products from the beginning, every “evil” new tool Google uses to learn more about us has the pleasant side effect of also being a terrific service that provides tremendous value to the user.

And for that, I’d like to say thank you.

I was working this past Sunday night, sad though it may be, when something horrible happened. My MacBook Air crashed.

My mid-2011 MacBook Air is a dinosaur in computer years, and it crashes once or twice each month. It’s typically not a big deal since everything I do auto-saves, and I’m used to it by now.

This crash, however, was not like other crashes.

It appeared as though Google’s Chrome web browser was the culprit this time around. And Chrome didn’t just crash… it died. When my computer rebooted and I finally got the Chrome app open again, all of my data was gone. My bookmarks, gone. My extensions, gone. My saved passwords, gone. Everything was gone.

A few short years ago, a catastrophic crash like this would have instantly made my blood boil. A string of profanity would have been inevitable, and at least a few items on my desk might have been hurled across the room. Nothing in my immediate vicinity would have been safe.

But this past Sunday, I didn’t sweat for a single moment.

One of many beautiful things about the fact that Google needs my personal data is the requirement that in order to make use of all that data, it must be stored on Google’s servers.

This aspect of Google’s business model horrifies some people and keeps them away from all Google services. Personally, I know that Google goes to great lengths to protect my data, and I absolutely love all of benefits that Google’s creative uses of my data afford beyond just advertising.

“Google Now” is a perfect example of this. Google’s eerily helpful assistant app tells me when to leave for meetings, shows me how to get to restaurants on my phone after I search for information on my computer, tells me when packages shipped to me will arrive at my home by digging through my email for shipping notifications, and does hundreds of other great things with my private data.

In the case of my catastrophic Chrome crash on Sunday night, Google’s hunger for my data brought about a sync mechanism in Chrome quite some time ago. Once I got the app open again, all I had to do was log into my Google account. In less than one minute, all of my bookmarks, passwords, extensions and settings were back where they belong.

I didn’t lose all of my data. I didn’t have to dig all of my data out of backups buried away in my Time Capsule. I didn’t have to restore my system or fish things out of a complex third-party online backup system.

All I had to do was log in.

This is just one of dozens or even hundreds of examples of how Google is changing our lives for the better by creating products and services that help users just as much as they help Google. Google needs my data and it puts that data to use better than any other advertising company, but that’s not why Google is so successful. It is successful because I need Google just as much as Google needs me.

So thank you, Google, for being so “evil.”





Via BGR.