This is way cool!
Dropbox folder into a website!
Just found this game!
Local ads coming to google maps!
In a blog post published today, Google said it's investing more in "branded, customized experiences" for businesses to help increase store visits.
Users will be able to tell the difference between a promoted location and an organic location by the color of the pin on the map and the word "ad" in the text at the bottom of the screen.
"For example, Maps users may start to see promoted pins for nearby coffee shops, gas stations or lunch spots along their driving route," Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google's senior vp of ads and commerce, wrote in a blog post. "Local business pages are also getting a brand new look—to encourage consumers to explore your store before they even arrive, we're adding new features like special offers and the ability to browse product inventory."
Google says its mobile ads across other products are already working. The search engine giant said AdWords store visits have generated more than 1 billion physical visits around the world since it was introduced in 2014. It cited Nissan UK, which found around six percent of ad clicks led to trips to a dealership that resulted in a return on investment that was 25 times higher than the cost.
4 twitter fixes!
"We're exploring ways to make existing uses easier and enable new ones, all without compromising the unique brevity and speed that make Twitter the best place for live commentary, connections, and conversations," Twitter senior project manager Todd Sherman wrote in a blog post.
Over the next few months, Twitter will begin rolling out the following:
1. No longer counting @names in replies
Usernames mentioned in tweets will no longer count toward the limit, saving users from spending their entire character count on mentions. Twitter says the improvement will make conversations "more straightforward" without all the "penny-pinching" that's needed for group tweets.
2. Attachments won't count against characters
Everyone who has ever posted a photo, GIF, video, poll or quote tweet has likely been frustrated by losing 23 characters that are lopped off in the process. "More room for words!" Twitter said. The update was first reported last week by Bloomberg, but Twitter at the time declined comment.
3. Retweet and quote yourself
Users that want to add additional information or context to a previous tweet will soon be able to by retweeting their own tweet by using the retweet button.The feature will also allow users to retweet their own tweets that they feel are important and should be shared a second time.
4. Bye bye .@
Twitter is fixing the need to have a period before a username at the beginning of a tweet when a user wants a reply to be seen by everyone. Currently, putting someone's name at the very beginning of a tweet means it is seen only by the recipient and mutual friends. (Anyone who's been frustrated by how awkward the ".@" looks will be glad to see it go.) Under the new system, new tweets with a user name at the beginning will be seen by all followers, while replies to a user (by clicking the reply button) will still be seen only by that user and mutual friends. To have a reply seen by all followers, you'll have to retweet it.
Interesting selfie stats
A Mailchimp store!
Intel is clever showing how its tech is helping the planet!
Intel is debuting a video documentary today called "Bees with Backpacks," which shows how its technology is being used to help solve global problems -- in this case tracking the decline of bee colonies worldwide.
The film, which is appearing on YouTube, Intel's website and other channels, was created by Intel Global Production Labs (IGPL), an in-house video and content production studio that was launched in early 2015.
"The whole company has taken a shift to really start talking about the amazing experiences that are enabled by Intel," said Teresa Herd, VP-global creative director at Intel. "It was important for us to understand the storytelling opportunities, and how to bring them to life in a way that is impactful, emotive and powerful."
One of the ways IGPL is doing this is through a documentary series called "Meet the Makers," which profiles how Intel Edison micro-computing technology is being used by entrepreneurs, musicians, scientists and other "makers" in unique ways to solve problems for businesses and society at large.
Top 10 linkedin passwords
LinkedIn responded to the news of the leak last week with a statement from its chief information security officer Cory Scott, who said the company was now “aware” of the full extent of the hack.
Leakedsource claims to have obtained the list of 167,370,910 accounts (email and password), with 117m of those including passwords – the rest, presumably, accessed their LinkedIn via other social media accounts.
The combined email and passwords are apparently up for sale on the dark web, with the list of the most frequent passwords hacked the most eye-catching.
We’ve been here before, many times, but finding awful passwords remains entertaining.
The top 10 passwords:
A smart suitcase!
GoDaddy is doing some cool stuff! Idea creation, cool!
Sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo help entrepreneurs get their products funded and shipped to backers — but what about the process of where these ideas come from? Confidence in a product or idea is key, and sometimes we need that extra nudge and seal of approval. That’s what GoDaddy is venturing into with a new app called Flare.
You heard right — GoDaddy, the company that offers domains and hosts websites for many small businesses — has developed an app that’s part Shark Tank, part idea journal. The company says it conducted its own survey, and found that 67 percent of respondents say they have come up with a concept for a business, service, or product, but only 15 percent have acted on it. GoDaddy’s answer is Flare.
Arduino
Arduino is an electronics prototyping platform that gives non-engineers the ability to add interactivity to their projects. (I teach an online Arduino course on Skillshare that 1,163 have taken with a 97% rating).
Amazon has a sale on the genuine Arduino Starter Kit for $72. It has the Arduino Uno microprocessor and a bunch of components, along with instructions for 15 projects that will give you a feel for all the things you can do with Arduino.
SnapChat is looking to go bigger!
Snapchat has raised about $1.81 billion in new funding, according to a regulatoryfiling released on Thursday.
Coming amidst a slowdown in venture capital activity, the massive cash infusion shows how highly investors value the social messaging service.
In light of the new funding, venture capital database PitchBook estimates that Snapchat’s valuation is $17.81 billion, which is up from $16 billion in February.
Yet Snapchat is clearly still trying to find its financial footing. In fact, it took in just $59 million in revenue last year, according to a pitch deck obtained by TechCrunch.
By next year, Snapchat expects to see revenue rise to upwards of $1 billion. How the social darling plans to make such a dramatic leap is not entirely clear.
Part of Snapchat’s growth strategy includes international expansion. Earlier this month, it broadened its UK advertiser base, and introduced new ad formats in the region.
Snapchat also continues to score big partnerships with top media and entertainment outlets. Last month, it announced a partnership with NBC to show highlights from the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. The non-exclusive distribution deal was a first for the Peacock network, but likely not the last.
Snapchat also has partnerships with Major League Baseball and the NFL, which allow it to stream exclusive behind-the-scenes video rather than game footage.
Whether it’s enough to support bullish growth estimates, Snapchat is definitely growing. At the end of last year, it had 110 million daily active users -- up about 50% year-over-year, according to the leaked deck.
Snapchat also recently surpassed Instagram as the top social destination among teens, according to findings from Piper Jaffray.
Snapchat most recently raised $175 million in March. Fidelity led that round.
Looking ahead, Snapchat is said to be gearing up for a big public offering, later this year.
Odd cool and it makes you wonder! 32 hours down to 12 seconds!
A Norwegian consumers’ group produced a 32-hour webcast of a team of readers going through the fine print of terms and conditions of downloadable apps.
Finn Myrstad of the Norwegian Consumer Council, a government agency, said the idea was to point out the absurdity and possible illegality of some of the conditions.
“We got the idea from slow TV,” he told The Associated Press, referring to broadcasts in Norway of, for instance, five straight hours of knitting, a fire burning itself out and live, minute-by-minute salmon fishing.
Mr. Myrstad said that the team decided to read and analyze the small print of selected apps over six months, and that it discovered that many of them broke the law.
“We wanted to expose the absurdity of the terms and conditions of when you download an app,” he said. “You usually don’t read them because they’re either too long or complicated, and many of them breach consumer law and data protection laws.”
The webcast began Tuesday morning, when the team started reading the terms of around 30 popular apps. It ended 32 hours later. The council later tweeted a 12-second recap of the broadcast.
No Razr returning!
Flip phone fans hoping for a new Motorola RAZR might be left disappointed, as the Lenovo-owned brand has no plans to release an updated version of the widely popular device.
A nostalgic Motorola ad released May 19 led some observers to speculate that the company would revive its iconic metal flip phone, which sold more than 130 million units over the course of its four-year lifetime. But a Motorola spokesperson says that’s not the case.
“We love how the throwback video has been embraced and the excitement it has generated,” says Morotola rep Kathryn Hanley. “The RAZR was one of the most iconic phones ever designed and redefined how stylish a mobile phone can be. While Moto is not re-releasing the RAZR, we will transform mobile again on June 9.” (That date is a reference to Lenovo’s upcoming Tech World conference, when it is expected to announce new products and make other news.)
Lenovo, a Chinese company, purchased Motorola Mobility from Google in 2014 in a deal worth nearly $3 billion. The tie-up instantly made Lenovo one of the world’s largest smartphone makers. But it has been rocky going since. The company was recently surpassed by a pair of less well-known Chinese firms in research firm IDC’s list of the top smartphone brands by shipments. Indeed, in its quarterly report Thursday, Lenovo said the integration of the two brands “did not meet expectations.”
Google email address extracter, cool!
Interesting social media and parenting study!
Mothers of young children who spend more time on social media are more likely to report feelings of anxiety than peers who spend less time on social media on average, according to a new study from Deakin University in Australia. As always, it’s important to point out that correlation doesn’t prove causation, meaning that social media doesn’t necessarily cause anxiety.
The researchers polled 528 mothers of pre-school aged children, and found that their levels of self-reported anxiety rose with each additional hour they spent online, with women ages 25-44 twice as likely to report feelings of anxiety as men were in previous studies.
Researchers noted the results of other studies on social media usage, which have “shown that nearly 50 per cent of female Facebook users felt ‘addicted’ to Facebook, 77 per cent reported being online longer than they intend to be, and one quarter lost sleep because of Facebook.” Researchers also speculated that “spent using the computer or device may remove them from other responsibilities such as chores or engaging with their children, which may subsequently lead to feelings of stress and anxiety.”
