The not-so-smart speaker Artificial intelligence is as biased as the data used to train it, and the coders programming it. Last week, I came across a simple exam of the latter: It turns out that, if you are in England and ask Google Home to “play the national anthem”, you get the US version. If … Continue reading Monday Miscellany 6 May 19
Tag: Instagram
Limiting users’ time on Facebook, makes great business sense
Facebook has announced that it is rolling out features to help us spend less time on Facebook or Instagram. At face value, this is a surprising move for a company that has taken so many steps to create a platform that we return to over and over again (e.g., via notifications), to maximise the amount … Continue reading Limiting users’ time on Facebook, makes great business sense
A peak into tech giants’ terms and conditions
I don’t think that I have ever read a full set of terms and conditions from one of the tech giants. And I think that I am in the majority, here. Most terms of service are extremely long, as illustrated by Dima Yarovinsky’s installation at the Visualizing Knowledge 2018 exhibition. The artist printed the … Continue reading A peak into tech giants’ terms and conditions
Phones in restaurants. Yay or Nay?
A pub in the Welsh town of Wrexham is offering 25% off the food bill to customers who lock their phones away, during their meal. The move, it is argued, is an attempt to get customers to “concentrate solely on one another and the fun night out they are having", according to the article on … Continue reading Phones in restaurants. Yay or Nay?
Instagram: one product, two needs
Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s CEO, provided an interesting example of why we need to understand and focus on consumer needs, instead of being dazzled by product features. Talking about the launch of Instagram Stories, in an interview with Kara Swisher for the Recode Decode podcast, he said: We found that the biggest problem people had with … Continue reading Instagram: one product, two needs
Instagram switching to relevance algorithm – what it means for you
Instagram announced that it is changing the way it presents content in our feeds from reverse chronological order to ‘presumed relevance’. According to the company’s press release: The order of photos and videos in your feed will be based on the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting and … Continue reading Instagram switching to relevance algorithm – what it means for you
Spotted elsewhere: interview with co-founder of Instagram
What? A short interview with Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram, by BBC's Steph McGovern. Where? Spotted on the BBC website. So what? It is a short interview, but Steph McGovern and Kevin Systrom cover quite a bit of ground such as longevity on social media, Instagram's rivals, kids spending too much time on … Continue reading Spotted elsewhere: interview with co-founder of Instagram
Who needs a phone, anyway?
Oh, I love this – it is a screenshot of this man’s 13 year old daughter’s iPhone home screen. Within easy reach are: Camera Instagram Text messaging Web browser Less accessible (i.e., tucked away within a folder) are: iTunes Pinterest Snapchat Youtube And nowhere to be seen: Facebook and… Phone! I suspect this reflects the … Continue reading Who needs a phone, anyway?
Crib sheet for campaign planning
Here is something that I prepared for my students, to help them decide what media to use for different types of marketing campaigns, and what message to focus on. I thought it might be useful for you, too. If you like this cheat sheet, please share, and do let me know by clicking like or leaving … Continue reading Crib sheet for campaign planning
It’s official: cats don’t rule the Internet
Quick. Answer this question: What is the most popular category of photos on Instagram? I thought it was food, but I was wrong. And if you thought that it was cats you were wrong, too. According to this paper by Hu, Manikonda and Kambhampati, nearly a quarter of content posted on Instagram are selfies. This is … Continue reading It’s official: cats don’t rule the Internet
Ana Canhoto 