Here are some web trends for 2020:
Responsive web design in 2020 should be a given because every serious project that you create should look good and be completely usable on all devices. But there’s no need to over-complicate things.
Web Development in 2020: What Coding Tools You Should Learn article gives an overview of recommendations what you learn to become a web developer in 2020.
You might have seen Web 3.0 on some slides. What is the definition of web 3 we are talking about here?
There seems to be many different to choose from… Some claim that you need to blockchain the cloud IOT otherwise you’ll just get a stack overflow in the mainframe but I don’t agree on that.
Information on the web address bar will be reduced on some web browsers. With the release of Chrome 79, Google completes its goal of erasing www from the browser by no longer allowing Chrome users to automatically show the www trivial subdomain in the address bar.
You still should target to build quality web site and avoid the signs of a low-quality web site. Get good inspiration for your web site design.
Still a clear and logical structure is the first thing that needs to be turned over in mind before the work on the website gears up. The website structure for search robots is its internal links. The more links go to a page, the higher its priority within the website, and the more times the search engine crawls it.
You should upgrade your web site, but you need to do it sensibly and well. Remember that a site upgrade can ruin your search engine visibility if you do it badly. The biggest risk to your site getting free search engine visibility is site redesign. Bad technology selection can ruin the visibility of a new site months before launch. Many new sites built on JavaScript application frameworks do not benefit in any way from the new technologies. Before you go into this bandwagon, you should think critically about whether your site will benefit from the dynamic capabilities of these technologies more than they can damage your search engine visibility. Well built redirects can help you keep the most outbound links after site changes.
If you go to the JavaScript framework route on your web site, keep in mind that there are many to choose, and you need to choose carefully to find one that fits for your needs and is actively developed also in the future.
JavaScript survey: Devs love a bit of React, but Angular and Cordova declining. And you’re not alone… a chunk of pros also feel JS is ‘overly complex’
Keep in mind the recent changes on the video players and Google analytics. And for animated content keep in mind that GIF animations exists still as a potential tool to use.
Keep in mind the the security. There is a skill gap in security for many. I’m not going to say anything that anyone who runs a public-facing web server doesn’t already know: the majority of these automated blind requests are for WordPress directories and files. PHP exploits are a distant second. And there are many other things that are automatically attacked. Test your site with security scanners.
APIs now account for 40% of the attack surface for all web-enabled apps. OWASP has identified 10 areas where enterprises can lower that risk. There are many vulnerability scanning tools available. Check also How to prepare and use Docker for web pentest . Mozilla has a nice on-line tool for web site security scanning.
The slow death of Flash continues. If you still use Flash, say goodbye to it. Google says goodbye to Flash, will stop indexing Flash content in search.
Use HTTPS on your site because without it your site rating will drop on search engines visibility. It is nowadays easy to get HTTPS certificates.
Write good content and avoid publishing fake news on your site. Finland is winning the war on fake news. What it’s learned may be crucial to Western democracy,
Think to who you are aiming to your business web site to. Analyze who is your “true visitor” or “power user”. A true visitor is a visitor to a website who shows a genuine interest in the content of the site. True visitors are the people who should get more of your site and have the potential to increase the sales and impact of your business. The content that your business offers is intended to attract visitors who are interested in it. When they show their interest, they are also very likely to be the target group of the company.
Should you think of your content management system (CMS) choice? Flexibility, efficiency, better content creation: these are just some of the promised benefits of a new CMS. Here is How to convince your developers to change CMS.
Here are some fun for the end:
Did you know that if a spider creates a web at a place?
The place is called a website
Confession: How JavaScript was made.
2,361 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
NFTs and a Thousand True Fans
https://a16z.com/2021/02/27/nfts-and-a-thousand-true-fans/
In his classic 2008 essay “1000 True Fans,” Kevin Kelly predicted that the internet would transform the economics of creative activities:
To be a successful creator you don’t need millions. You don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, millions of clients or millions of fans. To make a living as a craftsperson, photographer, musician, designer, author, animator, app maker, entrepreneur, or inventor you need only thousands of true fans.
A true fan is defined as a fan that will buy anything you produce. These diehard fans will drive 200 miles to see you sing; they will buy the hardback and paperback and audible versions of your book; they will purchase your next figurine sight unseen; they will pay for the “best-of” DVD version of your free YouTube channel; they will come to your chef’s table once a month.
Kelly’s vision was that the internet was the ultimate matchmaker, enabling 21st century patronage. Creators, no matter how seemingly niche, could now discover their true fans, who would in turn demonstrate their enthusiasm through direct financial support.
But the internet took a detour. Centralized social platforms became the dominant way for creators and fans to connect. The platforms used this power to become the new intermediaries — inserting ads and algorithmic recommendations between creators and users while keeping most of the revenue for themselves.
The good news is that the internet is trending back to Kelly’s vision. For example, many top writers on Substack earn far more than they did at salaried jobs. The economics of low take rates plus enthusiastic fandom does wonders. On Substack, 1,000 newsletter subscribers paying $10/month nets over $100K/year to the writer.
Crypto, and specifically NFTs (non-fungible tokens), can accelerate the trend of creators monetizing directly with their fans. Social platforms will continue to be useful for building audiences (although these too should probably be replaced with superior decentralized alternatives), but creators can increasingly rely on other methods including NFTs and crypto-enabled economies to make money.
NFTs are blockchain-based records that uniquely represent pieces of media. The media can be anything digital, including art, videos, music, gifs, games, text, memes, and code.
Tomi Engdahl says:
10 VR websites that are paving the way for the future of design
https://www.editorx.com/shaping-design/article/best-vr-websites?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=fb_pp%7Cp_edx-topfunnel-traffic-jan18&experiment_id=23846704099640429%E2%80%8B&fbclid=IwAR1SCPTzRqRD0u7K19fUA1TMM811lfoVOBf924NzroMjNBemzPVFGH4k2s4
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/ft-backed-sifted-start-up-scene-moves-to-paywall/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://blog.taiste.fi/en/how-to-pick-a-digital-development-partner-that-understands-you
Tomi Engdahl says:
The best websites have the best typography.
Click for quality design content from Editor X.
The rules of web typography
https://www.editorx.com/shaping-design/article/web-typography-rules?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=fb_pp%7Cp_edx-topfunnel-traffic-jan18&experiment_id=23846822724680429%E2%80%8B&fbclid=IwAR3n9Z1uub7cr1NVOrFoQhFzIjq5rhCpBaEmRw4YExdMIXty-DKDb4lj_KU
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google’s next big Chrome update will rewrite the rules of the web
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/google-chrome-cookies-third-party-ads
Google’s impending takedown of third-party cookies in Chrome is a big win for privacy. And Google
Google Chrome is ditching third-party cookies for good. If all goes according to plan then future updates to the world’s most popular web browser will rewrite the rules of online advertising and make it far harder to track the web activity of billions of people. But it’s not that simple. What seems like a big win for privacy may, ultimately, only serve to tighten Google’s grip on the advertising industry and web as a whole.
Critics and regulators argue the move risks putting smaller advertising firms out of business and could harm websites that rely on adverts to make money. For most people, the change will be invisible but, behind the scenes, Google is planning to put Chrome in control of some of the advertising process.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The news comes as many marketers, publishers and digital advertising startups debate the future of digital ads without third-party tracking.
Google Is Phasing Out Data-Driven Web Tracking Based On Personal Browsing Activity
https://trib.al/GUX5JvN
In another major change poised to further jolt the already rocky world of digital advertising, Google plans to stop tracking individual users’ web browsing habits or selling ads based on them.
Today, the Alphabet-owned search engine said it will phase out tracking users across websites without replacing third-party cookies with a new form of tracking. The news comes after the company announced last year that it plans to end third-party cookie tracking in 2022—a decision that still has many marketers, publishers and digital advertising startups debating how to continue tracking and targeting consumers with advertising. (One option that’s been discussed is tracking people based on email addresses, which many have said creates an entirely different set of issues related to privacy and effectiveness.)
“Keeping the internet open and accessible for everyone requires all of us to do more to protect privacy—and that means an end to not only third-party cookies, but also any technology used for tracking individual people as they browse the web,” Temkin wrote. “We remain committed to preserving a vibrant and open ecosystem where people can access a broad range of ad-supported content with confidence that their privacy and choices are respected. We look forward to working with others in the industry on the path forward.”
Google’s not the first to make changes to ad tracking. Apple has been working on much-discussed changes for iOS 14 that will alter how apps track people by requiring developers to get permission from users to collect and share data from iPhones. Apple’s decision has also prompted Facebook to openly criticize the changes: In the past few months, the social network has run ad campaigns against the changes to iOS, while Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has described the maker of the iPhone as one of its biggest competitors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google says it won’t adopt new tracking tech after phasing out cookies
https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/03/google-renounces-ad-tracking/?tpcc=ECFB2021
While we’ve written about attempts to build alternatives to cookies that track users across websites, Google says it won’t be going down that route.
The search giant had already announced that it will be phasing out support for third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. Today it went further, with David Temkin (Google’s director of product management for ads privacy and trust) writing in a blog post that “once third-party cookies are phased out, we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products.”
https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/a-more-privacy-first-web/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Web Development In 2021 – A Practical Guide
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VfGW0Qiy2I0&feature=youtu.be
yearly guide to web development. I describe web technologies that are commonly needed as well as new trends and give you multiple options to create and plan your learning path to reach your goals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Report: YouTube’s critical role in cross-platform misinformation in the 2020 election was enabled by more permissive policies and that it was linked to the most
How YouTube failed the 2020 election test
Three takeaways from a post-mortem on misinformation in the 2020 campaign
https://www.platformer.news/p/how-youtube-failed-the-2020-election
Today let’s talk about a comprehensive new report on election integrity, and the particularly low marks it gave to one platform in particular.
I.
The 283-page report, which was published today, is entitled “The Long Fuse: Misinformation and the 2020 Election.” It is the final work of a coalition of some of the most respected names in platform analysis in academia and the nonprofit world: the Stanford Internet Observatory, the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, Graphika, and the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.
The report builds on work that the partnership did leading up to and after November to identify and counter false narratives about the 2020 US presidential election. It describes its goals this way:
The EIP’s primary goals were to: (1) identify mis- and disinformation before it went viral and during viral outbreaks, (2) share clear and accurate counter-messaging, and (3) document the specific misinformation actors, transmission pathways, narrative evolutions, and information infrastructures that enabled these narratives to propagate.
The hope was that by better understanding how misinformation spreads on social networks, the partnership could push platforms to develop better policy and enforcement tools to reduce the impact of bad actors in the future.
Reading through the report, there’s a lot to be impressed by. Foreign interference, which all but defined the 2016 US presidential election, played almost no perceptible role in 2020. After making huge investments in safety and security, platforms really did get better at identifying fake accounts and state-backed influence campaigns, and generally removed them before they could do much about them.
The flip side of this, of course, is that 2020 gave US platforms an arguably even more difficult problem to confront: the virulent spread of election-related misinformation from domestic sources, most prominently President Trump, his two adult sons, and a potent ecosystem of right-wing publishers and influencers. Perhaps the report’s most crucial finding, however obvious, is that misinformation in 2020 was an asymmetric phenomenon. The lies were primarily by right-wing actors in the hope of overturning the result of an election that, despite all their viral posts to the contrary, saw no widespread fraud.
The report makes clear that the platforms did not cause these lies to be spread. Nor does it seek to make a case that these lies spread primarily through algorithmic amplification. Rather, it places platforms at the center of a dynamic information ecosystem. Sometimes the lies were “top down” — fabricated by Trump and his cronies and then turned into content by partisan media outlets and right-wing influencers. Other times, the lies were “bottom up”: shared by an average citizen as a tweet, a Facebook post, or a YouTube video, which were then spotted by Trumpworld and amplified.
These processes worked to reinforce each other, creating powerful new narratives that ultimately fueled the rise of previously obscure outlets like One America News Network and Newsmax. And in all of that, there is plenty for every platform studied here to answer for.
The report faults platforms for failing to anticipate and “pre-bunk” likely election misinformation; failing to examine the efficacy of their efforts to label misinformation or share those findings with external researchers; and often failing to hold high-profile users accountable for repeated violations of platform policies, among other issues.
Tomi Engdahl says:
We created the monster that Google Chrome has become. Only we can destroy it.
Google Chrome: It’s time to ditch the browser
We created the monster that Google Chrome has become. Only we can destroy it.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-chrome-its-time-to-ditch-the-browser/?ftag=COS-05-10aaa0h&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook
Google Chrome is the most-used browser on the internet. The browser rose to fame as an alternative to slow, sluggish incumbents — Internet Explorer and Safari. But Google Chrome has become the new leader, and as a result has itself become the sluggish incumbent.
It became the thing we hated. We created a monster.
If your device is powered by a battery, then you’re best using the stock browser.
On Windows, that is Edge, and on Mac and iOS that’s Safari. Both have been highly tuned to the platform they are running on and offer the best battery life and thermal performance possible.
Yes, you can tweak and fiddle with Chrome to make things better, but better is still far from best.
It’s hard to put it into words, but Safari on Mac or Edge on Windows feel like an extension of the operating system. It’s a smoother transition between the OS and the browser. Coming back to Chrome suddenly felt clumsy (and this is when I also noticed the sluggish performance the most).
Tomi Engdahl says:
System Of A Down -rumpali kritisoi internetin cancel-kulttuuria – ”Todella tuhoavaa”
https://www.soundi.fi/uutiset/system-of-a-down-rumpali-kritisoi-internetin-cancel-kulttuuria-todella-tuhoavaa/?_ga=2.266672653.263080268.1615015496-312234544.1611693036
Monet artistit kuten esimerkiksi Nick Cave ja Corey Taylor ovat kritisoineet netissä yleistynyttä tuomitsemiskulttuuria (josta englanninkielisissä medioissa käytetään termiä cancel culture), jossa yleensä julkisuuden henkilö asetetaan väärien tai ”väärien” sanojensa tai tekojensa vuoksi boikottiin. Tällä tavoin voidaan hyvin tehokkaasti katkaista isonkin tähden uran. Kritiikkiä aiheuttaa ennen kaikkea se, miten pitkälle poliittista korrektiutta nykyään viedään ja miten alkujaan hyvää tarkoittanut cancel-kulttuuri on kääntynyt itseään vastaan ja siitä on tullut trollien ase.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/google-chrome-cookies-third-party-ads
Tomi Engdahl says:
Googlelta jymy-yllätys: Ihmisten seuranta ja mainosten näyttäminen verkossa muuttuu täysin
Google sanoo käyttäjien luottamuspulan pakottavan muutokseen, jossa yksittäisten ihmisten seurannasta luovutaan.
https://www.is.fi/digitoday/art-2000007839527.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google says after replacing 3rd-party cookies with a technology called FLoC, their behavioral ads will be just as effective. In other words, they can continue to target & manipulate you based on what makes you, you.
And they call this a “private web.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/googles-floc-terrible-idea
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lämpökartta: nopea tapa ymmärtää sivuston toimivuutta
Mikä on lämpökartta?
https://www.exove.com/fi/blogit/lampokartta-nopea-tapa-ymmartaa-sivuston-toimivuutta/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paidsocial&utm_campaign=blogi_lampokartta&utm_content=pp_1&fbclid=IwAR3j-FV_ZHAvzatJ_T-GgW5OK5d8YwL6Wtpmc3rowaYSuTwo55CILiujEbA
Lämpökartta on analytiikan työkalu, jonka avulla voi seurata ja analysoida vierailijoiden liikkumista tietyllä verkkosivuston sivulla. Lämpökartta nauhoittaa sivulla vierailevien hiiren kursorin liikettä, klikkauksia ja scrollaamista, ja koostaa kerätyt tiedot selkeiksi kuviksi. Scroll map-kuvasta on helppo nähdä sivun “kuumimmat” ja “kylmimmät” kohdat, eli asiat, jotka herättävät kiinnostusta ja toisaalta asiat, jotka jäävät huomiotta.
Miten lämpökartta voi auttaa sivuston kehittämisessä?
Lämpökartta on helppo ja nopea tapa tarkastaa tärkeimpien sivujen toimivuus ja löytää sivuston kipukohdat. Kuva kertoo nopeasti miten hyvin tärkeät asiat löytyvät sivulta ja mitkä asiat kiinnittävät vierailijan huomion. Tiedon avulla epäkohtiin on helppo puuttua ja kokeilla vaihtoehtoisia ratkaisuja.
Kartat auttavat myös analysoimaan ja ymmärtämään analytiikan lukuja.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tech’s War With News Outlets Flares as U.S. Lawmakers Ready Bill
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-10/tech-s-war-with-news-outlets-flares-as-u-s-lawmakers-ready-bill
The battle between news publishers and Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc. that flared up in Australia recently is coming to the U.S.
Lawmakers plan to re-introduce legislation Wednesday to allow news organizations to band together to negotiate with the technology companies over payment for content and the data the companies have about readers.
The legislation, which is being proposed in the Senate and House with bipartisan support, would make the U.S. the next front in the news industry’s war against Facebook and Google. Publishers scored a major victory last month when Australia passed a law to force the companies to pay for news content. In Europe, publishers have been lobbying European Union lawmakers to copy parts of the Australian law.
“A strong, diverse, free press is critical for any successful democracy,” said David Cicilline, the Rhode Island Democrat who chairs the House antitrust subcommittee and has introduced the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act in the last two Congresses.
Publishers have long complained that Facebook and Google are profiting off their content by siphoning ad revenue and controlling valuable data about readers.
Media organizations argue that to gain negotiating leverage and level the playing field, they must be able to collectively bargain with the platforms, something that’s prohibited under U.S. antitrust laws.
“The reason that we’re brought to this moment is that they have an unfettered monopoly,” Klobuchar said in an interview. Google and Facebook “thought they had so much power they could literally exit a major country,” she added.
“Local journalism plays such an important role in keeping the American people informed, but many of our community newspapers have been crushed by the threat of big tech,” Buck said in a statement. “This bipartisan bill will send a lifeline to local news organizations struggling to survive because Google and Facebook have decimated the news industry.”
In its report on the findings of the investigation, the committee recommended providing publishers the antitrust safe harbor provision, saying the risk associated with antitrust exemptions are low, “while the benefits of preserving access to high-quality journalism are difficult to overstate.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/majordomo/?ref=share
I’m really glad I’m no longer in web work.
“Post-Spectre, we need to adopt some new strategies for safe and secure web development. This document outlines a threat model we can share, and a set of mitigation recommendations.
TL;DR: Your data must not unexpectedly enter an attacker’s process”
Post-Spectre Web Development
Editor’s Draft, 10 March 2021
https://w3c.github.io/webappsec-post-spectre-webdev/
Post-Spectre, we need to adopt some new strategies for safe and secure web development. This document outlines a threat model we can share, and a set of mitigation recommendations.
TL;DR: Your data must not unexpectedly enter an attacker’s process.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
A look at the history of Twine, an open-source tool for producing web-based interactive fiction and games with text, as it remains a significant force in gaming
https://www.theverge.com/22321816/twine-games-history-legacy-art?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Markup:
Citizen Browser project’s Split Screen tool shows Facebook’s different News Feeds for Trump and Biden voters, based on data from 2,500+ users across the US — Facebook’s recommendation algorithm shows different news, groups, and hashtags to different users. But who sees what?
Split Screen
How Different Are Americans’ Facebook Feeds?
https://themarkup.org/citizen-browser/2021/03/11/split-screen?feed=biden_trump
Snapshots from the Facebook feeds of our Citizen Browser panelists illuminate how Facebook’s recommendation algorithm siloes information on the platform. See how we built this tool
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://controlgeek.net/blog/2020/8/1/time-for-master-and-slave-terminology-to-go
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sarah Sluis / AdExchanger:
Google is further integrating the Publisher Provided Identifier into its Ad Manager, aiding publishers’ first-party tracking in lieu of third-party cookies — The PPID’s technical setup works like this: the publisher will create a unique ID for users, based on a first-party cookie or a log-in ID.
Google Is Building Integrations For Publisher-Specific Identifiers
https://www.adexchanger.com/platforms/google-is-building-integrations-for-publisher-specific-identifiers/
Google drew a line in the sand on March 3rd, when it said it wouldn’t build or support cross-site identifiers. But single-site identifiers, specific to an individual publisher, are fair game – and something Google wants to encourage.
To that end, Google is dusting off an old/new ID type: the publisher provided identifier (PPID) in Google Ad Manager.
The PPID has been around for years, but until now was only used for direct deals. With third-party cookies going away and cross-site email apparently data-non-grata in Google-run auctions, the product holds new appeal.
To expand the use of PPIDs, they need to work programmatically. So Google Ad Manager is building tech that will allow publishers to share the PPID – either selectively or universally – with advertisers in all programmatic deal types, including the open auction. With this new PPID tech in place, publishers will be able to surface their first-party data programmatically for buyers, as long as they use Google as their intermediary.
The company outlined the approach in a blog post today.
Helping publishers thrive in today’s privacy environment
https://blog.google/products/admanager/helping-publishers-thrive-todays-privacy-environment/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Viime vuoden syksyllä tuli voimaan EU:n saavutettavuusdirektiivi. Se edellyttää tietyiltä toimijoilta muun muassa nettiin ladattavaan videotuotantoon tehtäviä tekstityksiä. Vaikka sitä ei kaikilta vielä vaaditakaan niin sen käyttöönotto videotuotannossa on suotavaa.
Tekstitysten tekeminen videotuotantoon on nykyään erittäin helppoa ja sen tekemiseen on monia erilaisia vaihtoehtoja.
https://www.compuline.fi/blog/ajankohtaista-1/post/videoiden-tekstitys-21
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/brain/a-load-of-bs-people-who-frequently-mislead-others-are-more-likely-to-be-fooled-themselves/
Tomi Engdahl says:
22 Ways To Get More Views On YouTube
https://www.uscreen.tv/blog/how-to-get-more-views-on-youtube/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social+&utm_campaign=blog&fbclid=IwAR1oUbkqpQrB5nDrmJsEcJATOu-aE2IRRpEBKPJzzNr1-jrFv7XbLzwD2Bo
This is the complete guide on how content creators can get more views on YouTube in 2021.
I’m going to show you 22 actionable strategies you can use to:
Drive more traffic to your YouTube content.
Grow your subscribers.
Rank higher for the right keywords.
Build a thriving YouTube community.
Sound like the results you’re looking for?
Then let’s dive right into it…
Tomi Engdahl says:
How heatmaps helped to improve clickthrough by 276%
https://www.smartlook.com/blog/sewio-heatmap-case-study/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Awareness_LL%28ROI%29_Nordics_mobile&utm_content=Content_5&fbclid=IwAR2tmL5gUO5FNXuoVWQEcxedm89Cnqn0cy-j4AjbQ8L3lwzF0G0Pdhga2Hg
It’s a common problem. Homepages often need to act like informational hubs. And that makes them cluttered.
The hard part is figuring out what to remove.
What parts of your website are important to you but not to your visitors? Heatmaps can help you discover that.
An innovative company needs innovative tools
Tomi Engdahl says:
At a glance: Does the EU Digital Services Act protect freedom of expression?
https://www.article19.org/resources/does-the-digital-services-act-protect-freedom-of-expression/
On 15 December 2020, the European Commission published its long-awaited proposal for a Digital Services Act (DSA). It is the culmination of several years of grappling with the difficulties inherent in the dissemination of illegal content online and growing concerns about the amplification of ‘toxic’ content and disinformation. In particular, the DSA seeks to consolidate various separate pieces of EU legislation and self-regulatory practices that address online illegal or ‘harmful’ content. It also seeks to harmonise the rules applicable to the provision of digital services across the EU rather than having a patchwork of potentially conflicting legislation such as Germany’s NetzDG or a revived version of the Avia Law in France.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google engineer urges web devs to step up and secure their code in this data-spilling Spectre-haunted world
‘This is going to be a lot of work … a reasonable set of mitigation primitives exists today, ready and waiting for use’
https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/08/post_spectre_programming/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.exove.com/fi/blogit/lampokartta-nopea-tapa-ymmartaa-sivuston-toimivuutta/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tuntuuko sinustakin, että internet on pilalla? Ylen haastattelussa Wikipedian johtaja, joka uskoo, että nyt alkaa uusi aika: “Tilinteko on todennäköinen”
https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11770643
“Viestintävälineitä voidaan hyödyntää kuin aseita. Aiemmin sellainen oli mahdollista vain hallituksille”, Ryan Merkley sanoo.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google slams Microsoft for trying ‘to break the way the open web works’
Google isn’t happy with Microsoft over online news
https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/12/22327306/google-microsoft-attack-open-web-online-news-australia-laws
Tomi Engdahl says:
Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
Internal docs: a Facebook study about US users’ vaccine hesitancy finds “substantial harm” from content that doesn’t violate the company’s rules — Internal study finds a QAnon connection and that content that doesn’t break the rules may be causing ‘substantial’ harm
Massive Facebook study on users’ doubt in vaccines finds a small group appears to play a big role in pushing the skepticism
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/14/facebook-vaccine-hesistancy-qanon/
Internal study finds a QAnon connection and that content that doesn’t break the rules may be causing ‘substantial’ harm
Facebook is conducting a vast behind-the-scenes study of doubts expressed by U.S. users about vaccines, a major project that attempts to probe and teach software to identify the medical attitudes of millions of Americans, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
The research is a large-scale attempt to understand the spread of ideas that contribute to vaccine hesitancy, or the act of delaying or refusing a vaccination despite its availability, on social media — a primary source of health information for millions of people. It shows how the company is probing ever more nuanced realms of speech, and illustrates how weighing free speech vs. potential for harm is more tenuous than ever for technology companies during a public health crisis.
While Facebook has banned outright false and misleading statements about coronavirus vaccines since December, a huge realm of expression about vaccines sits in a gray area. One example could be comments by someone expressing concern about side effects that are more severe than expected. Those comments could be both important for fostering meaningful conversation and potentially bubbling up unknown information to health authorities — but at the same time they may contribute to vaccine hesitancy by playing upon people’s fears.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook Will Add Labels To All Posts About Covid-19 Vaccines That Will Promote ‘Authoritative Information’
https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2021/03/15/facebook-will-add-labels-to-all-posts-about-covid-19-vaccines-that-will-promote-authoritative-information/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie
Facebook will soon add labels to all posts about coronavirus vaccines that points people to its Covid-19 Information Center, the company said in a blog post on Monday as part of its plans to promote vaccination efforts on its platforms, amidst continued criticism from health experts and lawmakers for allowing misinformation about vaccines to spread on its platform.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Facebook got addicted to spreading misinformation
https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/03/11/1020600/facebook-responsible-ai-misinformation/
The companys AI algorithms gave it an insatiable habit for lies and
hate speech. Now the man who built them can’t fix the problem.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Noam Cohen / Wired:
Wikimedia Foundation debuts Wikimedia Enterprise, a premium service for delivering Wikipedia content to companies like Google, but a free option will remain — The Big Four all lean on the encyclopedia at no cost. With the launch of Wikimedia Enterprise, the volunteer project will change that—and possibly itself, too.
Wikipedia Is Finally Asking Big Tech to Pay Up
https://www.wired.com/story/wikipedia-finally-asking-big-tech-to-pay-up/https://www.wired.com/story/wikipedia-finally-asking-big-tech-to-pay-up/
The Big Four all lean on the encyclopedia at no cost. With the launch of Wikimedia Enterprise, the volunteer project will change that—and possibly itself too.
From the start, Google and Wikipedia have been in a kind of unspoken partnership: Wikipedia produces the information Google serves up in response to user queries, and Google builds up Wikipedia’s reputation as a source of trustworthy information. Of course, there have been bumps, including Google’s bold attempt to replace Wikipedia with its own version of user-generated articles, under the clumsy name “Knol,” short for knowledge. Knol never did catch on, despite Google’s offer to pay the principal author of an article a share of advertising money. But after that failure, Google embraced Wikipedia even tighter—not only linking to its articles but reprinting key excerpts on its search result pages to quickly deliver Wikipedia’s knowledge to those seeking answers.
The two have grown in tandem over the past 20 years, each becoming its own household word. But whereas one mushroomed into a trillion-dollar company, the other has remained a midsize nonprofit, depending on the generosity of individual users, grant-giving foundations, and the Silicon Valley giants themselves to stay afloat. Now Wikipedia is seeking to rebalance its relationships with Google and other big tech firms like Amazon, Facebook, and Apple, whose platforms and virtual assistants lean on Wikipedia as a cost-free virtual crib sheet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
William Turton / Bloomberg:
Leaked audio from a February 8 meeting reveals Parler’s chief policy officer saying: “We are not going after misinformation in any way” — Leaked recordings of meetings detail role of Rebekah Mercer at social-media platform — Conservative donor Rebekah Mercer has been writing checks …
Mercer-Backed Parler Casts Its Reboot as Fight for Free Speech
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-16/relaunched-parler-engaged-in-mercer-funded-war-over-free-speech
Leaked recordings of meetings detail role of Rebekah Mercer at social-media platform
Tomi Engdahl says:
Russia Threatens to Block Twitter in a Month
https://www.securityweek.com/russia-threatens-block-twitter-month
Russian authorities said Tuesday they would block Twitter in a month if it doesn’t take steps to remove banned content, a move that escalates the Russian government’s drawn-out standoff with social media platforms that have played a major role in amplifying dissent in Russia.
Russia’s state communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, last week announced it was slowing down the speed of uploading photos and videos to Twitter over its alleged failure to remove content encouraging suicide among children and information about drugs and child pornography.
The agency said Twitter has failed to remove more than 3,000 posts with banned content, including more than 2,500 posts encouraging suicide among minors. The platform responded by emphasizing its policy of zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation, promotion of suicide and drug sales.
Tomi Engdahl says:
6 Tips To Help You Detect Fake Science News
https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/6-tips-to-help-you-detect-fake-science-news/
when consuming media, even I frequently need to ask myself: “Is this science or is it fiction?”
There are plenty of reasons a science story might not be sound.
If the science sounds too good to be true or too wacky to be real, or very conveniently supports a contentious cause, then you might want to check its veracity.
Here are six tips to help you detect fake science.
Tip 1: Seek the peer review seal of approval
Tip 2: Look for your own blind spots
Tip 3: Correlation is not causation
Tip 4: Who were the study’s subjects?
Tip 5: Science doesn’t need ‘sides’
Tip 6: Clear, honest reporting might not be the goal
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook says it’ll start punishing group members who break its rules
Ultimately culminating in a ban
https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/17/22335659/facebook-groups-members-rules-recommendations-ban
Facebook is trying to clean up its Groups experience and limit the reach of potentially problematic users and communities. The company announced multiple changes to groups today, including plans to put users who break rules on probation, further limit the reach of civic and political groups, and require more moderation in groups that have violated Facebook’s rules.
Group members who break Facebook’s rules will suffer various new consequences. Initially, people with repeat violations will be prevented from posting or commenting in any group for a certain period of time. A spokesperson tells The Verge this time could be either seven or 30 days, depending on the number of violations and the severity of them. They also won’t be able to invite other people to any groups or create new groups.
Finally, these violating groups’ admins and moderators will have to temporarily approve all posts whenever the group has a substantial number of members who have violated policies or were part of other groups that were removed for breaking the rules. If these admins or moderators just approve everything, even content that breaks the rules, the entire group will be taken down.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Abuse of power: coordinated online harassment of Finnish government ministers
https://www.stratcomcoe.org/abuse-power-coordinated-online-harassment-finnish-government-ministers
Pääministeri Marin otti kantaa Nato-raporttiin: ”Naiset johtavat hallitusta, get over it” https://www.is.fi/politiikka/art-2000007867493.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
“A new report from the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, based in Latvia, has found that the Finnish government, headed by Prime Minister Sanna Marin, is overwhelmingly targeted by misogynistic online harassment.”
Finland’s women-led government targeted by online harassment
The online attacks have left some female politicians afraid to speak out.
https://www.politico.eu/article/sanna-marin-finland-online-harassment-women-government-targeted/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook goes after Substack
By Mathew Ingram
MARCH 18, 2021
https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/facebook-goes-after-substack.php
IF YOU’RE AN INDEPENDENT WRITER OR JOURNALIST, Facebook would like you to know that it wants to help you. With what? Just about everything: it wants to give you easy to use writing and publishing tools, so you can create websites and newsletters, and publish them in multiple places (including on Facebook, of course), and it wants to help you connect those sites and newsletters you create to groups that it will also help you create (on Facebook, naturally).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jotkut mainokset on vaan niin hyviä, että ne sekä opettaa samalla kun suupielet nousee hymyyn. Webflow:
If life were like web design, you’d never put up with it. That’s why we made Webflow, the modern way to build for the web.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojiv9Smi4XE
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sean Coughlan / BBC:
London police warn students about using Sci-Hub, calling the self-described “pirate” site for research papers “a threat to their personal information and data” — Police have warned students in the UK against using a website that they say lets users “illegally access” millions of scientific research papers.
Police warn students to avoid science website
https://www.bbc.com/news/education-56462390
Police have warned students in the UK against using a website that they say lets users “illegally access” millions of scientific research papers.
The City of London police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit says using the Sci-Hub website could “pose a threat” to students’ personal data.
The police are concerned that users of the “Russia-based website” could have information taken and misused online.
The Sci-Hub website says it “removes all barriers” to science.
It offers open access to more than 85 million scientific papers and claims that copyright laws should be abolished and that such material should be “knowledge to all”.
It describes itself as “the first pirate website in the world to provide mass and public access to tens of millions of research papers”.
University ‘threat’
But Max Bruce, the City of London police’s cyber protection officer, has urged universities to block the website on their networks because of the “threat posed by Sci-Hub to both the university and its students”.
“If you’re tricked into revealing your log-in credentials, whether it’s through the use of fake emails or malware, we know that Sci-Hub will then use those details to compromise your university’s computer network in order to steal research papers,” he said.
The City of London Police, which is the national lead for fraud, has warned that students studying online at home might be vulnerable.
‘Access to research’
The police warning says scientific papers could have been obtained by a “variety of malicious means, such as the use of phishing emails to trick university staff and students into divulging their login credentials”.
But the Sci-Hub website has previously told the BBC that it provides students with access to research papers for which the subscriptions are “very expensive”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yumiko Sato / Slate:
Misinformation and historical revisionism are widespread on some non-English editions of Wikipedia, such as Japanese, which is the most visited after English — During World War II, Unit 731 of the Japanese military undertook horrific medical experimentation in Manchukuo (Northeast China).
Non-English Editions of Wikipedia Have a Misinformation Problem
https://slate.com/technology/2021/03/japanese-wikipedia-misinformation-non-english-editions.html?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4
Around the same time, Wikipedia celebrated its 20th birthday and received praise in the U.S. and U.K. media for the accuracy of its articles. But the coverage focused on the English version, even though Wikipedia is just as influential in other languages. Japanese Wikipedia is the most visited edition of Wikipedia after English. On average it receives 1 billion page views per month. Japanese Wikipedia pages are consistently the top result on most search engines. But Japanese Wikipedia is not an outlier—there is a wider misinformation and disinformation problem on non-English editions of Wikipedia.
n January, the Washington Post ran a piece headlined “On Its 20th Birthday, Wikipedia Might Be the Safest Place Online.” The thrust of this article was that unlike other big tech platforms, Wikipedia had learned to fight misinformation and disinformation. One of the ways this was possible, the Post noted, was that it had “only one page for each subject.”
This point was repeated by Katherine Maher, Wikimedia CEO, in the interview with Al Jazeera, in which she said, “the fact that we only have one page, it’s the same page that’s viewed by absolutely everyone across the globe is really important.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chavi Mehta / Reuters:NEW
Facebook says it took down 1.3B fake accounts from October-December and 12M pieces of COVID-19 misinformation; Facebook has 35,000 staff tackling misinformation — (Reuters) – Facebook Inc said on Monday it took down 1.3 billion fake accounts between October and December …
Facebook says took down 1.3 billion fake accounts in Oct-Dec
https://www.reuters.com/article/facebook-misinformation-int-idUSKBN2BE12M
Tomi Engdahl says:
Just Security:
A list of questions that experts think CEOs of Facebook, Twitter, and Google should be asked during the March 25 House committee hearing on misinformation
A Dozen Experts with Questions Congress Should Ask the Tech CEOs — On Disinformation and Extremism
https://www.justsecurity.org/75439/questions-congress-should-ask-the-tech-ceos-on-disinformation-and-extremism/
On Thursday, March 25th, two subcomittees of the House Energy & Commerce Committee will hold a joint hearing on “the misinformation and disinformation plaguing online platforms.” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai will testify and respond to questions from lawmakers. And Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) has now said that the Senate Judiciary subcommittee he chairs is “very likely” to call Zuckerberg and Dorsey to testify as well, with a focus on how algorithms amplify misinformation and the spread of extremism.
Next Thursday will be the first time the tech CEOs will face Congress since the January 6th siege on the U.S. Capitol, where different groups of individuals incited by disinformation campaigns led by former President Donald Trump and his allies sought to prevent the certification of the presidential election. Questions about the role of the tech platforms in contributing to radicalization and extremism and propagating disinformation related to the election are expected, according to a press release from the Committee. They are also interested in the spread of disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic.
Tomi Engdahl says:
WordPress 5.7 – mitä uutta sisällön tuottajalle ja ylläpitäjälle?
https://digiopisto.com/2021/03/wordpress-5-7-mita-uutta-sisallon-tuottajalle-ja-yllapitajalle/
WordPress versio 5.7 julkaistiin 9.3.2021. Sisällön tuottajille uusi WordPress tuo muutamia toiminnallisia parannuksia lohkoeditoriin. WordPress-sivuston ylläpitäjän näkökulmasta mielenkiintoinen lisäys on sivuston SSL-suojauksen käyttöönottoa helpottava toiminto.
WordPress-sivuston sisällön tuottajalle entistä parempi lohkoeditori
WordPress on versiosta 5.0 lähtien tarjonnut oletuksena sisällön tuotantoa varten lohkoeditorin (joka tunnetaan myös nimellä Gutenberg). WordPressin perustamisesta lähtien käytössä ollut klassinen TinyMC-editori sai Gutenbergin esittelyn yhteydessä – monien pitkäaikaisten WordPressin käyttäjien avoimesta vastustuksesta huolimatta – väistyä oletuseditorin paikalta taka-alalle.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://seranking.com/blog/duplicate-pages/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Verkkokaupan hakukoneoptimointi: 10 parasta vinkkiä, miten menestyt haussa
Jotta verkkokauppa löytyisi paremmin hakukoneista, on tärkeää ymmärtää mistä eri tekijöistä verkkokaupan hakukoneoptimointi koostuu.
https://www.digimarkkinointi.fi/blogi/verkkokaupan-hakukoneoptimointi-10-parasta-vinkkia-miten-menestyt-haussa