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.
915 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
SPA’s are catching up fast among website users for their fluid experience, this is why, you should choose them.
We at Framian have a long experience with SPA websites and would love to consult you on your next projects.
#singlepageapplications #SPA
Single Page Applications and Why Should You Choose Them?
https://framian.fi/blog/spa-applications/?fbclid=IwAR0p1hngxKPp-vFORQhS9RJBM-EQiqkQUwrUu38FhpZKZBfNUUsH6ao1iK4
Single Page Applications (SPA) are catching up fast among website users for their fluid experience. But users may be oblivious of the technology because the user is never the one who usually thinks of electricity when turning on a light bulb but the technology enabler. Likewise, it is conducive to know what a Single Page Application is and how they work if the seamless user experience is a top business priority for your web applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Digiveijareiden taikaministeriötä ei pidä päästää liian helpolla
https://media.sanoma.fi/kirjoituksia-markkinoinnista/2021-03-22-digiveijareiden-taikaministeriota-ei-pida-paastaa-liian
On perin juurin kummallista, että digimarkkinoinnin ympärillä leijuu edelleen monimutkaisuuden ja mystisyyden ilmapiiri, kirjoittaa ToinenPHD:n Jani Halme.
Internet on jo verrattain vanha keksintö. Vaikkapa tämä Helsingin Sanomat on eri muodoissaan ollut luettavissa netissä jo neljännesvuosisadan. Aikamme digimahdeista Google käy kolmatta vuosikymmentään ja Facebook on sekin ollut markkinoilla jo kaksi vuosikymmentä.
Vielä pidempään on ollut olemassa digitaalista markkinointia. Onkin perin juurin kummallista, että digimarkkinoinnin ympärillä leijuu edelleen monimutkaisuuden ja mystisyyden ilmapiiri.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Isoimmat virheet Facebook-markkinoinnissa
https://www.innoclub.fi/isoimmat-virheet-facebook-markkinoinnissa/
Facebook on äärimmäisen tehokas markkinointikanava, jos myynnin kasvattaminen on mielenkiintosi kohteena. Facebook sopii sekä b2b- että b2c-yrityksille, palvelu- ja tuotesektorilla.
Mutta. Facebook-markkinoinnissa voi heittää rahat hukkaan varsin nopeasti, jos jättää tietyt asiat tekemättä. Käydään läpi 6 isointa virhettä Facebook-markkinoinnissa – lopusta saattaa myös löytyä bonus-virhe.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IS YOUR WORDPRESS WEBSITE PROTECTED AGAINST ATTACKERS?
Scan your WordPress website below to get free & instant access to your online security scan results.
https://wpsec.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kuntoon laitettu koodi on merkittävä kilpailuetu
https://www.meom.fi/venture/blogi/kuntoon-laitettu-koodi-on-merkittava-kilpailuetu/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Verkkokauppa avaa ovet asiakkaille ajasta ja paikasta riippumatta
https://into-digital.fi/verkkokauppa-avaa-ovet-asiakkaille-ajasta-ja-paikasta-riippumatta/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.innoclub.fi/isoimmat-virheet-facebook-markkinoinnissa/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://jweb.fi/blogs/verkkokauppa-blogi/lisamyynti-shopify-verkkokaupassa
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://weglot.com/shopify-multilingual/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Markus Paul
Spiders are the only web developers that are happy to find a bug
https://www.funnybap.com/meme/spiders-are-the-only-web-developers-that-are-happy-to-find-a-bug-2438/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Offers UK Watchdog Role in Browser Cookie Phase-Out
https://www.securityweek.com/google-offers-uk-watchdog-role-browser-cookie-phase-out
Google is offering U.K. regulators a role overseeing its phasing out of ad-tracking technology from its Chrome browser, in a package of commitments the tech giant is proposing to apply globally to head off a competition investigation.
The U.K. competition watchdog has been investigating Google’s proposals to remove so-called third-party cookies over concerns they would undermine digital ad competition and entrench the company’s market power.
To address the concerns, Google on Friday offered a set of commitments including giving the Competition and Markets Authority an oversight role as the company designs and develops a replacement technology.
“The emergence of tech giants such as Google has presented competition authorities around the world with new challenges that require a new approach,” Andrea Coscelli, the watchdog’s chief executive, said.
The Competition and Markets Authority will work with tech companies to “shape their behaviour and protect competition to the benefit of consumers,” he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:
Sir Tim Berners-Lee is auctioning his original source code for the web as an NFT, the first time he would be able to raise money directly from his invention — Sotheby’s sale will be first time creator has been able to raise money directly from invention — Sir Tim Berners-Lee is auctioning …
https://t.co/Bbzi8iKBs5
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kaitlyn Tiffany / The Atlantic:
Examining the commercialization of ideas and interactions via newsletters, NFTs, and tip jars, where money empowers but reduces expression to mere commerce
You Can’t Escape the Attention Economy
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/06/how-memes-become-money/619189/?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4
That’s not just a tweet; that’s your original idea and your intellectual property, and maybe you can sell it.
By Kaitlyn Tiffany
These days, if Chang were to make a “silly little joke” about a boy and a bowl of cereal, he knows that it would be considered “content”—a post that can be circulated and noticed, and leveraged to inspire continued use of Twitter by those who want to see more content like it. He doesn’t happen to profit from his Twitter account, apart from linking to his Bandcamp page, but it’s not unreasonable to expect that he might. “In theory, why shouldn’t I get money from it, rather than just promoting Twitter itself?” he mused. I asked Chang if he remembered when this fact became apparent—when people came to understand that every post they publish is a potential moneymaker for somebody at some point. He guessed that it happened about five years ago, around the time when people stopped saying the word content in quotation marks, as if the whole thing was a joke.
At first, getting people paid for content was a noble goal.
For years, creative platforms (SoundCloud, Tumblr, Vine—may it rest in peace) were criticized for not offering artists straightforward ways to make money. A well-meaning and productive conversation followed, along with new solutions. Patreon arrived in 2013, providing an easy way to collect subscription fees from loyal audiences—now comprising 6 million paying subscribers or “patrons”—who are interested in supporting users’ podcasts, digital art, and music, or who just want to read their password-protected Tumblr accounts. Journalists and other writers can sell subscriptions to their work directly to consumers via email newsletter platforms such as Substack. And over the course of the pandemic, the not-just-porn (but plenty of porn) platform, OnlyFans, where all kinds of performers can charge subscription fees and collect tips, reportedly added 100 million new users.
These are positive developments for people who rely on creative work for their livelihoods, but the implications are stranger for everyone else. There are paid, premium versions of everything now, and a commercial structure to every major website.
On Instagram, people have been selling access to their “Close Friends” stories since 2018. The platform doesn’t directly facilitate that kind of transaction, but in nearly every other way imaginable, it has turned influencer profiles into so many online malls.
Anyone can mint their own “non-fungible tokens” and commodify a meme. A digital token of a famous GIF of a famous cat recently sold for $580,000. People who are particularly good at Twitter are experimenting with selling NFTs of their tweets. (I seriously contemplated buying one that reads, “I feel like NFT’s are basically those certificates that say you have a star named after you . Like ok sure babe.”) What counts as user content—and is thus for sale—can be defined more broadly still: Some of the biggest IP disputes on the social audio app Clubhouse, for example, have been over general premises for interaction. In February 2021, a group of friends who’d been gathering in an Asian-diaspora chat set up a new chat room where people pretended to moan like whales. Then a bunch of influencers heard how popular it was and made rip-offs. Around the same time, a group of white NYU students were accused of stealing the idea of a “shoot your shot” dating-show room from the many Black creators who had been hosting similar rooms for months. The students have now signed on with a major talent agency, with the goal of creating a “cross-platform franchise.”
At this point, when most of our interactions happen in this handful of highly commodified spaces, who could be blamed for feeling like everything they do is—or at least feels like—commerce? “I’m actually very torn on this,”
I often think about the former reality star Spencer Pratt, one of Twitter’s most dedicated posters, and how he lamented in 2016 that he was spending his time on the platform “bleeding soul for free.”
Five years later, the “meme-to-money pipeline,” as the writer Delia Cai called it in a recent newsletter, is still confusing its participants—setting up some to strike it rich while others see their ideas stolen or devalued. There’s an air of frenzy at all times. Promising new platforms become the sites of gold rushes and then vicious competition; attention is a finite resource and anyone else’s gain is your loss. The new systems of commercialization don’t even do that much to address the pressing inequity of the old ones. Cai points out that, in practice, the new pipeline still carries profit mostly to white content creators, while Black teenagers’ contributions to internet culture continue to be appropriated.
At the same time, the NFT craze makes even more literal the suggestion that every post is worth only whatever value it commands on the market. This is unnerving for several reasons, not least of which is that a person’s most lucrative online moments are not necessarily the same as their most shining moments.
There is no easy way to resolve this tension. Selling an NFT of a tweet isn’t about fostering an audience or creating a sustainable source of income to support a creative life. It’s the newest, most direct way of converting attention into money, and of plucking a unit of content out of its cultural context—the conversation it was part of, the historical moment that made it significant, the people who saw it and got excited about it—and presenting it for purchase.
It’s appropriate to give credit to people for their creativity and compensate them for their labor. It’s empowering to siphon value from the social-media companies that have been making billions off our personal lives. But it’s also a kind of giving up.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
Amazon blames social media companies for its failure to remove fake reviews, saying they are slow to act when warned about such reviews
Amazon blames social media for struggle with fake reviews
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jun/16/amazon-blames-social-media-for-struggle-with-fake-reviews
Firm says sites are slow to act when warned that fake reviews are being solicited on their platforms
Tomi Engdahl says:
This is your chance to “own” the world’s first browser.
World Wide Web Inventor To Auction NFTs Of The First Web Browser’s Source Code
https://www.iflscience.com/technology/world-wide-web-inventor-to-auction-nfts-of-the-first-web-browsers-source-code/
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the first web browser WorldWideWeb, has announced he will auction off the source code of his creation in a series of NFTs. This is a surprise move to many, as Berners-Lee has never before sought to profit off the browser, which was launched in 1991 and discontinued in 1994. No patent was filed for the source code, which entered the public domain in 1993. Sotheby’s, the company hosting the NFT auction, says that the proceeds will go towards initiatives that Berners-Lee and his wife support. The auction will be open from June 23 to June 30, with bidding starting at $1,000.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A 25-Year-Old Bet Comes Due: Has Tech Destroyed Society?
https://www.wired.com/story/a-25-year-old-bet-comes-due-has-tech-destroyed-society/?mbid=social_facebook&utm_brand=wired&utm_campaign=falcon&utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=facebook
In 1995, a WIRED cofounder challenged a Luddite-loving doomsayer to a prescient wager on tech and civilization’s fate. Now their judge weighs in.
Sale believed society was on the verge of collapse. That wasn’t entirely bad, he argued. He hoped the few surviving humans would band together in small, tribal-style clusters. They wouldn’t be just off the grid. There would be no grid. Which was dandy, as far as Sale was concerned.
“History is full of civilizations that have collapsed, followed by people who have had other ways of living,” Sale said. “My optimism is based on the certainty that civilization will collapse.”
That was the opening Kelly had been waiting for. In the final pages of his Luddite book, Sale had predicted society would collapse “within not more than a few decades.” Kelly, who saw technology as an enriching force, believed the opposite—that society would flourish. Baiting his trap, Kelly asked just when Sale thought this might happen.
Sale was a bit taken aback—he’d never put a date on it. Finally, he blurted out 2020. It seemed like a good round number.
Kelly then asked how, in a quarter century, one might determine whether Sale was right.
Sale extemporaneously cited three factors: an economic disaster that would render the dollar worthless, causing a depression worse than the one in 1930; a rebellion of the poor against the monied; and a significant number of environmental catastrophes.
“Would you be willing to bet on your view?” Kelly asked.
Twenty-five years later, the once distant deadline is here. We are locked down. Income equality hasn’t been this bad since just before the Great Depression. California and Australia were on fire this year. We’re about to find out how easy that money is.
Over the past 25 years, Sale had continued to write about decentralization and simplicity. But he had a harder time getting published.
Sale remained convinced that civilization was doomed.
Collapse is coming, he said. Then Sale shared the news that he was writing a book about the bet.
The book is called The Collapse of 2020—and yes, the neo-Luddite’s latest work is available on Kindle. In fact, Sale has made compromises with technology.
When Sale and Kelly made the bet, they had assumed that by 2020 the winner would be obvious. Maybe all it would take was a look around: Is civilization still here, or not? It clearly is still kicking around. But the pandemic, its economic consequences, and the worsening climate crisis have made things interesting. What would Patrick say?
Sale says that, even in retrospect, he couldn’t have come up with a better answer. “I said ‘collapse’ at dinner parties, but no one ever asked me to be specific,” he says. Moreover, Sales’ Collapse of 2020 book, which came out last January, includes an untimely concession. The very fact that his book exists, he wrote, is the equivalent of tossing his cards face down on the table: If society had in fact collapsed, there would be no books, self-published or not. “So let me just admit that I was wrong,” he wrote. “But … not by much. And not totally.” Yet shortly after the book appeared, global events seemed to tilt in Sale’s favor. The pandemic’s effect on physical and economic health, Donald Trump’s destabilization of democracy, and ever more extreme weather nudged civilization closer to the precipice.
Economic Collapse. Sale predicted flatly that the dollar and other accepted currencies would be worthless in 2020. Patrick points to the Dow at 30,000 and the success of new currencies such as Bitcoin. “Not much contest here,” Patrick writes. Round goes to Kelly.
Global Environmental Disaster. Kelly tried to argue that despite worsening climate change, people are still living their lives pretty much as usual. “If this is a disaster, that is not evident to Earth’s 7 billion inhabitants,” Kelly wrote in his four-page argument. But Patrick isn’t convinced.
The War Between Rich and Poor. Sale’s book cites devastating statistics on income inequality and the frayed social fabric. If he had written his book after the pandemic, the picture would be even worse. But are the classes at war?
Round by round, the outcome would seem to make it a draw.
“Only one of his predictions was a winner; one came in neck and neck; and one was way back in the pack.”
Sale believes more than ever that society is basically crumbling—the process is just not far enough along to drive us from apartment blocks to huts. The collapse, he says, is “not like a building imploding and falling down, but like a slow avalanche that destroys and kills everything in its path, until it finally buries the whole village forever.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/technology/ai-writes-false-news-remarkably-well-with-little-human-input-and-people-fall-for-it-/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kolmannen osapuolen evästeet poistumassa: mitä se tarkoittaa mainostajan kannalta?
https://www.karhuhelsinki.fi/blogi/kolmannen-osapuolen-evasteet-poistumassa-mita-se-tarkoittaa-mainostajan-kannalta
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/14/the-demise-of-browser-cookies-could-create-a-golden-age-of-digital-marketing/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Eric Newcomer / Newcomer:
Andreessen Horowitz’s Future doesn’t compete with journalism because it offers up essays, not reporting, limiting its potential to promote tech-positive views
Andreessen Horowitz and the ‘Future’ of Media
https://www.newcomer.co/p/andreessen-horowitz-and-the-future
I’ve been dragging my feet on writing about Andreessen Horowitz’s much-anticipated new publication, which the firm revealed Tuesday. On the one hand, I played some part in helping to spark the media uproar over Andreessen Horowitz’s “go direct” strategy with The Unauthorized Story of Andreessen Horowitz — a profile of the firm’s communications guru, Margit Wennmachers. On the other hand, I quickly came to see the backlash to Andreessen Horowitz’s ambitions as overblown.
But people have been asking me what I think since Andreessen Horowitz launched their new publication, Future, and since Anna Wiener penned her version of the Andreessen story for the New Yorker1. And I do have some opinions as to how this whole discussion has gotten muddled.
First, here’s my view on Future2. It’s a bunch of essays. They’re not competing with reporters. Maybe they’re somewhat similar to an op-ed page or Wired.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anti-Vaxxers Are Asking People To Stop Calling Them Anti-Vaxxers Because It’s “Highly Offensive”
https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/antivaxxers-are-asking-people-to-stop-calling-them-antivaxxers-because-its-highly-offensive/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
EU Court of Justice says YouTube and other platforms are not liable for copyright-infringing content uploaded by users under certain conditions
YouTube wins user copyright fight in top EU court ruling
https://www.reuters.com/technology/eu-top-court-says-youtube-not-liable-user-copyright-breaches-2021-06-22/
LUXEMBOURG, June 22 (Reuters) – Google’s (GOOGL.O) YouTube won its latest copyright-infringement challenge after Europe’s top court said online platforms are not liable for users uploading unauthorised works unless the platforms failed to take quick action to remove or block access to the content.
The case marks the latest development in a long-running battle between Europe’s $1 trillion creative industry and online platforms, with the former seeking redress for unauthorised works that are uploaded.
It is also part of the wider debate on how much online platforms and social media should do to police the posting of unauthorised, illegal or hateful content, an issue that European Union regulators are targeting with tough new rules that could come into force next year.
“As currently stands, operators of online platforms do not, in principle, themselves make a communication to the public of copyright-protected content illegally posted online by users of those platforms,” the EU Court of Justice said.
In response to the court ruling a YouTube spokesperson said: “YouTube is a leader in copyright and supports rights holders being paid their fair share.”
“That’s why we’ve invested in state of the art copyright tools which have created an entirely new revenue stream for the industry. In the past 12 months alone we have paid $4 billion to the music industry, over 30% of which comes from monetised user generated content.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kait Bolongaro / Bloomberg:
Canadian lawmakers pass a controversial bill that would subject tech giants to the same requirements as traditional broadcasters; bill now heads to the Senate
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-22/trudeau-s-party-passes-bill-to-regulate-social-media-streaming
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mark Nottingham / mnot’s blog:
How recent actions against Big Tech in the US, UK, and EU could inadvertently lead to more fragmentation and ossification of the internet
How the Next Layer of the Internet is Going to be Standardised
https://www.mnot.net/blog/2021/06/21/standards-competition-governance
A big change in how the Internet is defined – and who defines it – is underway.
For a while now, it’s been apparent that Internet and Web standards have stagnated at the ‘top’ of the stack. While the IETF has been busy revising HTTP and replacing TCP down below, a tremendous amount of innovation is going on up top, and it’s all in private hands. This is where most of the apparent value in the Internet now resides: when you ask people what is the Internet? they don’t say anything about end-to-end, reliable delivery, stateful resources, or the browser platform; they say ‘social networking, search and shopping’, or more likely, ‘Facebook, Google and Amazon.’
Services like social networking, instant messaging and online marketplaces don’t have to be entrusted into the hands of these companies – they could be distributed and/or federated systems like the lower layers of the Internet, where there isn’t a ‘choke point’ that allows a single entity to control them. There are even existing standards for many of these functions, but they haven’t succeeded. Sometimes, that’s because they weren’t capable enough, or able to evolve quickly enough (see Moxie’s great talk about this), or because someone used market power to shift power away from an open solution that didn’t fit their business model (Google Reader, anyone?).
With this in mind, I’ve been watching the investigations of the competition issues surrounding big tech platforms around the world with great interest.1 It seems to me that an obvious remedy to a concentration of power is to distribute that power by requiring market participants to use open interoperability standards, and competition regulators have the power to force the issue. This won’t solve all problems with the big platforms, of course, but it’s a great start.
Tomi Engdahl says:
In a nutshell, Google’s efforts to improve privacy by removing support for third-party cookies in Chrome have attracted the CMA’s attention, because doing so can be seen to give Google an upper hand in the advertising and publishing markets, since Google will retain access to first-party tracking information. Last week’s announcement stated that Google had made some commitments to the CMA regarding how it would develop the Privacy Sandbox.
Update: The EU has opened a similar investigation.
The CMA’s concerns about the impact of these changes on those markets are entirely reasonable, and some parts of the Privacy Sandbox are dubious at best (e.g., see Mozilla’s assessment of FLoC). However, the Privacy Sandbox also includes functions like:
Removing third-party cookies: just like Firefox, Safari and Brave are doing, with support extending from the very first Cookie standard through to the most recent revision.
Combatting fingerprinting: just like Firefox, Safari and Brave are doing, with broad support over multiple years in Web standards.
Privacy proxies: just like Firefox and Apple are working on, with relevant standardisation activity in the IETF MASQUE Working Group among other places.
These functions – which many consider to be normal or even critical browser functions – are now subject to approval by the UK’s competition regulator, at least in the most popular Web browser.
https://www.mnot.net/blog/2021/06/21/standards-competition-governance
Tomi Engdahl says:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:NEW
International coalition of consumer groups, digital and civil rights organizations, and data protection experts call for ban on “surveillance-based advertising” — An international coalition of consumer protection, digital and civil rights organizations and data protection experts …
https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/23/international-coalition-joins-the-call-to-ban-surveillance-advertising/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cam Wilson / Crikey:
Australia’s controversial Online Security Bill is about to become law, expanding the eSafety Commissioner’s ability to censor the internet — The controversial Online Safety Bill will give broad censorship powers to the eSafety commissioner, and experts warn that it could harm those it purports to save.
Parties unite to deliver greater internet censorship powers to government-appointed official
https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/06/23/parties-unite-to-deliver-greater-internet-censorship-powers-to-government-appointed-official/
The controversial Online Safety Bill will give broad censorship powers to the eSafety commissioner, and experts warn that it could harm those it purports to save.
Tomi Engdahl says:
I Paid 5 Designers To Design THE SAME Logo…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj2VaMkvjBI
Tomi Engdahl says:
How To Design A Logo Using The Grid Method
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nCTq5euTzI
Tomi Engdahl says:
John D. McKinnon / Wall Street Journal:
House committee approves six major antitrust bills, the most significant requiring internet platforms to enable users to transport their data to other platforms — Tech companies will take the battle over the proposed new regulations and oversight to the House floor and Senate
Google, Facebook Pressure Falls Short as Antitrust Measures Advance in House Committee
https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-facebook-pressure-falls-short-as-major-antitrust-measures-advance-in-house-committee-11624505607?mod=djemalertNEWS
Tech companies to take the battle over the proposed new regulations and oversight to the House floor and Senate
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rick Edmonds / Poynter:
Reuters Institute report: US ranks last among 46 countries for trust in media, with just 29% saying they trust the news; Finland has the highest trust at 65%
US ranks last among 46 countries in trust in media, Reuters Institute report finds
https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2021/us-ranks-last-among-46-countries-in-trust-in-media-reuters-institute-report-finds/
Just 29% of people surveyed in the U.S. said they trust the news, compared to 45% in Canada and 54% in Brazil.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2021
https://www.slideshare.net/ReutersInstitute/reuters-institute-digital-news-report-2021-249450003
Tomi Engdahl says:
Brave launches its own, privacyfocused search engine https://brave.com/brave-search-beta/
The Brave Search engine takes on Google, promising to let users surf the web without leaving a trace
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Shopify drops Shopify App Store’s cut to 0% on devs’ first $1M in revenue, says app developer partners earned $233M in 2020, more than 2018 and 2019 combined — Following similar moves by Apple, Google, and more recently Amazon, among others, e-commerce platform Shopify announced today it’s …
Shopify drops its App Store commissions to 0% on developers’ first million in revenue
Sarah [email protected] / 9:15 PM GMT+3•June 29, 2021
https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/29/shopify-drops-its-app-store-commissions-to-0-on-developers-first-million-in-revenue/
Tomi Engdahl says:
An NFT of the web’s source code has sold for $5.4 million
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/30/tim-berners-lee-world-wide-web-nft-being-sold-by-sothebys.html?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=Tech&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1625060225
NFTs are a type of digital asset designed to show that someone has ownership of a unique virtual item, such as online pictures and videos.
The web NFT has been made by British computer scientist and web inventor Tim Berners-Lee.
It includes original time-stamped files containing the source code written by Berners-Lee, an animated visualization of the code, a letter written by Berners-Lee on the code and its creation, and a digital “poster” of the full code.
A non-fungible token of the original code for the World Wide Web has sold for $5.4 million in a Sotheby’s online auction.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Norway Law Forces Influencers to Label Retouched Photos on Instagram https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5gd99/norway-law-forces-influencers-to-label-retouched-photos-on-instagram
Legislators in Norway have passed new regulations requiring influencers and advertisers to label retouched photos in a bid to fight unrealistic beauty standards.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Guidance on Strengthening the Code of Practice on Disinformation
https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/guidance-strengthening-code-practice-disinformation
The Commission guidance shows how the Code of Practice on Disinformation could be strengthened to become a more effective tool for countering disinformation.
The Code has provided a framework for a structured dialogue between relevant stakeholders, the first one of its kind worldwide, to ensure greater transparency and accountability of platforms’ policies on disinformation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook has confirmed it is trialling ads in its Oculus headset, breaking previous promises from the VR headset’s founder. Is this a reason to ditch your device?
Facebook Just Gave 1 Million Oculus Users A Reason To Quit
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2021/07/04/facebook-just-gave-1-million-oculus-users-a-reason-to-leave/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Valerie&sh=182e939876f5
Tomi Engdahl says:
Clothilde Goujard / Politico:
EU’s new law will let tech companies scan their platforms for child sexual abuse material for the next three years without fear of violating EU’s privacy laws — The European Parliament on Tuesday approved a controversial law that would allow digital companies to detect and report child sexual abuse …
EU Parliament lets companies look for child abuse on their platforms, with reservations
Privacy-conscious lawmakers say the rules are ‘legally flawed’ and endanger privacy.
https://www.politico.eu/article/european-parliament-platforms-child-sexual-abuse-reporting-law/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/216363187-Password-protecting-your-site-with-an-htaccess-file
Tomi Engdahl says:
CNBC:
Donald Trump sues Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, as well as Zuckerberg, Dorsey, and Pichai, claiming the companies have violated his First Amendment rights — – Former President Donald Trump announced he is suing Facebook, Twitter and Google, as well as their respective CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai.
Trump sues Twitter, Facebook, Google – and immediately begins fundraising off the effort
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/07/trump-says-he-is-suing-facebook-google-twitter-dorsey-zuckerberg-pichai.html
Former President Donald Trump announced he is suing Facebook, Twitter and Google, as well as their respective CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai.
Shortly after the news conference wrapped, Trump’s political entities started sending out fundraising messages that touted the lawsuits in their appeals for money.
Twitter, Trump’s preferred social media outlet throughout his one term in office, permanently banned him on the heels of the Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol by a mob of his supporters.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bonnie Kristian / The Week:
Trump’s lawsuits that claim Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube violated his First Amendment rights are just PR and fundraising tools, and likely legally doomed
Trump’s social media lawsuits are strategic, performative, and doomed
One member of this class action is not like the others
https://theweek.com/donald-trump/1002367/trump-social-media-lawsuits
Former President Donald Trump announced himself on Wednesday as the lead plaintiff in class action lawsuits against Facebook, Twitter, and Google, as well as their respective CEOs.
“We’re demanding an end to the shadow-banning, a stop to the silencing and a stop to the blacklisting, banishing, and canceling that you know so well,” he told reporters at his New Jersey golf course, arguing “there’s no better evidence that big tech is out of control than [that] they banned the sitting president of the United States earlier this year.” With these lawsuits, then, Trump will stand athwart big tech yelling, Stop! Please let me join you! I very much would like to be part of the extremely cool stuff you’re doing here!
If that rallying cry seems nonsensical, well, so is the entire project, if taken at face value. Its real value for Trump is indirect. These don’t seem to be lawsuits designed to succeed in court so much as tools of public relations and fundraising. They are strategic, performative, sometimes downright silly, and almost certainly legally doomed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
James Pearson / Reuters:
Investigation sheds light on Force 47, the Vietnamese army’s online information warfare unit behind pro-state Facebook Groups that aim to correct “wrong views” — In Vietnam, where the state is fighting a fierce online battle against political dissent, social media “influencers” …
How Vietnam’s ‘influencer’ army wages information warfare on Facebook
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/how-vietnams-influencer-army-wages-information-warfare-facebook-2021-07-09/
Thousands-strong ‘Force 47′ army unit fights ‘wrong views’
State media reveals network of Force 47 Facebook groups
Vietnam threatens to block Facebook over censorship requests
Facebook culls ‘Force 47′ group following Reuters investigation
YouTube says removes nine channels over spam policy
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kate Kaye / Digiday:
Facebook confirms it is delaying a brand safety audit by industry body MRC, after publicly committing to the audit a year ago during an ad boycott
Facebook delays its brand safety audit a year after ad boycott raged
https://digiday.com/marketing/facebook-delays-its-brand-safety-audit-a-year-after-ad-boycott-raged/
Facebook’s brand safety audit is postponed.
The company promised the Media Rating Council, the industry’s decades-old measurement verification body, that it would let the MRC begin its audit of the platform’s content monetization and brand safety controls by the end of June. But that deadline has come and gone. Not only has the audit yet to begin, as first reported by Digiday in early June, there is still no signed formal contract between MRC and Facebook regarding details of the audit, spokespeople for Facebook and the MRC confirmed.
Facebook publicly committed to the audit a year ago amid a collective boycott from spending on the platform by advertisers concerned that their ad messages were adjacent to and financially supporting hate speech, misinformation, pornography and other unsavory content on the platform.
The measurement standards group for months has been waiting for Facebook to complete an internal readiness process in preparation for the audit. There is little known about what that opaque readiness process entails, though Facebook said it remains underway.
“We are on track to complete our readiness and start the audit in July. We’re looking to achieve accreditation with the MRC by the end of this year,” a Facebook spokesperson told Digiday.
Although Facebook is sticking with a promise to complete the MRC audit “by the end of this year,” it is not clear whether it will get to the finish line by then.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Emily Birnbaum / Politico:
How the Internet Association’s influence in DC is waning, driven by internal dysfunction and industry divides; IA’s members include Google, Amazon, and Facebook
CTRL-ALT-Delete? The internet industry’s D.C. powerhouse vanishes.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/12/internet-association-powerhouse-recedes-499212
The Internet Association once brokered deals on tech legislation. But its role has shrunk amid the industry’s divides and changes under a new CEO.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Matt Burgess / Wired UK:
Profile of Internet Watch Foundation, a UK-based charity helping tech companies identify child sexual abuse material online, as it rebuilds its hashing software
The net is closing on child sexual abuse images
There are 150 child sexual abuse laws around the world. Metadata is being used to bring them closer together
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/child-sexual-abuse-images-metadata-iwf
Tomi Engdahl says:
BBC:
Some expat YouTubers in China are posting seemingly coordinated videos defending China on Xinjiang and other topics, likely spreading government disinformation
The foreigners in China’s disinformation drive
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57780023
Foreign video bloggers denouncing what they say is negative coverage of China on highly controversial subjects such as Xinjiang are attracting large numbers of subscribers on platforms like YouTube.
In recent years, the “vloggers” have been increasingly presenting themselves as China-lovers, spreading Communist Party disinformation.
YouTube labels Chinese state media like broadcaster CGTN as government-funded. But there is little policing when it comes to individuals promoting similar narratives.
Some vloggers are suspected of co-operating with state-owned outlets to spread China’s rhetoric to the world. But it’s far from clear what really motivates them, or how effective this strategy is.
Who are the vloggers?
Co-ordinated videos have recently been appearing on foreign vloggers’ channels to counter investigative reports from independent media on the treatment of China’s Uyghur community in its north-west Xinjiang region.
There are well-documented allegations of systematic human rights abuses on a huge scale in the region.
The vloggers include British expatriates Barrie Jones, Jason Lightfoot and father-and-son team Lee and Oli Barrett, who use their platforms to comment on the West’s alleged “lies” and China’s government policies.
They have subsequently gone on to appear in videos for Chinese state broadcaster CGTN.
‘Never been paid to go on a trip’
Vlogging is popular in China, but Chinese video platforms have strict terms and conditions, restricting what users can post. Thousands of internet moderators also screen content.
Consequently, many Chinese vloggers end up posting material filmed from within their homes.
China’s 1982 constitution guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press. However, Chinese vloggers and citizen journalists are often detained or arrested for making videos deemed to be unfavourable by the authorities.
Expat vloggers like the Barretts and Jason Lightfoot, however, appear to be in a comparatively privileged position with significant access, and in some cases facilitated by local officials or state media in China.
In an email to the BBC, the Barretts strenuously denied they post disinformation on behalf of the Chinese government or being paid for content.
Lee Barrett has been listed as a “global stringer” on CGTN’s website in recent videos on Xinjiang – that is, somebody who reports for the broadcaster, but is not a staff employee.
Jason Lightfoot is also on its list of stringers. The station billed him as a vlogger critical of “distorted reports” by Western media outlets.
Although YouTube does not label any of these pro-China vloggers as being funded or supported by the Chinese government, some videos on their personal channels are subsequently uploaded to and endorsed by government media accounts.
China’s ‘fightback’ against foreign reporting
There appears to be a growing network of foreigners being pulled into Chinese state media campaigns.
CGTN says on its website that it currently has more than 700 “global stringers” worldwide, who it offers “international visibility” and “bonuses”.
It aims to expand its influencer pool further by offering cash rewards of up to $10,000 (about £7,190) to reporters, podcasters, presenters and influencers who join its newly-launched “media challengers” campaign. Jason Lightfoot, and Lee and Oli Barrett have appeared in promotional material for this campaign.
‘Anti-China biased BBC’
It’s unclear what drives the foreign vloggers – whether they believe in China’s messaging or are motivated by the lure of local fame and fortune instead.
The BBC put this question to Lee Barrett and Barrie Jones and asked why their videos had become more patriotic, but we received evasive responses. The Barretts posted on Twitter when approached for this article, describing it as a “hit piece” by the “anti-China biased BBC”.
Broadcaster CGTN is seeking to counter criticism – like its Russian counterpart RT – by finding foreign faces who can help sell government messaging overseas, and keyboard armies that help promote them.
YouTube already labels these media platforms as state-affiliated.
all videos uploaded to YouTube must comply with its community guidelines, and it reviews flagged videos on a case-by-case basis.
YouTube said that the videos sent to it by the BBC did not violate its guidelines.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Edge just left a serious rival in its dust
By Joel Khalili 8 days ago
Microsoft Edge puts daylight between itself and Mozilla Firefox
https://www.techradar.com/news/microsoft-edge-just-left-a-serious-rival-in-its-dust
Microsoft has reached a major milestone in its quest to regain a foothold in the web browser market.
New data from Statcounter shows that Edge has now overtaken established rival Firefox in the rankings. In recent months, the pair have been neck-and-neck, but Microsoft’s browser has now put daylight between itself and Firefox.
Figures for June suggest Microsoft Edge now holds 3.4% of the browser market, while Firefox has slipped to 3.29%, continuing a downward trajectory that has seen the browser either lose or maintain market share in ten of the last twelve months.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Extended Director’s Cut: Ted Nelson on What Modern Programmers Can Learn From the Past
The inventor of hypertext talks about the birth of personal computing, the web, and how to think beyond the currently possible
https://spectrum.ieee.org/video/geek-life/profiles/extended-directors-cut-ted-nelson-on-what-modern-programmers-can-learn-from-the-past
Tomi Engdahl says:
Miksi moni landing page kerää kävijöitä muttei kauppaa?
Suuretkaan kävijämäärät eivät takaa kauppoja, jos landing page ei palvele asiakastasi.
https://www.digimarkkinointi.fi/blogi/miksi-moni-landing-page-keraa-kavijoita-muttei-kauppaa
Landing page on verkkosivujesi tärkein myyntielementti. Se määrittelee, käyvätkö ihmiset vain vierailemassa sivuillasi, vai päätyvätkö he kaikista vaihtoehdoista ostamaan juuri sinun tuotteesi. Suuretkaan kävijämäärät eivät takaa kauppoja, jos landing page ei palvele asiakastasi.
Jos sivu kerää kävijöitä mutta ei lisää myyntiä, tilanne on sama, jos kasvokkain tavatessa myyjä ei tietäisi mistä puhuu ja jättäisi kättelynkin välistä. Verkkosivuillasi myynnin tekee ländäri, jonka täytyy osoittaa aitoa ymmärrystä asiakasta kohtaan ja kertoa juuri niitä asioita, joihin asiakkaasi haluaa vastauksen.
Kasvokkain tapaamisessa myyjä voi mukauttaa viestintänsä asiakkaan reaktioiden mukaan, vastata saman tien asiakasta huolettaviin kysymyksiin ja kumota oston esteitä keskustellen.
Verkkosivujen copywriting on sen sijaan jokaiselle sivustokävijälle sama. Siksi landing pagen sisällön viilaaminen myyväksi on olennaista, kun haluat tehdä kauppaa verkkosivuillasi.