Digital Information World

Cyber fraud and scam isn't a new thing on the internet, and this time a new form of it has been discovered — a deceptive way of editing social media posts.

A Research group based in Israel explains that social media users (particularly on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) can become a victim of this cyber manipulation technique.

Bad actors basically take advantage of post editing feature on social network that gives them the opportunity to change the originally posted content, including its date and time after being posted.

This scam can manipulate users likes and comments, for example, liking a funny Facebook video and later finding out that you liked an offensive video or getting connected with something that relates to terrorism, without even being aware of it.

It can cause serious misunderstanding between friends and family who are unaware of this scam, as per the researcher Rami Puzis of Ben-Gurion University.

This scam which is known as “Chameleon”, is a result of the social media platform's weak posting mechanism that makes it possible to edit already posted content.

Even though Twitter usually doesn't let users change published content, this attack works by modifying users posts in a quite maliciously way without them being aware, at least for the moment, even on Twitter.

Also read: The Latest In Physical Data Theft Threats (infographic)

A spokesperson of Twitter on the Chameleon attack said that this problem isn't new, and it is still not as risky as the ability to tweet a URL that can take the user to any type of website that can change the content without warning.

Even though Twitter doesn't consider manipulated content as a dangerous issue for its platform, it can cause profile banned from Facebook and LinkedIn.

Read next: Twitter yet Again Embroiled in Controversy as a new Trick for Spreading Misinformation through Tweet URL Surfaces!

As teens start to use more and more social media and undoubtedly spend a large part of their day taking part in screen-related activities, parents have started to become concerned. When some research showed evidence of the possibility that this high volume of smartphone usage among teens could be symptomatic of a new kind of addiction, people were up in arms talking about the regulation of these kinds of media as well as trying to make it sound like smartphones were causing more problems than they were solving.

However, mass hysteria among the older generation regarding newer forms of technology that they might not fully understand is no new phenomenon. It has been happening ever since the industrial revolution, and the fact that a few studies non conclusively saying that screen addiction might be a serious issue was enough to spark this much hysteria that happens once in a while and that it might not be as serious as initially imagined, and a new study shows that the link between smartphone usage and screen addiction may be more tenuous than we initially thought.

The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry did a sweeping study of the various reports that examined screen addiction found that a high level of usage of smartphones was not as thoroughly linked to depression and anxiety as we previously thought, or at the very least the link between these two phenomena is not fully proven in the various academic texts that discuss this sort of thing even though the news spread as if it was a certain reality that could not be disputed or denied and that it would remain true until the end of time.

The way that the research surrounding this was conducted has not been all that objective, and a lot more evidence is required before a causal link between smartphone usage and depression among teens can be conclusively proven. This shows that a lot of the time headlines exploit information in order to generate clicks, and the public will rapidly accept the headline as truth if it fits their worldview without stopping to actually read the articles that mostly state that a link is suggested but not yet proven.

This of course doesn’t mean that screen addiction doesn’t exist at all. It just means that more proof is required before we can say that it exists, and the research is ongoing so at some point or another we may just be able to say with a high degree of certainty what the nature of smartphone usage actually is.

Read next: What’s the Right Age for a Child to Get a Smartphone?

Shutterstock is known for predicting the yearly trends beforehand. Well, then it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone when we say that the leading provider of stock media has already published its latest list of vital design trends that are likely to have a strong presence over the course of 2020.

Shutterstock prepares its yearly trend reports after analyzing the changing patterns in its platform’s usage. It should be noted that more than 300 million images and around 16 million pieces of video content are available on Shutterstock and how they are used (searched, downloaded etc.) makes it easy for researchers to find out what’s in-demand at a given time.

According to Lou Weiss, CMO of Shutterstock, the current data is a clear indication that users want to pursue meaning, happiness and opportunity in fresh and creative projects and that these characteristics can mirror our ever-changing climate and the year that lies ahead.

“Throwbacks” or “The Roaring 2020s” are all set to trend throughout the year. According to Shutterstock’s report, there will be an increase of 4,233% in "gold pattern", a 189% rise in "20s retro" and a 106% increase in "linear geometric" art.

“Occulture” will also play a big role on Shutterstock this year. Our childhood myths and tales will come to life when an increase of 525% will be observed in “magical” content along with a whopping 289% rise in “spiritual” posts. Posts centered on "horoscopes" and "palm reading" will also have an increased presence on the visual platform this year.

“In Full Bloom” is another major trend that is expected to flood your social media feeds this year. So, be ready to encounter pictures and videos featuring impeccable floral visuals. “Flowerscape” media will reportedly be up by more than 141% this year, with “bloom” content closely following it (136%).

Also read: 8 Biggest Graphic Design Trends that Will Dominate 2020

There are also a number of Rising Trends that you should keep an eye out for. Such trends are unique in their own right and will easily stand out among rest of the content. “Cannabiz” is predicted to be one of such trends with an expected growth of 154% and 149% in “marijuana” and “minimal branding” content respectively.

“Minimalist Black” is also listed as a rising trend in Shutterstock’s latest report, signifying artists’ growing fondness with the color black and its different shades.

Although “Wild Life” has been a trend for quite some time now, it will have an increased presence on Shutterstock this year with more “hiking” (+533%), “camping” (+368%) and “backpack and boots” (+325%) related content.

As mentioned earlier, this year will mainly focus on “throwbacks”. Interestingly, “Chinese Ink Painting”, one of the oldest art forms will also be seen in many advertisers’ and bloggers’ work.

“Game On” is also a trend that shouldn’t be counted out. The search for sports and fitness-related content will be carried out in massive numbers this year. A whopping 1,647% increase in “sports” content and 197% increase in “running” posts will be observed this year, along with considerable increases in other relevant categories such as “cycling”, “boxing” and “swimming”.

And who can forget “Protest Art”? Such art often comes in handy at different occasions throughout the year. According to Shutterstock’s report, a 465% increase in “Inequality icon” and 70% rise in “Environmentalism” art are all set to be observed over the course of 2020.

Additionally, there are tons of local trends that natives of a particularly country will be observing over the coming months.

So, it will surely be an exciting experience for all of us to witness these trends growing in popularity as 2020 progresses. You are welcome to read Shutterstock’s full report yourself as it contains several interesting pieces of information.

Read next: These Are The 6 Biggest Visual Trends of 2020 (infographic)

There is no doubt in the fact that Google Maps has made life so much easier for all of us ever since it came into existence. The app has always been trusted for its accurate navigation and traffic tracking, until now. In an attempt to hack Google Maps, a YouTuber created a virtual traffic jam by loading 99 phones in a trolley.

Well, doing it was really simple as when there is a remotely busy area, Google Maps highlights the area by changing the color of the roads from green to orange or even red, depending upon how bad the traffic is. If there is a worst-case scenario in the form of accident or construction happening, Google even helps the users in finding an alternate route.

At the back end, to identify areas with bad traffic, Google makes it all possible with the help of other people who are using the Maps app in that similar area. If there are more people using Google Maps in an area, there is a common assumption that the traffic would most probably be worst and the color of streets begin to change on the map.

A guy named Simon Weckert decided to check the credibility of the process and hence he loaded 99 smartphones, all having Google Maps direction turned ON, into a handcart. He kept walking down the street to see the impact and Google kept marking the street as bad traffic because of the high concentration of users.

While this trick did make other drivers in the area to look out for an alternative route as suggested by the Maps app, Weckert went one step ahead and parked the collection of smartphones right in front of Google’s Berlin offices to create the virtual traffic jam.

This Prankster Created Temporary Traffic Jams On Google Maps With Just 99 Mobile Devices

In response to the incident, a spokesperson from Google clarified everything stating that it is true how Maps track bad traffic with large number of phones running the app at a single place, which Weckert of course took advantage of, the traffic data, however, refreshes continuously based on information from a variety of sources. Cases like these will surely help the Google engineers make navigation service better over time. So the next time whether one decides to travel via car cart or even camel, they will be able to track traffic better.

Related: Watch breath-taking views of outer space is now possible on your mobile devices via Google Earth

Good thing is that Google always stays committed to providing the most comprehensive and accurate Maps and will take care of preventive measures to stop anyone with the right resources exploiting any loopholes in the Maps app again.

Read next: Google App Tests More AMOLED Friendly Dark Mode

Technology has always been in demand for the last few decades. It has transformed the way we spend our life, run business, communicate and live. Overall, the impact is huge which is the reason there is no job without the requirement of technology in it. Most of the business industries run completely on technology and AI, be it construction, agriculture or simple retail. Overall, tech positions have dominated the job and recruitment market according to the list issued by Glassdoor. The list addresses the 50 best or highest-paying jobs in America for the year 2020.

According to the list, the top seven best and most highly paid jobs this year will include front-end engineers whereas the second most paying job will be Java Developer. The list further places, data scientist, product manager, development operations engineer, data engineer and software engineer at the rest of the five-position respectively. Furthermore, the list has around 20 positions solely dedicated to the tech industry out of the 50 best job positions list. These job positions are not just in tech-based companies, instead, these are tech roles in a variety of companies including the retail business, construction business, banking sector, etc.

Other tech-based jobs in the non-tech industry include SalesForce developer that stands on 14th position, applications engineer with 18th position, system engineer at 27th, scrum master at 29th, software developer at 32, cloud engineer at 33, product designer at 34, user experience designer at 38th spot, quality assurance engineer at 39, sales engineer at 42nd spot, data analyst at 44th, automation engineer at 46th whereas, a network engineer at 49th position. These jobs have been listed according to their demand in the market and how well these jobs pay in general.

Related: Blockchain is the New Boss – Hottest Skill of the Year 2020

In a separate recent report, LinkedIn claims that Artificial intelligence specialist and Robotics engineer are the two most in demand job roles. While, the list published by Glassdoor has front end developer at the first spot in America and this position has replaced the data scientist position that held the spot for the last four years. The data scientist is still considered a very thriving role yet the demand of front end developers is higher with 13,100+ job opportunities open at the time. This is double the amount of job openings for the data scientist positions (i.e 6500+) in America at the moment.

Read next: The Growing Demand For Data Scientists (infographic)

Those familiar with cannabis know about cannabinoids like THC and CBD, but is CBG (cannabigerol) the next big thing? CBG isn’t present in large quantities in the majority of cannabis strains, however it is definitely a cannabinoid worth learning about for numerous reasons.

How is CBG Made?

CBG is referred to as a minor cannabinoid since it is present in such low levels (less than 1% in most cannabis strains). Cannabis strains produce CBGA (cannabigerol acid), which is the precursor to three cannabinoid lines: THCA (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid), CBDA (cannabidiolic acid), and CBCA (cannabichromenic acid). Particular enzymes within the cannabis plant process CBGA down and guide it to one of the three lines. The acids are then exposed to either ultraviolet light or heat, and they become the cannabinoids we know as: THC and CBD. In the majority of cannabis strains, CBGA is immediately converted to CBDA or THCA. Therefore, a strain with higher THC means less CBD and CBD (and vice versa).

Breeders are experimenting to see how they can obtain higher yields of CBG. For example, they are experimenting with genetic manipulation and cross-breeding plants. Some seed companies are crossing strains in hopes of producing plants with higher CBG contents. Scientists are also able to extract higher levels of CBG through a lengthy extraction process. For these reasons, CBG is extremely expensive to produce and is often referred to as the “Rolls Royce of cannabinoids”.

What are the Potential Medical Benefits CBG Provides?

The endocannabinoid system built-in within the human body works to keep the body in its balanced state of homeostasis. While there are details on how cannabinoids work, we know for sure the endocannabinoid system performs different functions specific to each area of the human body.
There are tons of potential medical benefits associated with CBG. Scientists have experimented with CBG on specific physiological systems and problems. The results of these experiments have been promising.

Endocannabinoid receptors are present in eye structure. CBD has been found to be extremely effective in treating glaucoma, since it reduces intaocular pressure.
In experiments on mice, CBG was found to be effective in reducing the inflammation characteristic found in inflammatory bowel disease. In a 2015 study, CBG worked effectively in protecting neurons in mice that suffered from Huntington’s disease.
CBG is also showing great promise in fighting against cancer. CBG has been found to block the cells that inhibit cancer cell growth within mice. One study showed CBG inhabiting the growth of colorectal cancer cells, which resulted in slowing colon cancer growth. CBG has shown to be extremely promising in potentially curing colorectal cancer.

Scientists are extremely excited about the medical benefits of CBG, and are expanding on research with CBG by itself and CBG in combinations with other cannabinoids, such as CBD. Since CBG is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid, scientists are researching a number of different ways the cannabinoid can be applied.

Currently, there are many CBD companies selling their products online. In the near future, you will find many of these companies transitioning to adding a combination of CBD and CBG products to their product lines. A CBD company that plans on adding CBD products with more concentrated CBG levels is WE R CBD.

For any successful business, the key to achieving reputable status in the market of competitors can be achieved by getting more targeted traffic on their websites and understanding the digital strategies to boost the traffic.

Even though social media platforms are gaining more attention from people from all over the world but these platforms are still not considered as the ultimate drivers of referral traffic despite being highly utilized by users.

If you’re looking for the best sources of web traffic, a new report from Alexa is all meant to help you with that.

The team of Alexa gathered data regarding web traffic from more than 450,000 domains and later on categorized all these domains into a variety of groups distinguishing them based on Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) categories including Automotive, Food and Drink and so much more. After categorizing, the team of Alexa took the last step by detecting the top 10 percent of sites driving traffic in each category and doing this enabled us to compare the top sites of each category with less-successful competitors based on the traffic.

According to the report by Alexa, the information sites particularly in news and weather category gained a huge percentage of traffic from their social media channels which pretty much reveals the role of social networks as a conduit for news consumption. The rise in the news content on social media platforms (including Twitter and Facebook) puts a huge impact on publishers reach.

How Do The Top Websites Drive Traffic? - infographic

A variety of categories gained a large percentage of visitors through search engines, these categories included Automotive, home and garden and travel.

According to the report by Alexa, the websites that gained direct traffic included categories of personal finance and business verticals as users typically type a web address in their browsers whenever they’re reviewing their banking information online they pretty much type the URL directly which makes these sites gain direct traffic as compared to others.

Alexa also sheds light on the domains of nonstandard content categories including blogs and forums also gained a great percentage of traffic from referral links via other sites which clearly shows that these types of forums usually gain traffic after being discovered by users poking around online.

The top sites of the categories including Sports, Finance, Business, Arts and Entertainment gained a huge percentage of direct traffic as compared to other domains. The pattern this report shows is pretty clear that users are most likely aware of such major authority sites and end up searching for them directly instead of using search engines.

Also read: New Analysis Reveals Top 25 Companies Who Own the Most Domain Names

Digging a bit deeper into the report reveals that based on the subjects Auto Parts gained a huge percentage of traffic from Search engine results whereas the top sites of gambling ranked the first with the highest direct traffic results. The subjects with the highest referral traffic included nonstandard content and Credit, Debit and loans ranking as the top 2 sites with the highest referral traffic.

In terms of keywords, the top 5 sites with the highest percentage of traffic included the categories of Travel, shopping, News, Weather and Information, Careers, and Automotive as well.

Well, with this insight on the report by Alexa it is pretty much clear that majority of the traffic is gained through direct and search engine results, while the traffic through social media platforms is not that large, yet, in some categories including News, Weather, and Information social channels work well.

As stated by Alexa itself, the data displayed in the report is not 100% accurate as the platform could only access a specific panel of users of each category but these results could pretty much indicate the trends in various categories which can be very helpful in terms of your digital marketing approach.

If you’re looking to drive decent percentage of traffic on your website, your key focus should be boosting the SEO performance of your site and along with that using different digital methods to gain traffic through the various categories.

The Traffic Sources of Top Websites by Industry - A Study

Read next: 70 Percent of All Web Domains Fail to Be Renewed One Year after Purchase

Internet and technology are advancing every passing day with a lot of new devices coming into the market. The computing power is increasing and so is the energy consumption of these devices. Our mobiles, computers, laptops, and others gadgets rely on energy to operate all the time. The main sources consuming maximum energy are networks, data centers and devices. Here are some stats that you need to know about energy consumption by IT.

Computers consume energy more than networks and data centers
36% of energy is consumed by communication networks, 30% by data centers, and 34% by computers
The energy required by digital devices is much more (7%) than the global energy consumption all over the world (3%)
Production and operation of ICT will rise to about 21% in 2030
70 billion kilowatt-hours a year are required to run the internet
There are about 509,147 data centers that are 26.6 million square meters with 430 hyperscale data-centers
There are about 8,918,157,500 active mobile devices consuming about 2 kWh/year energy
Google only consumes about 0.013% of the world’s energy
The energy consumption by users is about 55% and 45% by manufacturers
There are about 20% phone users, 19% data centers, and 16% networks consuming energy
Computer manufacturing takes about 17% energy, TVs take 11%, smartphones take 11% and others take 6%
About 0.0003 kWh is consumed while charging mobile over USB for 7 minutes
Visiting Amazon consumes 0.0003 kWh, streaming 5 MB MP3 song takes 0.025 kWh, watching 5 minutes YouTube video takes 0.065 kWh, streaming 3 GB movie takes 14.65 kWh, and online video game takes about 78.13 kWh
Bitcoin takes about 20 TWh energy per year with aluminum consuming more energy as compared to other cryptocurrencies

These are only a few facts that show how much energy technological sector is consuming. With the development of new devices, energy consumption will also increase rapidly.

This is not it, streaming a video also consume a lot of energy. Now if your work requires working on a computer and laptop all day then you can imagine the total energy consumption of all day.

A lot of people are associated with the technological sector and the rate of employees in the sector will rapidly increase in the future. With so many people working in the sector, energy consumption will also increase.

Also read: Historical Site Affected By Climate Change Are Recreated With Google 3D Scans

Although there are efficient ways to produce electricity today, but the resources might not be enough to fulfill the future need of energy by the technological center.

The tech sector needs to work on devices that consume less energy and does not burden the world with their pressure. If there are not enough energy resources than the world will suffer, which is not a desirable condition.

We need to grow green – The Global Energy Consumption of Information Technologies [Infographic]

Infographic courtesy of: GoGlobe.

Featured photo: Gorodenkoff / Getty Images

Read next: The Environmental Impact of Unnecessary Emails

The influencer industry is becoming a giant in the branding and marketing business. Who would have thought that making small videos on YouTube can land someone as the ambassador of the biggest makeup brand or a sport franchise? At a timid age of just 3, there are toy reviewers earning millions through just their YouTube channels. Fame and money are no longer just confined to a specific class, it is now accessible to all. As these things become accessible for all, what is the price that everyone has to pay? As the generation Z is becoming leaders in the content creating industry, problems like mental health are becoming alarmingly high. Most of the people are still trying to figure out the reason as the turn-off or social media cleanse is becoming very common.

Just in the starting few weeks of 2020 some big influencers and YouTubers took a leave from their work or as most are calling it as going on a social media detox. It is a general perception that using social media or being a YouTuber is an interesting job so, most of the content creators enjoy it and they don’t need a break. Most influencers when asked about their social media rescission describe it as a way of staying away from negativity, they feel that they are growing and making mistakes publicly which is making them a direct subject of public humiliation and anger. While taking a small break they can resume their energy and come back to work. The question remains the same in this situation, is this really true?

When asked about the depression and mental health, famous YouTuber and now host of a famous TV show, Lily Singh said she came home from work one day and cried on the kitchen floor. She felt like she was working like a machine and this was taking a toll on her mental health. Candian based YouTuber Elle Mills recently took a break from social media and the reason was the same. She has been quite open about her struggle with depression and the pressure she has been facing just to create the perfect content. Singh and Mills are not the only ones who quietly had their me-time, the list is long and yet growing. 20 years old lifestyle blogger Summer McKeen is also one of them, she recently took a break from social media. Considering that only female influencers are taking social media breaks is not true, YouTube royalty PewDiePie recently took a social media break too.

Also read: These are Top 10 most viewed videos on YouTube (2020)

The pressure of performance takes the joy away; it makes the fun turns into a struggle really fast which is the reason most of the social media influencers no longer feel they are enjoying something while they are scrolling through social media. Their mind has been trained to give them hints that they are still working which makes it exhausting for them to continue. As pretty as the social media influencers job might feel, imagine living in a way where the only way to escape reality is social media yet you can’t feel relax because you are facing trolls and being a subject to memes. Experts say that most of the mainstream artists are facing the same issue but they have means to cope with the situations but these teens are exposed to fame at such a tender age that they don’t have resources to deal with the situation, which is the reason it is more damaging for them as compared to mainstream media artists.

Read next: The Money Being Spent on Social Media Creators: An Inside Look Sponsored Content Rates

When Facebook came out with Messenger Kids, the general reaction to the development was rather mixed. A big part of the reason why this is the case has to do with the fact that Facebook has often tried to acquire data from children using decidedly underhanded methods such as when an app associated with Facebook tried to pay children into downloading it so that it could glean data from their phones and get a deeper look into their browsing habits as well as their overall smartphone usage.

However there is another possibly bigger issue associated with Messenger Kids, and this has to do with security. The thing about this app is that parents have some control over who their child can and can’t talk to, and a big part of this has to do with protecting kids from the countless malicious people that they might come across on the internet, some of whom might want to harm kids. Parents generally have to approve a contact before kids are allowed to talk to that person through the app. This is a good feature but the problem is that if your child joins a group chat then they might end up talking to people that parents have not approved of.

In order to prevent such issues from occurring Facebook has started giving parents the ability to look into their child’s chat history along with log of photos via a new dashboard, thereby preventing anyone that they feel might be a threat from contacting their child. If your child blocks someone on the app you will still be able to see the conversation that they had. The company has also introduced a feature aka "Remote Device Logout" which allows parents to check all devices where their child is logged in to Messenger Kids.

Protecting our children is very important indeed, and a big part of this has to do with the kind of control parents can have over the internet usage that their young children are allowed to have.

Read next: Game streamers can now ban criticism in their chat, courtesy Facebook's new deal

By this point in time the smartphone has become a thoroughly ingrained part of our day to day lives, but this doesn’t mean that we all use our devices for the same purpose. Some people prefer to use their phones for gaming, with video and entertainment serving as another major reason of smartphone usage. However, with all of that have been said and out of the way, the fact of the matter is that there is one type of smartphone usage that most users conform to, and this has to do with social and communication.

About half of the total amount of time spent on smartphones is spent on social and messaging apps, i.e. according to Appannie's recent report. A lot of this can be contributed to the fact that these were some of the first uses that people had for smartphones. Video and entertainment came later, and gaming definitely came much later because it was only recently that smartphones started to be taken seriously. However, just because this is the case right now doesn’t mean that it always will be. Indeed, the way that the latest generation of smartphone users, namely Gen Z, are using their favorite apps is changing.

"Socials apps — particularly those popular with Gen Z — are blurring the lines with Entertainment apps. Snapchat prioritized innovating for Gen Z, capitalizing on this generation’s “Fear of Missing Out” (FOMO) with disappearing messages, pioneering the “Stories” feature later adopted by other top social apps, as well as Augmented Reality and branded filters.", explained Appannie in its "State of Mobile 2020" report.

The modern social app is blending entertainment and sometimes even gaming into the mix. The video and entertainment sector has been growing quite a bit, so much so that it has doubled in size the past few years. The percentage of time spent on video and entertainment has grown from 13% (from 2016) to 21% (in 2019) but the total number of hours spent on smartphones has doubled as well which indicates that even more growth could potentially end up being on its way. It will be interesting to see how this time ends up being split in the future.

Related: Has Social Media Really Been Our Worst Enemy?

50% of Time Spent on Mobile Is in Social and Comms Category

Read next: 1 in 4 Unsuccessfully Try Curbing Tech Use, Study Finds

Recently, Susan Desmond-Hellman left Facebook’s Board and to fill the spot, Zuckerberg’s pal Houston has put his foot down. Facebook’s shareholders have repeatedly requested the board to remove Zuckerberg as the Chairman of the company, but the board has never paid heed to the investors’ requests.

Desmond-Hellman was an independent director of Facebook and even though Houston is now a board member, but still Hellman’s place seems to be empty.

Zuckerberg and Houston have been friends for about 8 years and we have repeatedly seen their photos circulating on the internet from different parties, events and sometimes car rides.

Houston has always appreciated Zuckerberg by calling him his mentor and giving him credit for learning too much about the business and its operations.

Houston is an accomplished technologist who is getting a degree in computer science from MIT where he came up with the idea of Dropbox. Although Dropbox is far away from scrutiny, Facebook seems to stick on the hook of breaching privacy and sacrificing the security of the users on its platform.

Zuckerberg has always accepted the blame for not taking appropriate measures to provide safety to the users on the platform, which is why the company faces severe challenges from the government authorities, but still the share price of Facebook remains high.

Also read: How The Content Oversight Board Will Function? Facebook Revealed It

Some big names are still present in the board list of Facebook, however, the board is still in need of an independent board director who can act accordingly without any skepticism and biases.

Zuckerberg and his friends believe in using technology to improve lives, but what about its effect on the people by bringing them so close along with the exploitation of wealth and power. An independent director will focus on the consequences of technology rather than just focusing on the good part of it.

Photo: Ramsey Cardy/SPORTSFILE / Getty Images

Read next: A New Manipulation Trick Is Roaming on Social Media That Tamper with Post, Likes and Comments

Developers are mainly responsible for the success or the failure of any digital platform in the modern era. There used to be a WebOS for all Android. It depends on companies whether they make it easier to develop for their platforms or hard, but in the end, it depends on developers to bring customers to the platform.

Talking about developers, Google recently announced that developers from all over the world earned above $80 billion till date, through Google Play Store. Though it appears to be an impressive figure but in comparison to competitors, it might not be really huge.

Google senior vice president, Hiroshi Lockheimer shared the development on his Twitter profile, after the Google CEO, Sundar Pichai announced it in the earnings call of Google.

$80 billion itself sounds great that developers had a huge benefit from the platform, Play Store, by distributing their products and services. However, when the amount is compared with Apple, it will be simple to realize that Google still has a long way to go.

"Android continues to thrive. I’m proud to announce that over $80 billion has been earned by developers around the world from Google Play, showing the popularity of our platform. There are now over 2 billion active monthly users of Google Play.", boasted Google CEO, Sundar Pichai.

In 2018, iOS developers earned $100 billion, as announced by Apply on that year’s WWDC keynote. Last year again Apple was leading in developer payouts, and there was approximately an 80% difference in the Q1 2019 earnings of developers from Google Play Store and App Store.

The android developers are surely making money and earned an impressive amount of $80 billion dollars but Apple is still leading in this regard.

Anyone that has been on the internet recently would see that there is no shortage of people that are trying to spread misinformation out there. In fact, most of the time any news that you see on the internet should be taken with a grain of salt for a wide variety of reasons. The news cycle is extremly fast which means that sometimes news reporters will sacrifice quality of news for the sake of posting it before anyone else manages to, and then of course there are the countless people that are simply trying to trick you into believing a certain point of view in spite of the fact that it is not true at all.

One of the biggest places where fake news often ends up getting posted is on YouTube, and in the wake of one of the biggest elections in the world happening this year, the US presidential election, YouTube has decided to crack down on content that can be classified as political misinformation. This includes videos that try to mislead voters by providing wrong data, cast aspersions on presidential candidates based on dubious information as well as a variety of other ways in which people try to manipulate the political process in order to meet their own ends.

Additionally, Leslie Miller, YouTube's VP of Government Affairs and Public Policy, explained that its company will remove "channels that attempt to impersonate another person or channel". Plus, YouTube reserves the right to terminate channels that try to manipulate engagement metrics (like, comments or views) with the help of "automatic systems or by serving up videos to unsuspecting viewers."

Also read: YouTube Favors News Channels With A Journalism Approach Says Head of Search & Discovery Of The Platform

It’s important to note that parody videos are not included in this policy. Videos made for humorous effect are not going to be removed, although many would say that with the sheer volume of content that gets uploaded to YouTube on a regular basis, the fact of the matter is that filtering it out is not going to be easy in the first place. Only time will tell whether or not this is the sort of thing that ends up helping the political process or if it’s just a bandaid solution that does not end up doing all that much good in the first place.

Photo: Aytac Unal/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Read next: Artist Creates Virtual Traffic Jam On Google Maps With A Few Dozen Smartphones, Google Responds

As we keep hearing how much do creators make from time to time, Google finally puts an end to all the speculations around how much does its massive video-sharing platform, YouTube earns every year. Hence while the platform gave birth to many of the millionaires, the final digit revolving YouTube's earnings has turned out to $15 Billion (15,000,000,000) annually. Sounds like a lot of zeroes, right?

This is the first time in 15 years (ever since Google bought YouTube for $1.65 Billion in 2006) that the parent company Alphabet has decided to reveal the earnings of YouTube in their fourth-quarter earnings report. Moreover looking at the quarter alone, YouTube has also successfully generated a revenue of $5 Billion in the last three months.

The credit for the revelation of transparent information goes to CEO Sundar Pichai, who was given the responsibility of becoming the chief executive of the entire company at the end of 2019 - right after co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided to say goodbye to daily operations and now just want to enjoy their share of profits.

Going into the depth of $15 Billion that YouTube generates for Google annually, these numbers still contribute as 10% of Google’s overall revenue. Furthermore, the figures of YouTube's ad business comprises up as one-fifth of Facebook’s size but six times more than Amazon’s Twitch.

With the report, Google also boasted about YouTube Premium’s success with 20 million subscribers who are enjoying the new ad-free YouTube. There are further 2 million subscribers of the platform’s paid TV service as well. The revenue coming from these products are included into “other” category that also includes hardware products like Pixel phone and Google Home speakers amounting to $5.3 billion last quarter.

On the whole, Alphabet made $46 Billion in revenue in the fourth quarter that ended on 31st December 2019 - it’s a 17 percent jump over the last financial year 2018. Among the total figure $10.7 Billion turned out to be the profits.

Related: Analysis of 450K Websites Reveals How World's Most Popular Websites Acquire Their Visitors

Google’s search engine remains to be the biggest money churning machine for Alphabet with $27.3 Billion revenue in the last quarter. However, along with YouTube's ad business, there is also one more division of Google that has boosted its financial performance and that is cloud computing with $2.6 Billion revenue in the similar quarter.

Looking at the billion-dollar mark in each category, the investors can pretty much depend on Google for the fact that its business doesn’t solely rely on the search engine. In fact the company is making products like YouTube and Cloud Computing even bigger with every passing year, which is a plus sign for its sustainability.

Google Search did a business of $98.1 Billion in 2019 but the company says it’s just a 15% increase over 2018. YouTube, on the other hand, jumped from $11.2 Billion to $15.5 Billion, summing up as 36.5% increment. But that being stated, investors still believe that Alphabet has missed the revenue targets and therefore the stock was down to more than 4 per cent in after hours trading.

Read next: Android Developers Have Earned $80 Billion so far from the Google Play Store

After Mac, Windows, and Linux, Google is finally launching the Chrome 80 for Android users. According to the search giant, the development process for Chrome 80 was in the works since 2019 and will now gradually be available for the public.

The prime motive of the Chrome 80 was to enhance the security protocols of the browser. We are all aware of how bad actors can exploit browser cookies for their advantage. However, the new system in Chrome 80 will integrate a secure cookie classification system that would work by default.

Up until now, developers had the option to use the ‘SameSite’ attribute that enabled the browsers to access cookies when their URL matched with the one mentioned in the address bar or when the website used ‘safe HTTP methods.’ They were also allowed to automatically track the users across sites.

However, Chrome 80 would make some modifications to the previous protocol and enforce the developers to indicate their SameSite cookies attribute. In case the developer fails to follow the guidelines, Google would automatically change its settings to a more secure option. This would significantly affect products and services that require cross-site trackings such as affiliate programs and widgets.

Other changes in the new Chrome 80

Quieter notifications prompt is another update that the users can expect to see in the new Chrome 80. Visits to the new site often (if not always) open a tab asking the user to either allow or block the notifications from the specific website. Since most users usually block the request, Chrome 80 will automatically disable them on their behalf with a ‘notification blocked’ prompt at the bottom of the screen.

The user can, however, enable the notification as per their preference by going to Settings > Site Settings > Notifications under ‘Use quieter messaging.’

These days most browsing occurs over HTTPs. Nevertheless, some websites fail to load sub-resources, such as images, audio, and video over the HTTPs. The Chrome 80 update will automatically upgrade the insecure resources, meaning insecure content on secure pages will be upgraded automatically to secure connections.

Chrome 80 will also add support for SVG format in favicons that will assist websites and apps in reducing the overall resource size.

Google is slowly rolling out the update to a limited internet audience and will roll out fully after evaluating the feedback.

Read next: Google Chrome experiments with a feature that displays search query instead of URLs in Address Bar

Featured Photo: Digital Information World.

Twitter acknowledges that there was a problem with their API system that enabled attackers to match phone numbers with their Twitter accounts. The micro-blogging platform became aware of the glitch on December 24, 2019 and immediately suspended the malicious accounts.

The investigation team at Twitter also noted that the majority of the requests to the affected API were coming from IP addresses within Israel, Iran, and Malaysia.

Twitter also noted that the API endpoint that was affected in this attack was normally the ones that gave permission to new accounts to find their friends on the social media network. It also included those that enabled the ‘Let people who have your phone number find you on Twitter’ in their Settings.

In simple words, those that did not give permission to Twitter to use their phone number were not exploited by the attack.

However, Twitter has resolved the issue and suspended all the exploited accounts. The company has also issued an apology and stated that user’s privacy is their topmost priority and will continue to remain so.

Just like any other social networking platform, Twitter is also prone to breaches on a regular basis. Just a few weeks ago, we heard OurMine taking control of high profile social media accounts such as eBay and using it for a shopping spree.

Facebook is not dependent on revenue generated by Instagram but the platform does play an important role in making money for the company. According to recent report by Bloomberg, Instagram made $20 billion in 2019 from its app alone. The amount is more than the quarterly revenue of Facebook in 2019.

Instagram has found ways to incorporate ads on the platform, in between the image and videos of its users. The ads are shown in between Stories, on feed and on the Explore tab as well.

Another tech giant, Google also announced that its video platform, YouTube generated $15 billion in ad revenue in 2019, making 10 percent of the total revenue of Google. Instagram does not share its profit with creators but it pays some of the content creators for making IGTV videos. Instead of monetary benefits, it provides equipment and shoots to creators but even then the costs have not been five-figure amount.

However, YouTube shares its ad revenue with creators and according to Alphabet CFO, Ruth Porat, the cost they spend comes under the title ‘content acquisition’ which can go up to $8.5 billion.

Facebook has been trying to monetize Instagram as it built a shopping product and brands will be able to sell their products directly from the app. It is also working to be an important player in dealing with influencer’s content.

The company gave some of the creators access to Facebook product design to coordinate in brand deals and it is expected that the company will continue to develop more tools for creators. By giving metrics to brands, the company is expecting to generate more revenue.

The friendly the platform will be, the more influencers will be inclined towards it and thus, benefiting the company at the end.

Photo: AP Photo/Amr Alfiky

Read next: Facebook Welcomes Dropbox CEO, Drew Houston to the Board

Image editing software are quite popular nowadays and even the non-techy user can alter existing photographs, according to their preference. Unfortunately, this has also opened a platform for the ‘bad actors’ to modify photos for their advantage and malicious acts.

However, Jigsaw, owned by Alphabet is working on ways to reduce the upcoming danger. Their latest offering called ‘Assembler’ has the ability to detect forged images and assist the journalist community in vetting out the manipulated content.

According to Jigsaw, Assembler analyzes each image thoroughly and looks for image manipulation, like deep fakes. The advanced forms of image modification may seem convincing to the human eye but can be easily detected by the computer and AI – and Assembler aims to do just that.

As of now, Assembler is still in the early stages of development and can only be used by journalists and fact-checkers to ensure the authenticity of their content. Since, the spread of fake news over the internet shows no signs of slowing down, tools like Assembler can help reduce their effect.

Along with Google, companies like FotoForensics and Forensically are also helping internet users in understating doctored images via their online tools.

Photo: Jigsaw

Read next: Latest Deepfake Technology Create More Convincing Videos Based on Audio Source Than Ever Before

We all love YouTube and how it has evolved with time. The company keeps on releasing new and advanced features to let the users have the best time on YouTube and the company is about to take a new step.

YouTube is about the change their classic web interface design in the coming March. If you have been using the classic interface, then it’s time for you to make the switch. Many of the legacy versions might be missing some important updated and feature, while the current version is expected to be cooler than the older one.

YouTube will ask your permission to switch from the older version to the newer one through a notice. Also, if you are using the old version of the browser, then you likely have to switch from that as well to enjoy the new YouTube interface.

From what YouTube is expecting that a lot of users would like to upgrade their software and switch to the new version of YouTube as it is so incredible. Just like you, we all are looking forward to it!

Also read: Maintaining Perfect Feed Is Taking Tool On Social Media Influences

Read next: YouTube Generates $15 Billion Every Year For Google

A New Manipulation Trick Is Roaming on Social Media That Tamper with Post, Likes and Comments

Study Shows Screen Addiction May Not Be As Serious As We Thought

The Latest Infographic on Important 2020 Design Trends is Quite Strange... yet Fascinating!

Man Creates Virtual Traffic Jam On Google Maps With A Few Dozen Smartphones, Google Responds

Front End Engineer, Java Developer, Data Scientist: These Are The Best Job Roles in America for 2020

Everybody Knows About THC & CBD, But What About CBG?

How is CBG Made?

What are the Potential Medical Benefits CBG Provides?

Analysis of 450K Websites Reveals How World's Most Popular Websites Acquire Their Visitors

Here’s how much Information Technology is causing Global Energy Consumption (infographic)

Maintaining Perfect Feed Is Taking Tool On Social Media Influences

Changes Come to Facebook Messenger Kids Following Security Concerns

Smartphone Users Spend a Majority of Time With Social Media and Communication Apps

Facebook Welcomes Dropbox CEO, Drew Houston to the Board

Android Developers Have Earned $80 Billion so far from the Google Play Store

YouTube Takes a Stand Against Fake News About Politics

YouTube Generates $15 Billion Every Year For Google

Google launches updates for Chrome 80: Upgrades security, new notifications prompt, and more control for the user

Other changes in the new Chrome 80

Twitter Addresses Account Identity Incident: Issues A Fix

Instagram Ad Revenue in 2019 Was More Than the Quarter Earning Of Facebook

Google-owned Jigsaw comes up with a tool to spot fake and tampered images

YouTube’s Older Web Interface Will Be Switched To Latest Desktop Version in the Coming March