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Are CryptoCurrencies The Future Of Finance?

June 15, 2020, 2:00 pm
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Cryptocurrency is currently a growing ecosystem and during the past few years, the users of Bitcoin as well as its transactions have been growing on an average rate of approximately 60% per year. Likewise, private and public investors have also expanded their commitment to cryptocurrencies such as Ripple, Stellar, Ethereum, and many more cryptocurrencies across the industry.

The cryptocurrency system has now become a $200 billion industry. The history of cryptocurrency extends back to the 1980s with advancements in cryptography - ultimately leading to the formation of encryption techniques that are designed to secure the network of cryptocurrency.

In 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first Bitcoin. Nakamoto mined it on a decentralized network and Litecoin was launched in 2011. After one year, Ripple was founded in 2012. Then, in 2013, Bitcoin became popular and the price of one Bitcoin reached $1,000. Smart contracts were launched in the crypto ecosystem during 2015 when Ethereum was launched.

In 2017, there were more than 1,000 cryptocurrencies listed and in the same year, the price of one Bitcoin crossed $10,000 for the first time in its history. The price of a single Bitcoin reached $20,000 during 2017. Then, EOS offered an infrastructure based on blockchain for DApps (decentralized applications). Currently, more than 5,000 cryptocurrencies are circulating in the market.

We can also consider crypto as an investment in the emerging financial system- DeFi (decentralized finance). Decentralized finance (DeFi) is an alternative financial system. It is built on a public blockchain that offers higher accessibility as anyone can connect to this system. Moreover, transactions are publicly available which enables higher transparency across this financial system. The following are some of the practical advantages which are being applied across the crypto ecosystem.

Bitcoin, Stellar, and Ripple are used for buying products and there is no need for a trusted third-party in these transactions.

As the total supply of various cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Litecoin is limited, this scarcity impacts the value of these cryptocurrencies.

DAI, Gemini USD, and USDC are some of the digital currencies that are usually pegged to a currency or commodity like gold, etc.

The technology behind crypto is cryptography which enables the owner of a cryptocurrency to remain anonymous.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Stellar, and Ripple can enable those people who do not have access to a bank to enter the financial system.

Bitcoin also has similar attributes to money. It can be used as a medium of exchange or unit account.

DApps allows people to develop applications without a central authority. EOS, Ethereum, and Tezos are some examples of DApps.

Globally, private and public investors recognize the potential of the crypto ecosystem across various domains. The primary private participants in the field of cryptocurrency are listed below.

Crypto Hedge Funds and Harvard Endowment Fund are institutional investors of the crypto ecosystem.

Coinbase and Bitstamp are the two most popular cryptocurrency exchanges.

Global Digital Finance and Crypto Valley Association are the famous public organizations considered to be the primary participants in the field of crypto.

The anonymized transactions of this system protect the data of users. This system is also providing a new financial system for 1.7 billion unbanked people across the globe. This system is more secure and smart contracts may eliminate manual and administrative work. This system is creating second-order impacts on the financial system of our world. However, cryptocurrency is ultimately helping to transform the financial system. Take a look at this infographic from VC for more insights.

Cryptocurrency: Redefining the Future of Finance

Read next: How Rich You'd Be If You'd Invested $1000 in These Companies
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An insight into how ads work on Facebook

June 15, 2020, 6:30 pm
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Many brands and businesses nowadays are looking for more online options to connect with their consumers. Social media platforms are playing an important role in helping various brands establish their online footing by providing ad services.

Facebook advertising services are quite famous for generating great revenue, as well as targeting the right audience.

Recently, Facebook has given a refresher on how its ads system basically works.

As per Facebook, the two major factors for Facebook to determine which ads to show to the users are:
  1. Targeting the right audience for the product/service/brand and providing this audience info to the advertisers. Then Facebook determines who is eligible to watch which ad?
  2. Another key factor for Facebook is its ad auction process, which is based on the factors like bid price of the ad, ad quality, and individual user engagement.
The process of targeting the audience first involves the advertisers who choose their audience through Facebook’s self-service tool. This tool gives them the information about the type of ads that a particular set of people click on, and the audience’s interest through the types of Facebook pages they like.
"Advertisers can also use information they have about their audience, like a list of emails or people who’ve visited their website, to build a custom audience or a lookalike audience".
Once all this information is collected, advertisers make lists of their audiences based on categories like age, gender, their liked Facebook Pages and Apps, etc.

Through Facebook’s in-depth audience targeting tools, these advertisers then try to match the profile of their audience and people with similar traits through Facebook’s usage and data systems.

They also use the option of Lookalike Audiences. They use Facebook’s systems to match the profile data of their existing email or customer list against profiles on Facebook to see who shares similar traits and interests with whom.

The accuracy of Lookalikes is questionable, and it depends on how much data do users give to Facebook and several other factors.

After choosing the audience to target, the advertisers submit their ads to Facebook, and then Facebook reviews their ads and decide the people eligible to see that ad based on several factors like Advertiser Bid, Estimated Action Rate and the Ad Quality.

Through the Advertiser Bid, Facebook determines how much money the advertisers are willing to spend on their Facebook ads. The more they spend, the more is their chance of outreach.

Through the Estimated Action Rate, Facebook estimates whether users will take action by seeing the ad or not. It all depends on factors of individual behaviors too. Facebook uses machine learning models to assess the likelihood and predict a person’s behavior based on the action that users take in response to the ads.

Facebook assesses the Ad quality by the feedback from users after seeing the ad. If they report it, or hide it, or watch it, Facebook determines if the ad is of low quality or high.
Advertisers cannot control people's behavior, but by improving their ad bids and ad quality, they can surely get the right response that they are always looking for while promoting their product or brand.

A business tool called the Facebook Pixel is also helpful in providing more contextual data to Facebook based on the actions that people take on the advertiser’s company website.

If you are an advertiser, and if a user visits your company’s website and takes an action like buying something from the site, Facebook Pixel is triggered and reports this action to Facebook. That is how Facebook gets better at delivering targeted ads to people who are more likely to take some action on your site.

So, Facebook Pixel can also help the advertisers in improving their ad performance.

Apart from these points, Facebook says that ads with the highest bid do not always win the auction if their quality is compromised, and lower bidding ads can still win if they can reach more people and garner more response from the.

Also, an important point to remember is that Facebook does not sell public data to advertisers. And Facebook does not listen to the private conversations of people or read their texts or get information through their phone’s mics to show them relevant ads or change what they see in their News Feed.



Read next: Facebook reveals the results of the Deepfake Detection Challenge and shows some promising prospects
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Facebook accused of harboring "Anger" by former Apple Inc. employee!

June 15, 2020, 11:00 pm
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Facebook’s leadership has been criticized by many industry experts and it looks like the former advisor to late Steve Jobs (Apple CEO), Joanna Hoffman is the latest individual to do the same. While speaking at the 2020 CogX conference this past Tuesday, Hoffman took some shots at the social media giant for not holding itself accountable for negatively impacting the society on more than one occasion.

She said that it’s hard to figure out if the concerned leaders are really that ignorant or motivated by something darker. Hoffman clarified that she had immense respect for the milestones Facebook had achieved. However, her opinion is that the leading social networking service is playing a considerable part in harming democracy, human relationships, and promoting anger.

Hoffman compared anger with addiction and accused Facebook of attracting people to its platform and triggering them, so it could have maximum engagement.

Facebook isn’t a stranger to controversies. Lately, it has been garnering the wrath of many users due to not taking down a controversial post made by President Donald Trump in regards to the ongoing protests and lootings.

After receiving criticism over the same issue from scientists backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan published a press release to express their disappointment and disgust with the President’s “divisive and incendiary rhetoric”.

Hoffman then brought up how leaders have an essential role to play in such cases. She said that in the absence of a leader tasked with bringing everything together, nothing productive surfaces in the end. She added that leaders themselves are humans and we should accept that they are bound to be flawed. The question we should be asking is how ignorant and flawed they can be.

Hoffman then discussed how many leaders these days are geniuses in what they have accomplished. However, she still found them ignorant in regards to what they are causing in the world.

It is said that Joanna Hoffman is one of the very few people who could stand up to Steve Jobs during her time in Apple. If Kate Winslet’s portrayal of her in Steve Jobs’ 2015 biopic is any indication, Hoffman is one lady who will not refrain from speaking her mind when it’s required.

After parting ways with Apple, she joined General Magic, where she served as the vice president of marketing. These days, Hoffman is employed by Sherpa, a Spanish AI agency.

Facebook has yet to issue any comments on Hoffman’s criticism of its leadership.


Read next: The Habits of Highly Effective Leaders (infographic)

Featured photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
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Google Pay is revamping and becoming more shopping-focused especially for the US citizens

June 16, 2020, 2:00 am
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According to a report by The Information, Google is bringing in a major change in its payment app, Google Pay. It is going to become more shopping-focused, especially in the US. Google’s goal is to make a one-stop portal for commerce where people who go for shopping can directly buy from participating online and physical retailers inside the newly designed Google Pay app.

This revamped version of Google Pay will feature branded buttons from prominent merchants. However, it is not known yet how many partners have shown interest to work with Google for this purpose.

Google has already brought much of the functionality of this new Google Pay to the app Tez live in India. It includes in-app cab ride-hailing and food ordering services. It is proving to be quite convenient because it is a centralized app that works around the ‘all-encompassing, one-app-for-everything’ concept. Its easy adaptation and functionality will make it extremely popular in the world, especially Asia.

On the other hand, Google is  probably also working on accounts and debit cards to offer a modern and innovative user experience.

It is a known fact that most tech companies are trying to offer more financial services to gain more revenue and data. That is the reason why Google is trying to boost the adoption of Google Pay in the US.

But the US and Asia are not the only regions where Google is bringing in this revamped version. As per reports, Google plans to bring Google Pay’s international model to other regions of the world and will tailor the model according to respective markets.

As per a Google's CEO, Google Pay has seen a lot of traction within the past 2 years. Their successful launch in India has paved many ways for them, taught them some more features that they can bring in their payment product, and gave them better ideas for the revamped version. This redesigned Google Pay version is supposed to roll out in the coming months. Google is quite hopeful to receive an extraordinarily amazing response from the users.
Due to the changes in habits that the coronavirus pandemic has brought, more people are divulging in online grocery shopping and food/grocery delivery services. Google has chosen an excellent time to bring this change in its Google Pay, and there are chances that Google Pay will have a crossover with Google Shopping.

So far, there are high hopes from the revamped Google Pay version. Let us see how it all turns out when the revamped app rolls out eventually.



Read next: A new update can help Google Assistant devices to recognize its speakers
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Is COVID-19 a Bacterial Infection and Not a Virus? World Health Organization Fact Check Slams the False Viral Whatsapp Claim

June 16, 2020, 2:11 am
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A viral video is currently making rounds on WhatsApp and other social media platform claiming that COVID-19 is just a bacterial infection and not a virus, as deemed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The original poster of the video also shared a text along with the video saying WHO is cheating on the world and coronavirus can be treated within a day.

We investigated into the matter and found WHO clearly stating in its ‘Myth Buster’ section for the coronavirus that the nCOV is a virus.

The health authorities further said that people who are diagnosed with the coronavirus may also develop a bacterial infection. If this is the case, antibiotics are often suggested as part of the treatment.

The same information is relayed by several other global fact checking organisations, including FactCheck and FullFact.

The myth circulating around the social media regarding COVID-19 being a bacterial infection is fake, false and incorrect.
"FACT: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by a virus. NOT by bacteria.", explained WHO on its "Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public" page.
Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp are a haven for misinformation. However, ever since the COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the WHO, health authorities are urging the general population not to rely on any information that goes viral on these networks – and repeatedly check facts from the official website of WHO and relevant health authorities only.

Tech companies have also enhanced their fact-checking policies and are trying to limit the publication of controversial posts. Unfortunately, such information continues to affect masses, despite the precautions – causing further anxiety amongst the public.









Graphics courtesy of: WHO.

Read next:

Bill Gates States That Microchip Conspiracy Theory Is Stupid

Tips to combat misinformation amidst COVID-19
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Instagram jumps the bandwagon in support of Black Lives and the CEO decides to take actions instead of just talking about it

June 16, 2020, 5:15 am
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The recent events in the US which fueled the riots about racism, police brutality, and the general behavior around Black people, many tech companies came forward in support of the slogan ‘Black Lives Matter.’

Recently the CEO of Instagram, Adam Mosseri said that the company is taking some important steps to better support the black community. He pointed out that although everyone is jumping the bandwagon in support of Black people and even Instagram has also always tried to give its platform for the Black people and all other minorities to help them reach people and raise their voice, it is not new that still their voices often remain unheard, and they become a victim of bias and prejudice. Mosseri says that he is well aware of the fact that even on his platform, Blacks and other minorities often get harassed, shadow banned, and many times their content or any content that revolves around them gets taken down.

People from all over the world demand some solid action against racism now, and Mosseri said that they are questioning the policies and products of Instagram about their un-intentional steps that somehow promote racial bias, and harassment.

So now, Mosseri has decided to make actions speak louder than words. He is planning to take practical steps to review content and deal with harassment and verification issues.

He said that Instagram will now focus on four areas - Harassment, Verification issues, Distribution, and Algorithmic bias.

To deal with harassment, Mosseri said that Instagram will look at special safety issues that black Instagrammers face both on and off the platform, and they will find ways to protect these people from these experiences.

Instagram’s verification process has raised some concerns if it supports certain groups only. So, now they are going to make the verification criteria more inclusive and generalized towards all types of people without any discrimination.

As per Mosseri, Instagram will now look into Instagram’s algorithms to see if they are also affected by racial bias, or if AI bias is affecting its decision making. Also, from now on, the content will be seriously reviewed and filtered for any kind of discriminatory posts. The content distribution process will also become more transparent.

Mosseri says that his mission is to make Instagram a place where all people are treated equally, without any kind of class, gender, racial, or geographic discrimination. Everyone should have a right to express their opinion on the platform, and with the new steps, he is hopeful that they will achieve their goal soon.

The ideas sound really nice and Mosseri’s intent also sounds good, but will he be able to achieve all of that in such a partial, racist, and judgmental world? This will remain a question until time tells whether Instagram’s revised policies are effective or not. It also depends on whether people around the globe will also change themselves and become more large-hearted and tolerant towards others soon or not?



Read next: The Instagram influencer market reached $5.24 billion in the last year.
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17 percent of people admit using social media location data to try and run into someone [Infographic]

June 16, 2020, 6:30 am
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As social media grows bigger and bigger, people continue adding more and more personal information to the internet. Users post about the food they’ve eaten recently, the trips they’ve taken, and even share photos of their kids.

While social media is for sharing critical moments in people’s lives, it can sometimes give more information than expected. If a phone has location services, someone’s location might be shared with more people than we know. For a closer look at who may be lurking on your location information, security company ADT surveyed more than 1,000 smartphone users who utilize location services and social media. Here is some data about people who keep their location services turned on, with whom they share their whereabouts, and what others might be doing with that information once they have it.

Where Are You?

While it’s common sense to keep personal information, such as your credit card number and Social Security number to yourself, it seems people are more willing to share their location. According to the study, more than 1 in 3 respondents say they often or always leave the location services enabled on their smartphones. Moreover, 39.6% say they sometimes have their location turned on. Only 3.8% of people never share their location.

How does knowing someone’s location affect their feelings of safety? More than half (54.4%) of people said they feel the same security level, but 33.6% felt more safe knowing their friends know where they are. Just 12% of those surveyed said they felt less secure when people know their location.

More than 41% of the women surveyed said they felt safer after sharing their location, while only 26.1% of men felt the same. The top reason people shared their location was for safety, but women were nearly 16 percentage points more likely to share for this reason.

A private Snapchat account is the social media platform respondents were most likely to share their location or check-in with (60.9%). But if people had a public Snapchat account, only 39.1% of people shared where they were. Twitter was the outlier of the four social media platforms analyzed – Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. Almost 3 in 4 Twitter users shared their location with a public account, compared to just 26.5% with a private account. Instagram is similar but with a much smaller percentage difference. People with a public account (56.5%) were more likely to share their location than those with a private account (43.5%).

The top reasons people check in on social media are traveling (62.9%), dining out (58.6%), and attending a concert or festival (51.4%).

On average, respondents reported sharing their location directly with four people – their significant other (55.8%), friends (40.1%), parents (39.9%), and siblings (35.7%). Knowing that these people had this information made them feel safer. The most significant percentage of people felt safe when sharing their location with their significant other (60.8%), and only 39.2% felt less secure in the same situation.

Respondents also reported having locations sent to them by their loved ones as well. The top four people that shared their locations with respondents were significant others (49.2%), friends (37.1%), parents (31.7%), and siblings (30.8%) – the same group of people with whom respondents shared their locations.

The group people were least likely to share their location with? Co-workers.


Who Is Monitoring Your Location?

How often are people checking the locations of others? Nearly 1 in 3 people check their significant other’s location every day. Children are the group monitored most often. Almost half (47.5%) of those surveyed admitted to checking their child’s location daily. Respondents’ friends were the group watched the least.

The study revealed that about 1 in 4 people admitted to checking an ex’s location after a breakup using social media or location services. Men (25.3%) were more likely than women (20.3%) to have done this.
Women tended to be more concerned about safety, while men worried more about social disparities. Women were four percentage points more likely to check someone’s location to assure their safety, but men (8.9%) were more than twice as likely to monitor someone’s location than women (4.7%) if someone canceled plans with them. Women also wanted to assess arrival time (48.1%) more than men (39.3%).

Respondents even reported using location services and check-ins to run into people they knew were out. About 1 in 6 people admitted to doing this, and men (21.2%) were more likely to do this than women (12.8%).


Locating the Risk

While sharing vacation photos on social media is fun, it also lets people know your house is empty, leaving valuables at risk. Nearly 45% of survey participants revealed they had a security system. But more than half (52.2%) of respondents feel their home and valuables are at risk due to social media location sharing. Only 23.9% feel their home is safe when revealing their location.

Of the people who feel location sharing puts their home at risk, only 31.3% share their location. But 46.4% of people who do not think it’s a risk will let others know via social media where they are.

Approximately 13.5% of respondents revealed their home was broken into while they were out. Of those, 40.7% had shared their location on social media. Nearly 1 in 4 people said the person who broke into their home could see their location on a social media platform. More than half (58.7%) of people with at least one child on social media said they had rules about sharing locations.

While being connected continuously can sound great and can keep people safe, it could also put people and valuables at risk. Whether you are concerned for someone’s safety or just want to know when people will arrive, sometimes using a private platform like texting could be better.



Read next: Survey: 68 Percent Consumers Believe That Smart Home Appliances Sneakily Listen To Them
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CTO At Facebook States Hiring Matters For Alleviating Artificial Intelligence Bias, But Facebook Does Not Supply AI Research Diversity Numbers

June 16, 2020, 8:30 am
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Mike Schroepfer, Chief Technology Officer at Facebook, says that hiring a crucial part of diversity in AI as well as preventing bias for teams creating products for people. However, Schroepfer cannot provide the number of Black people working at FAIR (Facebook AI Research) team. FAIR was created with Yann LeCun back in the year 2013, and it has locations in various regions including NY, Paris, and Silicon Valley. Facebook AI Research has become one of the most influential and significant artificial intelligence research organizations across the globe.

More than 100 employees work at FAIR, and a its spokesman stated that the company has reported employee diversity stats for 6 years. However, Facebook does not tally numbers by individual teams. Last year, Media houses asked Facebook about the number of Black people working at FAIR, but received no response from Facebook.

Evan Spiegel, Snap CEO also stated in an internal meeting, held last Friday, that he does not plan to supply diversity stats. Last week, Facebook CTO spoke publicly with artificial intelligence journalists for the first since protests erupted in over 2,000 cities in the United States. He stated that Facebook has been trying to improve diversity across its board. According to a 2019 analysis by Mutale Nkonde, co-author at Algorithm Accountability Act, FAIR had no Black employees.

Diversity efforts at tech giant companies such as Google and Facebook had made only small progress before the death of George Floyd. Recently, Mark Zuckerberg declined to remove Trump’s post that states, ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts.’ However, Twitter labeled a similar post, and a lot of Facebook employees threatened to resign, and some even staged a virtual walkout.
It has been reported that Facebook fired an engineer who participated in protests. Mark Luckie, a former Facebook employee, stated in Nov 2018 that the company is failing Black people working at Facebook and Black people using Facebook’s services. However, Schroepfer defended the company’s record on diversity by highlighting Facebook’s efforts to create the Society in Artificial Intelligence and Responsible Innovation labs during the last two years. A report on diversity at tech giant companies such as Google and Facebook was published last year by AI Now Institute. The report discovered that over 80% of computer academics teaching artificial intelligence are men, and only 15% of Facebook’s AI researchers are women. 10% of Google’s AI researchers are women, and the report claims that these companies do not make enough efforts to develop diverse teams.


Photo: Fb.

Read next: An insight into how ads work on Facebook
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Top 50 leadership books and quotes according to Kindle and Goodreads data

June 16, 2020, 11:00 am
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A strong leader can motivate and inspire people to work towards a shared goal. All other elements of business essentially hinge on whether you are able to build a cooperative and collaborative work culture, and this can affect the success of an organization.

If you are hoping to develop your business leadership skills, you’re already off to a good start. Great leadership isn’t a one-size-fits-all quality that can be picked up without effort and consideration. It requires a growth-mentality that is willing to question your own strengths and vulnerabilities, striving to understand what motivates other people to work effectively, and learning how to encourage and nurture people in your workforce to achieve their potential.

There are various different types of leadership style. Some managers are more effective than others, but that doesn’t mean there is a definitive ‘correct’ way to lead a team. For example, there is a misconception that extroverts are better at sticking their necks out and getting results, but Susan Cain argues in Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, that introverted people can be great listeners, and this is a perceptive quality that can help in negotiating and collaborating with others.

You might want your business to run like a finely-oiled machine, but it’s really important to consider what will motivate your employees to make their best contribution to your organization. This requires a human approach, that shows appreciation for people’s needs, values, and sense of purpose. In Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, Simon Sinek explains that “There are only two ways to influence human behaviour: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.” An inspired and well-motivated staff are naturally going to be more dedicated to meeting targets and deadlines.

Another great quality that many successful business leaders display is the ability to organize and delegate clearly defined goals that recognize and utilize the talents, interests, and experience of individuals within an organization. This requires a strong understanding not only of your goals, but also of the resources that are available to you - including human resources. As Daniel H. Pink explains in Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, successful people “have autonomy over the four T’s: their task, their time, their technique, and their team.” Making sure you have a clear idea of what you’re doing, and who you’re working with, will help things run more smoothly.

Learning to be an effective business leader involves taking some responsibility for your own success. It’s about thinking about what you want to achieve, and working with your employees to tap into each other’s potential. If you approach it with a positive and constructive attitude, you will find leadership truly rewarding.

Fortunately, there is a wealth of resources available to offer guidance to prospective leaders, company owners, and business managers. From philosophers and academics in the fields of economics, social sciences, and psychology, to pioneers in tech, media, and other industries, whatever your business focus, Resume.io have collected top-rated expert leadership advice that can help you achieve your goals.

Using Goodreads data, they found the top 50 rated leadership books of all time, and then used Amazon Kindle data to determine the most-highlighted quote by users for each book.

The result gives us fifty inspirational quotes to turn to whenever we need some inspiration:

1. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
“Pretend to be completely in control and people will assume that you are.”


2. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
“There are three basic flavors of incentive: economic, social, and moral.”
3. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
“Practise isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good.”


4. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
“These three characteristics — one, contagiousness; two, the fact that little causes can have big effects; and three, that change happens not gradually but at one dramatic moment.”
5. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Caregie
“When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.”
6. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Introverts, in contrast, may have strong social skills and enjoy parties and business meetings, but after a while wish they were home in their pajamas. They prefer to devote their social energies to close friends, colleagues, and family. They listen…”
7. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey
"It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us."


8. Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson
“The fear you let build up in your mind is worse than the situation that actually exists.”
9. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
“Learn to use your emotions to think, not think with your emotions.”
10. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
“First find a simple and obvious cue. Secondly clearly define the rules.”
11. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
“Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small. The difficult things in this world must be done while they are easy, the greatest things in the world must be done while they are still small.”
12. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
“The most common way people give up power is by thinking they don't have any.”


13. The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
“Upon this, one has to remark that men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.”
14. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance

“One thing that Musk holds in highest regard is resolve, and he respects people who continue on after being told no.”
15. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle
“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.”
16. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill by Napoleon Hill
“That is one of the tricks of opportunity. It has a sly habit of slipping in by the back door, and often it comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.”
17. The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
“Parkinson's Law dictates that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion.”
18. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
“Vulnerability is about sharing our feelings and our experiences with people who have earned the right to hear them.”
19. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins
“Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice.”


20. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
“Getting things done requires two basic components: defining (1) what 'done' means (outcome) and (2) what 'doing' looks like (action).”
21. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
“Most people don't know what they want unless they see it in context.”
22. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
“There are only two ways to influence human behaviour: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.”
23. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck
“The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life.”
24. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
“Type I behavior emerges when people have autonomy over the four T’s: their task, their time, their technique, and their team”.
25. Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World—and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund
“Our most important challenge in developing a fact-based worldview, according to Rosling, is to realize that most of our firsthand experiences are from Level 4; and that our secondhand experiences are filtered through the mass media, which loves nonrepresentative extraordinary events and shuns normality.”
26. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
“A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason. People simply like to have reasons for what they do.”
27. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
“Politics is when people choose their words and actions based on how they want others to react rather than based on what they really think.”
28. Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes
“Happiness comes from living as you need to, as you want to. As your inner voice tells you to. Happiness comes from being who you actually are instead of who you think you are supposed to be.”


29. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman
“In a very real way we have two minds, one that thinks one that feels.”
30. The One Minute Manager by Kenneth H. Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
“If you can't tell me what you'd like to be happening' he said 'You don't have a problem yet. You’re just complaining. A problem only exists if there is a difference between what is actually happening and what you would like to be happening”
31. #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso
“Abandon anything about your life and habits that might be holding you back. Learn to create your own opportunities. Know that there is no finish line. Fortune favours action.”
32. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
“What we mean by “simple” is finding the core of the idea.”
33. Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Amy Wallace and Edwin Catmull
“Getting the team right is the necessary precursor to getting the ideas right.”
34. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
“I chose to,””Only a few things really matter,” and “I can do anything but not everything.”
35. Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Jean Greaves and Travis Bradberry
“Self-management is your ability to use your awareness of your emotions to stay flexible and direct your behavior positively.”
36. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
“The volume and complexity of what we know has exceeded our individual ability to deliver its benefits correctly, safely, or reliably. Knowledge has both saved us and burdened us”.
37. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Al Switzler, Joseph Grenny, and Ron McMillan
“When it comes to risky, controversial or emotional conversations, skillful people find a way to get all relevant information (from themselves and others ) out into the open.”
38. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by William Ury, Roger Fisher, and Bruce Patton
“Any method of negotiation may be fairly judged by three criteria: It should produce a wise agreement if agreement is possible. It should be efficient. And it should improve or at least not damage the relationship between the parties.”
39. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
“Increase throughput whilst simultaneously reducing both inventory and operating expense.”
40. Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath
“You cannot be anything you want to be—but you can be a lot more of who you already are.”
41. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
“It turns out that is exactly what product strategy is all about—figuring out the right product is the innovator’s job, not the customer’s job.”
42. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
“Change is hard because people wear themselves out. And that's the second surprise about change: what often looks like laziness is exhaustion.”
43. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Christopher Voss and Tahl Raz
“Research shows that the best way to deal with negativity is to observe it, without reaction and without judgement. Then consciously label each negative feeling and replace it with positive, compassionate, and solution – based thoughts”


44. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras
“It means less of your time spent thinking about specific product lines and marketing strategies, and spend more of your time thinking about organisation design.”
45. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell
“The main difference between the two is that leadership is about influencing people to follow, while management focuses on maintaining systems and purposes.”


46. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
“On any team, in any organization, all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. The leader must own everything in his or her world. There is no one else to blame. The leader must acknowledge mistakes and admit failures, take ownership of them, and develop a plan to win.”
47. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
“Leadership on the other hand is about creating change that you believe in.”
48. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham
“Broadly put, philosophers think. Politicians maneuver. Jefferson's genius was that he was both and could do both, often simultaneously. Such is the art of power.”
49. Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. by Brené Brown
“I define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for finding potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential.”
50. Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box by The Arbinger Institute
“No matter what we’re doing on the outside, people respond primarily to how we’re feeling about them on the inside.”
Which quote resonates with you most?

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Research Shows the Peak Times to Get Things Done (infographic)

June 16, 2020, 2:00 pm
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The digital workspace has made your work more accessible than ever before. Modern work practices mean that for many people, your office is literally at your fingertips, or at least within arms reach, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Having a flexible schedule does sound attractive, but the human mind and body don’t function like a computer. For most people, you can’t just switch into a specific work mode any time you like. You’ll quickly get burnt out if you don’t pay attention to your natural performance patterns, so it’s important to think carefully about how you manage your time.

This makes sense in terms of business culture, too. The people you work with, whether they are colleagues, clients, or customers, all have schedules and work rhythms. Making sure that your business practice compliments the way other people work best, will also count in your favor.

Whether you are a freelancer working alone or with clients, or a business owner or manager with a team of colleagues to coordinate, you want to make sure that you’re working efficiently, and making the time that you do work, work for you.

All this is backed by reams of scientific research. From circadian rhythms and neuroscience, to big data on digital practices and corporate efficiencies, there’s plenty of evidence to support the argument that business works best when the natural patterns of the people behind the work is taken into consideration.

Small business finance experts at Headway Capital have looked into the research to gather the advice on when is the best time to work on certain tasks, and when to schedule things to a more appropriate time.

The peak time for digital communication:

Just because you can send an email at 3am, doesn’t mean you should. People generally don’t like being disturbed outside of standard office hours, and getting a notification from a work email late at night can be frustrating and stress-inducing. If you have a flash of brilliance, either draft your email to send in the morning, or use the scheduled-send function to make sure it arrives first thing.

The research shows that emails are most likely to be opened between 6 and 7 am, and those emails get more replies, too. The same early-morning advice goes for social media and PR posts, as well. They get the most hits around 9 am, so wait for breakfast time if you want to reach your audience.

The optimum time for new ideas:

If you want to tap into your creative juices, it’s worth remembering that the brain’s prefrontal cortex is most active in early morning. This is that liminal time when people are drifting out of sleep into a more wakeful state, and creativity flows more easily.

Try keeping a notebook next to your bed to jot down any flashes of inspiration that spring to mind when you first wake up. You might also think about brainstorming for fresh ideas while your more critical self (the one that filters for ‘quality’) is still waking up.

The best time to schedule meetings:

Since people are still in wake-up mode first thing, it’s hardly surprising that people tend not to be available for meetings before 10 am. But when it gets to mid-morning, that’s the perfect time to get your team together for strategizing and problem-solving sessions. Experts in neuroscience and circadian rhythms argue that people collaborate well and are in peak decision-making mode around this time.
Afternoon meetings can also be useful, but they will serve a different purpose. People tend to make decisions more quickly later in the working day, but they are less precise in their thinking. Leave less important decisions to this time of day, when the brain is ready to work more mechanically. Meetings and presentations are also worth leaving until later because people will feel more comfortable when they have more planning time and availability.

A good time for professional development:

The research shows that people learn best once they have fully woken up and still have energy to understand and retain new information. Peak ‘acquisition mode’ occurs between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm, although it’s worth remembering that people also need to take a break for lunch around this time. It’s not healthy to always work through lunch, as this is the time for your mind and body to relax and recharge.

Scheduling training sessions or professional development time for late morning is far more effective than pulling all-nighters and burning the midnight oil. Not only do you miss out on much needed restive sleep time, but the work you do late at night isn’t effective or efficient. Less time working during peak performance hours is always better than wasting your efforts at other times of day.

When you should set your schedule:

If you are doing a major overhaul of your business practice, including work schedules and establishing new patterns of work between many people, then the ‘problem-solving time’ earlier in the day is best. However, if it’s more a matter of looking at your short-term time management strategy (that is, what to do tomorrow), then the end of your working day is a logical time to do that.

This is when you want to start winding down and tying up loose ends. Discuss how the day went with colleagues and employees, and make plans for how to pick up again tomorrow. Think about upcoming targets and deadlines, and work out an effective to-do list so you can hit the ground running when you start work in the morning.

The Peak Time of Day to Do Everything in Your Business (Backed by Science)

Read next: How to be more productive while working from home (infographic)
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Google For Desktop Is Testing Product Photo Thumbnails

June 16, 2020, 6:30 pm
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We have already seen that Google displays product photo thumbnails on the smartphone search results. The search engine behemoth displays these image thumbnails a lot on mobile searches. However, Google displaying product image thumbnails on desktop search results is less common as compared to mobile devices. The company does not display product image thumbnails in the main search results snippets on desktop web.

Back in the year 2019, Google increased the number of times the company displayed photo thumbnails in the smartphone search result. RankRanger published a report at that time stating that 75% of the search results RankRanger tracked had at least one product photo thumbnail in the search results.

Thumbnail is a compressed preview picture of the original image and the product image thumbnails displayed by Google can be useful for a lot of people. The main search results page will display you the image thumbnails of the product you are looking for. If you are looking for a specific product on Google, the browser will now display image thumbnails of that product. This will make it easier for you to decide which web page you should open.

Now, it seems that Google is again testing this feature on the desktop. Andrew Akesson shared a screenshot on Twitter showing that the company is testing this feature again for desktop users. In the screenshot, it is clearly visible that Akesson searched for Nike trainers on Google. In the search results on desktop, Google displayed image thumbnails of the product. If you try to replicate this feature across other web browsers, those browsers will probably not display product image thumbnails (as we've tested it too).

Andrew wrote in the tweet that Google is testing photos for organic transactional queries on the browser. He stated that it has been happening on the smartphone for a long time now. However, this was the first time he saw this test on the desktop. Google is always testing new features and functions, so do not be surprised if you see these sorts of tests in the coming days.

It seems that the tech giant is always working on ways to improve Search with beneficial visuals for users and internet surfers. Google also encourages owners of the websites to enrich their web pages with appropriate content. With the new feature, on desktop devices, you will see a short description of the product on the left side of the screen and an image thumbnail of the product on the right side of your screen. The image thumbnail displayed in the search results is the preview of the product image available on the website. As it is mentioned above, Google usually displays product image thumbnails on the mobile search results, but it is less common in desktop search results.



Read next: On The Footprints Of Google: Facebook Is Now Showing Wikipedia Snippets in Search Results
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Studies Show That SMS Is One Of The Best Marketing Techniques, But Most Retail Marketers Are Not Leveraging It

June 16, 2020, 11:00 pm
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On overage, only 21% of emails sent by retail brands are opened by consumers, however, recipients open more than 98% of text messages they receive from retail marketers. Although text messaging is becoming popular as a marketing channel, most retail marketers and businesses are still not utilizing it.

Internet Retailer conducted research for OpenMarket back in the year 2016 and found that only 29% of retail brands were utilizing text messaging as a marketing channel or consumer service purposes. In comparison, 97% of retail brands were using emails for purposes such as marketing and consumer service. If we assume a significant growth in the last few years, it is not likely that SMS-based marketing has now reached or crossed the 50% threshold.

High-profile retail brands such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Macy’s Bloomingdales, Nordstorm, Kmart, Eddie Bauer, and Crate and Barrel are leveraging SMS- based marketing. The use cases of text messaging include purposes such as promotions, customer service, shopping cart abandonment, notifications related to shipping, and reminder, etc.

Recently, Yotpo conducted a survey on 800 adults and found that 51% of respondents wanted a text relation with their favorite retail brands. The survey was conducted on individuals from a wide range of distinct regions. 54% of respondents also wanted to receive discount offers through text messages.

During the survey, 48% of respondents stated that they had already signed up for text messages from brands. Earlier, Zipwhip also conducted a survey and discovered that 76 percent of customers were receiving text messages from different businesses. According to the survey conducted by Yotpo, 76% of loyalty program members choose to receive text messages. 41% of consumers prefer SMS as a communication channel while 46% preferred email as a communication channel. Social media came third (8%) after SMS and email as customers’ preferred communication channel, and 6% stated that their preferred communication channel is a phone call.

The survey conducted by Yotpo did not indicate the average number of retailer- text relations customers had. It is also not clear how much of this data can be generalized to the entire population of the United States as the sample size is very small and it was drawn from different countries.
Text messaging is a low-cost marketing channel and offers high response rates. Yotpo-owned SMSBump features case studies that demonstrate text messaging as a direct-response channel. These case studies also showcase text messaging as a tool to encourage engagement as well as loyalty among existing consumers. According to cosmetics retailer Kiehl’s, 73 percent of consumers who signed up for text messages purchased a product within only 6 months.

Texts are not a replacement for email but a complement to email and other forms of internet advertising, and using them together can be extremely beneficial for a brand.



Read next: Instant Messaging Users Will Jump To 4.3 Billion This Year, SMS Business Messaging Traffic To Hit 3.5 Trillion Messages In 2020
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Apple defends App Store amidst anti-trust investigations

June 17, 2020, 1:26 am
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On Monday, Apple promoted a new study from the economic consulting firm Analysis Group which found that the App Store was responsible for $519 billion in the estimation of the total billings and sales of physical as well as digital products and services in 2019.

Apple says that, of that sum, $61 billion constitutes digital items of which the company may receive a 30 percent share or a 15 percent share in the case of longer-lasting subscriptions. This includes the largest category in the App Store, mobile games, as well as in-app purchases, various subscriptions, and the total sale of paid apps.

The study is careful in saying that the presented figure is not the same as the total App Store billings. Analysis Group says that it accounts for some items like video streaming subscriptions which might be purchased somewhere else but essentially are based on the consumption of the media on an iOS device, as well as other applications purchased by larger enterprises for employee use.

Another $45 billion is dedicated to In-app advertising, of which, a large portion is the contribution of mobile gaming. Everything else such as ride-hailing software like Uber, to food delivery apps like DoorDash, to mobile retail apps like Best Buy and Target are contributing to the remaining $413 billion and the study suggests that Apple takes no share from this revenue generated by the App Store.



These figures are typically accurate with Apple, given the company’s known fast-growing services business and given that how it makes on a weekly and monthly basis from the App Store. It is nonetheless interesting to see the detailed breakdown of the company’s commerce and earnings.

These numbers are important for Apple because the company wants the developers as well as the regulators to think of the App Store as a growing economy that is, according to Apple is, “dynamic, competitive, and flourishing.”

Apple is now another large tech company like many, which is under the lens of tech-focused task forces within the Department of Justice in Washington and the Federal Trade Commission, who take a much closer look on the regulations of companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google to monitor and see if they have too much power and if they use that power to disrupt healthy competition among the companies.

Apple has faced criticism time and time again for its mandatory 30 percent share, enraging companies that run competing services, like Spotify, and accusations and facing lawsuits from developers who say that it runs the App Store like a monopoly. Apple is now being investigated under the European Union after its rival filed a formal antitrust complaint against it.

This added pressure seems to have led to some new consumer-friendly features like Siri support for Spotify. Apple’s relationship with developers these days pivots on whether it is a kind dictator that is at risk of overstepping its bounds or, as Apple may see it, as an interdependent benefactor in a cooperative ecosystem.

Besides the regulations, there are some very interesting figures in the report, which beats the app categories by a margin. It reveals that traveling like Expedia, Trivago, various airline apps are the reason for generating $57 billion in booking, sales, and traveling while ride-hailing and food delivery apps generated $40 and $31 billion respectively.

But the biggest generators of revenue according to the study is the retail industry’s mobile equivalents including mobile apps of large chains like Walmart and Target.

It is reported that of the $519 billion that the App Store supported in 2019, the largest share at $413 billion was contributed by the sales of physical goods and services. Within the same category, the vast majority of sales were generated by m-commerce apps, and of those, retail accounted for the largest share at $268 billion. Retail apps include stores such as Target and Best Buy, as well as virtual stores that sell physical goods such as Amazon and Etsy. This however does not include grocery delivery which is considered as another whole category.

Various types of m-commerce apps were the largest sources of sales from physical goods and services. Travel apps, including Expedia and United, accounted for $57 billion in revenue while ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft added $40 billion in sales. Food delivery apps including DoorDash and Grubhub accumulated $31 billion.

There is also a fascinating geographic breakdown that says that the US accounts for less than half of the $519 billion generated at just $138 billion with China contributing the larger portion estimated at $246 billion.

Read next: Mobile Contactless Payments May Be the Next Big Thing
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Here’s Why All Website Designs Look the Same Now

June 17, 2020, 2:00 am
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If you have been around on the internet, you have probably noticed that most websites in their particular niche — in almost all categories, from news media sites to eCommerce platform — tend to look the same. They have very similar formats as well as aesthetics, and this might seem jarring to you at first. However, over the years as these websites have established themselves, this genericization of how websites tend to look has become widely accepted. Still, you might be wondering why all of these diverse websites look so similar to one another, and the answer to your question is actually a little complicated.

According to a study conducted by researchers at Indiana University, about 12 years ago a lot of diversity started to show up in web design. Designers now had better screens that they could use to add a bit of artistic flair to their websites, and they took full advantage of this. As a result of the fact that this is was the case, between the years of 2008 and 2010 websites were found to have the largest amount of diversity. Whether it was fonts or background color choices or any of the various design elements that are put in place, diversity was found to be the norm.

Between 2010 and 2016, however, websites started to look quite similar to one another. A big part of the reason why that is the case has to do with the fact that early websites had to be built from scratch (probably because most content management platforms were evolving), which meant that the developer in question had to come up with aesthetic choices that would be implemented in every aspect of the website. Now, on the other hand, code libraries have become commonplace and there are a number of presets, themes as well as default settings that you can opt for, and the emergence of these easy ways out has lead to websites starting to look more similar.

With the rise of platforms like WordPress and Blogger template based web design started to become a lot more common. Services like WordPress also ended up making web design much easier than it was before, which meant that people that did not have the kind of aesthetic expertise of early web developers ended up getting into web development and using templates to try and create websites of their own.

That said, another big reason why websites look the same is because this standard look is optimal for engaging users and driving traffic to a site. This means that it’s not necessarily a bad thing, although some might say that a more diverse web would be a better thing for everyone. Still, the attention that is being drawn to this might result in more diversity arising in the near future.



Read next: Analysis of 450K Websites Reveals How World's Most Popular Websites Acquire Their Visitors
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Study Discovered That The Instagram's AI Prioritizes Images Showing Semi-Nudity, Instagram Says The "Research Is Flawed"

June 17, 2020, 3:55 am
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The latest studies suggest that the algorithm of Instagram makes images showing skin more likely to appear in the newsfeed of users. This means that Instagram prioritizes scantily-clad photos of people. This might also be the reason your Instagram newsfeed appears to be filled with thirst traps.

A team of researchers from the European Data Journalism Network and the AlgorithmWatch discovered that Instagram prioritizes these types of images in the newsfeed of users. The researchers analyzed Instagram newsfeeds and spoke to content creators for this purpose. They also studied patents to make this discovery.

The team of researchers asked twenty-six volunteers to download and install a browser add-on that would automatically open the Instagram homepage of volunteers at regular intervals. It also records posts that Instagram displays at the top of newsfeeds. The researchers then asked the volunteers to follow a selection of 37 professional content creators from 12 countries who use the platform to advertise their business and attract new customers.

The team discovered that 362 images out of 2,400 images posted by content creators displayed bare-chested men and women in bikinis or underwear. The team expected that the volunteers would experience a similar diversity of content if Instagram was not prioritizing these types of images. However, 30% of the posts appearing in the newsfeeds of volunteers contained semi-nude photos.

It was 54% more likely for photos of scantily-clad women to pop up in the newsfeeds of volunteers while it was 28% more likely for pictures of bare-chested men to be shown. In comparison, photos of landscape or food appeared 60% less likely.

A reporter at AlgorithmWatch, Nicolas Kayser-Bril explained in a tweet that some people use Instagram as a free of ‘soft porn photos.’ The tweet also says that machine learning (ML) picks up this behavior of users and after amplifying, ML pushed photos of nudity to all Instagram users.

This bias may push professional content creators on Instagram into posting revealing content on the platform to attract more users. This algorithm bias will particularly push women into posting revealing pictures. This bias could also help to shape the worldview of 1 billion monthly active users of Instagram.

However, the team of researchers also admitted that this algorithm bias did not apply to all volunteers. The algorithm of Instagram promotes revealing content generally, but other factors like personalization limit its effect for some Instagram users.

According to the team of researchers, we cannot draw concrete conclusions based on this data as we do not have access to internal data. They stated that we can draw concrete conclusions if we have access to Facebook’s internal data and its production servers. The team of researchers intends to investigate further on this aspect by recruiting extra volunteers.

Facebook-owned Instagram disputed this discovery stating that there are several flaws in this research. The company stated that this research displays a misunderstanding of how Instagram’s algorithm operates. Instagram ranks posts in the newsfeeds of users based on the type of content and accounts they follow, explained Instagram Comms team in a tweet.

This yet again highlights another issue that most social networks expect from their users to stay as much as possible on their respective platforms by offering several features, playing with users psychology and creating an echo chamber that consistently offers such types of content that makes users feel more glued to their news feeds.

The researchers from European Data Journalism Network and the AlgorithmWatch believe that Instagram’s algorithm operates according to their findings. The researchers note that Facebook released a patent displaying the factors that determine what type of content to prioritize. One of the factors mentioned in the patent is, ‘state of undress.’ This suggests that Instagram’s algorithm may choose content based on what ‘Facebook thinks’ users want to let them stay inside their filtered bubble.



Read next: Lurking on Locations: Exploring How people are using location services and social media check-ins
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Facebook and Instagram’s New Feature Shows People You May Know in Between Stories

June 17, 2020, 6:30 am
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People you may know is a feature that the vast majority of Facebook users are probably going to be familiar with in some way, shape or form, and a big part of the reason why that is the case has to do with the fact that this is a feature that is supposed to help people connect with one another. Facebook often tries to boost this feature, and it is understandable that the social media platform would attempt to do so because of the fact that this is a feature that represents a big part of what Facebook stands for, and it helps entice users into staying on the social network and using it far more often than might have been the case otherwise.

It seems like a new update has been rolled out on Facebook and Instagram that is showing you people that you might know in between Stories. This is probably a smart move from the social networking giant to increase engagement on its platform. After you complete one story, you will be shown people you may know for a brief moment in a format that is very similar to that of an ad. The advertisement like placement of this feature is very important to note. Users interaction you may know is in many ways crucial to Facebook’s continued success, and even though there are a lot of glitches that people often complain about it seems like Facebook is doubling down in the hopes that this feature will continue to gain traction.


With all of that having been said and out of the way, it is important to note that a lot of user complaints need to be addressed before the "people you may know" feature can end up becoming as popular as Facebook wants it to be, as some users find this feature annoying and creepy. However, this new update does indicate that Facebook might be willing to take a more innovative approach to this feature which might lead to improvements in the near future.

Hat Tip: Matt Navarra / FDT.

Read next: An insight into how ads work on Facebook
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Google Confirms That The Company Is Experimenting To Hide The Complete Address From URL Bar In Chrome

June 17, 2020, 8:30 am
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Last week Google was spotted experimenting with a new change in Chrome Canary 85 and Chrome Dev version. The change hides the complete address of the current webpage. It only displays the website domain at all times, e.g. opening this page ‘digitalinformationworld.com/2020/06/how-does-facebook-use-machine-learning-to-deliver-ads.html’ will result this in the address bar ‘digitalinformationworld.com’. The company had to face backlash for this new experiment. Now, Google has revealed extra details related to the company’s plans and how Google plans to address this criticism.

The company has experimented to hide the complete URL (Uniform Resource Locator) in the address bar of Chrome Dev for years. Google has been testing this change because long web address appears to be evil and scary, in some cases. However, despite the public backlash, the company is pressing on with its new plans to hide the full web address except for the domain name of the web address.



A chromium developer on the bug tracker forum for this new change stated that the company thinks that it is a crucial problem area to explore as phishing, as well as other sorts of social engineering, are rampant on the web. He also stated that a lot of research indicates that the current URL display patterns of the browser are not efficient defenses. Google is introducing and implementing this new simplified display pattern to conduct quantitative as well as qualitative research to understand if this new experiment helps Chrome users to identify malicious sites more properly and accurately.

The comment from the chromium developer also mentioned a paper that was published last year. The paper evaluated how users perceive the identities of different sites, and discovered that no iteration of URL display patterns and HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) notices significantly affected the understanding of users on the safety and identification of login pages.

Google also confirmed that the company will keep the existing opt-out mechanism. The opt-out mechanism is a setting option that allows users to view the full URLs. When a user right-clicks on the address bar of Chrome, they see an option that says, ‘Always show full URLs.’ With this option, you will be able to always view the complete URLs in the address bar. The chromium developer also stated that the company plans to support this opt-out mechanism for an unlimited time. This means that users will be able to use this option for an unspecified period of time. We are not yet sure when the company will officially implement this new change. However, it seems that Google will implement this change despite the public backlash that comes after every attempt.

Read next: Google Chrome is bringing a new autofill bar user interface for Android to provide a far greater user experience
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Study Reveals Differences between Stories Curated by Human Editors and Algorithms for Apple News Users

June 17, 2020, 11:00 am
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Currently, more than 125 million people use Apple News each month and the latest study published by Mac O’ Clock reveals key differences between stories curated by human editors and those curated by algorithms for Apple News users. Jack Bandy wrote a blog post on June 4 stating that if we check Apple News, we will find a ‘Spotlight’ related to the United States protests that feature a list of organizations where people can donate to support racial justice, educational resources, and rights for people participating in protests.

According to the Bandy, human editors curate these stories instead of an algorithm. Human editors as well as algorithms choose stories for over 100 million people each day who use Apple News. Apple News has reached 125 million monthly active users while a similar app, Flipboard has around 145 million monthly active users.

Last year, Mac O’ Clock collected stories from Apple News for 2 months. They collected 1,268 top-ranked stories curated by editors and 3,144 trending news stories curated by algorithms. According to Mac O’ Clock, humans select sources more evenly as compared to algorithms. Moreover, algorithms feature soft news stories.

One of the primary research questions was how sources were concentrated in Apple News. According to a study in the UK, 75% of news stories in Apple News came from only 6 news sources. Mac O’ Clock discovered that in the US, 50% of trending stories came from 4 most commonly selected sources by algorithms. In comparison, 32% of stories came from 4 most commonly selected sources by human editors.

The common sources selected by algorithms are CNN, BuzzFeed, People, and Fox News. Human editors selected these sources less frequently while the most common sources selected by human editors are The NY Times and The Washington Post. This indicates that algorithms might be selecting stories related to celebrities and various other soft news.

Mac O’ Clock discovered that human editors selected less soft news stories. According to their data, trending stories curated by algorithms tend to focus more on famous personalities or Mr. President. Human editors did not select a news story with Donald Trump’s full name in the headline of a story. The report provided by Mac O’ Clock indicates that human editors follow the news and focus on important topics from a diverse set of sources. Human editors were found valuable in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.



Read next: Apple’s 8 Year Long Attempt to Replace Human Labor With Robots Fails Dramatically, Costs Millions
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LinkedIn: AI Hiring Has Been Very Low In The COVID-19 Period, But The Future Still Looks Great

June 17, 2020, 2:00 pm
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LinkedIn’s Economic Graph Research Insights team is proposing a decline in AI jobs growth as a result of the pandemic. They have a report to prove their claim which looks at how the health crisis has had a huge impact on the sector.

The analysis by LinkedIn covers a period post-COVID-19 from March 16 to May 24 and a pre-COVID-19 period from January 6 to March 15. The results show that not only the demand for AI employees has gone down drastically but also new applicants are also showing very little interest to apply in the sector. Diving deep into the statistics, we also see listings for AI roles is down to 4.6% year-over-year as compared to 14% before the outbreak. Furthermore, applications that were previously up at 50.8% year-over-year also went down to 30.2% after COVID-19’s occurrence.

However, with all the darkness, there has also been one bright side of the story as LinkedIn found out that AI jobs posted directly on the platform rose 8.3% in the 10 weeks of COVID-19 but it is the 14.1% decline in the AI jobs applications that has put forward the idea that maybe potential employees are now preferring to play safe.

LinkedIn’s analysis is also going well in line with IDC’s survey (which can serve to be a ray of hope) as together their prediction also states that the number of AI jobs could go up by 16% while making a figure of 969,000 in total jobs available later this year. IDC is also expecting an AI spending of $50.7 billion in 2020 which is approximately 32% up from last year.

These predictions are because of how the industry trends are bound to revolve more around AI despite heavy layoffs. YouTube has already begun depending on AI for when human reviews are not possible of the videos. Facebook and Twitter are also using AI to keep a track of offensive material on their sites. More and more tech companies like DataRobot, Textio, Yonder, Kodiak Robotics, Zoox, Cruise, and other AI and machine learning startups have their future tied up to helping industries with smart solutions.

Hence the whole scenario makes sense when the claims are to be made that for now the AI job growth may be low or keep declining for the remaining pandemic period, but the future is definitely bright!


Photo Credit: NurPhoto via Getty Images

Read next: Artificial Intelligence Can Possibly Detect Fake News In A Better Way By Analyzing User Interaction
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Google’s New System Called Block Store Will Make It Easier To Log Back In With Your Apps While Switching To A New Mobile

June 17, 2020, 6:30 pm
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Recently, Google and Android Developers posted a new video as part of its ongoing Android 11 beta release festivities. The company published the video for developers explaining the details of how Google intends to change how users login to applications and services. This may sound boring to you, but the changes explained in the video are significant.

The company is soon rolling out a new security system that will make signing back into your apps on a new smartphone easier and quicker. The new system is called Block Store, and if developers use this entirely new system, logging back in your applications on a new smartphone will be as simple as you are restoring from a backup in the setup process.

The video published by Google also covers a new ‘One Tap’ cross-platform log-in system. This new system will make it convenient and quicker for users to sign into their services if they are not sure how they registered an account. One of the most frustrating issues with Android smartphones is setting up a new phone. The company hopes that Block Store will help to fix this issue.

When users switch to new Android smartphones or purchase a new Android TV, logging into their services and apps is kind of frustrating for them. You might be thinking that people can also use password manager apps. However, not everyone trusts those types of apps. Moreover, if a person is using distinct login credentials for each app and service, it may take a while to set up the new phone. The backup and restore service of Android smartphones do not include account login credentials. Only Netflix supports the Smart Lock feature for convenient account-wide login.

In short, we can say that setting up a new Android smartphone is frustrating. However, the new Block Store system is designed to fix all these issues - only if developers start to use this system. Applications that build in support for Google’s new Block Store Application Programming Interface (API) will use a system based on tokens to store login credentials on smartphones. You can back up these tokens with end-to-end encryption as part of your Google account.

We can say that applications and services that support the new Block Store API will allow users to log in once. They will also store the credentials in a secure way that all your devices will be able to pull down while restoring from a backup. You will not even have to tap ‘yes’ to a log-in prompt during this process. Developers can add anything they require to inside the token, to make it operate with any service or application.

Block Store system can work very much like Keychain Services offered by Apple. This new system may be one of the most impactful changes Google has made to Android as a platform. This system will make it easier and quicker to switch between phones, but it depends on developers to actually start using this system. If developers adopt this system, Android’s back and restore system may be able to compete with Apple’s system.



Read next: Android 11 Developer Preview reveals an added trash folder for deleted media and messages

Featured Photo: Michele Tantussi/Getty Images
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