Insights

For a completely free tool, Google Analytics packs in an amazing amount of data-driven information for anyone with an interest in web traffic stats. Since practically anyone dealing in digital content or online sales should have an acute interest in those numbers, the Google Analytics Certification: Get Certified in 2...

Certain governments have been censoring web content for years; with China, Iran and Turkey among the biggest offenders. But if there was something unique about Russia’s block of the Telegram messaging service in April, it was the extent to which the government was willing to go to. Russia went for a wholesale,...

Facebook and Twitter have, within a few hours of each other, revealed new ad transparency measures this week. In both cases, the company in question reveals more details about what ads each account or page is running. It’s also offering further insights on political ads. Trouble is, it all depends on how much effort...

The former “America’s Next Top Model” and “Dancing with the Stars” contestant weighed in on Twitter. Pornhub recently added closed captioning so that the horny and hearing impaired among us can more fully enjoy the adult platform’s offerings. Deaf activist and former...

A patent from Facebook came to light earlier this week, depicting technology that Facebook would use to quietly activate a user’s microphone in order to listen to them as they watch ads. How hard can I “nope” out of that? The details: The patent, filed earlier this month, was originally discovered by Metro. It...

Over 100,000 escorts and allies are using Switter now. Before the passage of FOSTA (Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act) earlier this year, critics had warned that it could put sex workers at risk. The law was meant to deter internet sex trafficking by targeting online content...

Google’s UK-based sister company, DeepMind, recently developed an AI that can render entire scenes in 3D after having only observed them as flat 2D images. Broad strokes: AI researchers at the cutting-edge are trying to teach machines to learn like humans. Rather than see the world in pixels, we look around our...

THE ROCK – the world’s most charismatic steroid user – has just released a product he described on Instagram as “the WORLD’S FIRST over the ear headphones engineered for HARDCORE TRAINING.” Apart from, THE ROCK, they aren’t really, are they? Are they? Are they really, THE ROCK? In fact, other famous...

Mike Rognlien outlines how to figure out when it’s time to move on and the best way to do it. The average American worker holds between 10 and 15 jobs during their lifetime, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and if you want your salary to not become stagnant, experts suggest you change jobs every...

As of early this morning, the account was still visible, with Twitter users meticulously going through his tweets and posting screenshots. More than 13 hours after a gunman killed five people at the Capital newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, Twitter has suspended the apparent account of the suspect, Jarrod W. Ramos,...

14% of respondents said it’s “very important” that people on social media know they are living their best life. Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your friends are jerks. Or at least 36% of them are.Read Full Story

At least two Facebook patents describe listening to users’ TVs. Facebook says it will “never” deploy the technique, but other firms are using similar methods. Amid persistent rumors that Facebook is spying on you through your phone’s microphone—rumors that the company has denied...

We heard back in February about Google’s plans to build a game streaming platform, codenamed Yeti. Now, Kotaku has a scoop on hardware that’s being developed at the company to complement this upcoming service. It isn’t yet clear if Google’s gaming contraption will be a high-powered console like a PS4 or Xbox...

Quite possibly the best thing about being a YouTube Red/Premium/Google Play Music subscriber is the ability to watch videos in a floating picture-in-picture (PiP) window on my phone. That allows me to continue watching a video while chatting, browsing the web, or doing pretty much any activity. I’ll soon be losing...

We may now be having the first of many public conversations about how AIs should talk to humans. Google’s much-hyped reservation-setting AI, Duplex, is a one-trick pony with nowhere near the conversational versatility we’ll see in the artificial general intelligence (AGI) of the future. But the natural...

There was a reported shooter in the Maryland newspaper’s office. The Capital Gazette newspaper out of Annapolis, Maryland, is dealing with an active shooter situation. Both the Anne Arundel police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) have confirmed this incident on Twitter.Read...

The talent agency announced this long-overdue initiative at its second annual Amplify conference. A few years ago, a group of writers and editors, including Durga Chew-Bose and Jazmine Hughes, started the Twitter account Writers of Color. It’s an online resource, complete with a list, that spotlights people of...

Instagram Stories – everyone’s favorite Snapchat rip-off – has launched a feature that lets you put music over your visual creations. We reported on this potentially happening around two months ago, but it’s set to roll-out to some users shortly. Over 400m people use Stories every day, so there’s little...

The hashtagging, meme-sharing, emoji-writing analyst is the scourge of titans like Disney and the champion of New Media. What’s in it for him? Last Thursday, media analyst Rich Greenfield could have spent the first day of summer almost anywhere.Read Full Story

In an attempt at transparency, Dorsey takes a lazy cue from sheepish celebrities. What is the future of Twitter, you may ask? And the answer is: I don’t know! The social network has been under fire for what seems like ever. First, the platform helped the rise of trolls during the GamerGate saga. From there,...

The company’s bot is learning what Facebook ads look like so it can block them, even as Facebook tweaks its code. The makers of Adblock Plus want you to submit screenshots of the ads in your Facebook feed so a new artificial intelligence system called Sentinel can learn to recognize them.Read Full Story

Pokemon Go creator Niantic wants to follow in the footsteps of Amazon and Google to build a lucrative business on top of the platform that powered its own product. Developers who watched with envy as Pokemon Go became the fastest app in history to earn $1 billion in revenue could soon build their own applications on...

For Google to catch up to Amazon, the company should just give away Google Home Minis “to every US (arguably global) household.” By 2022, 70% of American homes are expected to have smart speakers, dominated by Amazon Echos, says Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak in a new research report on Alphabet....

Early numbers indicate that Instagram’s engagement time is up. Earlier this month, Instagram announced a new major feature called IGTV. It is essentially a channel for popular Instagram creators to stream longer content to their millions of followers. It is quite obviously a way for Instagram–and by...

Mondly sucks out the pain of learning a new language — and replaces it with an engaging, tech-savvy interface that turns understanding a foreign tongue into a fun, vibrant process. You can discover the pleasures of language learning with Mondly with this TNW Deals offer, slashing over 90 percent off the price down...

“I really hope Microsoft can keep them totally neutral.” Microsoft scooped up the popular code repository earlier this month for $7.5 billion. But they weren’t the only software giant interested in GitHub. Speaking at a Fortune magazine event yesterday, Google’s head of cloud, Diane...

Google is helping American holiday-goers in major cities avoid the heavy traffic jams by predicting the times when most cars will be out on the road. It’s set up a handy site where you can check the optimal time to drive into each city for your celebratory freedom fireworks. To use the site, select your nearest...

Helping entrepreneurs start small delivery companies will let Amazon further ramp up its ecommerce engine–and might be the start of something even bigger. In my neighborhood, at least, a fair percentage of Amazon deliveries are made by contractors who participate in the company’s Uber-esque Flex program....

Instagram has released a lightweight version of its Android app that should be easier to install and browse on devices short on storage space and on spotty connections. TechCrunch notes that the new app, which weighs in at just 573KB, is 1/55th the size of the original app at 33MB. Naturally, you’ll find it a little...

The high-end VR system will still work with Windows 7 or 8.1, but it will likely not support many new apps and features. Facebook-owned Oculus says owners or would-be buyers of its high-end virtual reality system, the Rift, will need to upgrade to Windows 10 if they want to take advantage of the best new features and...

Facebook today introduced a feature that allows users to snooze certain keywords. When you don’t want to see posts about a current event, or a show, or even just something you don’t want to look at for a while, you can simply snooze posts which contain words related to that topic. First spotted by Chris Messina...

People have donated $25 million to immigration advocacy groups through Facebook. Facebook proved its fundraising power when appalled citizens donated over $20 million in 11 days to RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services) in the hopes of reuniting migrant children ripped from their...

Does this app gamify shopping or shopify gaming? Either way, it’s another inventive, engaging application of live video. Putting live video streaming in the hands of anyone with a smartphone, like Periscope did, ushered in a new era for mobile apps. But it also quickly proved that most live video is inherently...

Most people are not aware of how UV rays impact our eyes. If you’ve noticed the hashtag #SunglassSelfie online today, it’s because the Vision Council–an advocacy group for the eyewear industry–is trying to draw attention to the dangers of UV rays on our eyes. While we’re aware of...

The nonprofit that helps girls from underserved communities break into the tech world has a new office, designed to inspire about the possibilities of coding and computer science. On the third floor of Google’s New York headquarters across from Chelsea Market, a nondescript office is transforming into a tech...

As promised at Facebook’s F8 conference last month, Instagram’s received an update with a group video calling feature. It lets you chat with up to three more pals at the same time; you can minimize the video screens to a thumbnail if you’d like to continue browsing your messages and feed. In my brief test, I...

In a large rebranding, Google is doing away with the name of one of its biggest acquisitions. Google is announcing a major rebranding of its marketing products. With this latest change, the tech juggernaut is putting its services into three buckets: Google Ads, Google Marketing Platform, and Google Ad Manager. The...

Mark Zuckerberg’s company is shutting down the Aquila program after two years. Facebook may be a business powerhouse, with its stock having recently settled in well above its pre-Cambridge Analytica high, but that doesn’t mean Mark Zuckerberg’s company is immune to financial realities.Read Full...

Facebook today softened its stats on cryptocurrency ads by allowing a select few pre-approved advertisers to run advertisements on the network. Facebook, in January, banned all ads that promoted financial products and services. Included in the ban were products frequently associated with misleading or deceptive...

Facebook has had a cryptocurrency ad change of heart. Earlier this year, both Facebook and Google announced they were going to crack down on scammy ads, which meant banning ads relating to cryptocurrencies. Facebook, specifically, was very broad in its wording, saying it would ban any ads that promoted...

German IT security institute AV Test put the most popular VPNs through a battery of tests to determine which one is the best for consumers. Today, it revealed the results of those tests. VPN Comparative Test: https://t.co/WqPvfu9uy4 AV-TEST has – for the first time – taken an extensive look at VPN products. 12 VPN...

Apple yesterday announced a special section in its News app devoted to 2018 midterm election coverage. And while Facebook’s complete and utter failure in the 2016 election still weighs on our minds, Apple says it plans to be different. From now until the November elections, each Apple News user will see a special...

Google Assistant has supported Spanish commands since last November. But as I found out when I gave my parents a Google Home Mini for Christmas, that functionality only applied to smartphones. Woops. Six months later, my parents will finally be able to use their Christmas gift. Google announced Spanish support is...

The Weapon Free Funds site reveals how much mutual funds from companies like Fidelity and Vanguard are invested in the arms business. Americans may never agree on what the Second Amendment means, or what role the U.S. military should play in the world. But those who want to see fewer guns and bombs can go beyond angry...

A survey of Black Hat security conference attendees found them pessimistic about privacy and security About 65% of surveyed current and former attendees at the annual Black Hat USA security conference say they’re limiting their use of Facebook or not using it at all after the recent controversies over the...

Apple, Google, and Facebook are all reportedly planning on building data centers in Denmark. Denmark has been notably successful at cutting its carbon footprint, but now Apple, Google, and Facebook are threatening to reverse that progress.Read Full Story

Because of him, I wanted to learn and experience other people’s cultures and traditions through the food they eat. Back in 2000, I was a recent college grad armed with a degree in fashion design that I certainly wasn’t using in my web design job. I knew the internet was something that I wanted to be a...

Facebook hosted the event, which the Times reported as being “tense.” Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Oath, Snap, and Twitter met with U.S. intelligence officials to discuss preparations for the upcoming midterm elections, the New York Times reports. Facebook hosted the event, which the Times...