‘Project Dragonfly’: Google’s rumoured censor-friendly launch in China

It’s common knowledge that Google, as present as it is in our daily lives, does not enjoy the same ubiquity in China, and hasn’t done for eight years.

Leaked meeting minutes from the corporation, however, suggest that could be about to change.

Codenamed ‘Project Dragonfly’, the search giant is allegedly in the midst of a bid to launch in China in an iteration that would play ball with Beijing’s hardline censorship policies.

According to a...

10 October 2018 | Advertising Technology

Google+ finally ‘sunsetted’ for consumers following data privacy breach

Not quite the dignified end we would have expected for Google’s long-ailing social network, Google+ is finally being closed down following a software breach that left hundreds of thousands of users’ private data exposed.

Up to 500K users were allegedly affected by a software bug in the Google+ API, which meant data that people had believed to be private was made accessible to third parties.

According to an internal memo at Google published by the Wall Street...

9 October 2018 | Best Practice

eBay accuses Amazon of poaching third-party sellers for its Marketplace

In a clash of the e-commerce titans, online auction platform eBay has accused Amazon of poaching sellers through its internal messaging system.

Calling the alleged scheme “unlawful” in a statement, the platform has issued a cease and desist letter and cautioned that it would take “appropriate steps” to protect itself from the activity.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, eBay began to take action after discovering that more than 50 Amazon...

4 October 2018 | Advertising

IAB Tech Lab tests blockchain-based protocol for personal data privacy

The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Tech Lab has announced a blockchain-based protocol that allows companies to track consent users’ personal data.

PrivacyChain, which has been released for public comment and a handful of early pilots, seeks to hand consumers control over the personal information provided to companies using the technology.

If those users choose to opt in, their data will be made available to retailers, and the advertising agencies, publishing...

4 October 2018 | Best Practice

Lack of tech skills could hamper $11.5tn in global industry growth, finds Accenture

Today’s education and training systems are not keeping up with the current demand for skills and the emergence of new technologies, and the result is a widening skills gap that threatens to hamper $11.5T in global growth.

That’s according to an analysis by the global management and professional services firm Accenture, which concludes that new approaches to learning are desperately needed if businesses are to achieve the growth promised by intelligent...

3 October 2018 | Advertising Technology

Facebook has been rumbled using 2FA phone numbers for ad targeting

As if Facebook needed another mountain in user trust to climb this year, evidence has now emerged of it using phone numbers provided for security purposes to target unsuspecting users with ads.

The activity was uncovered by researchers from Northeastern University and Princeton, along with the tech publisher Gizmodo, following controlled trials where an ad was successfully targeted using phone numbers that had been provided for account security and, in one case, had never been...

1 October 2018 | Advertising

eCommerce sites focused on return visits ‘thundering ahead’ of competitors

Getting a customer to your site once is a small feat, but if you want to survive in today’s crowded world of e-commerce, return visits should be your top priority.

A global study of 250m e-commerce websites and €500m (£444m) in online revenue by Wolfgang Digital demonstrates the importance of this in a market where conversion rates stand at a razor-thin average of just 1.8%.

The headline is high return visits lead to higher revenues; websites that attract a...

28 September 2018 | Commerce

Forget AR: Visual search will be the hottest eCommerce tech among millennials

It’s been a big week for visual search.

In a partnership with Amazon, Snapchat announced it was testing a new tool allowing users to take a photo of a product or barcode and, if recognised, launch an Amazon product page to learn more and (hopefully) make a purchase.

On 20th birthday week, meanwhile, Google announced the integration of its AI-driven Lens into searches, the goal of which is to help users find information visually and improve specific image-oriented...

27 September 2018 | Advertising Technology

Google rolls out custom viewability metrics for display video advertisers

63% of UK display ads were considered “viewable” in the first half of the year according to a study this week by Integral Ad Science. That was considered an “all-time high”, and it means that nearly three-fifths of ad units were in view for one continuous second - or two seconds if we’re talking video.

The findings were based on a widely-used industry standard set by the Media Rating Council (MRC) and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), but for many...

26 September 2018 | Advertising

99% of businesses plan to up digital marketing spend next year

Nearly half (41%) of businesses with 100+ employees invest more than $500K in digital marketing every year. That’s according to a US-based survey of 501 marketers by small business publisher The Manifest, at least, in a study which set out to discover how companies invest in digital marketing, and how their investments are set to change in the year ahead.

While respondents hailed from a wide mix of seniority levels and companies, more than three-quarters (76%) agreed that...

25 September 2018 | Advertising