Apple iOS 6 launched this week, and while most things seem to be going swimmingly, there has been a barrage of complaints about the new iOS maps. Even the London Underground workers have been poking fun at Apple, with this humorous passenger information sign at Hackney Underground station.
It’s been a week of upgrades everywhere, with Twitter also launching a new interface that places more emphasis on images. They’ve been accused to tearing a page out of Facebook’s book with this timeline-esque style header image. Sharp eyed Tweeps have also been using this new feature as a way to fake their way to Twitter’s elusive verified status, although be warned, doing this can get your account suspended.
Not all of the changes that Twitter has been making recently are favourable. By cracking down on who can, and can’t use their API they’ve made a few enemies in the world social social media and micro blogging. Twitter’s CEO Dick Costelo spoke out this week to defend the companies decision to restrict developers when making third party apps.
And now, to try something different with the weekly reading, it’s the SEO and SMM countdown! Starting with…
8 Ways to Use Pinterest for Business - chock full of great, and inspirational ideas for business pinners. And if you’re not a visual brand, fear not! We have some tips for you too.
6 Deadly Sins of Data Visualization - How to keep things simple and functional when dealing with data visualisation, your optician will thank you for taking note of this article!
Here are some of the news stories, articles, tweets and memes you may have missed:
The Penguin was unleased on the world, and began fiddling with our search results. About 3% of search queries were noticable affected by the changes to the Google algorithm which aims to clean up the internet of unwanted spam and reward website owners creating valuable content.
If you want to modify your personal search profile and control what people see when they Google you, then this website can help you do just that. BrandYourself utilizes SEO techniques to help individuals optimise their personal Google results.
In yet another amazing social media marketing strategy, US company Kraft Mac n Cheese went to the effort to thank each and every person who has ‘liked’ them on Facebook. They produced this video which features the names of all their fans scrolling along the bottom.
The restaurant chain Wagamamas has found an interesting way to keep people entertained and engaged with augmented reality placemats designed to get people playing with their smartphones before, after, and during their meal. The placemats will be used to promote wagamama lounge, which will feature at various festivals throughout the summer.
If you’re an iPhone or iPad user, the recent revelations about Google tracking your Safari browser usage may leave you feeling a little violated.
Google is currently under scrutiny for ‘tricking’ the Safari browser into divulging your internet usage, which allows Google to target ads at your device; despite the browser’s default privacy settings.
This couldn’t have been revealed at a worse time for Google, as they are currently facing a widespread negative backlash over their new privacy policy which is set to come into play on 1st March. With the new privacy policy in place, Google will be allowed to share your user information across all of its services; which means your private e-mail account will be sharing information with your YouTube account.
4.3% of internet users use Safari as their default browser, and a huge portion of these users are iPhone and iPad users. With the world still enthralled with Apple’s technology, this number is only set to rise.
Safari Browser on iPhone
So how did Google respond to this?
It was an accident, of course. Rachel Whetstone, Google’s VP of communications and public policy said:
“The Journal mischaracterizes what happened and why. We used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled. It’s important to stress that these advertising cookies do not collect personal information.”
Even if the cookies aren’t collecting personal information, there is still a huge violation of trust. If you’re using a browser which, by default, does not allow cookies from third party sites to track users, then that’s exactly what you expect to happen. Right?
How did this blunder happen?
Some cookies are allowed by Safari, and they mostly relate to social media sites. If you’ve ever visited a website using Safari and hit the ‘like’ button which links to Facebook, there’s a cookie involved which stores your Facebook information to make this action easier.
Google tried something similar, and added a temporary cookie to allow users to interact with the ‘+1’ button and link it with their Google+ account. In reality, this just acted as a backdoor for other tracking files to sneak through. The result? Ads targeted at users’ browser history, which is in violation of the Safari privacy policy.
Google has now started to remove these advertising cookies from Safari browsers and assured users that no personal information was stored.
How do you feel about this recent revelation?
And does it make you view the new Google Privacy Policy in a different light?
