TheNewsGuru

Tag: Google

  • Plateau govt. seeks partnerships with Facebook, Google, others

    The Plateau Government says it is initiating talks with its development partners, multinationals like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and local organisations to develop Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the state.

    The Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr Dan Manjang, disclosed this on Wednesday in Jos when the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Plateau Council, paid him a courtesy visit.

    Manjang said that the desire of the government to partner with these organisations was in a bid to facilitate the development of ICT skills of its people, especially the youths, through training using these platforms.

    “We are consulting with our development partners and will soon commence talks with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and some other local organisations to ensure the skills of the Plateau people are harnessed,’’ he said.

    The commissioner said the state government was working toward organising a science and technology summit, adding that government hoped the event would herald the formulation of a viable science policy.

    “The relevant technology centres in our state presently produces mobile aids for physically challenged people and our science production centre produces laboratory equipment for secondary and tertiary institutions.

    “The works from our technology incubation centre have been presented at international forums such as a drone produced there was presented at a competition in Indonesia.

    “We emerged third at the competition; a tractor and bullet-proof vests and many more have been produced at the centre.

    “The state government wants to encourage these inventors to do more by revamping these centres and creating a more enabling environment through training and provision of equipments and infrastructure,’’ he said.

    Manjang told the correspondent chapel officials that journalism could also be synchronised to ICT, adding that reports could be presented from the fields through digitisation.

    Mr Aminu Yusuf, the Chairman, Plateau Correspondents Chapel, said the visit was to congratulate the commissioner on his new appointment and discuss on possible collaborations.

    Yusuf urged the commissioner to discharge his duties efficiently, saying he was assigned to the office because of his pragmatic disposition and pedigree.

    The commissioner was sworn into office on March 1.

     

  • Twitter’s CEO battles President Trump over YouTube HQ shooting

    Twitter’s CEO battles President Trump over YouTube HQ shooting

    After shooting at YouTube headquarters left a man and two women injured with gunshot wounds, Twitter’s founder and chief executive officer Jack Dorsey has called out on President Donald Trump to other than praying, evolve policies to address incessant shootings in the United States.

    Chaos erupted at the Google-owned video sharing platform offices in California on Tuesday when Nasim Aghdam, 39, opened fire on the unsuspecting victims, and killing herself in the process.

    TheNewsGuru reports Police have since opened investigations into the motive behind the incident with several reports indicating Aghdam was angered her videos were not getting expected number of views due to YouTube’s filters.

    After the White House confirmed monitoring the situation, President Trump took to his Twitter handle to express his “thoughts and prayers are with everybody involved”.

    “Was just briefed on the shooting at YouTube’s HQ in San Bruno, California. Our thoughts and prayers are with everybody involved. Thank you to our phenomenal Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders that are currently on the scene,” he tweeted.

    Not before long, Jack responded to the tweet, retweeting it and saying: “We can’t keep being reactive to this, thinking and praying it won’t happen again at our schools, jobs, or our community spots. It’s beyond time to evolve our policies. This is a simple and reasonable approach, and it won’t solve all, but it’s a good start:” while adding a url to March for Our Lives.

    The Police in San Bruno, California, say there is no evidence yet that the attacker knew the victims, a 36-year-old man said to be in a critical condition, and two women aged 32 and 27.

    The suspect: Nasim Aghdam

    Nasim Aghdam lived in San Diego in southern California.

    Police have revealed few details about her but US media said she ran a number of channels and a website, posting videos on a variety of subjects including those highlighting animal cruelty. The channels have now been deleted.

    Aghdam has been variously described as a vegan bodybuilder, artist and rapper.

    In January 2017 she posted a video complaining that YouTube was filtering her content, leading to fewer views.

    On her website she also ranted against YouTube, saying: “Videos of targeted users are filtered and merely relegated, so that people can hardly see their videos.”

    She also quotes Adolf Hitler, saying: “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.”

    She also wrote: “There is no equal growth opportunity on YouTube or any other video sharing site. Your channel will grow if they want [it] to!”

    Aghdam’s father, Ismail, told local US media she was angry because YouTube had stopped paying her for videos.

    Video posters can receive money from linked advertisements but the company can “de-monetise” channels for various reasons, taking adverts off. It is unclear if this happened with Aghdam’s material.

    Her father said Aghdam had been reported missing on Monday after not answering calls for two days. Police later found her sleeping in her car in Mountain View, 25km (15 miles) south of the YouTube offices in San Bruno and reported this to her family, but they did not detain her.

    Her father told police she might go to YouTube as she “hated the company”, local media said.

    YouTube terminated her account following the shooting. Her Instagram and Facebook accounts have also been removed.

    However, many Twitter users posted her Facebook video rant against YouTube:

    What happened in the attack

    The suspect is reported to have approached an outdoor patio and dining area at the offices in San Bruno, near San Francisco, at about lunchtime on Tuesday and opened fire with a handgun.

    San Bruno Police Chief Ed Barberini said officers arrived at the offices at 12:48 (19:48 GMT) local time to find a “chaotic scene”, with numerous people fleeing.

    Images broadcast on local TV stations showed employees leaving with their hands raised. Other footage showed evacuees forming a queue before being individually frisked by police.

    Police said officers had “encountered one victim with an apparent gunshot wound at the site and two additional gunshot victims that had fled to a neighbouring business”.

    Inside the complex, officers then found a woman dead from a gunshot wound that was believed to be self-inflicted.

    An employee at a nearby fast food restaurant told Fox station KTVU he had treated a young woman who suffered a bullet wound to the leg.

    He said he had fashioned a makeshift tourniquet from a bungee cord as they waited for first responders.

    Several YouTube employees tweeted about the attack as it was taking place.

    Product manager Todd Sherman said people fled the building in panic as the shooting unfolded.

    https://twitter.com/tdd/status/981262640830754817

    Another employee, Vadim Lavrusik, tweeted he was barricaded in a room with other staff. He later said he had been evacuated.

    The three wounded were taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Officials said the 32-year-old woman’s condition was serious and the 27-year-old’s condition was fair.

    A fourth person was also taken to hospital with an ankle injury sustained while trying to escape, Mr Barberini said.

    Some 1,700 people work at the YouTube HQ. The company is owned by Google and is the area’s biggest employer.

    There had been earlier media reports that the man shot was Aghdam’s boyfriend, but police later said; “At this time there is no evidence that the shooter knew the victims of this shooting or that individuals were specifically targeted.”

    Such “active shooter” incidents are overwhelmingly carried out by men – an FBI report found that out of 160 incidents between 2000-2013, only six of the people who opened fire were women.

     

  • Google to discontinue popular service

    Google to discontinue popular service

    Google has announced, starting March 30, 2019, it will discontinue its uniform resource locator (url) shortener service, goo.gle, while beginning a transition process March 30, 2018, to replacing it with Firebase Dynamic Links (FDL).

    The Internet giant announced the development in a blog post, while stressing that it will turn down support for goo.gl url shortener beginning March 30, 2018.

    “To refocus our efforts, we’re turning down support for goo.gl over the coming weeks and replacing it with Firebase Dynamic Links (FDL),” the blog post read.

    “From April 13, 2018 only existing users will be able to create short links on the goo.gl console. You will be able to view your analytics data and download your short link information in csv format for up to one year, until March 30, 2019, when we will discontinue goo.gl. Previously created links will continue to redirect to their intended destination,” a statement read on the goo.gl platform.

    TheNewsGuru reports FDLs are smart URLs that allow users to send existing and potential users to any location within an iOS, Android or web app, with Google expressing excitement “to grow and improve the product going forward”.

    Aside using FDL, Google recommends other popular url shortener services like Bitly and Ow.ly as alternatives.

     

  • Zuckerberg’s net worth falls by N5 trillion as Facebook shares drop by 18%

    Zuckerberg’s net worth falls by N5 trillion as Facebook shares drop by 18%

    Worlds’ fifth richest person and founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, valued at $71 billion (roughly N25 trillion) has reportedly lost about $14 billion (roughly N5 trillion) of his net worth.

    This is as a result of 18% fall in Facebook market shares especially after Zuckerberg agreed to testify before Congress on the recent crisis rocking the social media platform, arising from Cambridge Analytica.

    Facebook shares fell by 5% on Tuesday only after the Facebook founder made the confirmation of appearing before Congress.

    The 18% fall in Facebook’s stock has wiped out nearly $80 billion (roughly N28 trillion) from the social networking giant’s market value in the period of the still raging crisis that started March 16.

    According to reports, Tech stocks in general have taken a hit since the Facebook debacle started with Nasdaq down by 6%.

    YouTube owner Google and Twitter, have both nosedived as well. Shares of Google parent Alphabet fell by 7% since March 16 while Twitter has plunged 20%. Twitter was down by 12% alone on Tuesday.

    According to Craig Birk, executive vice president of portfolio management at investing firm Personal Capital in a note Tuesday, as quoted by CNN, said, “While the scandal is likely to blow over, investors should be aware that a continued sell-off in this sector would not be surprising, and if another scandal were to hit, it just might break the tech sector’s back”.

    Meanwhile, Zuckerberg is still worth $61 billion (roughly N21 trillion), though.

     

  • Like Facebook, Google; Twitter bans cryptocurrency adverts

    Twitter Inc is to ban most advertising of cryptocurrencies on its platform, joining Facebook and Google in a clampdown on the nascent industry, the company said in a statement.

    The San Francisco-based firm will this week launch a policy that prohibits advertising of initial coin offerings (ICOs), a form of crowd funding used to raise cash by creating new coins.

    Also adverts that promote token sales and crypto wallet services, the company said in a statement.

    The policy will also ban adverts from crypto-exchanges, with some limited exceptions.

    Twitter said this month it was taking measures to prevent crypto-related accounts from “engaging with others in a deceptive manner’’, but it has faced calls to go further after bans by Facebook and Google.

    Facebook restricted crypto-related adverts in February, while Google announced a ban on March 14 that comes into force in June.

  • Google ranks 3rd in world’s most reputable companies

    Internet giant, Google has emerged in third position in Reputation Institute (RI) Global RepTrak 100 Research ranking of the world’s most reputable companies of 2018.

    RI said, by tracking and analyzing stakeholder perceptions in 25 industries across 40 countries for more than 7,000 companies, “we unleash the power of reputation to enable leaders to build better companies”.

    TheNewsGuru reports RI is a reputation measurement and management services firm, and since 2006, RI has published the Global RepTrak 100, an annual study of corporate reputation.

    This year’s ranking revealed an average 1.4-point decline in the reputation of RT100 companies, the first significant regression since the end of the Great Recession, according to Forbes.

    “The reputation bubble has burst. We have a crisis of trust. Over the past year-and-a-half, we’ve reached a strategic inflection point… People are questioning, ‘Can I really trust corporations?’ And for two-thirds, the jury is out,” Forbes quotes Stephen Hahn-Griffiths, chief research officer of the RI, as saying.

    The World’s Most Reputable Companies 2018:

    Rank Company
    1 Rolex —
    2 LEGO —
    3 Google Up
    4 Canon —
    5 The Walt Disney Company Down
    6 Sony Up
    7 Adidas Up
    8 Bosch Down
    9 BMW Group Up
    10 Microsoft Up
    11 Michelin Up
    12 Nike Up
    13 Nintendo Up
    14 Levi Strauss & Co. —
    15 Intel Down
    16 Goodyear Up
    17 Rolls-Royce Down
    18 Ferrero Down
    19 Philips Up
    20 Bridgestone Up
    21 Visa Up
    22 Giorgio Armani Up
    23 Amazon Down
    24 Netflix Up
    25 3M Down
    26 Samsung Up
    27 Toyota Up
    28 HP Up
    29 Panasonic Up
    30 Pirelli Up
    31 IBM Down
    32 Marriott International New
    33 Nestle Up
    34 Danone Up
    35 Hugo Boss Up
    36 Barilla Down
    37 Mastercard Down
    38 Lufthansa Group New
    39 Colgate-Palmolive Down
    40 Dell Down
    41 LG Up
    42 Kellogg’s Up
    43 KraftHeinz Up
    44 L’Oréal Up
    45 Cisco Down
    46 IKEA Up
    47 Caterpillar Down
    48 LVMH New
    49 Lavazza New
    50 Ralph Lauren Down
    51 Siemens Down
    52 Honda Down
    53 Whirlpool Down
    54 IHG New
    55 Boeing Down
    56 FedEx Down
    57 Fujifilm Up
    58 Apple Down
    59 Daimler Down
    60 Emirates Down
    61 Airbus Down
    62 Heineken Down
    63 Estée Lauder Down
    64 Nokia Up
    65 Oracle Down
    66 Hilton Down
    67 Hershey’s Down
    68 Electrolux Up
    69 British Airways Down
    70 Natura New
    71 Ford Down
    72 Johnson & Johnson Down
    73 Xerox Down
    74 Campbell’s Down
    75 P&G Down
    76 DHL Down
    77 Novo Nordisk New
    78 Havaianas New
    79 Embraer New
    80 SAP Down
    81 Toshiba Down
    82 Air France KLM Down
    83 Kimberly-Clark New
    84 Mars New
    85 General Electric Down
    86 Bayer New
    87 Unilever Down
    88 Honeywell New
    89 Bacardi Limited Down
    90 Nissan Down
    91 Roche New
    92 eBay Down
    93 Carlsberg New
    94 Hitachi Down
    95 UPS Down
    96 Fujitsu Down
    97 The Coca-Cola Company Down
    98 Sanofi New
    99 AB InBev Down
    100 Lilly

    To determine the RT100, according to Forbes, RI surveyed more than 230,000 individuals in 15 countries from January to February 2018.

    Companies considered typically have revenue in excess of $50 billion, a presence in all surveyed countries and brand familiarity with at least 40% of the general population.

     

  • Google Launchpad Accelerator Africa kicks-off in Lagos, 12 developers make list

    Google on Monday announced the start-ups that would participate in the first Google Launchpad Accelerator Africa class in Lagos to build the digital ecosystem in the country.

    The Country Director of Google Nigeria, Mrs Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor disclosed this while unveiling the start-ups with 12 developers making the list.

    She also announced a partnership with Udacity and Andela to provide 15,000 single course scholarships and 500 Nanodegree scholarships to aspiring and professional developers across Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.

    According to her, Google announced the first Launchpad Accelerator Africa class on Nov. 9, 2017, which applications closed on Dec. 10 2017.

    “Launchpad Accelerator Africa, is a programme for top early-stage African start-ups that will operate out of Lagos, Nigeria and was announced at Google for Nigeria in July last year.

    “At the time, we also announced the extension of the Google’s Digital Skills for Africa programme to train 10 million Africans, including 100,000 developers, over five years.

    “The scholarships announced today form part of that commitment,” she said.

    She said that over the next three years the Launchpad Accelerator Africa programme would provide African start-ups with over three million dollars in equity-free support.

    She said that they would also have access to a working space, access to expert advisers from Google, Silicon Valley, and Africa, and participants would receive travel and PR support during each three-month programme.

    Ehimuan-Chiazor said to qualify, start-ups had to be a technology inclined, based in Sub-Saharan Africa, targeting the African market and have already raised seed funding.

    She said that Google additionally would considered the problem the start up was trying to solve, how it creates value for users, and how they addressed a real challenge for their home city, country or Africa broadly.

    Also the Sub-Saharan Africa Ecosystem Regional Manager, Mr Andy Volk said that thee company was looking forward to working with the first Launchpad Accelerator Africa class to drive innovation into the African market.

    “Africa is home to some incredibly smart people who are working to solve the continent’s problems using homegrown solutions and we are honoured to be able to be part of that,” he said.

    The participants in no particular order for the first Launchpad Accelerator Africa class are, Babymigo from Nigeria, a social community for expecting mothers and young parents, Flexpay from Kenya, an automated and secured layaway e-commerce system.

    Kudi from Nigeria, a payment for Africa through messaging, OkadaBooks from Nigeria, a social platform that allows users easily create, spread and sell their stories/books/documents in a matter of minutes.

    Also is OMG Digital from Ghana, a media platform that produces hyper-local, engaging and entertaining content African millennials love to consume and share.

    Pezesha from Kenya is a scalable Peer to Peer micro-lending marketplace that allows Kenyans to loan to Kenyans, Piggybank.ng, from Nigeria which allows Africans put aside little amounts of money periodically till they reach a savings target.

    Riby is from Nigeria, a peer-to-peer banking platform for cooperatives that allows them to save, borrow and invest, together, swiftVEE from South Africa, platform for connecting livestock agencies to a network of buyers and sellers.

    TangoTv from Tanzania is a media streaming and video on demand service for African local content; films and shows, Teheca from Uganda helps families and individuals find the right health care providers/workers in Uganda.

    Thrive Agric from Nigeria, crowdfunds investments for small holder farmers, and provides to them in form of inputs, tech driven advisory and access to market.

    “Google is committed to the Sub-Saharan Africa developer ecosystem and has, since April 2016, hosted 13 Launchpad Build and Start events across Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

    “It features some 228 speakers and engaging 590 attendees from local start-ups in each country.

    “It also runs programmes such as Google Developer Groups and Women Techmakers, providing training and support for developers aligned with real-life job competency requirements.

    “Community groups engage in activities like Study Jams, study groups for developers. There are some 140 communities across 25 countries in SSA.

    “Some 61 of these groups hosted 81 Study Jams in 10 countries reaching over 5,000 developers in the last year,” she said.

     

  • Google: Android Wear gets new name

    Google has said it is changing the name of its wearable technology from Android Wear to Wear OS, a name the technology giant said resonates with the company’s vision, and the people who use its watches.

    Dennis Troper, Director of Product Management, Android Wear (Wear OS by Google), made this known on Thursday.

    “Android Wear was founded on the belief that wearable technology should be for everyone, no matter what style you wear on your wrist or what phone you have in your pocket.

    “Since then, we’ve partnered with top watch and electronics brands to create more than 50 watches to help you manage your fitness, connect with the people who matter most, and show you the information you care about.

    “The best part: We’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible with wearables and there’s even more exciting work ahead.

    “As our technology and partnerships have evolved, so have our users. In 2017, one out of three new Android Wear watch owners also used an iPhone.

    “So as the watch industry gears up for another Baselworld next week, we’re announcing a new name that better reflects our technology, vision, and most important of all—the people who wear our watches.

    “We’re now Wear OS by Google, a wearables operating system for everyone,” Dennis stated.

    Google said the new name will begin to display on watches and phone app over the next few weeks.

     

  • Google pulls out 3.2b bad ads from sites

    Google pulled out 3.2 billion bad ads from sites in 2017, an official, Ms Jessica Stansfield, said in Lagos on Wednesday.

    Stansfield, the Head of Global Product Policy, Monetised Products, Google Trust and Safety Europe, the Middle East and Africa, gave the figure during a video conference.

    She said that Google pulled out the bad ads with the aid of policies, technology and people.

    According to Stansfield, the figure shows more than 100 per cent increase from the 2016 figure which stood at 1.7 billion.

    “In 2017, we took down more than 3.2 billion ads that violated our advertising policies, which is more than 100 bad ads per second.

    “This means we are able to block the majority of bad ad experiences, such as malvertising and phishing scams before the scams impacted on people.

    “We blocked 79 million ads in our network for attempting to send people to malware-laden sites.

    “We equally removed 66 million “trick-to-click” ads as well as 48 million ads that were attempting to get users to install unwanted software,” she said.

    The official said that digital advertising played an important role in making the web what it was.

    “In order for this ads-supported free web work for everyone, it needs to be safe.

    “It should also be an effective place to learn, create and advertise, but unfortunately, this is not always the case.

    “To make things work and move smoothly, Google has introduced many measures to checkmate online ad violators.

    “For the last 15 years, Google, in a bid to keep the ecosystem safe, has invested in people, technology and policies to help fight issues such as ad fraud, malware and content scammers,’’ she said.

    Stansfield listed some of the actions that constituted the violation as scraping which had to do with copying others’ contents, tabloid cloaking – deception of someone to click on a site, malicious activity and malware.

    She said that, to remove sites that created and spread deceptive content online, Google introduced a technology called Page-level enforcement that allowed removal of over 28 million URLs monthly.

    According to the official, Page-level enforcement technology allows better protection of advertisers by removing more bad ads from more sites while minimising the impact on legitimate publishers.

    “This new technology has been critical in helping to scale enforcement for policies that prohibit monetisation of inappropriate and controversial content,” she said.

    Stansfield said that Google was constantly updating policies as new threats emerged, adding that in 2017, 28 new advertiser policies and 20 new publisher policies were added to combat new threats and improve ad experience online.

    She said that in 2018, Google would be adding several new policies to address ads in unregulated or speculative financial products such as binary options, crypto currency and foreign exchange markets.

    She said that Google had already updated gambling policies to address new methods of gambling with items that had real-world value.

    “Google will introduce a new certification process for rehabilitation facilities, allowing legitimate facilities in this space to connect with users in need,” she added.

     

  • Google pays content publishers N4.5 trillion in ads

    Google pays content publishers N4.5 trillion in ads

    Google’s Director of Sustainable Ads, Scott Spencer, has revealed the internet giant paid content publishers on its advertising network, who use AdSense to monetize their website, a total sum of N4.5 trillion in the year 2017.

    Scott made this known in a statement pledging the search giant commitment to make the advertising ecosystem work for everyone.

    “We paid $12.6 billion to publishing partners in our ad network last year. But in order to make money from Google ads, you have to play by rules— that means respecting the user experience more than the ads,” he said.

    The Google ads execs also revealed that in the year under review, the platform removed 320,000 publishers from its ad network for violating policies, and blacklisted nearly 90,000 websites and 700,000 mobile apps.

    “In 2017, we took down more than 3.2 billion ads that violated our advertising policies. That’s more than 100 bad ads per second! This means we’re able to block the majority of bad ad experiences, like malvertising and phishing scams, before the scams impact people.

    “We blocked 79 million ads in our network for attempting to send people to malware-laden sites, and removed 400,000 of these unsafe sites last year. And, we removed 66 million “trick-to-click” ads as well as 48 million ads that were attempting to get users to install unwanted software.

    “We also introduced technology that allows us to better protect our advertisers by removing Google ads from individual pages on a website that violate our policies.

    “Last year, we removed 2 million pages for policy violations each month. This has been critical in scaling enforcement for policies that prohibit monetization of inappropriate and controversial content.

    “In fact, after expanding our policy against dangerous and derogatory content in April 2017 to cover additional forms of discrimination and intolerance, we removed Google ads from 8,700 pages that violated the expanded policy,” Scott stated.