Facebook chicanery, WordPress woes, and Google's SEO confusion... all in this week's Content Aware media highlights and musings.
Deliberate, or incompetent?
An allegation that Facebook blocked vast numbers of Australian pages as a deliberate tactic during negotiations over cash for news - including those with Covid information, wildfires updates, and hospitals.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-deliberately-caused-havoc-in-australia-to-influence-new-law-whistleblowers-say-11651768302
Wordpressing issue
WordPress popularity dips: Project Gutenberg struggled for acceptance and it’s debated if the sheer volume of open source contributors has bogged down updates. Commenters
argue over a drive to be “the new Wix”, while others say WP was never meant to be an enterprise level app so expectations are unfair.
https://joost.blog/wordpress-market-share-shrinking/
Corbidge comments.... on SEO advice. It's just, like, your opinion, Google.
Hands up if you are up convinced you know Google's latest SEO advice. To be safe, raise one hand, put the other down, and say yes while shaking your head.
https://www.gpp.io/news/do-exactly-what-youre-told-and-youll-be-fine.-or-not.-we-dont-know-a5NQb5K5pX6H
Your regulator is still loading
Her Majesty's Government in the UK has signalled that its Digital Markets Unit will get much-needed enforcement powers in order to rein in Big Tech - but not for at least a year.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/06/uk-dmu-big-tech-regulation/
News is just trouble
While we're on the global good that is FB/Meta, it seems like they'd rather just become TikTok anyway: to no-one’s surprise, they have surmised that news is bothersome, needs moderation, and gets the platform into political hot water.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/meta-mulls-reducing-money-it-gives-news-organizations-information-2022-05-09/
Checking with source
Government and leaders talk a lot about public data use - by them, or by businesses - but don't seem to think as much of what the public itself thinks of their data being used, or what or where lines should be drawn. AI ethics body The Ada Lovelace Institute asked the UK public what it thinks.
https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/evidence-review/public-attitudes-ai-regulation/
Divide and rule
Another pile of cash is being handed out to European publishers by Google. Before you get too warmhearted, remember it’s basically just enforced profit-sharing from the sea of advertising money Google is hoarding.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-google-paying-more-than-300-eu-publishers-news-more-come-2022-05-11/
Ad hawk
Ads are meant to be somewhat intrusive, but it doesn't mean they have to look terrible. Google is previewing some forthcoming features which lessen the likelihood of ads on your sites resembling a dropped box of Lego.
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-shares-sneak-peek-at-new-advertising-features/
To duck face or not to duck face?
Heavens to Betsy! Learn about the, uhh, dissociative pout – that social media image trend you have probably seen but didn’t know was a thing.
https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/y3v8m5/dissociative-pout-selfie-nihilism
Thanks as ever for your tips and recommendations!
