Digital Things of Interest Overview:
Read these Digital Things of Interest for 03 August 2017, which includes:
- Android dev releases have Chrome’s ad-blocker installed.
- Apple ditches Nano & Shuffle.
- The sad, sad tale of Winamp’s journey to oblivion.
- Facebook advertisers are paying to promote news stories which mention their brand.
#AdBlocking #GoogleChrome #Apple #MusicPlayers #Facebook #DigitalMarketing #NewsFeed #Android
Digital Things of Interest 03 August 2017:
- Chrome AdBlocker Shows Up in Android
- Well then, after I wrote about Chrome blocking ads in the near future, it looks like this may not be restricted to the desktop. After all, Google knows that 50%+ of its traffic is on mobile, hence the Mobile First Index. It now looks like Android’s version of Chrome will also be getting an ad-blocker. Be gone you auto-playing video ads! No word on Apple, but it’s unlikely to be that far behind, either in Chrome or Safari.
- Apple Kills Off iPod Nano and Shuffle
- Sniff. It’s so sad. So sad that these heartless people at Apple have killed off a couple of things which almost nobody uses any more. Fun music players of their time, and kind of ground-breaking, but I doubt they will be remembered in a few years apart from real Apple aficionados. Anyway, I must go and fire up my Zune.
- Winamap – How the Greatest MP3 Player Undid Itself
- I seem to be having an audiophile roll. This is such a shame. Winamp was the bee’s knees, the cat’s pyjamas, the dog’s…. But alas, it was terminally struck by being bought by a (then) digital behemoth too early in its journey (AOL) and being dragged further and further down by corporate shenanigans. It seems like DotCom 2.0 has changed things somewhat as apps are acquired and absorbed into a main product offering, or they are funded by VCs until unicorn status is successfully achieved and there’s a whiff of profit 10-15 years down the line.
- Advertisers pay to promote news stories on Facebook.
- It seems a little odd that Buzzfeed the one-time masters of the Facebook NewsFeed should be writing a story about brands cannibalising others’ content, but there you go. Basically someone writes something nice about a product / brand, it pops up in news, the brand owners then pay to promote that product and drive traffic / conversions / revenue from that. It works because it’s (reasonably) authentic, unbiased and almost natural. Of course, some news stories start from PR puff pieces, so you can kind of see how the brands both open and close the circle. In the meantime, a word from our sponsors…
That’s it for today. If you find anything of interest in the digital space that you think is worth sharing, please get in touch with me.
The State of SEO Mid-2017 Released
TL;DR
- Ad-blocking is coming to Android Chrome – eventually.
- Nano & Shuffle killed by Apple.
- Winamp killed by sadness.
- Naughty FB advertisers bump favourable news stories.
- Read The State of SEO in mid-2017. I dare you.
- Read about how Google’s Mobile First Index is not Mobile Friendly. Go on, I double-dare you.
Thanks for reading. If you would like to discuss what these digital things of interest might mean for your web property, or you have found something of interest and would like to share it, please feel free to contact me.
