Pew Report Compares News Sources: Twitter and Facebook
November 6, 2015
As newspapers fall, what is rising to take their place? Why, social media, of course. The Pew Research Center discusses its recent findings on the subject in, “The Evolving Role of News on Twitter and Facebook.” The number of Americans getting their news from these platforms continues to rise, across almost all demographic groups. The article informs us:
“The new study, conducted by Pew Research Center in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, finds that clear majorities of Twitter (63%) and Facebook users (63%) now say each platform serves as a source for news about events and issues outside the realm of friends and family. That share has increased substantially from 2013, when about half of users (52% of Twitter users, 47% of Facebook users) said they got news from the social platforms.”
The write-up describes some ways the platforms differ in their news delivery. For example, more users turn to Twitter for breaking news, while Facebook now features a “Trending” sidebar, filterable by subject. The article notes that these trends can have an important impact on our society:
“As more social networking sites recognize and adapt to their role in the news environment, each will offer unique features for news users, and these features may foster shifts in news use. Those different uses around news features have implications for how Americans learn about the world and their communities, and for how they take part in the democratic process.”
Indeed. See the article for more differences between Facebook and Twitter news consumers, complete with some percentages. You can also see the data’s barebones results in the report’s final topline. Most of the data comes from a survey conducted across two weekends last March, among 2,035 Americans aged 18 and up.
Cynthia Murrell, November 6, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Lexmark, a Printer Supply Company, Receives Hold Rating from Analysts
October 20, 2015
The article on Dakota Financial News titled Lexmark International Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages (NYSE: LXK) piles on the bad news for Lexmark, a company best known for its printer supply services. It is a tough time to be in the printing business, and Lexmark has received numerous analyst ratings of “Hold” and “Sell.” The article details the trend,
“Lexmark International (NYSE:LXK) traded down 0.59% during trading on Wednesday, hitting $28.59. The company had a trading volume of 259,296 shares. Lexmark International has a one year low of $27.22 and a one year high of $47.69. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $30.27 and a 200 day moving average of $39.70. The company’s market capitalization is $1.76 billion…The company reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.12. “
Certainly not a vote of confidence in Lexmark, which owns both Brainware and ISYS Search Software. The article goes into some detail about the companies other work beyond printer supplies including enterprise content and process management software and healthcare archive with integration abilities for unstructured patient information. Perhaps these extras are saving the company from falling entirely into the “sell” category and maintaining at “Hold.”
Chelsea Kerwin, October 20, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
The Tweet Gross Domestic Product Tool
October 16, 2015
Twitter can be used to figure out your personal income. Twitter was not designed to be a tool to tally a person’s financial wealth, instead it is a communication tool based on a one hundred forty character messages to generate for small, concise delivery. Twitter can be used to chat with friends, stars, business executives, etc, follow news trends, and even advertise products by sent to a tailored audience. According to Red Orbit in the article “People Can Guess Your Income Based On Your Tweets,” Twitter has another application.
Other research done on Twitter has revealed that your age, location, political preferences, and disposition to insomnia, but your tweet history also reveals your income. Apparently, if you tweet less, you make more money. The controls and variables for the experiment were discussed, including that 5,191 Twitter accounts with over ten million tweets were analyzed and accounts with a user’s identifiable profession were used.
Users with a high follower and following ratio had the most income and they tended to post the least. Posting throughout the day and cursing indicated a user with a lower income. The content of tweets also displayed a plethora of “wealth” information:
“It isn’t just the topics of your tweets that’s giving you away either. Researchers found that “users with higher income post less emotional (positive and negative) but more neutral content, exhibiting more anger and fear, but less surprise, sadness and disgust.” It was also apparent that those who swore more frequently in their tweets had lower income.”
Twitter uses the information to tailor ads for users, if you share neutral posts get targeted ads advertising expensive items, while the cursers get less expensive ad campaigns. The study also proves that it is important to monitor your Twitter profile, so you are posting the best side of yourself rather than shooting yourself in the foot.
Whitney Grace, October 16, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Whitepaper: Plan for Holiday Sales Now
October 16, 2015
Marketing pros and retailers take note: semantic tech firm ntent offers a free whitepaper to help you make the most of the upcoming holiday season, titled “Step-By-Step Guide to Holiday Campaign Planning.” All they want in return are your web address, contact info, and the chance to offer you a subscription to their newsletter, blog, and updates. (That checkbox is kindly deselected by default.) The whitepaper’s description states:
“Halloween candy and costumes are already overflowing on retail stores shelves. You know what that means, don’t you? It’s time for savvy marketers to get serious about their online retail planning for the impending holidays, if they haven’t already started. Why is it so important to take the time to coordinate a solid holiday campaign? Because according to the National Retail Federation [PDF] the holiday season can account for more than 20–40% of a retailer’s annual sales. And if that alone isn’t enough to motivate you, Internet Retailer reported that online retail sales this year are predicted to reach $349.06 billion a 14.2% YoY increase—start planning now to get your piece of the pie! Position your business for online success, more sales and more joy as you head into 2016 using these easy-to-follow, actionable tips!”
The paper includes descriptions of tactics and best practices, as well as a monthly to-do list and a planning worksheet. Founded in 2010, ntent leverages their unique semantic search technology to help clients quickly find the information they need. The company currently has several positions open at their Carlsbad, California, office.
Cynthia Murrell, October 16, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Google Declares It Has the Best Cloud Service…Again
October 15, 2015
Google is never afraid to brag about its services and how much better they are compared to their competitors. Google brandishes its supposed superiority with cloud computing on its Google Cloud Platform Blog with the post, “Google Cloud Platform Delivers The Industry’s Best Technical And Differentiated Features.” The first line in the post even comes out as a blanket statement for how Google feels about its cloud platform: “I’ll come right out and say it: Google Cloud Platform is a better cloud.”
One must always take assertations from a company’s Web site as part of its advertising campaign to peddle the service. Google products and services, however, usually have quality written into their programming, but Google defends the above claim saying it has core advantages and technical differentiators in compute, storage, network, and distributed software tiers. Google says this is for two reasons:
“1. Cloud Platform offers features that are very valuable for customers, and very difficult for competitors to emulate.
- The underlying technologies, created and honed by Google over the last 15 years, enable us to offer our services at a much lower price point.”
Next the post explains the different features that make the cloud platform superior: live migration, scaling load balances, forty-five second boot times, three second archive restore, and 680,000 IOPS sustained Local SSD read rate. Google can offer these features, because it claims to have the best technology and software engineers. It does not stop there, because Google also offers its cloud platform at forty percent cheaper than other cloud platforms. It delves into details about why it can offer a better and cheaper service. While the argument is compelling, it is still Google cheerleading itself.
Google is one of the best technology companies, but it is better to test and review other cloud platforms rather than blinding following a blog post.
Whitney Grace, October 15, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Web Site Search Goes Camping
October 12, 2015
It is a common fact that if you are a major retailer and your Web site’s search function is horrible, you are losing millions of dollars in sales. Cabela’s is the world’s largest marketer of hunting, fishing, camping, and other outdoor merchandise decided to upgrade their Web site with GroupBy says PR Newswire in the press release, “Cabela’s And GroupBy Partner To Improve Site Search.”
With GroupBy’s advice, Cabela’s has made a good choice:
“After careful evaluation, Cabela’s selected Searchandiser to replace their Oracle Endeca site search, as they required a robust solution that would deliver accurate search results and an improved user experience for their customers. ‘At Cabela’s we strive to continually improve our customer experience and search relevance is an opportunity area we have identified,’ said Scott Johnstone, Cabela’s Technology Partner Relationship Manager. ‘To that end, we are partnering with GroupBy Inc. to leverage their merchandising tools, search expertise and the underlying technology.’”
As Cabela’s market expands, with Searchandiser creates a better online shopping experience for users with more secure transactions. Any outdoor enthusiast with tell you that equipment is vital for a good adventure. As more people are heading outside to experience the great outdoors, they rely on a decent Web site to order their supplies and gear. Cabela’s is set to meet the new surge with better searching functionalities.
Whitney Grace, October 12, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Not Hacking, but Trickery, Lost Bitpay Almost $2 Million
September 30, 2015
The article titled How a Clever Hacker Tricked a Major Bitcoin Company Out of $1.8 Million on Motherboard shines a light on the manipulation of BitPay,a Bitcoin payment service, by a clever hacker. Apparently the attacker sent an email from BTC Media CEO David Bailey’s computer to a BitPay CFO requesting his corporate email information, which he readily supplied because the two companies were already in talks about a potential partnership. The article clarifies,
“The insurance claim on the lost funds was denied because BitPay’s computers were never hacked—instead, they just gave away their email passwords in what appears to be a classic phishing scam. Phishing is when an attacker send a scammy email in the hopes that the victim is not savvy enough to trash it immediately. …Several months after the hack, BitPay was reportedly processing more than $1 million in payments every day.”
The hacker continued using Bitpay’s executive accounts to request funds, all of which were apparently granted until an employee of the transaction software company, SecondMarket, was notified. The article and court case emphasize that this was not a hacking scenario, just a $1.8 Million phishing scam that people using Craigslist for job searches avoid every day.
Chelsea Kerwin, September 30, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Harsh Criticism of Yahoo
September 24, 2015
Kill dear old Yahoo? IBTimes reports on some harsh words from an ivory-tower type in, “NYU Professor: Yahoo Ought to Be ‘Euthanised’ and Marissa Mayer’s Pregnancy Saved her Job.” It seems marketing professor Scott Galloway recently criticized the company, and its famous CEO, in a televised Bloomberg interview. In his opinion, any website with Yahoo’s traffic should be rolling in dough, and the company’s struggles are the result of mismanagement. As for his claim that the “most overpaid CEO in history” only retains her position due to her pregnancy? Reporter Mary-Ann Russon writes:
“Galloway says that Yahoo would not be willing to face the public backlash that would come from firing a woman in such a position of power who has just announced she is pregnant.
“This is not a stretch since there are still far fewer women in leadership positions than men – as of March 2015, only 24 of the CEOs in Fortune 500 companies are women – and the issue with how companies perceive family planning remains a sore point for many career-minded women (Read: Gamechangers: Why multimillionaire ‘mom’ Marissa Mayer is damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t).
“However, Galloway also pointed the finger of blame for Yahoo’s woes at its board, which he said has been a ‘lesson in poor corporate governance,’ since there have been five CEOs in the last seven years.”
Though Yahoo was a great success around the turn of the millennium, it has fallen behind as users migrate their internet usage to mobile devices (with that format’s smaller, cheaper ads). Though many still use its free apps, nowadays most of Yahoo’s revenue comes from its Alibaba investment.
So what does Galloway recommend? “It should be sold to Microsoft,” he declared. “We should put a bullet in this story called ‘Yahoo’.” Ouch. Can Yahoo reverse their fortunes, or is it too late for the veteran Internet company?
Cynthia Murrell, September 24, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Google Play Serves as Make Up Letter from Google to China
September 18, 2015
The article titled Google’s Return to China Won’t Be Easy on VentureBeat discusses Google’s ambitions to revisit China with the help of Google Play, its Android mobile operating system app store. If you don’t remember, about five years ago Google refused to self-censor search results and pulled its services from China to boot. But Google can’t help looking longingly over its shoulder at the world’s largest Internet market. The article explains,
“Apple Inc complies with local laws and made $13.2 billion last quarter in Greater China…, making it its second-biggest market. Some in the industry doubt whether Google can use the Play store to help get its other services into China as domestic rivals are now well established and Google would have to comply with Chinese law. That would mean storing all data in China, and meeting information access and censorship requests, a thorny issue, particularly if the U.S. government gets involved.”
Obviously, China did not heed Google’s advice on reforming its approach to business and government oversight. Some argue that the focus on Google Play may make the movement toward China less threatening to Chinese regulators than their other services like search and Gmail. The article suggests the possibility that the lapse in Google’s presence in the market may be fatal to them there. The niche market has been working just fine, thank you very much, many mobile players believe. At any rate, Google’s hopes are a long shot unless they are willing to do it the Chinese way.
Chelsea Kerwin, September 18, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
A Fun Japanese Elasticsearch Promotion Video
September 10, 2015
Elasticsearch is one of the top open source search engines and is employed by many companies including Netflix, Wikipedia, GitHub, and Facebook. Elasticsearch wants to get a foothold into the Japanese technology market. We can assume, because Japan is one of the world’s top producers of advanced technology and has a huge consumer base. Once a technology is adopted in Japan, you can bet that it will have an even bigger adoption rate.
The company has launched a Japanese promotional campaign and a uploaded video entitled “Elasticsearch Product Video” to its YouTube channel. The video comes with Japanese subtitles with appearances by CEO Steven Schuurman, VP of Engineering Kevin Kluge, Elasticsearch creator Shay Bannon, and VP of Sales Justin Hoffman. The video showcases how Elasticsearch is open source software, how it has been integrated into many companies’ frameworks, its worldwide reach, product improvement, as well as the good it can do.
Justin Hoffman said that, “I think the concept of an open source company bringing a commercial product to market is very important to our company. Because the customers want to know on one hand that you have the open source community and its evolution and development at the top of your priority list. On the other hand, they appreciate that you’re innovating and bringing products to market that solve real problems.”
It is a neat video that runs down what Elasticsearch is capable of, the only complaint is that bland music in the background. They could benefit from licensing the Jive Aces “Bring Me Sunshine” it relates the proper mood.
Whitney Grace, September 10, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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