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Google, Microsoft, Yahoo Will Block Indian Gender-Selection Ads

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo Will Block Indian Gender-Selection Ads

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have agreed to block ads for Indian services that help determine a baby’s sex before birth, adhering to laws intended to address one of the world’s worst gender imbalances.

All three companies pledged to honour bans on the promotion of sexual-determination tests and related products, the health ministry told India’s Supreme Court on Monday. The court was hearing a case that sought the abolition of all content on search engines that promote such services.

India’s highest court this year reproached the search giants for disregarding domestic regulations, and warned them to abide by the law or cease operations in the country. But the trio of companies had said sweeping bans on offending key-words would also block non-promotional content such as research reports and news articles. The health ministry didn’t say during Monday’s testimony how the companies intended to effect the ban.

Female foeticide and infanticide are serious issues in India, where there were 943 females per 1,000 males according to the last nationwide census in 2011. Conducting, selling and advertising fetal sex-selection services was made a punishable offense in 1994, thus outlawing sex-determination and abortions. Yet thousands of female foetuses are aborted secretly every year in clinics across local communities with a strong preference for sons.

Some parents prefer sons because they’re considered more reliable bread-winners and better able to carry on the family name. Male children are known to get better nutrition and education and a 2015 United Nations report said India had one of the world’s most skewed sex ratios in the under-five age group. The UN added that 100 girls die by the age of five, compared with 93 boys.

Google said it has taken action to prevent searches and advertising to comply with local laws. That includes disabling auto-complete predictions for relevant terms on its site and showing a warning that tells users pre-natal gender screening or testing is illegal in India.

Yahoo said in an email the company can’t comment because the matter is subjudice. Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Education

Google’s Shop the Look Feature to Show Smarter Shopping Ads in Search Results

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Google's Shop the Look Feature to Show Smarter Shopping Ads in Search Results

Google last year added ‘Purchases on Google’ or ‘Buy buttons’, making it easier for mobile users to shop while using Google Search. This was part of the company’s attempt to lure customers to its site rather than shop via Facebook or Pinterest. Google’s aim was to simplify the process of searching and buying products.

In an attempt to make mobile shopping even simpler, Google is now testing a new format called ‘Shop the Look’ that lets you search for specific outfits and home décor options, showing pictures and purchase links within ‘Shopping ads’ on the search engine. This means users will not have to switch to a different website to purchase the outfit or home decor.

To get the format going, Google is partnering with sites like LiketoKnow.it, Curalate and yahoo-owned Polyvore which are platforms that allow fashion bloggers to make money from their posts. Essentially, Google will source the content from these sites and pull the photos and affiliate links when a search related to that particular outfit or home décor option is initiated. Users can select one of the looks, which will then show similar products related to the choice.

Where users would previously use social apps like Instagram or Pinterest to follow their favourite fashion blogger and home decorator, they can now find their favourite blogger and purchase related options directly through Google’s engine without the need to use an app. This is what Google hopes to achieve with the ‘Shop the Look’ app.

This new feature could not only be beneficial for Google but also for fashion bloggers who until now have to use platforms like Polyvore to earn. By hopping on to Google’s engine, these bloggers can be discovered by a wider audience. Bloggers and retailers who want to show their products within the Shop the Look experience will need to create a shopping campaign, and optimise their bids for mobile. The ‘Shop the Look’ feature is currently being tested in the US.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Gadgets News

Twitter Bans Ads That Defy Climate Change Science

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Twitter Bans Ads That Defy Climate Change Science

Twitter on Friday banned ads that deny the reality of climate change.

Twitter’s announcement on Earth Day came as it tries to fend off an unwanted takeover bid by billionaire Elon Musk, who has said he thinks people should be able to say pretty much whatever they want on the platform.

“Misleading advertisements on Twitter that contradict the scientific consensus on climate change are prohibited, in line with our inappropriate content policy,” Twitter global sustainability manager Casey Junod said in a blog post.

“We believe that climate denialism shouldn’t be monetised on Twitter, and that misrepresentative ads shouldn’t detract from important conversations about the climate crisis.”

Twitter last year introduced a Topic feature to help users find conversations about climate change, and rolled out hubs of “credible, authoritative” information on an array of high-profile topics including the science backing climate change.

“We recognise that misleading information about climate change can undermine efforts to protect the planet,” Junod said.

“Now more than ever, meaningful climate action, from all of us, is critical.”

As tempting as access to Musk’s wealth may be, Twitter is not eager to be ruled by a billionaire known for shooting from the hip with little regard for the consequences.

The global one-to-many messaging platform is moving to prevent Musk from getting his hands on all of Twitter’s outstanding shares, signaling that worries about where he would lead the company outweigh the proffered payoff.

Earlier this month Musk, the world’s richest person and a controversial and frequent user of Twitter himself, made an unsolicited bid of $43 billion (roughly Rs. 3,28,800 crore) for the social media network, citing better freedom of speech as a motivation.

Musk advocates a hands-off approach to policing content, a thorny matter particularly in high-profile cases such as that of former US president Donald Trump, who was banned after the assault on the Capitol by his supporters as they sought to overturn the US election result last year.

But the polarising Tesla CEO’s campaign has also sparked concern among technology and free-speech experts who point to Musk’s unpredictable statements and history of bullying critics, which contradict his stated aims.

Twitter’s board opted to employ a “poison pill” defense, under which any acquisition of over 15 percent of the firm’s stock without its OK would trigger a plan to flood the market with shares and thus make a buyout much harder.

[“source=gadgets360”]

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Online Marketing

Investors to get Google records on online drug ads

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Image result for Google

HIGHLIGHTS

  • A Delaware judge has given Google until April 9 to give documents involving an illegal online marketing of prescription drugs.
A Delaware judge has given Google Inc. until April 9 to give a pension fund investors company documents involving what authorities said was the illegal online marketing of prescription drugs to U.S. consumers by Canadian pharmacies.

The judge entered the order Wednesday in a complaint filed by the DeKalb County Pension Fund. Fund attorneys said they want to see corporate records after Google agreed last year to forfeit $500 million following a U.S. government investigation.

The settlement allowed the Internet search leader to avoid criminal prosecution for allegations it improperly profited from ads promoting Canadian pharmacies that marked drugs to U.S. consumers.

The judge’s order covers all documents presented to Google board members about Canadian pharmacies using Google’s AdWords advertising program from January 2003 to Sept. 12, 2011.

Google said Thursday it had no comment on the judge’s order.

Shipping prescription drugs into the U.S. is illegal, investigators have said.

Previously, Google has said it banned the advertising of prescription drugs in the U.S. by Canadian pharmacies and that it should have never allowed certain ads. In 2010, Google announced new restrictions for online pharmacies seeking to advertise with AdWords.

Businesses using AdWords select keywords for advertising. When people search on Google using a business’s keyword, that ad may appear next to the search results.

[“Source-ndtv”]
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Tech Update

Tencent Sees Video Games, More Ads in Snapchat’s Future

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Tencent Sees Video Games, More Ads in Snapchat's Future

Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings said on Thursday it could help Snapchat owner Snap publish video games and improve ad sales after acquiring a 12 percent stake in the US social media network.

Snap’s disclosure in a US regulatory filing that Tencent had recently bought 145.8 million of its shares on the open market set off a wave of speculation among investors about the relationship between the firms.

Shares in Snap closed at $12.91 on Wednesday, down 14.6 percent, as investors pummelled the company for slow user growth and treated Tencent’s move as an investment rather than the precursor to an acquisition.

Tencent’s shares do not have voting power and it will not have a board seat, but the two companies broadly believe in cooperation that goes beyond passive investing, according to Snap’s filing on Wednesday. Tencent on Thursday described a potentially close relationship.

“The investment enables Tencent to explore cooperation opportunities with the company on mobile games publishing and newsfeed as well as to share its financial returns from the growth of its businesses and monetization in the future,” it said in an emailed statement. It also referred to the potential for “newsfeed ads”.

Games and a newsfeed have not been a part of Snapchat, although the company on Tuesday said it was planning a redesign.

Analysts say Tencent, the world’s largest gaming company by revenue, has benefited from its social media apps for the phenomenal popularity of its smartphone games such as Honour of Kings, and will need the help of local social networks in promoting its games in overseas markets.

The Snapchat app, though, is banned in China, where non-Chinese social media networks are generally restricted, although some videos originating in China were visible on the network on Wednesday presumably because of technological workarounds.

US investment analysts said they did not expect a change in that regard.

It is unlikely that Snap “would ever be allowed to establish a foothold in China even if their relationship with Tencent were deeper,” Brian Wieser, senior analyst at Pivotal Research Group in New York, said in a report to clients.

The companies operate on different scales. Tencent’s holdings include messaging apps QQ and WeChat, both ubiquitous in China, and its market capitalization of $469 billion is among the largest in the world. Snap’s is $15 billion.

While Snapchat focuses on sharing pictures and video between friends, WeChat offers payment processing and more. Tencent said that it expected Snapchat to continue to grow, particularly in “affluent Western markets” such as the United States and Europe.

“The China market is in some ways more advanced in social media and messaging than the U.S. is,” said Rebecca Fannin, founder of Silicon Dragon, a website that writes about China and California’s Silicon Valley.

“Tencent might have teams come in and work with them,” Fannin said.

Snap declined to comment beyond a filing in which it said the California company was inspired by Tencent’s creativity and entrepreneurial spirit and grateful to continue a productive relationship.

Snap has an office in Shenzhen, China, where Tencent has its headquarters, to assist in the manufacture of Spectacles, Snap’s sunglasses that have a built-in camera.

Tencent has aspirations to assume a global role in technology and may be buying shares with that strategy in mind, said Lindsay Conner, a Los Angeles lawyer who has represented Chinese companies in the United States.

“They often invest in companies to have a seat at the table, to understand businesses better, to see where the leading edge is between technology and content, and to have an insight into technology they should adopt or license,” he said.

Tencent first became an investor in Snap in 2013. The total size of its investment has not been disclosed. Although Snap’s shares began to trade publicly in March in the hottest debut of a U.S. tech stock in years, results since then have sent Snap shares down below its IPO price of $17.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

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