Taboola intros Facebook-style ‘news feed’ to target mobile

Taboola, the startup that works with hundreds of publishers to provide a set of links at the bottom of pages directing readers to more content on the site and elsewhere, has long positioned Facebook as the big competitor.

Consumers scanning articles on Facebook, especially on mobile, are less likely to ever visit a publisher’s own site, even more so now with the introduction of Instant Articles that keep readers essentially inside the Facebook experience: hence the push to create more links at the bottoms of stories to try to keep readers engaged and in your own network sphere.
Now, in an ironic twist, Taboola is launching a new format that could be summed up as “if you can’t beat them, join them”. As an alternative to its existing grid of links, Taboola wants now to feature content recommendations in the form of a continuously scrolling list, its own take on, yes, Facebook’s news feed.
The new format is launching first with the New York Daily News before getting rolled out to other publications.

The new Taboola news feed essentially consolidates a number of widgets and links you already have on websites, specifically publishers’ websites, into a larger feed experience: alongside the links to other articles on your own site, and those of other publications in the Taboola network, you will see cards for other services like the weather, videos, and marketing cards for in-app purchases, sponsored content and more — additions that have in part been made possible by some of Taboola’s recent acquisitions like ConvertMedia and Commerce Sciences. 

The germination for adding in a news feed comes from the fact that Taboola doesn’t feel like its set of links are a solution, as much as they are part of an ongoing problem.

“Today, when you look at publishers’ sites, it’s a shitshow,” Adam Singolda, Taboola’s founder and CEO, said in an interview. “You have the right rail, at the bottom you have Taboola, you have newsletter widgets, and commenting and navigation bars. And in mobile it’s even worse.” He said that Taboola’s tests have found that the average user reads one article and then just goes back to Facebook. “Engagement becomes horrible because the experience is really bad.” 
In trying to figure out how to solve that problem, Taboola — which is based in New York but was founded in and still operates in Israel — has taken a page from the new guard of cybersecurity companies: the best way to combat a threat today is to put yourself (or your security system) in the mindset of that threat.

“Even though I have a lot of issues with Facebook they are doing something well, the news feed,” he said. “Scrolling down you are presented with different cards — images or posts or links or videos or ads — but it’s a consistent, ongoing experience. Users don’t have to get to know Facebook all over again each time something new is introduced, and so they keep scrolling, for an hour or more a day.”

The ideal, he said, is to get the 1 billion or so people that see and (potentially) click on Taboola links to spend more than 3 seconds on a page: to move them to three minutes, and perhaps one day to three hours. This is especially relevant in markets where mobile is the primary platform for media consumption and browsing. Singolda said that today in the U.S. and Western Europe, about half of the readers across its network are on mobile. In parts of Asia, that proportion is 90 percent.

Taboola’s news feed is not completely replacing the Taboola grid at this point, but this is Singolda’s long-term intention. It’s one more way to bring in more engagement, but it is also another way for Taboola to differentiate from its lookalike competitors. These include the likes of Outbrain, which has long been the subject of speculation that it will merge with Taboola. Nothing to report on that front yet, Singolda said.

Readers using the new feed will, for now, click out of a publisher’s page to go to a new page in the browser to read stories, with a small option to click back to the originating page. Singolda told me that the idea will be to introduce AMP pages into the mix over time to speed up the jumps, as Taboola is already an AMP partner.

I’ll be looking to see how that plays out, since AMP links currently mean no traffic for the originating or endpoint publications, with Google hosting the speed-up pages on its own URLs. Same, too, goes for the idea of bringing in infinite scrolls, which seem to pose their own kinds of unique challenges for publishers that want to keep readers engaged on their own properties, not floating away on an endless river provided by someone else.

Taboola has raised over $160 million, and Singolda said that it’s profitable and has $100 million of that funding still in the bank.

Facebook is promising to use its greatest asset to help media companies make more money

Facebook says it want to help media companies make more money from digital ads. And now, the social networking giant is even offering to let publishers sell ads using Facebook’s data.
The question is, will media companies, leery of Facebook’s formidable and ever-growing clout in the ad business, welcome the help?
The new product in this case is Audience Direct, which is designed to help web publishers sell targeted video ads using Facebook’s demographic and location data. For example, a publisher could use Audience Direct to make sure that an advertiser running a campaign aimed at women between the ages of 18 and 34 gets what they paid for.
That’s not easy for many publishers, according to Brian Boland, Facebook’s vice president of publisher solutions, since they don’t always have very robust data on their own audiences. Publishers can work with third parties to measure the average composition of their audiences. But delivering ads only to the consumers an advertiser is interested in paying to reach can often result in guesswork and waste, said Boland.
“This is a problem that we’ve heard about from large video publishers,” said Boland. A publisher might have to deliver 2 million ad impressions just to make sure that an advertiser gets the 1 million targeted ads it commissioned, he explained. "They end up throwing thousands of dollars out the window,” he said. “This helps them solve that problem.”
Facebook says in an a recent test, it was able to help a publisher deliver the right ads to 90% of a given target compared to an industry average of 59%.
Facebook has signed on ESPN,Hearst, A+E Networks and Scripps Networks as early test partners for Audience Direct.
Right now, no money is changing hands during this beta test, but the plan is to eventually figure out a business model where publishers make more money and Facebook collects some sort of fee, said Boland.
In addition, the more publishers that use Audience Direct, the more that will likely employ other Facebook ad products, or so the thinking goes. Facebook already sells ads that run on a large number of websites as part of its Facebook Audience Network.
Indeed, the potential for Audience Direct would seem to be huge. After all, Facebook has data on nearly 2 billion users, including their real names, locations and interests, so its data and technology should be able to help the average web publisher improve ad targeting precision. Media partners won’t be able to pull any individual Facebook user data and won’t be able to reuse this data for other ad campaigns.
Not every publisher is going to be so willing to hand over more of their advertising infrastructure to Facebook. They are seeing Facebook swallow a huge percentage of marketing budgets while leaving many a publisher fighting for scraps even as many web publishers rely on Facebook to get their content in front their audiences.
 
Many accuse Facebook of operating a "walled garden"Elena Elisseeva/Shutterstock.com
“We’ve heard that criticism,” said Boland. “We firmly believe that the publisher partners we are working with, as people see how we treat them, the ways people feel about us will evolve. Hopefully our actions speak loudly. We think we are building out a compelling suite of tools for publishers.”
Interesting, the move puts Facebook squarely against Amazon, which late last year rolled out a set of products aimed at helping publishers learn more about their audiences and make more money. Amazon also boasts of a unique and potent data set.
Besides challenging another tech giant, Facebook’s plan to helping publishers is intriguing, given that Facebook had seemingly retreated from ad tech to a degree. The company acquired the web video ad platform Liverail a few years ago, only to shut much of its down.

Facebook disabled more than 14,000 accounts in one month for revenge porn and sexual extortion

In January, Facebook disabled more than 14,000 accounts for revenge porn and sexual extortion, and 33 of those incidents involved children, according to a report from The Guardian. The outlet also reported that Facebook moderators escalated tens of thousands of potential cases that month.

Rules allow “moderate displays of sexuality”

Other documents on moderation rules obtained by the outlet reportedly make clear that, as long as the content is between adults, Facebook allows content showing “moderate displays of sexuality, open-mouthed kissing, clothed simulated sex and pixelated sexual activity.” The company also makes allowances for sexual jokes.

The documents, according to The Guardian, offer some examples of approved explicit content, such as “I’m gonna eat that pussy,” or “Hello ladies, wanna suck my cock?” One example cited — “I’m gonna fuck you” — would be approved unless more detail on the act is also included.

Facebook seems to walk a fine line in other sexual content rules seen by The Guardian. The company allows some forms of nude art, for example, but a document says digitally generated sexual images are not allowed.

The Guardian obtained a trove of documents that outline Facebook’s strategies for removing content. Over the weekend, it began publishing stories from those documents. Today, it also reported on documents suggesting footage of children being bullied was permitted.

Facebook has faced major criticism over how it deals with content moderation. Apart from recent incidents involving violent videos, the company was widely chastised last year for removing a historic photo of a naked Vietnamese girl fleeing from napalm.

Selfie obsession fuelling skin cancer

Instagram and Facebook are 'fuelling skin cancer' because selfie-obsessed youngsters are ignoring warnings for a 'like' from friends.

 Social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook are helping to fuel an epidemic of skin cancer.

Harley Street dermatologist Christopher Rowland Payne said selfie-obsessed youngsters were ignoring warnings about long- term damage for a momentary ‘like’ from friends.

You can be tanned in three or four days, but the adverse consequences come much later. It’s short-term reward – pleasure now – but long-term cost.’

 

The selfie craze and “bragging” on Instagram and other social media sites… these make people try to be brown and that very much feeds into this problem.’

‘Smoking is now considered yucky, but tanning is not,’ he said, adding: ‘Women seek a tan more than men, but men admire women who are tanned.’

 

People also liked tanning because it gave them a physical high, he said, explaining that the sensation was akin to taking a drug.

Skin cancer is the most common and fastest rising form of cancer in the UK. 

Melanomas are the most deadly form, killing 2,500 people in Britain every year.

 

HMD Global is helping Nokia come back with smartphones

Nokia Was The One Of The best brand in mobile industries till 2000 end after that it lost it popularity among world due to appla and android cell phones, now nokia is launching its first nokia phone with tha compatibility of running ios in it. Nokia is a storied brand with an iconic history, however, in the modern context its imprint is solely centred in the mobile phone space which it pioneered and nurtured till the end of 2000s.

Then it was struck by an apocalyptic storm of disruption which is the anathema of many an innovation machine. In the case of Nokia the disruption came in the form of Apple's iPhone which changed the mobile computing landscape in 2007. The iPhone paved the way for Google's Android to become the most powerful computing platform on the face of this planet eclipsing even Microsoft's Windows.

This scenario also churned out a series of events which included the union of Nokia and Microsoft, that resulted in both companies being rendered irrelevant in the modern context of mobile phones.

In 2013 Microsoft acquired Nokia's smartphone business to no avail that by December 2016 it had jettisoned all elements of the fateful acquisition. In the years passing, the remainder of Nokia had transformed into this powerful network infrastructure company and technological intellectual properties farm.

EU fines Facebook 110 million euros over WhatsApp deal

European Union antitrust regulators fined Facebook (FB.O) 110 million euros ($122 million) on Thursday for giving misleading information during a vetting of its deal to acquire messaging service WhatsApp in 2014.
Calling it a "proportionate and deterrent fine", the European Commission, which acts as the EU's competition watchdog, said Facebook had said it could not automatically match user accounts on its namesake platform and WhatsApp but two years later launched a service that did exactly that.
"The Commission has found that, contrary to Facebook's statements in the 2014 merger review process, the technical possibility of automatically matching Facebook and WhatsApp users' identities already existed in 2014, and that Facebook staff were aware of such a possibility," the Commission said.
Facebook said in a statement the errors made in its 2014 filings were not intentional and that the Commission had confirmed they had not affected the outcome of the merger review.
"Today's announcement brings this matter to a close," Facebook said.
The fine would not reverse the Commission's decision to clear the purchase of WhatsApp and was unrelated to separate investigations into data protection issues, it added.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that Facebook was set to be fined.

The Commission could have fined Facebook up to 1 percent of its turnover - which would have been $276 million based on 2016 results - but said that Facebook had cooperated with the proceedings and acknowledged its infringement.
The EU sanction comes after Facebook received a separate 150,000-euro fine on Tuesday by a French data watchdog for failing to prevent its users' data being accessed by advertisers.
Last week the Italian antitrust authorities levied a 3 million-euro fine on WhatsApp for allegedly obliging users to agree to share their personal data with Facebook. 

Facebook wants to know why teens are using group video app Houseparty

The social giant issued a survey earlier this year trying to figure out why teens use group video apps. Could it clone the app?

 

Are you a teenager who uses the group video chat app, Houseparty? Facebook wants to know!

At least Facebook did want to know back in February, and was willing to pay people for their thoughts on the app, which lets users jump in and out of video conversations with friends (or friends of friends).

Screenshots from Facebook’s survey earlier this year.

Facebook

Facebook circulated a survey a few months back that asked, among other things, for responders to share their “most recent experience” using Houseparty or Fam, a separate app which self-describes as “group Facetime” for iPhone users.

Facebook issued the survey to find teenagers who would come to Facebook headquarters to participate in a study about “texting and messaging apps,” including Houseparty. They offered participants $275 in Amazon gift cards to participate.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the survey was legit, and was part of the company’s “ongoing effort to better understand how different groups of people use different technology products, including video messaging.” Facebook runs these studies “all the time,” she added.

The survey was issued just a few months after reports that Houseparty raised $50 million in new venture funding.

Facebook

While it’s clear Facebook is taking an interest in group video apps, it’s unclear what they plan to do about it. Facebook has a history of copying trends that seem to be on the rise, especially among teenagers.

You may remember it tried to copy Snapchat’s disappearing messages concept on multiple occasions back when the app was still young, and when anonymous messaging apps like Secret and Whisper were on the rise, Facebook rolled out an anonymous chat app of its own called Rooms.

The folks behind Houseparty know this well. Before Houseparty existed, the company’s main product was a live video streaming app called Meerkat.

CEO Ben Rubin basically threw in the towel on live video broadcasting in part because Facebook’s live video efforts were starting to pick up and Twitter had recently bought a rival service, Periscope.

So it’s possible that a survey like this means Facebook is preparing to get into group video calls — it already offers group video on Messenger, but not in the same jump-in, jump-out kind of way that Houseparty allows.

It’s also possible that Facebook could look to make an acquisition in this space, though the company tends to start with a build versus buy mentality when it comes to new consumer features.

It’s even possible this survey means little, and that Facebook learned that it doesn’t care about group video chats after all. (If you know more about this, please reach out!)

When we asked Houseparty about the survey, a spokesperson thanked Facebook for doing the research and said, “We’re looking forward to seeing the results!”

We also asked Houseparty if they’ve met with Facebook, and the same spokesperson replied the two companies have “had a few friendly chats about the future of live video,” though didn’t elaborate further.

Facebook, on the other hand, says it doesn’t plan to share any of the results from its study and declined to say whether or not it was still ongoing or if the results were influencing Facebook’s products.

Facebook didn’t immediately get back to a question about meeting with Houseparty, though it’s common for big tech companies to bring in startups to both vet them, but also just learn what they’re building.

Thailand backs down on threat to ban Facebook

The government of Thailand has backed down on a threat to ban Facebook if it did not block content deemed to be illegal in the country.

The ruling military junta last week said it would ban the U.S. social network if it did not disable Thailand-based users from being able to access a selection of 131 “illicit” posts, including content that violates lese majeste laws that prevent criticism of the royal family. The government set a deadline of 10:00 am on May 16 for the pages to be blocked, but TechCrunch has verified that the social network remains accessible in the country while Facebook has not censored the pages, according to media reports.
Facebook provided the following statement:

“When governments believe that something on the Internet violates their laws, they may contact companies like Facebook and ask us to restrict access to that content. When we receive such a request, it is scrutinized to determine if the specified content does indeed violate local laws. If we determine that it does, then we make it unavailable in the relevant country or territory and notify people who try to access it why it is restricted.”

A Thai court initially drew up a list of 309 web pages to be censored. A government spokesperson told the Bangkok Post that Facebook had removed 178 of them as of last week.
Facebook isn’t alone in being pushed to censor its pages. Google and YouTube deleted at least 469 web pages in response to recent government requests, according a report from The Nation. Google did not reply to a request for confirmation or comment.
While Thailand hasn’t enforced a ban on Facebook at this time, it did temporarily block the social network in May 2014, one week after the military seized control of the country via a coup. Speaking at the time, it claimed the issue was down to a glitch, however mobile operator DTAC later revealed that it had acted on an order to block the social network.
Facebook opened an office in Thailand in September 2015, and its audience measure tools suggest it has up to 45 million monthly users. That makes it the largest social network in the country by some margin. Rather than risk a public backlash from a full-out block, Thailand has instead pursued a policy of censoring specific pieces of content within the social network.
This year, it has geo-blocked articles that fall within the lese majeste law and it even making it illegal to exchange information with three prominent critics of the regime who are based overseas. Facebook’s own data shows that the firm restricted access to 50 pieces of content in Thailand during 2016.
In its most recent annual report, Freedom House, a U.S.-based think tank that monitors global web freedom, noted that Thailand’s internet and media are “not free.” The organization cited the jailing of citizens for interacting with Facebook posts and plans for a single national internet gateway to facilitate censorship among its key concerns.

Thai govt ultimatum has passed

Thai govt ultimatum has passed, but Facebook is reportedly not backing down

 

 

Thailand's Internet Service Provider Association (Tispa), under pressure from the government to block access to Facebook, said the social media giant will not remove illicit content until it receives proper court warrants, local media reported.
The government had given Facebook a Tuesday 10 a.m. local time deadline to remove the content or face legal action, the Bangkok Post reported Tuesday.
The report added that Tispa and internet gateway providers sent an email to the managing director of Facebook Thailand on Friday with the request and reportedly said 131 URLs had been deemed inappropriate have yet to be removed.
After the ultimatum passed, Tispa president Morakot Kulthamyothin told Khaosod English that Facebook stands by its policy.
"They [Facebook] said the request to block 131 URLs lacked court orders in the documents, and they said that if the documents are completed, they will proceed with the requests," she told the Thai media.
A Facebook spokesperson told CNBC that the company will review requests such as that by the Thai government and remove content that violates the law.
"When governments believe that something on the Internet violates their laws, they may contact companies like Facebook and ask us to restrict access to that content. When we receive such a request, we review it to determine if it puts us on notice of unlawful content. If we determine that it does, then we make it unavailable in the relevant country or territory and notify people who try to access it why it is restricted."
Last week, Reuters reported that Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission said Facebook had failed to remove 131 of 309 web addresses on the platform that were deemed a threat to national security or violated "lese majeste" laws that make it a crime to defame, insult or threaten the king, queen heir to the throne or regent.

Scam Alert: Fake Facebook Customer Service

A Leesburg resident was the victim of an online scam involving access to the victim's Facebook account, according to Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Kraig Troxell.

On May 10, the victim told police that they were attempting to reset a Facebook password. They located a Facebook customer service number that turned out to be fraudulent.

A person who answered the call claimed the victim’s account was locked and they needed to purchase an iTunes card and provide bank information.

The victim provided the information and purchased several cards before learning it was a scam.
How stupid can someone be, to pay to be on FACEBOOK? I am not stupid enough to even be on Facebook. There is a sucker born every 10 seconds, every 2 seconds in PWC.

Here are a few things you can do to keep your account secure:

• Protect your password. Don't use your Facebook password anywhere else online, and never share it with other people. Your password should be difficult to guess. Avoid including your name or common words. Learn more about creating a strong password.
• Never share your login information. Scammers may create fake websites that look like Facebook and ask you to login with your email address and password. Always check the website's URL before you enter your login information. When in doubt, type www.facebook.com into your browser to get to Facebook. Learn more about avoiding phishing.
• Log out of Facebook when you use a computer you share with other people. If you forget, you can log out remotely.
• Don't accept friend requests from people you don't know. Scammers may create fake accounts to friend people. Becoming friends with scammers might allow them to spam your Timeline, tag you in posts and send you malicious messages.
• Watch out for malicious software. Learn the signs of an infected computer or device and how to remove malicious software. Keep your web browser up to date and remove suspicious applications or browser add-ons.
• Never click suspicious links, even if they appear to come from a friend or a company you know. This includes links on Facebook (ex: on posts) or in emails. Keep in mind that Facebook will never ask you for your password in an email. If you see a suspicious link on Facebook, report it.
• Use our extra security features. For example, you can get alerts about unrecognized logins and choose friends to be your trusted contacts. If you're logged into Facebook on a computer, you can use Security Checkup to review your security settings.

$300 million lost in online scams as they reach record levels in Australia

A SURGE in scams targeting social media sites such as Facebook has seen a record number of rip-off reports to the national consumer watchdog, according to a report released today.

The unprecedented level of scam activity has prompted the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to provide urgent advice to people to avoid becoming another con job victim.

Last year there were 200,000 scam reports made to the ACCC — costing victims almost $300 million in lost money — which was a 47 per cent hike on the 2015 figures, the ACCC said.

South Australians accounted for more than 13,000 reports worth around $4 million in losses.

ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said there had been a “sharp increase in scams taking place through social media sites’’.

“It can be really hard to tell who’s genuine and who’s fake these days,” she warned.

Ms Rickard said the majority of reports about scams via social media were taking place on Facebook.

“The ACCC is working with Facebook, as well as the major banks, MoneyGram, Paypal,

Western Union and Apple to better tackle scams and reduce the harm experienced by

consumers,” she said.

Among the most common social media scams reported to the ACCC’s Scamwatch involved dating and romance and fake traders.

Around 30 per cent of dating and romance scam victims reported were conducted via social media sites, most commonly on Facebook.

“Dating and romance scammers trick their victims into falling in love with them and then use

their victim’s trust to deceitfully take their money,” Ms Rickard said

“If someone you’ve met through social media but you’ve never met in person asks you for

money, your alarm bells should be ringing. Don’t ever wire transfer or send money to

someone you don’t know because you won’t see it again.”

More than 240 reports of dating and romance scams came from South Australian victims, of whom 68 lost money, 22 being conned out of more than $10,000 each, according to the ACCC report.

While investment scams accounted for the most losses last year, fake trader scams were also on the increase with victims often responding to online store advertisements on social media sites offering discounted products made by well-known brands, the report found.

Ms Rickard urged people to respond to “generous’’ sale offers by researching the company, check where the product is coming from, check the company’s website and try and find

any reviews about the business before making a purchase.

Social media scams are the theme of the annual ACCC Fraud Week beginning today.