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Facebook now takes your feedback into account when deciding whether to show ads to others

Sep11
by on September 11, 2014 at 5:40 pm
Posted In: Around the Web

Facebook announced today that it has added user feedback to its algorithm for displaying ads in your news feed. Previously, the service took into account whether an ad was hidden by a user, but now it will also listen to why it was hidden. For instance, Facebook will be more quick to stop showing ads that are labeled as offensive and inappropriate. The company’s tests found that doing so reduced the number of ads that were reported as offensive. I’m actually shocked that Facebook wasn’t doing this before, as it seems like an obvious way to handle user feedback. Also…

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Google acquires Polar for Google+, will close its polling service at the end of 2014

Sep11
by on September 11, 2014 at 5:23 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Google

GERMANY-ANIMALS-POLAR BEAR

Google has acquired Polar, a startup that allows anyone to create a visual poll for their website or app. Terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed. Dave Besbris, the current leader of Google+, confirmed that Polar employees would be joining his team to make the social network “even more awesome.” If you were a fan of Polar’s services though, bad news: Polar says it’ll be keeping its publisher tools available until the end of 2014, after which point they will presumably be shuttered for good. If you’ve been using Polar and want to save an archive, you can request a…

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Google updates Drive and Docs with improved screen reader, Braille display, and accessibility phone support

Sep11
by on September 11, 2014 at 5:17 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Google, Insider

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Google today announced a major accessibility update to Google Drive as well as Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, and Forms. Specifically designed with blind and low-vision users in mind, the improvements include an improved screen reader and Braille display, as well as phone support. First up, the updated screen reader support includes better text-to-voice verbalization and improvements to keyboard navigation. You should also notice: Support for alt text on images in Docs, so you can tell a screen reader what they should say to describe an image. Better support for using a keyboard to edit charts and pivot tables in…

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Culture is everything: How I reclaimed an employee back from Apple

Sep11
by on September 11, 2014 at 5:11 pm
Posted In: Analysis and Opinion, Around the Web, Entrepreneur

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Jerry Jao is the founder and CEO of Retention Science. The widely accepted “dream job” of many engineers is to work for a Silicon Valley tech giant such as Google, Facebook or Twitter. So I wasn’t surprised when, last summer, our intern Vedant told us that he had received a full time job offer from Apple. I knew that, like many aspiring engineers, it was his “dream job,” but at the same time, I believed that my company, Retention Science, could provide him with a different (but no less valuable) type of opportunity. Before I offered him a job, I…

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Chromebooks can now run some Android apps for the first time, including Evernote and Vine

Sep11
by on September 11, 2014 at 5:00 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Google, Insider, Product Launches

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We knew that Google planned to add support for running Android apps on Chromebooks since the company announced it back at Google I/O in June, but today we’ve had confirmation that the first Android apps to run on Chrome OS are now available to download. Although jut a few months back the project was described as “in its early days”, it seems Google has got the system working smoothly enough to unleash the first four apps from the App Runtime for Chrome (beta) on the general public. Catchy project name, isn’t it? Among the four are Duolingo‘s language-learning app, Evernote, Vine…

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