Zone’s Ross Basham handpicks and shares the five best new stories on digital trends, experiences and technologies…
1. Facebook angers Australia with news ban
Facebook’s decision to block Australians from viewing and sharing news on the platform has met with a furious backlash from the government, which says it “won’t be intimidated”. The move came in response to a proposed law that would force Facebook and Google to strike deals with news companies to pay for news.
While the ban was only meant to target news publishers, dozens of pages run by key government agencies, community pages and charities were also blocked for several hours, which is something of a PR disaster. And while Google has agreed to pay some Australian news companies, Facebook has clearly decided to dig its heels in.
2. Trustpilot reveals extent of fake review issue
If you can’t trust Trustpilot, who can you trust? Well, the business-review site has revealed that it removed more than two million fake or harmful reviews in the past year. It’s the first time in its 14-year history the firm has published a transparency report, and to be honest I’m not sure if that’s a reassuring statistic or not.
Of 39 million reviews posted in 2020, 2.2 million were removed for being fake or harmful, with 1.5 million of those automatically detected by Trustpilot’s fraud detection software. Trustpilot announced in November it was making more than $100m in annual sales, amid rumours it was planning to float its shares.
3. Google Maps introducing payment feature
Google Maps is introducing a feature that allows users to pay for parking or public transport by connecting their Google Maps app with their Google Pay wallet. The parking feature is only in the US at the moment but the ability to pay for public transport fare is connected to more than 80 transit agencies around the world.
By bypassing parking meters and train ticket machines, people can save time and also avoid touching public surfaces — a bonus during the pandemic. Plus I always find those ‘pay by app’ parking meters really irritating (I don’t want to download another app!) so I’d be grateful if Google could introduce this in the UK please and thank you.
4. Smooth operator Chrome overtakes Mac
Google’s Chrome operating system has overtaken Apple’s Mac OS in popularity for the first time. The Mac’s market share actually grew from 6.7% in 2019 to 7.5% but, powered by the low-cost Chromebooks which have been widely used for children’s home learning, Chrome OS surged from 6.4% in 2019 to 10.8% in 2020.
The pair are still dwarfed by Microsoft’s Windows, which actually fell from 85.4% to 80.5%. Chromebooks were launched in 2011 and had gradually increased in popularity before the pandemic brought about an explosion in sales, both from schools and education bodies but also from parents looking for cheaper machines.
5. Apple revamps emoji for Covid generation
Get ready for an important PSA about coronavirus… Apple is changing its syringe emoji to remove the dripping blood, as it becomes widely used to talk about the Covid-19 vaccine. Emojipedia, who should know about these things, reported a surge in the use of the syringe emoji last year, alongside face masks and a microbe.
Android hasn’t announced a similar change yet but the major players usually converge on a design. The move was welcomed by the Royal Society for Public Health. It said Apple could play a part “to increase confidence in Covid-19 vaccines”. If that’s what it takes to get people through the door, then all power to them.
