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Tag: TechMeme

  • Google Flags Its Own iOS Apps As Out-of-Date

    Google Flags Its Own iOS Apps As Out-of-Date

    In an embarrassing glitch, Google’s servers flagged its own apps as out-of-date because…they are.

    Apple is requiring app updates to include a privacy label, clearly indicating what data is collected and connected to the user. Facebook drew intense criticism when it updated its apps and disclosed just how much data it collected and tracked. Meanwhile, Google has not updated the bulk of its apps in months, with many believing it’s trying to avoid the flack Facebook experienced. The company has claimed that’s not the case, but the evidence would suggest otherwise.

    The company’s apps are now so out-of-date that Google’s own servers started informing people and suggesting they upgrade to a new version. There’s just one minor issue — there are no newer versions.

    First spotted by Techmeme editor Spencer Dailey, Gmail, Google Photos and Google Maps all popped up a notification informing users they needed to upgrade (demonstrated in his video below). The issue appears to have been a server-side glitch, as users are no longer receiving the error even though the apps haven’t been updated. Google likely made a server-side change to disable the notification.

    Whatever the case, the notification is an embarrassment for Google and continues to undermine its claim that it is not trying to avoid Apple’s privacy labels. The company needs to update its apps immediately, providing clarity and transparency about what data it does and does not collect.

  • Techmeme Adds a Jobs Box

    Tech news aggregation site Techmeme has added a section that promotes jobs within the tech industry. On the right hand side, you will notice a new box titled “Who’s Hiring In Tech?” Below, many big name companies have already signed on to be a part of the new jobs box.

    Each company listed has its own tagline, apparently written by the companies themselves. Google says “The end to your job search.” Clever. Twitter says “Less characters, more fulfilling.” Not bad. My favorite is from Twilio who asks job searchers to “Come run wild in our geek pasture.” Sounds fun.

    Clicking on the company links will take you to their respective jobs page.

    In a post on the Techmeme news page, founder Gabe Rivera says “Billboards suck, promote your company’s jobs on Techmeme!”  He writes further that  “Techmeme is a better place for companies to reach out to a smart and well-informed tech-focused audience…We expect that Techmeme readers who are inclined to upgrade their jobs, or ready to embark on a career in tech, will take this jobs section as an extra nudge to explore options available at the featured companies, and a reminder that all of the great companies listed are aggressively hiring.”

    How will this affect Techmeme’s news aggregation?  Will they give more weight to stories from and about the companies that buy job promotion spots?  No, Rivera says to TechCrunch.

    “Not more than any other news site that accepts advertising from an array of companies. The only time I mentioned consideration of sponsors to my editorial staff was when I asked them specifically not to give sponsors extra consideration,” he says.

  • Techmeme Now Posting Tweets As Stories

    Update: Rivera has elaborated a bit more on the site’s use of tweets in a blog post (blogs aren’t dead yet):

    The tweets Techmeme will now link to fall mainly into two categories. First is the news-breaking variety, which directly offer new factual information, whether a straight-up product announcement (example), a new "rumor" report (example, via), a statement containing a veiled announcement (example), or a kind of inadvertently newsworthy announcement (example, via). Tweets of this sort, if interesting enough, will receive fullTechmeme headlines of their own.

    The second type is commentary: reactions, responses, rebuttals, endorsements, or amplifications to news stories. Exceptional tweets of this sort may occasionally receive headlines, but more commonly will show up in Discussion, the smaller headlines collapsed by default on Techmeme. Even a tweet simply intended to share a link, if paired with incisive commentary, could show up on Techmeme.

    Original Article: Technology aggregation site Techmeme is now accepting tweets as the basis for stories. Founder Gabe Rivera tweeted as much, which is of course the first tweet to take advantage. 

    We’re now including tweets on Techmeme and this will be the first one. @-reply with something clever to join the Discussion!less than a minute ago via webGabe Rivera
    gaberivera

    In many ways, the move makes a lot of sense, as tweets are widely seen as sources of breaking news (often from the sources themselves). Much of the coverage often linked to from Techmeme points to tweets anyway, so this strategy ought to cut out the middle man in many cases. 

    The first response tweet to Rivera’s tweet that’s been listed in the conversation on Techmeme declares blogging to be officially dead, but tweeting has always been microblogging, so there’s not really a whole lot of difference in terms of what should be getting on Techmeme. It’s just that a lot of the posts will be a lot shorter, and I don’t anticipate they’ll be throwing out long-form blog posts anytime soon. 

    It will not be surprising to see the site follow tweet acceptance with the acceptance of upates from other services like Facebook, , Google Buzz, etc. News can break on any of these things (and others).  They’ve already used Quora posts, as Rivera points out in the blog post mentioned in the update. 

    One big advantage of the tweet is the quickness. It takes far less time to tweet than to write an entire blog post, or even take a screenshot of another tweet, so I can see this leading to news getting on TechMeme faster as well.

  • Chrome Tops Firefox Among Techmeme Users

    On the site that describes itself as "Tech Web, Page A1," a tipping point in the browser wars has been reached.  New stats indicate that Techmeme visitors have come to prefer Chrome over Firefox by a small but significant margin.

    Techmeme founder and owner Gabe Rivera shared some info with Jay Yarow and Kamelia Angelova earlier today, and it turns out that a changeup occurred in September.  About 34 percent of people visiting Techmeme pages now do so using Chrome.

    Google ChromeFirefox is four percentage points behind with a share of 30 percent.  Also, Safari has a market share of 21 percent, while Internet Explorer has a market share of 12 percent, if you’re curious.

    Then contenders like Opera, Opera Mini, SeaMonkey, and Camino all have shares that just round to zero or one percent.

    Anyway, this is less than good news for the folks at Mozilla, since one of Firefox’s key strengths has long been its popularity among techie types.  If they’re now making the switch to Chrome, and the general public’s still content with IE, Firefox could be left in a sort of no-man’s land.

    Mozilla fans should cross their fingers that Firefox 4 blows everybody away.