Digital ad industry braces for impact as coronavirus disease causes economic downturns
Industry experts forecast digital ad revenues to drop in the wake of the coronavirus, but no one can say the degree to which ad spend will be affected.
Email tracking privacy concerns may force email service providers to change what they report
All major email service providers (ESPs) track message open rates and link clicks. There are now renewed concerns by some privacy advocates that this practice equates to spying on users.
The CCPA is reducing Facebook Ads retargeting reach but there may be a workaround
The California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) went into effect on January 1, 2020, and appears to be affecting Facebook Ads retargeting campaigns. However, there may be a simple workaround to restore campaign performance.
Amazon Lightsail offers cheap WordPress hosting in the cloud
Webmasters can host WordPress sites for as cheap as $3.50/mo using the Amazon Lightsail cloud platform. While Lightsail is marketed as easy-to-use, it’s still significantly more complicated to set up and maintain than using a managed hosting provider.
Google Ads is forcing agencies to use its recommendations or risk losing their Google Partners badge
Google Ads is changing the requirements for its Google Partners badge program by the end of June 2020. One change, in particular, requires partners to adopt a high percentage of recommendations that are made by Google’s machine learning or risk losing their badge. Agencies are claiming Google’s optimizations are ignoring their expertise and don’t make sense for their clients’ campaigns.
Google adds notification permission data to Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX)
Google is now storing the decisions visitors make when they get prompted by a site to receive notifications. The dataset is available in the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) and is being made accessible to sites via Google's BigQuery tool. The goal is to educate publishers and suppress notifications for sites that have a high Block rate.
WordPress local development tool ‘Local’ now works with WP Engine
Eight months after WP Engine acquired Flywheel, they are launching a new version of Flywheel's local WordPress development tool, Local, with full support for WP Engine. The latest version of Local seamlessly integrates DevKit, making it possible to develop sites locally and to push changes live to WP Engine with the click of a button.
Open-source URL shortener ‘YOURLS’ gets updated with Bitly-like random keyword plugin
The popular open-source URL shortener, YOURLS, was updated to version 1.7.6. The update adds a Bitly-like URL randomizer to the core set of plugins and fixes various bugs. Users that rely on the software are also encouraged to sponsor its development via Open Collective.
Campaign Monitor urges users to update API keys now for security
Campaign Monitor recently strengthened the security of its API and is sending email messages to customers urging them to update their API keys now. They plan to start deprecating the old API keys soon.
ICANN allows Verisign to start increasing .com prices indefinitely
ICANN announced that Verisign can start increasing .com wholesale domain pricing 7% every year for four years, with a two-year break, indefinitely. Verisign will increase its revenue by at least 70% over ten years (an additional $800m) in exchange for giving ICANN $20m.
Modern Tribe launches major upgrade of its WordPress event calendar plugin
The best calendar plugin for WordPress, The Events Calendar, released a new version that was rebuilt from the ground up. The new plugin, version 5, includes a completely redesigned calendar view and experience.
Developer offers a glimpse of what a ‘Solid’ decentralized social network presence might look like
The standards-based initiative to decentralize social media data known as Solid has been difficult for most people to visualize. Angelo Veltens, a developer and IT consultant, recently shared an example of what a person’s identity could look like using Solid.
WP Engine will no longer support .htaccess with release of PHP 7.4
The popular WordPress hosting platform, WP Engine, is removing the ability to use .htaccess files when sites upgrade to PHP 7.4. They claim the deprecation results in a performance increase of up to 10%, and they are providing .htaccess alternatives.
Google is completely removing FTP access from Chrome
Users of the Chrome browser will no longer be able to view FTP directories or download files from FTP servers.
Pixelmator Pro adds image upscaling that maintains clarity for enlarged pixelated images
The popular image editing app for macOS, Pixelmator Pro, added a featured called ML Super Resolution. The feature uses machine learning and a convolutional neural network to increase the size and resolution of raster images.
Ookla adds free VPN to Speedtest app for iOS
A new version of the Speedtest app for iPhone and iPad includes a preview version of its free VPN service.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announces Bluesky, an initiative to create a decentralized social media standard
Jack Dorsey made a surprise announcement that Twitter is funding a small team of software architects, engineers, and designers to create an open-source standard for social media.
Domain prices are unregulated and rising at an alarming rate
The days of enjoying reasonably priced domain names may be coming to an end. Generic top-level domain (gTLD) owners have been significantly raising their annual fees as their extensions gain in popularity.
Alphabet is quietly fighting attacks on free speech through its Jigsaw incubator
Jigsaw has six projects it's currently working on to help activists and journalists protect their freedom of speech. They include technology to prevent hacking and to detect disinformation campaigns.
Feedly launches Pro+ account with new AI-powered features
Feedly debuted a major upgrade to its content discovery and reading app. The new Pro+ account uses its Leo AI technology to surface content based on interest and usage, and includes deduplication and mute filters.
