Google Is Testing An Increase In Local Service Ads Across Its Search Results Pages

Google is moving full throttle with its plans to increase local service advertisements across its search results.

The company would soon be incorporating three ads instead of the usual two on its results page, the tech giant explained as a part of its new test.

The news was recently confirmed by the company’s Ads Liaison who says the whole target is to build up customer confidence across LSAs.

H/T: @lenraleigh

But nothing is final yet as Google reiterated how it’s just a part of its experiment and it hopes to gauge the value of its tests back to its loyal consumers and associated providers. Google aims to increase one added service provider for its Local Service ad unit.

The whole purpose is to assist consumers in exploring as well as booking different services thanks to all of its trusted providers with whom it shares great confidence.

It’s interesting to point out here how the experiment being done by Google right now is actually the exact opposite of what it intends to carry out. And that’s because there is plenty of attention being drawn to the current issues of LSA spam.

So, what happens when we see another LSA being added in the form of an ad unit to the search results page? Well, it’s a positive change or has the capability to be one for different entities out there that are busy promoting all of their services across the search engine.

Local service advertisements have a number of growing concerns surrounding them. For instance, there are so many fake ads linked to businesses circulating. Next, the unlimited number of fake reviews linked to business profiles is also plenty.

And lastly, there are several ads looming around related to business profiles that cease to exist or have been deactivated.

Now, Google claims that all of these matters are being screened by the search engine giant but experts feel there has to be some sort of gap regarding the confirmation of quality assurance there.

Google says it realizes the growing issues surrounding LSAs today and that’s why it recently made a commitment to combat the challenges, after taking users’ reports into consideration.

We can see that Google cares but again, actions are judged by intentions so until it’s done, people won’t be convinced.

Therefore, the next time you come across any fraudulent ads, please feel free to click on the Report button immediately.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

KnowBe4 report highlights the frequently-clicked email scam content in the second quarter of 2022

A security-oriented platform, KnowBe4 released a periodical report on frequently-clicked spam emails. Some helpful information has revealed which business-related phishing emails are predominantly clicked. The scammers make fake firm logos and insert them in the email content to fool employees. They target employees using spoofed domains, concealing email sources, and sometimes including workers' names in phishing emails.

Another helpful insight revealed from the report is that in the Q2 of 2022, the emails comprising subjects regarding the HR department are more often clicked. In today's era, people have become more aware of scam messages and emails, and it's not easy to fool them. If they receive SMS cross-checking a $1700 shipment they've not placed, or simply a text that says you won a prize or something related, they neglect and move on. But, what if they receive information about the company's internal details or employee performance reports? KnowBe4's head, Stu Sjouwerman, said that over eighty percent of enterprise data breaches arise from human error.

KnowBe4 analyzed the content of phishing emails that could contain a malware attachment or link. They found that these links result in the exposure of the company's data and lead to ransomware. According to KnowBe4, the attack vectors that lead to vulnerable threats are spoofed domains, PDF attachments, and scam links. I'll clear your concept if you don't know what a spoofed part is. Domain spoofing is a phishing tactic where a hacker usually impersonates a famous brand or known personality with fraud websites or phishing emails to fool others and cause them to believe they are authentic and trustable.

As per KnowBe4, the most common in the wild attacks are phishing emails, and the subjects of them include 7 percent employee expense and 15 percent Human Resource vacation policy update. In addition, 15 percent HR: dress code changes, 13 percent password check required urgently, 9 percent weekly performance report, 8 percent internet report, and so on. In the second quarter of 2022, typical in the wild emails include IT forms, fax previews, Facebook login, Money withdrawal statements, etc.

On the end note, to protect the organization from data breaches and phishing scams, businesses need to provide training sessions to their employees to make them aware of the methods to protect from threats. In this way, workers gain the confidence to detect fraudulent emails, even if they come from a familiar source. As an impact of training, they would be able to question emails, which is a critical element of promoting a protected security culture that helps minimize risk.

Read next: Next Generation Post-Quantum Encryption May Not Be As Secure As Many Tech Experts Had Hoped
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Google Is Testing To Add Explore More To Search Refinement For Any Of Your Product Queries

Google is rapidly updating some of its very useful features so that users can easily go through them with some added functionality. Now Google is testing to add explore more to your search refinement so if you have any product queries, this little update can easily help you with that.

The feature is in testing for a while now and by this, you will see an 'Explore more' button on your Google results whenever you search for a product. This is an addition to the already added features on the Google search page. Product Grids and Popular Products are also a result of Google's refinement of search features.

Twitter users are sharing their thoughts about this feature and some are saying that this feature looks exactly like the old one, just renamed. And that is kind of true too. For example, if you search 'Shoes' you will get a 'Explore More' option on your result page and it will be related to the thing you searched for. For the shoe search, you can get shoes for women, shoes for kids, etc. on exploring more.

Previously the explore more button was named 'Refine by Search. If you search for birthstones, you get an option about 'Refine by Months'. It is almost the same as the new feature.

Another example of this update is if you search for clothes. You will immediately get the results and explore more options with related searches like 'Clothes for Women', 'Clothes for Men, etc. Now we all have to wait and see what changes this feature will bring to Google's overall work. But Google must have a strategy behind all of this. Maybe it is a way to engage the most number of people on their web search. This new update can also be helpful for people as it will help them to find whatever they are looking for easily. In our opinion, it doesn't change much of the functions and Google will work like it always does.

H/T: @Punit6008

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

LinkedIn launches a new human-based discovery feature making big changes to the platform

LinkedIn’s Discover feature is getting a new update where the content being displayed will be curated by humans instead of algorithms.

As you may know, many social media apps use complex algorithms to display new content on users’ feeds. The basic aim of this feature is to get users to engage in new content outside of the usual content that they consume.

But LinkedIn is putting a spin on this feature where instead of the process being automated, an editorial team will select the type of content to display on the users' feeds. This feature is currently in its beta phases according to the lead developer.

LinkedIn’s VP of product, Blake Barnes says they’re making a feature where you’ll be able to discover new content from people and companies whom you never heard of. This will greatly enhance the users’ professional connections by opening up relevant content for them to engage in.

From what we know so far, the feature isn’t limited to just plain text which is the case in other similar platforms with a Discovery feature. You will also see posts with images, videos, links, news, and other mediums to make the post appear more attractive.

You might be wondering what type of content we’ll see with the LinkedIn Discovery feature. Well, Barnes has answered the question by saying that the beta tests will display the content gathered by LinkedIn’s news and editorial team. They will try their hardest to make relevant posts that will relate to the professional careers and interests of the users. The feature will improve with time as user opinion is vital to deciding whether to keep or remove the feature.

Lastly, LinkedIn says that the feature will aim for a mixed variety of content that will cater to a user’s professional interest and career. This will also help those individuals or organizations, whose posts get chosen to be displayed first on the discovery feature boosting their audience

The drawbacks of this feature include the content being limited to just established and well-off users on the platform. This is true because human based Discovery feature will rely on achievements and news to push the content on everyone’s feeds which means there’ll be fewer opportunities for less established people.

As of now, we don’t know whether small publishers will get any benefits from this feature or even be affected negatively. The feature is only available in the international language and can be accessed from the Discover tab from LinkedIn’s iOS and Android apps.

Read next: Microsoft's LinkedIn Is On A Winning Streak As App Witnesses Record-Breaking Engagement Levels And Growth
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Apple Plans To Wipe Out Passwords Forever As Company Puts Its Passkeys Into The Spotlight

A world without passwords sounds so enticing to some and while it might be a far-fetched reality for others, Apple plans on changing that notion soon.

The successful iPhone maker is outlining its plans for the future and that involves bidding farewell to passwords forever.

The company was recently seen sharing some more in-depth details on how it plans to remove the concept of passwords from each of our daily routines, thanks to the introduction of its innovative Passkeys tool.

In case you may have missed it, the firm highlighted the Passkeys concept at this year’s WWDC in June, where many left wanting more information as that’s how enticing the whole concept was.

Many wished to know how it works and whether or not the firm had plans to introduce it soon or not. And it now appears the time has come for Apple to share just that.

Apple has reportedly joined hands with leading tech firms Google and Microsoft to bring forward a collaborative effort that can eliminate passwords as a whole from different accounts across the internet. And in case you’re wondering why, well, it’s actually to further enhance user security and not the opposite.

Each company will reportedly launch its own version of the model so we really need to keep an eye out for the venture in the next few months. But as far as Apple’s Passkeys are concerned, well, it’s getting launched in the fall of this year, alongside its other major projects. This includes the much-anticipated iOS 16 and the renowned macOS Ventura.

So, how exactly can one make use of the Passkeys from Apple? Well, it’s all linked to the world of cryptography and its associated public keys. Here, users’ devices will be seen storing security keys in a private manner.

And instead of the usual key sharing to enter into your device, users would now have to prove the correct key if they wish to log in. At the same time, they’ll be required to make something like an exclusive signature to further authorize their entry into the device.

It’s true that the key would be stored on Apple devices but that certainly does not mean you can’t use hardware other than Apple.

A recent post by the company proved how the password manager related to Apple’s Keychain could be seen syncing across different user devices as per their choice. Therefore, those who’d like to use various other devices can simply do so by scanning QR codes using their Apple smartphone.

Remember, gone are the days of worrying about your remembering your passwords and worrying about phishing attacks or malicious scams. Yes, the threat still looms but it’s definitely to a less extent.

And in case you wish to share the passkey with those that mean most, well, Apple is even allowing that happen to happen via its AirDrop. Therefore, if you happen to be sharing a joint account, well, you’re definitely not going to suffer if your credentials happen to be similar.

It appears the new technology will be browser-based but more speculations about developers linking them into apps are also on the rise. Hence, we’ll just need to wait and watch like the rest of the world to see what’s in store.

Apple says that passwords have been a mainstay for security in technology for years but the time has come to step it up, thanks to the growing attacks and security risks that so many of us face today.

Apple confirmed that this is no longer a future dream. Instead, a password-less world will soon become a reality.

H/T: Tomsguide

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Can Microsoft Edge Overtake Google Chrome As The World's Top Browser On Desktop? New Stats Show Edge Performing At Its Best

A new report by Statcounter has been published about the current trends of the desktop market and the leading browsers involved. And we’d like to inform you that the competition is intriguing as Microsoft Edge is seen experiencing accelerated growth.

This means we could see a possible disruption of Chrome’s reign as the world’s most popular browser in the future. And although nothing is final yet and stats continue to fluctuate as we speak, the attempt can’t go unnoticed.

The report for July 2022 definitely seems promising when compared to that from last month.

In June, Edge acquired a market share of 10.64 and now in July its gained 10.86% share. Clearly, the growth is there and it’s being applauded.

On the other hand. Google Chrome is at the top as always with its dominance, standing at a mighty 66.2% market share. And although it did experience a decline this month of just 0.7 points, the lead is evident.

In the third position, we saw Safari come in with a bang as the world’s most popular browser for desktops but its market share remained unchanged from last month. Hence, it continues to stand at a market share of 8.9%, while in the fourth position, we’ve got Mozilla Firefox at 8.08%.

While Microsoft did manage to destroy Internet Explorer 11, many people have trouble digesting such facts and hence are sticking to Google Chrome which hails as the king of browsers in today’s modern desktop market.

In case you didn’t know, the actual king of the past was definitely Internet Explorer for browsers as we didn’t have options back then. Interestingly, some still continue to use it today, as shocking as that may sound.

Opera took the final position on the list with a 3% market share as reported by Statcounter for this month.

Read next: New Study Says 9 Out Of 10 Americans Fact-Check News While 96% Wish To Limit Misinformation Spread
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Next Generation Post-Quantum Encryption May Not Be As Secure As Many Tech Experts Had Hoped

The world of quantum computing had a lot of hopes attached to a new and upcoming venture linked to post-quantum encryption.

However, tech analysts are going to be disappointed to learn that their fears of things not going according to plan is turning into a reality.

Many tech analysts and researchers predicted that it could really serve as a competitive candidate in the world of quantum computing encryption but that’s now turned into a deeply worrisome matter.

The main algorithm that we’re referring to here is the SIKE which somehow did manage to surpass the US encryption competition by NIST for different algorithms but fell short elsewhere in the quantum computing universe afterward.

Still, researchers needed 60 minutes to defeat it and carry out malicious actions like the theft of different encryption keys. And all that they required was a single personal computer with the advancements of the math world.

SIKE showed promising results when the analysis was conducted by the government, CSIS researchers present at the KU Leven required the same time to grab a hold of the respective encryption keys.

Those trying to enter didn’t find flaws inside the code but actually went on attacking the mathematical aspect of things that is the main part of the algorithm which is SIDH.

This particular algorithm in question was said to be defeated by the famously dubbed ‘glue and split’ theory. These sorts of attacks use two curve genus to invade one attack curve.

Whether we like it or not, it’s a major flaw and weakness that researchers can’t look past, even if they wanted to, not to mention the huge blow it serves to SIKE.

The outcome of the research was recently published in a paper called the ‘key SIDH recovery attack’. Microsoft applauded the great efforts and even rewarded the researchers of the study with $50,000.

SIKE was considered to be one of the four top algorithms that had the capability to take over those in place at the moment like RSA and a few more. But despite all the uproar of its great strength, it was cracked into easily and you can only imagine the result of what’s next when the world of quantum PCs booms.

For those who may not be aware, quantum PCs are much more competent than the devices we have today so they’re definitely more likely to break into the toughest algorithms linked to encryption out there today.

Illustration: Freepik/Starline

H/T: TH

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World