Microsoft Edge will be receiving a new Wallet feature for Windows 11 and Windows 10

Microsoft is working on a new Wallet feature for its Edge browser. As the name indicates, the feature is meant to help its users by letting them control their digital holdings, such as credit cards or savings that are linked with their Microsoft account.

Currently, the new Wallet feature is still in its initial development stage and is not available globally for all users but has been added as a beta version for a restricted number of users. To find if a user has been added to the restricted list, they can simply search for it on their edge browser, as the company does not use an algorithm to determine which users will be selected for the beta trial phase, so users figure it out for themselves in some cases.

According to the article posted by WindowsLatest, the upcoming feature is set to take the user’s transaction information to a whole different level. The user will be shown a complete display of their saved credit cards, which have been linked with their Microsoft account. If someone has not logged in to their Microsoft account on the Edge browser, they can simply link their card with it if they want to.

At the same time, the users will also be receiving promotion notifications such as 10% cashback opportunities that can be availed. And if a user is already using the reward system offered by Microsoft, they can see their total balance on a single display.

All these new features are meant to provide a better experience for Microsoft Edge users as they will make things easier for them while they perform online shopping. However, not many details have been shared by the developers, and as the feature is still under trial, by the time it makes its global debut, new or updated features will have been added to the wallet based on user experience.

It can be expected that if a new update is released ahead of the wallet, then Microsoft may provide better insight on their upcoming projects for different platforms.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Meta Reveals Its Top 4 Signals Used By Its Facebook Algorithm For Video Distribution

Have you ever wondered what it takes to tick Meta’s boxes for wide video distribution on the Facebook app?

Well, it’s no longer a secret as the company is unveiling its top four ranking signals for this purpose. We are talking about those key elements required for widespread video distribution or shall we say, the factors needed to make the most impact.

These were highlighted to be originality, engagement, loyalty from audiences, and audience retention. And we’re going into each one of these elements in detail below, as Meta explained.

The news came via a recently published blog post by the firm that shed light on the main strategy employed for this purpose.

The video ecosystem on the app claims to value original forms of content the most and also promotes local consumption so if you’ve got these factors going for you, then kudos to a great start!

Meta reiterated how authentic content gets the most applause as that’s been the firm’s strategy from day one. Other than that, the feel of entertainment and content that turns regular watchers into hardcore fans is another aspect worth a look at.

To put it simply, the more original content you come up with, the more your audience will come back for more. And that in turn leads to it being resurfaced over time repeatedly.

Originality was always prioritized by the app and so videos made by the person that’s publishing them under the name are definitely a must. At the same time, the app would also promote content that may not be 100% authentic if it's adding some form of value that’s not been seen before or is just plain old meaningful.

One of the best examples has to do with a creator putting in their input via commentary that’s done by another. So if you didn’t put any major effort into the content but are still putting it out as yours, well, it’s better to avoid it because the app notices everything.

Next up is your audience’s retention. This means how willing are you to keep your viewers engaged with a video till the end. It’s really a strong defining factor of the app. This generally is linked to how well the content had been received by viewers. Slow and steady retention shows great results but a sudden drop at the start means it’s just not hitting the mark.

The app truly recommends having a good story, building that up further for further viewing, and then investing in the best type of production quality.

Another major factor affecting ranking on the app is the loyalty of viewers glancing at your content. How often do users actually get back to watching more of the content on offer? Remember, a strong indicator is linked to how often a user searches for a particular creator’s video on the Facebook app.

Meta recommends adding clear titles and better descriptions to work your magic.

Lastly, Facebook looks at how much engagement your content ends up generating on the app. The more comments and conversations, the more the app notices interactions and shows the content frequently.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

White House Outlines Six Principles To Better Limit Power And Reach Of Big Tech Firms

Leading tech firms in the US have a very interesting and close relationship with the government. Both parties meet together and discuss a number of issues and how their relationship is going side by side.

The American government wants to make sure that no firm becomes powerful to such an extent that they’re doing everything by free will. So check and balances are usually maintained.

Therefore, today when the White House highlighted six different principles that are designed to focus on limiting the potential and reach of these companies, many were not surprised.

A meeting was chaired by the Biden administration who sat down with a number of experts related to the subject in the world of big tech and social media. A strategy was formulated to target key areas that need legislation.

Several members of Biden’s cabinet were included and a few executives arising from companies like Mozilla were also a part of the meeting. But what were the six principles discussed in detail at the meeting all about? We have laid out a brief explanation below.

The first one had to do with promoting competition in the tech industry. A lot of bipartisan support was put out for clear rules that made sure the country’s IT sector does not prohibit new entrants from competing with large sharks and entrepreneurs. And they felt the best way to get this done was through antitrust laws.

Next up, there was a discussion about the least amount of data collection being conducted possible. A number of limits were put out for targeted advertising. A lot of emphases was allocated to bigger firms to incorporate such changes instead of forcing consumers to pass by long lists of terms and conditions as to how their data is getting collected.

This was particularly related to measures of health and their location, where plenty of support was provided by the bipartisan leaders.

Protecting children was next in line were a number of discussions spoke about how safeguarding the wellbeing of the youth would be prioritized over gaining revenue or making profits. Remember, the online market can result in a lot of harm so that’s why the matter was better focused on how to avoid just that.

A little discussion was then made about how there was a huge lacking of transparency from both users and the ends of researchers. A lot of work needs to be done to prevent opaqueness in this regard so people know what’s happening behind closed doors.

The providence of special legal protection of big tech companies would now be removed. So that means Section 230 for the country’s Communication Decency Law would be revisited and improvised. It had previously allowed for safeguarding tech firms from liability whenever they hosted content of illegal means. And last but not least, strong protections would need to be introduced that prevent algorithms from carrying out discrimination against vulnerable members of society.

While this all sounds great on paper, we just feel eliminating algorithms entirely would provide more benefits.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Google is working on an update to the Nearby Sharing feature and it looks kind of cool

Nearby sharing is one of the best features of any phone or tablet. As the name suggests it is the feature that lets you send any sort of image or file to anybody that is near you and has their Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on.

Well, coming on to the topic, Google has been working on updating this feature for devices that have Android 6 and above. The feature will start rolling out in two weeks and will let users share things with people nearby without having to authenticate the transfer.

As we said before, this feature once it has rolled out after two weeks will only be available for phones that will have the Android 6 or above version of the operating System. This feature is available on Android Phones and Tablets as well as devices that run Chrome OS. According to the company itself, it is working on the low end to expand the number of devices that this feature works on and has plans to bring it to Windows as well.

Now, there is a specific reason why this feature is called a nearby share. Well, the thing is that it supports a lot of ways to send stuff than just over the internet. The feature supports Bluetooth, WI-FI, NFC, UWB, and WebRTC, so that users can automatically find the best way to send content depending on where they are at the moment.

This feature allows users to share content between their own devices without any problems, but if you wanted to you could share it with other people as well. If the need to change the preferences on your phone arises all you have to do is you will head to Settings, then to Connected Devices after Connection Preferences, and then lastly Nearby Share.

This feature will be very useful for users who are in a hurry situation and want to share something with another device quickly and without wasting any time. This feature is beneficial for students and just basically academia people alongside people with busy jobs.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Apple CEO Makes It Clear That He’s Not A Fan Of RCS And Would Prefer Users To Buy An iPhone

Apple CEO Tim Cook is very bold and blunt when it comes to his words and that’s why when he was asked to give his opinion on RCS, he didn’t hesitate one bit.

The Cupertino firm’s CEO was questioned by an audience member at this year’s Code Conference about Apple adopting RCS and allowing people to see videos in better quality formats. To that, Cook said that it would be better to simply buy an iPhone.

For those who aren’t quite familiar with the concept, well, RCS is similar to hypercharged SMS. Therefore, users get the chance to release top-notch multimedia files, similar to chat applications like WhatsApp or even Telegram.

At the same time, we see it putting standard texting features on display such as typing indicators, read receipts, and more amongst others.

There has been plenty of talk and debates linked to Blue Bubbles and Green Bubbles. The former is related to iMessage while the latter has to do with other texting on Apple devices.

And at the same time, the search engine giant has been putting a lot of pressure on the iPhone maker to bring the RCS on board so Android users may send out multimedia texts to Apple users. This way, we’d bid farewell to the bubble war once and for all.

A new campaign had even been launched in this regard to help persuade consumers to listen to what Google had to say, indirectly forcing Apple to shape up its world of texting. This was called ‘get the message’ and it hoped to add more pressure on Apple to alter its mind on the matter.

The website for this particular campaign went into plenty of detail as well. They said it was beyond just a war of bubble colors but had more to do with important things. From broken-up chats to missing receipts for texts, not to mention poor-quality videos as well- the list was wrong.

The issues have been there for a while now and Apple simply fails to pay heed or think about what benefits it would gain by adopting RCS. They just don’t get the picture of modern texting or wish to get the picture related to the matter.

At the moment, there are currently nearly 500 million users of the texting format around the globe and they’re all loving Google’s app designed for messaging.

Tim Cook says customers at Apple are not asking for this type of support. As recently put out by The Verge, Cook revealed how his users of Apple aren’t requesting support like this. And if there’s not a lot of demand, the firm doesn’t see the point of stressing the topic as much.

The matter linked to various bubbles is not present when you’re using various apps such as WhatsApp or Telegram or even Messenger. And that’s one of the main reasons why so many people are now turning to solutions from third parties.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

The time taken to update an application is longer than marketers' expectations

In light of a recent survey conducted by Airship, it has been noted that many businesses have to deal with difficulties to ensure a better user experience. Over 90% of application developers and marketing agencies agree that they must deal with difficulties while waiting for the app's new update. Ninety-six percent of the agencies rely on these new updates to provide a better experience for their respective audiences.

The time taken by the developers or sellers to launch an application or introduce an updated version plays a significant role. As it has been said that it can affect one’s business.

The survey highlighted 7 areas, which span around the overall user application experience. It has been observed that almost more than a quarter of the marketing agencies and other linked product holders keep planning new strategies for a better user experience as they believe that the more user-friendly their product is, the better experience they can provide. However, when it comes to launching these new updated application versions, less than a quarter of these agencies can launch what they planned.

The agencies believe that these actions are taken instantly as soon as the requests are received. On the other hand, developers have a different perspective. According to them, it may take more than a month for the actions to be taken.

While focusing on the difference between these two perspectives, the study showed that developers prioritize bugs over requests. As bugs can create more problems for the users, they are fixed on an urgent basis. Other factors, such as quality testing or getting approval, also play a role in applications being delayed for release.

In the future, it is expected that these firms will be using a "no code" option to ensure a better user experience much more efficiently.

The survey results were based on one hundred application developers and one hundred and two marketing agencies and respective product holders who are directly affiliated with solving problems faced by users and can generate over two million dollars per year.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Instagram’s CEO Admits Hashtags Don't Effectively Boost Post Engagement, This Research Confirms It

Instagram is one of the biggest social media platforms in the world, and it has quickly started to surpass Facebook in terms of importance in Meta’s business strategies. Facebook’s fall from grace has been swift, so it makes sense that Meta would want to emphasize Instagram more heavily because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making up for the losses that Facebook is bringing in.

One method that people use to boost engagement on their Instagram posts is to use hashtags, but with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that (time after time) Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri has admitted that doing so might not be all that effective. According to Mosseri, hashtags are not actually meant to boost engagement, but rather they are meant to help sort content into categories so that people can look through them a bit more easily with all things having been considered and taken into account.

Since what Mosseri is saying goes against what people have been assuming about hashtags for quite a long time, researchers at SocialInsider conducted a study in which they looked over tens of millions of Instagram posts, or 75 million to be precise. These posts were published over a period of one year between March of 2021 and March of 2022. It turns out that this research has confirmed Mosseri’s assertions that hashtags do not, in fact, help people get even slightly more traction on their social media posts despite assumptions to the contrary.

However, an important fact that needs to be considered is that hashtags can still improve post performance slightly, but overloading one’s post with hashtags will not increase its reach in an exponential way although some might logically assume that that’s the case. Using three to four hashtags resulted in the highest boost in engagement of around 3.41%, but in spite of the fact that this is the case most other hashtag quantities produced only marginally less optimal results which indicates that hashtags are not essential to make sure that your post gets good reach.

SocialInsider also cross referenced this research by analyzing Instagram accounts with various follower counts. No matter how many followers an account has, using too many hashtags almost always results in decreased engagement rather than higher engagement levels and reach. This becomes even more prominent for bigger accounts who have between fifty thousand to one million followers. Big accounts generally see the best performance when they use three to four hashtags, but for small to medium sized accounts this ideal number hovers at around five to six so they have more leeway in that regard.

Instead of flooding your Instagram posts with hashtags, it would be better to use fewer hashtags and focus on using the right ones. Some hashtags can result in better reach than others because they are searched for more frequently, or alternatively they might be a bit more relevant to the content that you are creating. Quantity is definitely not equal to quality in most aspects of finding an audience, and hashtags are yet another example of that.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World