Google Maps’ New Look Gets Harsh Criticism From GPS Users Including Its Former Designer

In case you didn’t know, Google Maps has been revamped but not everyone is loving the new design.

This includes GPS users and the platform’s former designer who refuses to understand why a change was made in the first place when the old one was so much better. Hence, many people did not hesitate one bit to express their criticism on the matter and how irritated they were with the latest design.

The company announced the news through its blog post last week where they happened to share details regarding the change that was coming soon. Google also spoke about a few updates that would be included for both iPhone and Android users in the next few weeks.

This included detailed directions regarding public transit as well as address details for places where users can have their electric vehicles charged. With that came the news about an innovative feature that gave your close contacts the chance to share popular destinations amongst other things.

While the rest may be loved and appreciated, not everyone sees eye to eye with the fact that there’s a color upgrade on Maps and the latest color scheme has people talking for not some great reasons.

The latest facelift has new coding for roads that are gray while the hue for water has gone from a darker shade of blue to a lighter one that represents the clearest of skies. Other features included parks and public spots being represented in the shade green.

Elizabeth Laraki says she takes great pride in the app’s design and aesthetics that arose 15 years back. And it’s safe to say that she’s disappointed with the latest outcome that the company has made in the name of a revamp. She continues to make use of it on a daily basis and calls it a feature that’s very close to her heart.

But she is not loving it right now, referring to the change as one that’s unrelatable, less human, and lacking the warmth that it was once famous for. She similarly deemed it less useful as it lost that touch of accuracy that was visible in the past.

Image: Elizabeth Laraki / X

Laraki was joined by another partner to help design Google Maps in 2007 and her reviews through her social media account on X speak volumes of her dismay. She failed to understand the logic behind some of the drastic conditions.

Seeing hues blend together and the color palette appearing like it was made by a machine instead of humans was just the start of her rant. But in case you’re wondering, she’s not the only one who was left less than impressed.

The reviews from other top users similarly echoed her thoughts and critique regarding the latest color scheme as many kept scratching their heads as to why Google would roll out an unappealing design despite the old one being loved.

Other people directly asked Google to respond to their queries after tagging it on the X thread which soon went viral. And it was disheartening to see how the change was trashed soon after the launch. Moreover, others were just shocked at how they could no longer relate or recognize it after the updates.

Another fan went on about their dismay and how they literally failed to recognize it after the latest change. Thankfully, some were optimistic and did fairly review the update. They did not slam all of the changes regarding the design.

Features they loved included seeing roads, trails, and even areas with congested traffic standing out better than before with the new colors. And then some praised the company for making the effort to try and make it simpler to use. What about you?

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Black Friday's Global Spread and the Evolution of Consumer Habits

Ah, Black Friday, you've probably heard of it, no? It's this big shopping day right after Thanksgiving in the USA. But guess what? It wasn't always as famous as it is now. Back in the 1980s, that's when people really started talking about it. And you know who came up with the name? The police! They used it to talk about all the traffic mess that happened when everyone rushed to start their Christmas shopping.

Let me tell you, since the 2000s, Black Friday has been like the king of shopping days. Stores got really clever. They started giving special discounts and opened their doors super early. It's like a big shopping party!

But here's something interesting. While Black Friday was a big thing for stores in the USA, the rise of online shopping has made it famous all over the world. People from different countries started looking for Black Friday deals online more and more every year. That is, until the pandemic showed up. In November 2020, not as many people were searching for Black Friday on Google. It dropped more than 30% from 2019. And in 2021 and 2022, it went down even more.

So, what's happening in 2023? Early data says the trend is still going down. But does this mean people are less interested in Black Friday deals? Or maybe the deals are so common now that people don't need to search for them as much? Interestingly, even though fewer people are searching, they're actually spending more online during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, especially in the USA. Adobe Analytics says 2022 was a record-breaking year for online sales, and they think 2023 will be even bigger.

So, it looks like Black Friday still has its magic. People might not be searching for it as much, but they sure are ready to shop and grab those deals!

Building on our Black Friday story, let's not forget the wise approach to this shopping extravaganza. For buyers, it's crucial to be savvy and not get swept away in the online frenzy. Start by making a list of what you truly need versus what's just a passing fancy. Compare prices across different websites to ensure you're getting the best deal. Remember, it's not just about finding discounts but about making purchases that add real value to your life. Look out for early deals too, as many retailers start their sales in advance. And importantly, set a budget to avoid overspending. This way, you're not just partaking in the thrill of Black Friday but making smart, thoughtful choices that benefit you long after the excitement of the day has faded. Remember, the true magic of Black Friday lies in being a smart shopper, not just a shopper!

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by Irfan Ahmad via Digital Information World

The Unstoppable Surge of Cyber Week Online Shopping

Cyber Week 2023 is here, and guess what? It's set to break records. You might think the spread-out Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals lessen the impact. But no, shoppers are still keen. Adobe Analytics says Cyber Monday will lead with $12 billion in sales, a 6.1% increase from last year. Black Friday is close behind, eyeing a 5.7% rise to $9.6 billion. Even Thanksgiving Day sales are climbing up, expected to be 5.5% higher at $5.6 billion.

Now, the big picture – Cyber Week. It's not just a few days; it's a phenomenon. Adobe's betting on $37.2 billion in sales during these five days. That's a hefty 16.8% of the whole holiday season's online sales, projected to be $221.8 billion from November to December.

Here's the interesting part. Despite a shaky economy and rising interest rates, e-commerce is thriving. Patrick Brown from Adobe highlights this. The reason? It's the discounts, bigger than ever, and those flexible payment options.

But there's more. Deals are everywhere, all year. Does it make Cyber Week less special? Adobe doesn't think so. These days are landmarks, they say. The challenge for retailers is real, though. They need to make their deals count, offer true savings, not just cut prices from inflated ones. That's how they'll keep us hooked and preserve the essence of Cyber Week.

Black Friday and holiday shopping are famous for big discounts. But are these deals really the best? Recent research, especially from Which? in the UK, questions this. Adobe's data in the US shows some good discounts are coming, especially close to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Electronics, toys, and apparel are getting cheaper, with discounts expected to be 25-35% higher than last year. But the discounts' patterns vary by category.

A Wallethub study also found that many Amazon products are cheaper during Black Friday than the weeks before. But this doesn't answer if these are the best yearly deals. The UK study discovered that only a tiny portion of Black Friday deals were actually the lowest yearly prices. Retailers say they don't always offer the lowest prices on Black Friday, as better deals can happen at other times.

NPR notes that Black Friday makes finding deals easier, even if they're not the year's lowest. Shoppers can use online tools to check if they're getting a good deal. So, the big question remains: Are holiday discounts really the best of the year? The answer is mixed.

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by Irfan Ahmad via Digital Information World

Handful of Companies Hold Sway Over AI's Future Concerning Tech Experts

Top tech executives feel the time has arrived to speak in detail regarding the dominating role of a limited number of firms having too much power over AI development.

Seeing just a handful of companies having this degree of power is baffling and that’s why leading experts in the tech sector feel the time has come to speak on the concerning issue as popular technology starts to evolve with time.

There has been a massive interest in terms of AI since the end of last year and that’s all thanks to the unique manner in which the chatbot can make use of prompts from users to generate replies to any commands being thrown in their direction.

The popularity in this regard has led to the beginning of what so many individuals in the world of tech have deemed to be a massive arms race related to AI. Remember, tech giants like Microsoft as well as Google are trying to do everything to seek and launch their respective AI models. This would need a lot of computing power as they happen to be trained using large figures of data.

For the time being, tech executives feel there just are not enough companies that have the right materials required to produce these big models and allow them to function correctly. Moreover, there’s a stark need to realize that too much power is never good as the chances of it being abused are higher than ever.

There’s just so much concern about the limited number of corporations functioning at this moment in time. They are driven by the likes of profit and end up making some very bad decisions in the end.

As it is, we’ve seen many concerns arise in the past regarding Google and how it was really growing concerned about the potential of AI at the company and how it could be misused for the likes of drone warfare. The news arose when speculations about Google entering into a contract alongside the popular Defense Department arose.

Today, AI is being looked at as a leading technology that is solely restricted by those handling it and these big names have immense power in the corporate world and massive control too.

This is more or less built on resources that a few big tech giants possess which are mostly based in countries like China and the US. They’re doing well in terms of having a massive surveillance ad business model.

This is what provided them with massive computational infrastructure and the right to pull out data from big markets. They can even process the data in the best of ways to develop some great technologies in the view of concerned executives and they’re not wrong or alone in this.

One of the previous owners of the popular LA Dodgers team who happens to run the famous Project Liberty added how the goal is to develop more responsible techniques for developing such technology.

Many experts hold the popular opinion that today, there are just five companies that have all of this data with them and they’re so dominating. And while those were not named, it’s a little bit obvious as to what’s going on here.

Remember, the biggest language models of today have huge figures of data with them and if the right kind of changes are not made right now, it’s literally like you’re saying hello to the game over as there’s no chance of others entering the race.

The rest will all be designated as beneficiaries. Yes, many will come and create small things through these big tech platforms but the main issue has to do with controlling data. Moreover, there are a lot of people who hold a strong opinion about data being in the hands of the big shots who will always be called the winners at the end of the race.

Other executives feel society is being damaged by these big tech firms and AI won’t be making things any better.

Jimmy Wales who founded Wikipedia and Tim Berners who invented the web also were a part of the list of people having serious concerns about AI disrupting space with social media already being a concerning debate.

Image: DIW - AIgen

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Elon Musk's X Denies Promoting False Content Amidst Growing Criticism

Elon Musk’s X platform is being called out again for failing to play its vital role in following the right measures for brand safety.

The news came in the form of a report by NewsGuard which alleged that the app was engaged in strategic ad placement models where misinformed viral content featuring data about the Gaza conflict was being promoted.

As it is, Musk and his top line of executives at X have been slammed left and right for not doing enough to filter out controversial posts as well as those that are inaccurate. And to see it promoting such content with ads from top brands is shocking.

Last week, IBM slammed the company for using its ads to promote fake viral content of the same nature and now NewsGuard has found close to 200 ads similarly being displayed on misinformed posts.

The media outlet delineated how the period between Nov 13 to Nov 22 had analysts noting the shocking behavior where ads on viral tweets featuring false or misleading data were being promoted instead of teams working on their removal.

We’ve already seen leading names in the industry withdraw their ads on the app due to such behavior and that is what led the current CEO to take swift measures to try and curb the situation. Therefore, seeing the report from NewsGuard is not helping Musk’s company in any way, shape, or form, experts believe.

X has been quick to refute such claims. They deny the report that highlighted a whopping number of posts where ads from 86 different brands were getting promoted. This also included big names in the educational world and more of those having to do with the government too.

To be more specific, they’ve gone the extra mile to detail the complete lists in public so users can see for themselves if an ad was displayed in the post’s reply stream. Such ads may give creators the chance to claim an advertising revenue share from X after such content gets promoted.

This would only happen if more requirements regarding the creator ad revenue share program were met. But whatever the case may be, profiting off of false content is definitely a drastic measure.

Seeing posts of this nature be displayed to more than 92 million individuals is worrisome and while views increase for X, the cost at which it’s taking place cannot be sidelined.

There does seem to be one positive aspect related to X and its moderation ordeal. It was enlightening for the media outlet to see the company’s fact checker or Community notes call out fake posts. For those who might not be aware, X relies heavily on this for moderating content online.

But why X chose to promote such content and allow it to be eligible for monetization is baffling for obvious reasons. What they should have done instead is take it down immediately as that’s a part of their own content moderation policy. However, in this case, no rule was applied.

So many ads for some of the leading brands were seemingly found on X having Community Notes and some of them featured without it. Therefore, the flaws are plenty and they need to be addressed, experts feel and when you’re accused by a leading news outlet of failing to follow brand safety concerns and take the right measures, it’s alarming.

Having advertising partners drop out has already been worrisome and now this is worsening X’s image. So plans of winning back advertisers seem to be on hold for now.

Musk and his team have already threatened to file a lawsuit against Media Matters who began the whole facade of highlighting the company’s shocking ordeals. They felt the time had come to wake up and shake up X who called the act nothing but defaming as it lost top advertisers after that.

X has tried to cover up so many of its actions by placing such behavior under the banner of free speech. It’s like a repetitive tagline that Musk loves to use as that’s been his stance and belief since day one. Clearly, it’s no longer working.

Photo: Unsplash

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Google Bard Can Now Understand YouTube Videos And Generate Replies Based On Spoken Words

Google’s AI chatbot is getting a major revamp as the company announced how it’s giving it a great ability to generate responses depending on words spoken in any video on the YouTube app.

The fact that the company is taking such a major step toward expanding the popular extension to comprehend YouTube content is major. This will give many individuals a greater chance to generate more meaningful conversations with the chatbot regarding any topic being displayed.

For now, users were solely provided with the opportunity to an extension inside Bard for their personalized Gmail accounts. But it seems to be getting this new upgrade soon so that anyone requesting for videos through the chatbot can ask Bard to give more information about anything being displayed. So for instance you don’t understand something or are keen on knowing what else is trending regarding something being shown, all of the queries can be thrown in the innovative AI chatbot’s direction.

Let’s say you see a cooking video and you want the chatbot to provide recipes for cakes using olive oil, this may be followed up with another more specific query that happened to pop up in your mind.

You might wish to inquire more about the quantity of eggs needed to make this one being displayed. The world is your playground and there’s no limit at all to what can and can not be asked.

In another case, you can ask the Google-owned chatbot about history videos of any topic and further ask it to summarize it in few key points, such as mentioned in these screenshots:

The fact that users are given the chance to be very specific is definitely news as they’re no longer restricted in terms of doing things on their own when viewing such content. Bard is their new companion with this innovative extension.

The news managed to generate plenty of hype on the X platform and it makes sense as to why that’s happening. People are getting the chance to generate prompts there and then receive a reply immediately for videos.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Meta Drops Exciting New Tools To Support Public Interest Research

Tech giant Meta seems to be on the move to help promote public research on a large scale.

The company just made news after it revealed how the launch of several innovative offerings will provide eligible researchers the chance to attain data through apps on social media platforms including both Facebook as well as Instagram.

The whole idea is to support research on a large scale, the company added. These are dubbed Meta Content Library and its fellow API counterpart which used to be up for grabs for all types of beta tests in the past.

Now, the rollouts are designed to share all types of information in real-time regarding content generated by the user such as metrics. That means users can see the figure for views on any Reel launched through the Instagram app or the number of posts designed through the Facebook page.

Moreover, other aspects worth mentioning include Meta’s Content Library which can be found on the internet via a neatly controlled ‘clean room’ which prevents data export. Meanwhile, all of the reviews and analyses carried out would be done in real-time through Meta’s respective apps using API technology featuring different search capabilities.

Meanwhile, the firm’s respective search tools to find data can only be availed by those who are eligible and professional in their work and it would be required for them to achieve approval beforehand to use the tools.

Meta also spoke about how different researchers and respective groups that wish to gain access to Meta’s library and tools must fill out applications and detail some explanations regarding the purpose of the project they’re embarking on and the names of all those professionals involved.

Meanwhile, the final approval would all depend on independent reviews attained through the ICPSR. After that is achieved and researchers get the API access, there would be no additional costs to get the final access to the tool and Content Library.

Such innovations are clearly giving rise to a new means for attaining information and we could claim how similar they are to Meta’s offerings in the past so that researchers can better understand how well content is being circulated through the app.

The reason to be skeptical about Meta’s offerings might be plenty as we’ve seen Meta launch something similar in design for research purposes in the form of an app and API tool that didn’t get the best of reviews.

Furthermore, the company’s Open Research group which designed it also got criticism for it during the rollout in 2021. This had to do with allegations of it not rolling out complete or correct information for those wanting to carry out research.

That very similar group featured researchers from the Cybersecurity Division of NYU had access revoked through the organization itself.

But these new tools do look promising and they are not designed to prevent the years of backlash from the general public that we’ve seen take place over misinformation regulation and the arrival of harmful content.

As it is, the last thing Meta needs is more criticism over how it’s regulating information that’s inaccurate on its apps. The company has been in the limelight for not doing enough to battle misinformation ever since the conflict in Gaza arose. This includes what steps it plans on implementing to stop the spread of misinformation concerning the upcoming US elections.

And the biggest concern right now is the huge lawsuit that was launched by 41 American states regarding how its apps are designed to harm youngsters. Therefore, rolling out an API that is surrounded by serious gatekeeping isn’t quite the type of theme that would make regulators happy.

Photo: DIW

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World