Google Maps Will Warn Users About Fake Reviews When They Search For A Business

Google Maps is on a mission to alert users whenever they come across fake reviews for any business.

The Tech giant issued a statement on this front including how it does realize how frustrating it can be to go to a venue and return disappointed. After all, many people do put so much blind trust in reviews.

Today, many users turn to Google Maps and check consumer reviews. Anyone highly praising a place is bound to be doing so to earn it more business. And if that means deceiving the masses, then so be it.

Hence, to put an end to this practice, the company is taking the step to highlight fake ones. Google is rolling out warnings for any business that might apply to this. After all, seeing a fake review is heartbreaking for obvious reasons.

Meanwhile, the Android maker is under fire as it is with the UK’s CMA who recently rolled out an investigation into how the company was handling fake reviews. There was a user of the X app who saw the change first on the X app which involved a UK-based firm.

For now, the tech giant is yet to comment on the subject in terms of where this feature would be available. But as per recent reports from media outlet Search Engine Roundtable, it’s updating the relevant support pages. This would be applied everywhere around the globe.

Google says it also will rollout possible limitations on businesses that violate the Fake Engagement law. One point worth mentioning is how business profiles will now feature warnings to alert customers to be aware that fake reviews about the company have been removed.

Other restrictions temporarily will entail not getting new ratings or having any kind of reviews. Similarly, they won’t be having any existing ones unpublished. If such actions do occur, business owners will get emails from Google and therefore will be allowed to appeal such decisions.

Remember, fake reviews might arise from a company that is only trying to get better ratings. But they do come at the cost of the customer who just wanted to have a nice time but ended up wasting money and effort on fake reviews.

On the other hand, Google says that any business reporting fake reviews may not get the same warning as others because they added more effort.

Image: Mike Blumenthal / X

Read next: Analysis Shows No Specific Type of Google Ads Bidding Strategy is Best and It All Depends on Your Performance
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Analysis Shows No Specific Type of Google Ads Bidding Strategy is Best and It All Depends on Your Performance

A new Analysis by Optmyzr shows that there is no perfect way for Google bidding and most of its strategies rely on accurate conversion data, thoughtful execution and continuous testing. If someone wants to maximize their advertising performance on Google, it is important that they choose the right bidding strategies. But there are too many choices available that make the bidders confused and make it hard for them to choose one.

In the study, there were some questions analyzed. The first question was what type of bidding among smart, auto or manual was the best. It was found that there was no strategy that was better than the other. A success bidding strategy depends on its execution. Another question was if bidding strategies help improve campaign strategies. It all comes down to the conversion rates on your account.

If your account has reached 50 conversions in 30 days, your bidding can be effective no matter what the type you have chosen. Accounts that have more conversions perform better even if they use manual bidding. It is also important that you do budget adjustment as budget adjustments in Smart bidding require 2-3 weeks for the performance to stabilize.

It was also found that advertisers who use manual CPC have weaker CPA, conversion rates and CTR. If advertisers choose bidding strategy targets, it can hurt their performance and bids. All of these analyses were done after reviewing Google ads bidding strategies of 14,584 accounts that spent $2500 to $5 million per month.

Read next: Survey Shows What Creators Think of Using GenAI in Content Creation and If They Are Satisfied With It or Not
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

PayPal Allows US Merchants To Purchase, Hold, And Sell Crypto Through Business Accounts

Financial giant PayPal says it’s giving US merchants the chance to purchase, hold, and even go on selling crypto directly through the platform’s business accounts.

The firm also sheds light on how it allows business account holders to send and receive any related tokens from the crypto world to blockchain accounts. The news was announced through a post published via a press release on Wednesday.

The capabilities of these business accounts are in line with the 2020 announcement regarding consumers buying and selling currency via Venmo and PayPal accounts. So many business owners have expressed a desire for similar crypto to be available to the masses.

For now, the company says it’s so excited and eager to meet demands by rolling out such an offering. This empowers many to engage with digital currencies effortlessly. In 2020, we saw the company jump into the crypto business by enabling clients to hold and sell crypto as it hoped to better share how digital currencies play.

The shift towards digital currencies is unavoidable as it brings about clear advantages of financial inclusion and more access. Similarly, it can improve the speed and resilience of such payment systems. Last but not least, it could enable governments to disburse those funds to customers at a quick pace.

The company hopes to create a strong relationship with both banks as well as regulators all over the globe. The goal is to support more digital currencies as this can play an important role in the future of finance and commerce.

Remember, PayPal first rolled out the popular dollar stablecoin dubbed PayPal USD in August. It mentioned how the coin enables clients to fund purchases through this means by selecting the option for checkouts. Similarly, it would convert any of these currencies to PayPal USD when required.

In May, the organization explained how PayPal USD is present on Solana Blockchain. This was said to be the most used currency for transfers that offer PayPal USD and make stablecoin quicker and lower in cost. This would enable it to become quicker and lower in cost, giving rise to greater control as well as flexibility.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: Survey Shows What Creators Think of Using GenAI in Content Creation and If They Are Satisfied With It or Not
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Survey Shows What Creators Think of Using GenAI in Content Creation and If They Are Satisfied With It or Not

Generative AI has consumed every area of life ever since its release. It has also started redefining content creation and creativity. YouTube published a study to shed some light on how the global creator economy is using GenAI. The study can help content creators know how the trends of content creation are changing and how they can use GenAI and tech in their creative jobs to earn maximum.

The top thing most content creators are still not aware of is that GenAI has already become a part of their lives. This means that GenAI isn't coming, it's already here and has imposed itself on content creation. The survey by Radius found that 92% of the content creators are already using GenAI tools for content creation. It was also found that 74% of the respondents are aware of generative AI tools and know how to use them.

29% of the content creators say that they use generative AI tools to save their time. As trends are always changing and content creators need to evolve with trends and technology, GenAI can help simplify their tasks. A content creator said that it used to take them an hour to create a rough cut of a video. But now due to GenAI, this task takes no more than ten minutes.

89% of the respondents who were surveyed also believe that GenAI can help them with special effects production design and cinematography. 26% of creators say that the one of the top three reasons why they use GenAI tools is to create quality content. 87% of the content creators also believe that GenAI can help export their content to other countries around the world. They can build their global fanbase by using GenAI to translate, put captions and dubb their content.

Despite all of this, some content creators are confused about correct and ethical use of generative AI. 74% of content creators say that they want guidelines about posting GenAI content on social media and other video platforms. They are worried that it can be misused. But there is still optimistic approval about using GenAI and hopefully many content creators will use it in the best ways possible.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: Millions Suspended! X’s First Report Under Musk Unveils Startling Changes and Policies!
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Millions Suspended! X’s First Report Under Musk Unveils Startling Changes and Policies!

X has shared its first ever transparency report ever since Elon Musk took over the platform in October (2022). It is a 15-page Global Transparency Report which covers the first six months of 2024. The report showed that there were 224 million users reported and the platform suspended 5 million users. A total of 5 million posts were taken down between January and June 2024. In the past, X used to share its transparency report twice in a year. This practice started in 2012 and continued until X was handed over to its new owner.

When Elon Musk took over X, he ceased the transparency reports of the platform saying that it is like the government bullying social media by looking at its internal data through transparency reports. But now X has changed its policies. The report by X says that the policies of X are based on human rights and freedom of speech. X also says that they have a slogan which states “Freedom of Speech, not Freedom of Reach", which means that they can restrict the reach of their posts and make the content less discoverable instead of removing it.

This transparency report by X is far shorter than previous reports by X. It briefly mentions user reporting and company action, company policies and other policies regarding child safety, harrassment, suicide and self-harm. X didn’t explain rehabilitation policies and it seems like X is more focused on suspending accounts, instead of banning them.

The platform says that it has also restricted 2 million accounts with child abuse media with 370,588 reports. In 2022, X also updated its reinforcement guidelines to suspend users who also engaged in CSAM content with liking, replying, sharing and bookmarking the content.

The report also shared limited data on government data requests and removals. In its 2021 report, X said that it has fielded 11,460 requests for information for 67 countries with 40.2% of them. In 2024, X reported 72,000 requests for content removal and 18,000 requests for information. At the end of the report, it was said that X is rebuilding itself and its generative AI offerings pre-election. The report shows how Elon Musk is redefining the transparency report of the platform.

Read next:

• New Survey Shows Which Countries Are Most and Least Excited About Artificial Intelligence

• Survey Shows 55% People Are Using Generative AI Instead of Traditional Search Engines for their Queries

by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Survey Shows 55% People Are Using Generative AI Instead of Traditional Search Engines for their Queries

According to a survey by The Information, 77% of the respondents out of 1088 said that they are not using traditional search engines like Google for their queries, they are generative AI apps instead. This made Barry Schwartz run a poll on X to find out how many people are using generative AI tools for searching instead of traditional search engines. The results of the poll on X showed that 55% of the respondents are using generative AI or ChatGPT for their queries instead of Google.

it's happening

77% of 1,088 subscribers surveyed by @theinformation said they are using ChatGPT / conversational AI instead of Google for some queries.https://t.co/DEBOzFDJGI pic.twitter.com/a86kQcfc85

— Amir Efrati (@amir) September 19, 2024

The poll on X received 917 votes, out of which 55% votes were inclined using ChatGPT or generative AI tools for their queries. The reason why this percentage is less than the percentage from the survey by The Information is because most of Barry Schwartz’s followers on X are SEO and search marketers. So, they must use Google and traditional search engines a lot instead of generative AI.

The 77% result by The Information can also be because of their audience which is extremely niche and they could be using AI search engines for different purposes like coding or questions that Google do not care about much.

Read next: Google has Completely Disabled Cache Feature, Users Won’t be Able to Access it in Search Results
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Visa Slapped With Mega Antitrust Lawsuit For Illegal Monopoly Over Debit Network Markets

Financial services giant Visa has again entered the spotlight after receiving an antitrust lawsuit from the Department of Justice.

The company was accused of unlawful monopoly behavior that was designed to crush competition in the debit network market. This includes attempts to hinder archrivals from flourishing such as PayPal and Square.

The case comes after several years of long investigations after bombshell disclosures were made in 2021.

A new statement was rolled out on this front by the DOJ who has the company tried long and hard to amass a huge amount of power to get money from clients that was more than necessary in a competitive market.

Hence, it’s not just the company that raised pricing but also forced merchants and banks to do the same while compromising on quality. It’s certainly a big deal because the company makes billions every year in the form of payment processing fees. And this does not include the array of other services rendered.

On average, the fees for processing payments go up to $7B and 60% of these debit transactions in America alone run on the firm’s network. Hence, the dominance taking place must be stopped to enable other competitors to flourish.

A lot of the reasons outlined for Visa’s behavior include an array of exclusion agreements that are put on banks and companies. Similarly, it has made attempts to remove competition, including those working on smaller scales and those who are startups in the fintech sector.

So many of the company’s executives feel threatened by iPhone maker Apple which it claimed is their biggest competition and threat in the market.

More details revealed how the company entered into paid agreements with competitors as a part of its efforts to hinder competition from newbies in the payment industry. As a result of these actions, it has become a monopoly.

This is why regulators have had eyes on the company for quite some time now. As per the DOJ, another similar legal case was generated in 2020 that prevented its acquisition of fintech company Plaid. The complaint argued that such behavior would wipe out a leading challenger of Visa that could hinder its monopoly practices.

As a result, both Visa and Plaid opted to scrap the plans for attempts to merge together, thanks to this lawsuit.

Image: CardMapr.nl/Unsplaash

Read next: Meta Will Not Sign EU’s AI Pact For Sharing Detailed Summaries Of Data Used To Train AI
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World