Google is shutting down Google Surveys as of November 1st

After ten years of continuous service, Google has finally announced that the Google survey will be discontinued on November 1st, 2022.

According to the company, both Google Surveys and Survey 360 will be shut down, and users will have time till December to save their data. The decision did not come out of the blue; instead, survey users have been receiving emails and notifications from the service provider about the plan for this feature. The email being shared by the company states that users still have 2 months. Any impending survey won’t be processed until after November 1st. However, they will have an additional one-month time period to download the data from their surveys so it can be stored before Google Survey shuts down completely.

A link has also been added in the email which will lead the users to the question and answer forum related to surveys. One of the most frequently asked questions is why this step is being taken by the company. While answering this question, Google responded that the company has other plans for the surveys and that the service was meant to help businesses of every level grow based on user reviews. However, the company believes that the service being provided by the surveys is not up to expectations and is planning to look for alternative methods that can give a much better insight into such businesses and help them grow through advertising products and data from market research.

Because the company does not refer to an alternative service, several other companies provide the same service as Surveys.

These alternatives may include Formsort, which offers both premium and basic features Another is Tally, which offers almost 99% of its services without any payment, and if a user still wants to avail of other customizable features, they’ll be required to pay a monthly subscription fee.

Wordforms, Typeform, and 123 Form Builder also work in the same way as the above-mentioned ones, which means they also allow both free and paid services, whereas Appinio is a high-end service provider which works for certain groups only and does not offer any free services to their users.

One misconception which seems to be taking place is that the shutting down of Google Surveys means that Forms won’t be available as well. However, the company has already made it clear that both of these services are different, and Google Forms will keep working.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

One cyber attack can cause a $100,000 loss to over 40% of businesses

Cyber attacks are becoming more frequent at an alarming rate. These attacks not only cause financial problems for the attacked businesses, but they can also jeopardize their working relationships with clients and investors due to their failure to provide data security.

According to the survey conducted by US Cybersecurity firm Keeper, over 24% of businesses had to face a $50,000–$99,999 loss after being hit by a full-fledged cyber attack. These figures were followed by 22% of businesses that lost somewhere between a hundred thousand dollars and five hundred thousand dollars.

Most small-scale businesses don’t have a high-end cybersecurity system, making them more susceptible to such attacks. Though the attackers may not make much money from these businesses, the survey results show that 14% of the companies lost nearly $5,000, another 8% lost nearly $10,000, and another 16% lost somewhere around $50,000.

It is understandable that if a company has millions in its online account, it’d be keeping it secure with a strong anti-cyber attack system. This is why only 4% of the businesses had to go through a million-dollar loss.

Furthermore, it is also observed that businesses operating in the United States come across over 40 to 42 cyberattacks per year. While most of them are countered, the 2 or 3 attacks that get their hands on the data cause most of the problems.

As discussed above, a cyber attack not only causes an economic crisis but is capable of causing far greater damage. These damages may include a spoiled image of the attacked company for failing to protect its data. Their clients and customers will eventually start to lose trust in them and may even end up losing their investors or partners.

Over 28% of the firms that went through a cyber attack also faced a compromised image problem, while nearly 23% of them started to face difficulties in their trading operations.

To dodge the consequences faced after a cyberattack, many companies have now started to not disclose any such attacks and try to solve the matter on their own without involving any third party in this matter.

The survey results were based on 516 IT companies, and the report was released globally on September 15th.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Google Disables Access To Its Translate App In Certain Areas Of China

Internet users in China are complaining of disabled access to Google Translate. And that is causing them to be redirected to the app’s domain situated in Hong Kong. While it might not seem like a huge problem to many, well, this isn’t accessible via the mainland and that’s a major concern.

Users of Reddit claim Google tried to swap out its Translate interface at translate.google.cn using a generic search page on Google at a certain point in the past 24 hours.

This particular change is really causing an uproar as the main translation features are getting affected such as KOReader. This is the name given to the document viewer that’s based on users in China. Similarly, it’s designed to facilitate Google Chrome’s translation feature that’s built into the app.

At the moment, Google is yet to respond to any request for comments.

We know that Google hasn’t had the best relationship with China’s government. In the year 2006, we saw the firm enter the market in China with a new version of its Search Engine. This was reportedly subject to great censorship rules by the government.

However, after a few state-sponsored tricks up their sleeve and some government-ordered blocks on a series of services, Google was really seen shutting down its Search in main areas of China. This was followed by a rerouting of searches via Hong Kong’s uncensored domain.

Google also was seen exploring the relaunch of its Search in China in the years 2018 and 2019. This was a part of its new project called Dragonfly. This would have censored out results and also be able to record locations of so many users with a complete history of internet browsing. Thankfully, such plans were removed after a few clashes that came about due to the search engine giant’s privacy team, as mentioned in a report by The Intercept.

Meanwhile, in the year 2020, we saw a new law regarding national security come forward in Hong Kong. This gave way to locals who would be seen expanding their surveillance powers. For now, Google says it’s not keen on sending out a response to any form of data request related to Hong Kong’s law and its enforcement.

They would much rather go forward with a legal obligation treat with America on the matter.

For them, this is no longer a technical issue. Google Translate gets disabled in most parts of the mainland and needs to be related to the new National Congress of the country’s Communist Part. This will occur on the 16 of this month.

In case you didn’t know, China’s government has blocked out services by Google surrounding some huge political events. And then there’s an issue related to sensitive anniversaries such as the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

China has also been accused of silencing its own citizens from speaking about the government so as you can see, it’s a sensitive matter altogether.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

77% of Companies Plan Tech Budget Increases Despite Economic Turmoil

There have been a series of economic and geopolitical disruptions that have created obstacle after obstacle for numerous industries, and the tech industry is no different. This type of climate creates a lot of unpredictable scenarios, and if companies are not certain about the way the future is going to look they would be hesitant to commit their budgets to any type of advancement or progress with all things having been considered and taken into account.

In spite of the fact that this is the case, a new report from Bain revealed that around 77% of companies still plan on increasing their tech budgets for 2023 when compared to budgets for 2022. This is a decrease from last year’s 90% that said the same, but with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that the vast majority are still planning on investing even more than they have in the past due to the importance of tech related innovation.

Venture capital investments over the past few years seem to confirm that the tech train is not showing any signs of stopping. Around 75% of venture capital dollars have gone towards enterprise software and IT infrastructure. It makes sense that the focus would shift to the commercial sector now that IT has so thoroughly dominated the consumer sector, and it will be interesting to see if the current global climate has implications in the future that have not played out as of right now.

Additionally, AI seems to be a hot topic for investors. Around 86% of tech professionals and experts who responded to this survey said that AI is becoming standard in terms of acquiring customers and sustaining growth. That means that companies currently can’t afford not to invest in AI, so we will likely see a continued increase in investment in this sector for the foreseeable future.

Despite that, only 20% of companies actually have the infrastructure to properly utilize AI. That might create some roadblocks down the road and it suggests that current investment inflows are purely speculative rather than utilitarian.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Android now has a record-breaking 57% of hypercasual game ad spending

People have shifted their interest in downloading hypercasual games that are more likely to be addictive and fun to play. The new game genre has rapidly grown over the years and hit a very high bar among other games. According to the reports, it reached the third position compared to the other 100 games globally in 2021.

Hypercasual games are more of a big deal in the western market, with more than 49% of downloads in the US, 41% in the UK, and 9% in Korea. These games are similar to traditional arcade games. The developers and publishers are creating more games just like hypercasual to relieve the stress of its people from everyday work.

Developers are also spending a vast amount of money on game advertisements to get more revenues and expand the business. Advertising platform Tenjin has released a new report claiming that Android accounted for an unprecedented 57% share of hypercasual advertising expenditure.

Furthermore, hypercasual titles spending has increased rapidly. According to the recent report by Hypercasual Benchmark for Q3 2022, Android improved its share of ad spending by 7% points compared to Q1. Whereas hypercasual titles spending was 43% by iOS.

IOS is always one step ahead of Android, as its Median cost-per-install (CPI) is higher than Android, which is at a $0.10 difference. However, this indicates that Android is becoming more competitive, as it went down from an average of $0.15 over the previous four years.

In addition, Tenjin examined the hypercasual game's regional ad spending breakdown in Brazil, Japan, and the United States. With median CPIs of $0.56, $0.44, and $0.06, these three nations appear at the top of the list for Android in Q3 2022. Brazil is one of the best platforms for Android developers and marketers, owing to its record low CPI.

Additionally, Brazil’s low CPI benefits iOS developers and has provided more opportunities, as its median CPI is $0.41. Whereas other countries also make it to a top opportunity such as the US, Japan, and UK CPIs are ($0.71), ($0.66), and ($0.39) are considered the top three countries which have spent in Q3 2022 for hypercasual games.

Integral had the lowest CPI for Android at just $0.08, according to a comparison of the top 10 ad networks by ad spend, while Meta had the highest CPI at $0.30. Unity Ads had the lowest CPI on iOS, with $0.15, followed by Integral, with $0.19. On iOS, Apple Search Ads cost the most ($0.62).

Roman Garbar, Marketing Director at Tenjin, has said that on a macro-level they have decided to increase ad spending and CPIs on Android. The recent control of Android and dethroning of iOS indicates that it could target the devices to target a larger audience and gain maximum impact. Although the retention rate of iOS is still higher than Android.

Developers have conducted a few tests and concluded that iOS has higher day one and day seven retention rates than Android. The top 2% of games: iOS and Android retention on day 1 was 51% and 42%, respectively, while iOS retention was 22% and 16% on day 7.

Hypercasual titles should have a low rate of retention at around one day. To add more in-depth gaming content, developers are putting in a lot of effort to encourage players to play for longer periods.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Global uncertainty has increased amid Covid – mounting innovation

Adobe reported that more than a third of businesses have invested in new technologies to keep up with the growing rhythm of uncertainty. Amid Covid-19, there has been turbulence in workplaces, which has altogether killed the productivity among employees.

Global uncertainty has risen because of the occurrence of unexpected news or events both globally and at work. It has thwarted employees’ productivity from getting things done on time.

A new report issued by Adobe’s Future of Time 2022 claimed that at a workplace, half of the employees are busy discussing news coverage and spend three hours a day. Seventy percent of respondents stated that this is more time than they had spent a year ago. The vast majority assert that this has a direct impact on their productivity.

In addition, the Adobe report has shown how much the global pandemic and conflict have kept everyone on their toes. Their well-being and productivity at work have greatly suffered because of the consistent change. According to the survey plaintiff, today, change has become the new constant.

The endless modifications worried industries all around the globe about not growing and having success amid growing uncertainty. 64% of SMBs are deeply concerned about their future businesses. The rationale is the markets have seen economic and inflation instability as the most crucial cause of mounting uncertainty. 70% of all audiences agree that change is constant in workplaces.

Despite this fact, 70% also reported spending additional hours discussing news and events during the workday. The indulgence destroys their productivity and affects the overall job. 80% of respondent agrees with this survey. While in times of uncertainty, nearly three out of five people find work to be a welcome interference, and they have turned to their workstations for sustenance.

Workstations in which employees call for assistance from their employers are trying to cope with the problem in two ways; the well-being of services and technology. According to the reports, to make it easier and bearable enough, 70% of employers and managers say digital resolutions are creating ease and helping to improve the workplace environment. Supporting managers from time to time enables employees to leave feedback to facilitate the relationship between leader and employee.

In addition, it has come under the inspection that employers who invest in digital solutions such as productivity and collaboration tools are more prone to get creative with their ideas and maintain a balance between work and personal life. 7 in 10 managers have said that to reduce stress, they highly rely on these tools to stay productive and alleviate the stress of completing work when a coworker must take an unexpected leave of absence.

The changes have occurred over the year, and it keeps adapting on a higher scale. SMB leaders are taking more advanced steps to improve healthy relationships within workplaces to keep the momentum in place. Uncertainty is indeed fueling business in new and creative ways.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Private Text Message Exchange Between Jack Dorsey And Elon Musk Reveal Shocking Findings

A new set of revelations are being put forward to the public. And this time around, it involves Twitter’s former CEO Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk.

Dorsey was seen reaching out to Musk, exactly one year before the Twitter takeover deal began. And that’s where he told the world’s richest person how he had full trust in him and wished he make some financial investments in the firm.

Screenshot Via: The Chancery Daily
Dorsey who also happens to be the company’s co-founder started off the chat first on March 26 and this was a part of a recent text log that had been filed as a component of Twitter’s case against Elon Musk.

The text spoke about how strongly Dorsey believed that a new app was required and that’s one of the reasons why he left because this current situation wasn’t for any company.

To that, the billionaire was quick to respond and he inquired about what Dorsey felt was lacking or what the firm should appear like. To that, Dorsey says that it needed to be a much more open-sourced protocol. It’s quite similar to the way Signal has behaved. Similarly, Dorsey revealed how Twitter was not the type to benefit from any advertising model. This is the famous model for firms on social media.

Musk was very polite and added that he would be more than willing to help if he could. And Dorsey adds that he worked hard in convincing Twitter’s board to include Musk but they were hesitant. He continued about how the board at Twitter witnessed the billionaire as a huge risk and Dorsey felt that was wrong and in fact, a very backward thought.

On that note, Dorsey felt his time was up and it was time to leave, even though the decision didn’t come easy. During this time period, famous time activist Elliott Management paved the way to become involved in the platform, asking for a series of changes that he felt would assist the firm reach new heights of growth and success.

More details on the high-profile text exchanges are yet to be seen and even messages sent out at a later date weren’t mentioned. Then, more details went on to state how Musk requested Dorsey that he’d like to meet him privately and hence wanted a one-on-one meeting.

Just a few hours after that, the duo spoke to one another and made reference to a call. Dorsey was really happy and couldn’t believe Elon Musk was actually going to go through with it. It was a dream come true and something Dorsey wanted for a while. Hence, this is why the former Twitter CEO got emotional when he figured out it was all possible at last.

Musk always felt he needed encouragement and reassurance from Dorsey and asked if his decision was dumb or not. Later, Musk points to the former CEO how he intends on going private with the platform so that it could be fixed.

He adds that although it’s quite an impossible task as so many fake users are seen on the app and it makes things look terrible, he needed to make it private so that a proper restructuring was possible. And Jack did agree to that.

Jack Dorsey knew that such major changes done to any public firm wouldn’t be possible and so the best way forward was privatization.

Seeing these conversations pop up during the filing of the case in the court of law is very interesting. Hence, experts are waiting to see what role they can play in the final pending decision as the trial begins in October.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World