30th August 2015
1) Like this. The great quiz app QuizUp is looking to get into the business gamification market ‘The program allows corporations to take the fun and competitive nature of QuizUpand combine it with helping employees learn about company programs, products and policies’.
2) How Google could rig the 2016 US Election. ‘Google’s search algorithm can easily shift the voting preferences of undecided voters by 20 percent or more-up to 80 percent in some demographic groups – with virtually no one knowing they are being manipulated.’
3) Why We Love Disaster News (short video) – ‘ We evoke the thought of death to evoke what life should really be about.’ From The School Of Life and via the medium of Lego.
4) Could Apple’s iOS9 spotlight search be the nail in the coffin for mobile paid search and display? ‘Apple (has) made it very clear that its proactive assistant takes a more conservative approach to personal data. By contrast with Google, the company will not send this information into the cloud for analysis, preferring instead to keep it securely on the device’.
5) Alain de Botton on Why We Travel . The most fulfilling places to visit are those that connect us with what we are really searching for.
6) From The New Yorker – Is Amazon Creating a Cultural Monopoly? ‘A group of writers has put forth what antitrust experts describe as a highly unorthodox argument: that, even though Amazon’s activities tend to reduce book prices, which is considered good for consumers, they ultimately hurt consumers.’
7) Interesting take on the changing pressure on Brands to remain pertinent and relevant. From @econsultancy: ‘When services become ‘living’ how will brands survive? – ‘Living services’ will be able to seamlessly learn and evolve, ever-changing to suit the needs of users, almost as if they are actually reality-based observers.’
8) If you’ve not managed to get a ticket, here is a Vine tour of Banksy’s Dismaland.
9) Haunting and ethereal. The Windows 95 start-up sound slowed down by 4000% – published to mark the occasion of its 20th birthday. Happy birthday, Windows 95.
10) Not a spot I’d choose…. a Drone rudely interrupts a man sunbathing on a 200-foot-tall wind turbine.