Ad Blockers : Google search result ads, Netflix, Native Ads, FCC privacy rules and more

We're following the advertising industry with great interest. Of course you've followed our advertising and marketing updates for years, and we carefully tried to warn the online ad world of the evils of spam for nearly three decades. Alas, the unquenchable quest for money has corrupted the entire online advertising world to the point of criminal activities and now there is a growing backlash from the public. It's a huge travesty that this second generation of internet users actually does not know what a spam-free internet is like. We're following the anti-spam world of ad-blocking for you :

  • Ad Blocking Declined In Germany; Advertisers Are Concerned With Snapchat Video Averages
  • Here's one sign that ad blocking's meteoric growth could start to slow down
  • Goodbye social media, analytics and ad trackers with Firefox Focus for iOS
  • Why building relevant ads in a cookie-free world comes down to context
  • Adblock Plus wins its 6th court case, brought by Der Spiege
  • Netflix promotes ‘Black Mirror’ by targeting ad blockers
  • Adblock Plus Calls Meetup To Form An Independent Board
  • A Glimmer of Hope in the Ad Blocking Battle
  • Ad-Blockers: Let’s Call Them What They Are!
  • The Natives Are Restless
December 20, 2016

60-Seconds : Click Bait, Fake News and you

After I got flamed on Facebook for citing marketing and social media trends, went back and dug out the research on click bait and fake news I've been doing for UGNN. Here's the latest update, and industry buzz on the topic December 11, 2016

60-Seconds #338 : Getting flamed on Facebook isn't always bad

FLAMED : I was flamed in a comment on a friend's Facebook the other day because I quoted publishing community sentiment about Trump, fake news, click bait and the amount of free air time Trump leveraged from social media. People just don't believe that each time Obama or Clinton mentioned Trump, it was a positive marketing point in favor of Trump. If you mention that "Obama and Clinton actually aided in the Trump victory by concentrating on him and NOT Hillary," be careful, you'll probably get flamed like I did. December 11, 2016

60-Seconds #337 : Sirius Radio set a Spam Trap and caught me!

Like anyone, I hate to be had. This is one for the record books, and probably becoming fairly widespread -- but I don't call in very often, so this was new to me. Sirius wouldn't let me follow online instructions and made me call for help. What happened next really fried me! December 1, 2016

Creative Tidbits #215: Free Fonts, Free Icons, Plagiarism detective and more

Fred Showker's Creative tidbits

Let's have some fun this week -- it's October and time for Halloween! Aside from our Halloween stuff, we have some interesting intelligence that could get some thoughts going, and a quick peek at a new iPhone photo feature or bug! Happy autumn!

  • Why the iPhone 7 Has to Simulate a Shallow Depth of Field
  • A designer’s tales: Role of graphic design in society
  • iPhone Stand For Business, Trade-Shows And Events
  • Searching for Plagiarism Checkers
October 7, 2016

60-Seconds #336 : You Are Annoying Your Customers? Do you know why?

Gavin Jocious has written an article that really struck a note with me. I remember back in 2004, O'Reilly Media came out with a series of books about things that annoy people about technology. They invited people to send in their annoyances for the next book. They had so many coming in they published a whole series of books. But in Gavin's article "You Are Annoying Your Customers... " he asks "Do you know why? August 10, 2016

Visual Opportunity? Night Lamp Splashes Delightful Images Across Kids' Rooms

I don't very often pick up on products like this -- but when it do, it's a lot of fun to project the creative idea potential! This one's got creativity written all over it -- aside from a nightlight, it's your own drive-in theater! July 28, 2016

Outland Space Footage App Released for iOS and Apple TV

What's better than serene visual inspiration? That's what I call images and video from space. If you love such imagery, and find it a source of inspiration, then you need to check out "Outland - Space Journey 1.0, a new entertainment app developed exclusively for iOS and Apple TV. July 27, 2016

60 Seconds 334: Why use Spotify?

Kirk McElhearn writes about Macs, iPods, iTunes, books, music and more, as a Senior Contributor to Macworld. He is also a regular contributor to TidBITS, as well as several other web sites and magazines. He is co-host of The Next Track and The Committed podcast; and has written more than twenty books, including Take Control books about iTunes. While reading a recent post about streaming music I was compelled to respond. Kirk wrote : June 28, 2016

60 Seconds 333: Google searches fail. Is it time for a new search engine?

The world has become married to Google. Everyone uses Google Search on a daily basis. Web sites everywhere live and die by Google's hand. I'm wondering -- if I had the kind of money Google has, and I was designing a search engine, wouldn't I make the actual target of the search query turn up on the FIRST PAGE? I certainly would. Any good designer would -- at least you think they would. If you go to a restaurant and order the $35 Steak, wouldn't you expect to get steak? Google seems to disagree May 31, 2016