The new era of internet browsing is all on mobile, and Google is quite nervous about platforms like Facebook search because of it. The most popular apps in the world have a serious advantage when it comes to accessing the web from smartphones, and Google and Facebook are head to head.
Google and Facebook Are Internet Monarchs
Google and Facebook own the eight most popular apps in the United States. In fact, 20% of time spent on Facebook is on mobile, and that’s a figure that Google cannot beat right now. Facebook is even ganging up on Google territory by introducing an improved search tool in the Facebook app. It’s also bringing updates to the Messenger search tool, which has gathered 700 million users worldwide.
Google is Fighting Back With New Messenger Platform
Google has been reported to fight back with a new messaging app, which features a search engine powered by the chats themselves. It is very clearly a direct response to Facebook’s efforts, but it won’t likely be able to surpass the social media giant.
Facebook Search Could Become the Most Popular Engine
Facebook search is a great threat to Google as a search engine, and Google is hoping to retaliate with its new messaging platform. However, Google has another remarkable disadvantage: despite having services like Google Plus, it is not a popular networking platform. Unlike messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Messenger, WeChat, Line and KakaoTalk, Google has little to go on for this new messenger app. If Google doesn’t build solid ground, the new platform won’t be able to account for the losses that Facebook could bring.
Google Can Also Fight Back With New Google AI
Google can, however, step up their AI game. This is another field where Facebook has high stakes, but Google has the ability to overpower them. Or, on another note entirely, Google could join hands with Facebook and bring in a Google-made chatbot. It’s not like they haven’t joined hands with competition before, so why not?
The truth is that the internet is going mobile. While Google holds no solid network, it cannot spread. Although it is the most widespread search engine in the world, that’s only on web platforms. Does Google have the capacity to grow and appeal to the mobile crowd? Of course, but there are a lot of different ways to get there, and not all of them can be done through Google acting alone.
Don’t worry AT&T it is not personal for T-Mobile, it is just business. It seems that this holiday season T-Mobile is trying to steal all of AT&T’s customers. Albeit a little aggressive, it is a great business strategy for them. Let’s take a look at how they are planning on converting all of AT&T’s customers.
T-MOBILE STEALING AT&T CUSTOMERS
T-Mobile has announced some amazing deals for all AT&T customers. The first big one is a 128 GB iPhone 6s, for only $649.99, for them. To put this in perspective, the 16 GB version of the same phone is the same price. This is over 100 GB more of internal storage for the same price. It does not end there though as they will also be getting 50 percent off all accessories over $70. They said that the limit will be $125, but 50 percent off is a huge chunk of money. If there was ever a time for AT&T users to officially switch to T-Mobile, it would be now!
T-MOBILE RUINING AT&T
All of these recent sales for AT&T users is coming off of T-Mobile already having much more postpaid money from subscribers. Before this, they had five times the amount of postpaid subscribers last year. There should be no doubt that this number will continue to grow. It seems as if T-Mobile is set to make it their goal to officially end them. This would certainly get rid of another obstacle for them and make it so they could officially stop caring about them.
TIME WILL TELL IF T-MOBILE BURIES AT&T
This will end up being a very interesting revelation. All of these promotions should allow T-Mobile to steal some AT&T customers, but how many can they? Will they steal enough to completely annihilate and finish AT&T? Only time will end up answering these questions, but as of right now it would appear that they are set to convert a lot of AT&T users.
AT&T has decided to join the club and change up the way it handles its data plans in an effort to keep up with the now rapidly changing wireless industry.
Introducing New Data Plans
On Friday AT&T announced a new set of Mobile Share Value plans which went into effect on Aug. 15. A lot of the changes are mostly positive. The company is giving more data for the same amount customers were paying before, and it’s adding free calling and texting to our neighbors on our borders (Canada and Mexico), but only for customers who are on higher tiered plans.
Details on the New Plans
AT&T’s new data plans aren’t quite as big a change as some of the other carrier’s. The best deal seems to be the $100 package: originally this offered 10GB of data, but now AT&T is offering 15GB of data for the same price. The $70 (6GB)plan has been nixed and a new $50(5GB) tier has replaced it. The last two changes are for power users or business owners. The 20GB data plan received a $10 price cut, so it now only costs $140, and a new 25GB tier has been introduced that will run $170. Here is a full rundown of all their plans:
$20 – 300MB
$30 – 2GB
$50 – 5GB
$100 – 15GB
$140 – 20GB
$170 – 25GB
For T-Mobile users, these prices might still seem a bit much, but AT&T has slightly undercut Verizon on just about every tier level they now offer.
Why AT&T is Changing Their Data Plans
Now these changes don’t really come as any surprise since it seems like every other mobile carrier has recently made major changes to their data plans, but there may be more here than meets the eye.
Previously AT&T offered 1GB and 3GB plans, so its 2GB plan is new. According to a report by analytics firm Mobidia, most users only use about 1.8GB of data. Now, that’s on average, so there are certainly times when a user may go over that amount, and for $20 more, AT&T is allowing users to purchase 150% more data, which seems like a great deal for the consumer, even if they never hit that amount. They’re purchasing a safety net, but AT&T is making that extra $20 off potentially millions of customers.
What AT&T has done is simply instilled a safety net feature into all of its plans that tries to convince users to upgrade to the next highest tier because it’s only that much more. Family plans also have a tendency to be difficult to move away from because they can be complicated since there are so many moving parts.
Either way you cut it, AT&T’s new plans are a good change for consumers.
Twitter plays the hero; Would it be crazy to say that if the Rwandan genocide happened today, lives might have been saved? Interviews and studies published in the last months suggest that the bloodshed of the 1994 slaughter, which killed up to 1 million people, might have been drastically reduced if the spread of social media happened merely one decade before.
Pictures showing the west exactly the harshness of the situation, would have put such a strong pressure on policy makers, that the UN would have never decided to withdraw its soldiers and politicians would have done whatever possible to gain more consensus.
Quite interestingly (and what led me to look into this topic more in depth) British former prime minister Gordon Brown, in a special interview to British leading newspaper The Guardian, went as far as stating that given the current spread of social media platforms “You cannot have Rwanda anymore”.
In the same field, a Canadian professor called Walter Dorn expressed a similar position on the matter, emphasising that “It is much more likely that the genocide could have been prevented, had there been social media at the time”.
Thinking of that terrible event in such ways it is hard to have a clear position, especially because re-imagining the course of historical events under different circumstances often turns out to be quite misleading.
In the case of Rwanda in particular, it is quite complicated to follow this path as politicians and the UN knew exactly what was going on and did not take the correct measures to save lives. Actually, the UN purposely withdrew its Blue Berets from Rwanda and the reasons behind this decision are still not clear.
The ongoing “internet revolution” is definitely more tumultuous than any previous social uprising. Social media websites have empowered individuals from all over the world to report breaking news, share stories and gather support for a cause. Social media platforms allow any individual to become a reporter by letting the world know what is happening in a certain place at a given time.
Something all of us are aware of, is that technological advancements have been a major feature of recent years, thanks to the spread and development of social media tools like Twitter around the world and the massive growth of mobile phone and smartphone usage. Social media usage has inevitably had effects on political foreign policy choices and in reporting faraway disasters.
These advances have brought a “democratisation of information”, meaning that specific areas of political competence are no longer the province of just a few elites. But how does this occur?
Foreign policy shaped by public opinion
Visual material such as videos and photos always help deliver a clear understanding of the gravity of the events. When thinking about the impact of social media in reporting faraway disasters, we should think about its ability to shape public opinion in a way that the political class feels forced to act. Gordon Brown himself said that “information would come out more quickly about what is actually going on and the public opinion would row to the point where action would need to be taken”.
We can associate therefore the so-called Twitter Revolution to the CNN-Effect of the 1990s. This refers to the influence of then-new 24h broadcast service on International Politics, which largely shaped public opinion and drove foreign policy in specific directions.
Kenya’s successful technology
When talking about this “social media revolution”, think of the recent Arab Spring, which started in Tunisia in 2011 and had strong domino effect throughout other North African countries also thanks to videos and pictures of protests spread through social media. The tole of social media was Important in allowing young protesters from different backgrounds to come together to fight for a common cause, and for those affected by the violence to spread videos and images all over the web in order to stimulate political action from developed countries.
In fact, the moment in which pictures showing thousands of children and families killed by chemical weapons in Syria in 2013 spread all over the web, generated massive discussions in the developed west which turned into immediate political debate on whether humanitarian intervention was necessary or not.
NGOs in line with digital developments
It is interesting also to look at the role of NGOs in the effectiveness of social media of reaching a wide number of people from across the world. The idea that they can create impact through the use of social media platforms by gathering support and aid has in fact led many organisations to increase the use of Facebook and Twitter among their information tools.
Annelie Abildgaard, head of communications at IBIS, one of Denmark’s leading development NGOs with programmes in different countries, emphasised how the use of social media by NGOs in Denmark is growing, by creating platforms for participating debates.
Referring to the potential of social media to shape public opinion and force the political elite to take action, Abildgaard emphasised how “creating awareness is crucial, by informing people and making them understand that they can act in a way that pushes the pressure on the political class to change and end poverty”.
“What I really like about social media” she added “is that it is way less elitist than radio and television as it holds a great democratic position. With social media, you don’t have to be someone to have a voice”.
Important points about how social media is not actually the devil. Its always been about using responsibly. Protect your smartphone with Urban Armor Gear for maximum responsibility:
