Yahoo Helping Out Universities, Will Google and Microsoft Join? - http://clapway.com/2016/01/15/yahoo-helping-out-univerities-will-google-and-microsoft-join-123/

The world’s tech giants are all coming together to boost artificial intelligence technology. Yahoo just set itself apart from Google and Microsoft. The company is releasing information on 20 million anonymous users for university use.

Understanding The Internet from Yahoo User’s Perspective

The data compiles every click ad scroll of 20 million users. This makes up a giant chunk of data. The goal? The company is probably looking to join hands with colleges and universities to study how users interact with online services. This can only bring about positive results.

The users themselves were taken out of a pool of Yahoo Sports, Finance, News, Real Estate and other pages. The compilation of data will only be available to universities, no exceptions. It’s expected to provide researchers with a better and more realistic outlook on internet behavior.

Yahoo is Behind Google and Microsoft

In the world of technology, Yahoo has been quiet. After acquiring Tumblr and Flickr, the company has stayed mostly in the sidelines. This is basically a move for Yahoo to attract some brain power and get ahead in the game of artificial intelligence. As things stand, the companies making the most headway are Facebook, Google, Toyota and Microsoft. The company seriously needs to do something or get trampled by the other company’s widening paths.

Recruiting academic talent is a basic part of research and development. Facebook and Google have notorious staff, and those are the minds that bring about success. Research and development of artificial intelligence require a very good understanding of deep learning and machine training. As such, Yahoo wants to get their hands on as many brains as possible. Their approach is very unique to say the least.

Data Sciences Are Attractive

This kind of data can certainly attract a few people and form a data sciences division for the company. There’s never a shortage of brains when it comes to technology companies. The amount of data that the company is releasing weighs exactly 13.5 TB. This can from a great base for machine learning to attract users.

This compression of data is pretty much bigger than anything else available to academic computer scientists. However, it’s possible that the company might join hands with Amazon or Alphabet for a cloud computing center. This much data can’t be stored in a university system alone. Carnegie Mellon University signed a five-year $10 million partnership with Yahoo in 2015. The university will be using this data to make personalized apps.

Tension Between Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft

There’s a lot of tension among tech companies to get the best artificial intelligence teams available. From here to 2020, competition will be very heated. Yahoo is making positive headway in this respect, and it’s in its best interest to keep making headway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMCfw8Vu_eY

Yahoo Helping Out Universities, Will Google and Microsoft Join?

Detective Dot Teaches Kids About Gender Equality Better than Google and Yahoo - http://clapway.com/2016/01/04/detective-dot-teaches-gender-equality-better-than-google-and-yahoo-123/

Kids media is the single most important thing in the lives of children all over the world. What they see in movies, television books, and all other new media has a direct impact in their development. As such, a project out of the UK brings us Detective Dot, who uses new media to teach kids about gender equality, free trade, and women studies.

Other outlets like Google and Yahoo bring children knowledge on a wider, more reckless scale. Not to mention that it also feeds on societal norms, which Detective Dot breaks down.

Detective Dot Fuses Storytelling and New Media

Created by Sophie Deen, Detective Dot is an 8-year-old girl with rampant mischief. She is a coder with a very special power: she can bring the objects around her to life. This comes in handy and kickstarts entire adventures where she sets out to discover where these everyday objects came from.

The Importance of Detective Dot and Google or Yahoo Search Engines

In recent times, the global market is built on consumerism. People buy things they do or don’t need for the sake of keeping up with the times, and children are the first to be affected by that. It’s no longer a strange sight to see a toddler holding an iPad or even playing with it. Often times, they grow up having no idea where these devices came from, just knowing that they exist. Detective Dot brings a change to all of that.

Not only is the main character of the story a girl, but she is also a person of color. This kind of diversity is poorly seen in the media. Sophie Deen makes it a point to highlight that 2.9% of characters in kids cartoons are black, and 0% of princesses in these cartoons are engineers. Detective Dot is both.

While Google gives users a search engine that can tell them anything regardless of age or gender, Detective Dot is catered for children. She speaks their language. This is why she is so valuable. Platforms like Yahoo will not have filtered specifically geared toward children unless it is controlled by a parent.

Detective Dot Tears Down Stereotypes

Needless to say, one of the goals behind getting this cartoon on children’s radar is to encourage positive representation. Children’s media is homogenous across many cultures, highlighting women as weak and men as stronger. Detective Dot is a positive role model for all girls, especially those in minorities. Not only that, but Detective Dot uses a great approach in telling her stories: technology.

Children today are wired to the technology around us. They understand it and grow up with it. As such, this kind of show encourages early curiosity and gives them an education that will definitely be useful in the future. Detective Dot figures out the past and present in things like memory chips to more abstract ones like amnesia. These objects are characters as well, and they travel all over the world with the Detective to tell their own stories.

Programming, coding, and robotics will soon become building blocks of entire nations. As such, Detective Dot will be launched in hardcopy, digital books and even as a curriculum for teachers who would like to include her adventures in the classroom.

Detective Dot Was Made with Education in Mind

Having been a teacher herself, founder Sophie Deen has tailored Detective Dot’s stories to align completely with the primary school curriculum. She and her team also incorporated computer science and language for an enhanced learning experience.

Parents can record their own narration of the Detective’s stories, and the digital books come with games that teach children about maths, geography, and coding in a fun, engaging way.

The most important aspect of these books is probably their themes. They discuss the importance of preserving the environment, the importance of diversity and gender equality and education. It encourages girls and boys to become curious about the STEAM subjects and enlightens them on social issues like fair trade and women in history.

All in all, these are stories that need to be known. Times have changed, and so has today’s technology. Since children will be growing up around it and seeing it around every corner, it is only fair they know as much about the world they live in as possible.

Detective Dot Teaches Kids About Gender Equality Better than Google and Yahoo

Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo Have an Unstoppable Battle with State-Sponsored Attacks - http://clapway.com/2015/12/28/facebook-twitter-and-yahoo-have-an-unstoppable-battle-with-state-sponsored-attacks/

State-Sponsored attacks are a very serious problem. Many companies have experienced them, and many have warned their users about them. These attacks could reveal very vital information such as IP addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, passwords, etc. Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo are among the companies involved with these attacks.

FACEBOOK ISSUED AN ANNOUNCEMENT FOR STATE-SPONSORED ATTACKS

Way back in October of this year, the Chief Security Officer at Facebook, Alex Stamos, released a statement that can be found on their website. Stamos stated that every day the members of the company look for any malicious activity taking place. He said how if the company believed your account was experiencing this activity, you would get a notice. The notice explains that they believe your account is under attack, and they give you the option to turn on Login Approvals.

TWITTER RECEIVED STATE-SPONSORED ATTACKS

Earlier this month, some users of Twitter received a message that they might be the target of a state-sponsored attack. The notification from Twitter tells the user that there may have been some activity on their account. They said the attackers may have been looking for IP addresses and other information. The good thing is they said they have no evidence that any accounts were hacked. There still has not been much information revealed about this ordeal.

YAHOO ISSUES ALERTS ABOUT STATE-SPONSORED ATTACKS

Yahoo actually announced earlier this week that they will notify their users if state-sponsored attacks happen. The chief information security officer of Yahoo, Bob Lord, stated that the company will notify their users of these attacks. This will then allow the users to take all of the precautions they need to protect their accounts. However, Yahoo did not say how they were going to notify all of their users, but that they will if they need to. Yahoo also mentions to not freak out if you get a notification because this does not automatically mean you have been hacked.

STATE-SPONSORED ATTACKS ARE GETTING ALL THE MAJOR COMPANIES

These kinds of attacks are very serious. The amount of damage that can be done with an Internet Protocol address is massive. Not only that either, any information like phone numbers, passwords, or e-mails can be disastrous. Yahoo, Facebook, and Twitter are correct by sending their users alerts if this is happening. If you ever get an alert from these three companies, it would be wise to listen.

 

Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo Have an Unstoppable Battle with State-Sponsored Attacks

Apple, Yahoo, Google and Edward Snowden Fight UK Government - http://clapway.com/2015/12/23/apple-yahoo-google-and-edward-snowden-fight-uk-government-123/

Apple has rejected the UK’s new draft surveillance bill. This new bill will force a handful of companies currently operating there to either tone down encryption or get rid of it completely.

DRIPA Bill Puts UK Government Against Encryption

The draft Investigatory Powers Bill was first released last month. It has been rewritten to clarify laws that would allow the UK government to monitor surveillance over phone hacking and malware installment on target devices. They’ve been doing this for the past decade, and the bill would justify and extend this policy.

This Bill Puts the UK Government as the Supreme Authority No Matter What

The bill also forces technological companies to take out any encryption upon the request of any authority. This week, Apple released a letter in response to the bill. The letter details that this bill could cause some damage to lawful users to find a couple of bad eggs ruining technology for everyone else. As such, they will not abide by the rules of this bill.

Apple: Anti-Encryption Laws Will Cause International Conflict

The letter also hinted at the fact that regardless of how open the web is, the bad guys would find a way to hide their exploits like they have so far. Having backdoor access to encrypted databases would be of little help. Not to mention the fact that rulings like this could bring some serious international conflict.

If this bill becomes law, they can ask Apple or any other tech company to hack into their own devices. This could kickstart an international trend allowing other countries to be able to command this as well.

Apple is Joined By Google, Twitter and Yahoo in the Opposition

Google, Twitter, and Yahoo submitted evidence against the passing of this bill. Even Microsoft had something to say, urging that legislation has to prevent international conflict. Nations should work together to keep their people safe.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has spoken against this bill before. He warns that if legislators pass the bill and it becomes law, it is a terrible mistake that will bring dire consequences. Apple is no less faced with trouble in US soil, as they are also taking into consideration anti-encryption laws.

Encryption Has Caused A Lot of Heavy Discussion

Since before the Paris attacks of November 13, encryption has been an international hot topic. Because of the tragic terrorist attack, it has come under a special kind of fire. Governments all over the world are turning to anti-encryption laws to keep their citizens safe, and they have been met with mixed responses.

On the one hand, anti-encryption laws give governments access to all databases. This is mostly unnecessary and may encourage generalization and bring innocent people under suspicion. Not only that, but it will strip citizens from their privacy in preference for a superficial sense of security. This is akin to a Big Brother is Always Watching approach, and most of us have seen how that usually turns out.

It Usually Goes a Little bit Like How Edward Snowden Ended up in Russia

Edward Snowden is living proof that this kind of system just does not work. It’s not a good idea to keep people in the dark about these exploits. Edward Snowden showed the world the other side of encryption, what the governments hide from citizens. It wouldn’t be fair for the government to be able to do it and not the people.

On the other hand, encryption can really help spot jihadist activity and immediately shut it down. There’s no hate behind implementing anti-encryption laws. In fact, it would help locate people who cater to ISIS thinking and world leaders might even bring better education to those areas. People don’t need to turn to extremes to solve these problems. Anti-encryption laws could be helpful so long as they are moderate. No control is as bad as all control because it shows a lack of faith in citizens. People should feel safe enough to have private conversations.

This is a funny turn of events coming from the UK, who control the highest citizen surveillance system in the entire world. Hopefully, if this bill becomes law, it will not be as drastic as it looks.

Read: Snowden’s Signal Could Be Another App Used by ISIS
Read: National Security Agency’s Loss Made Snowden Smile

 

Apple, Yahoo, Google and Edward Snowden Fight UK Government

Gmail and Apple Help Yahoo Not to Lose Business - http://clapway.com/2015/12/11/gmail-and-apple-help-yahoo-not-to-lose-business/

Yahoo has just received assistance from two of the biggest companies in the world right now. Yahoo announced that not only are they adding support for Gmail on their app, but also split screen support for their app on the iOS 9. It seems like Google and Apple just made their day.

YAHOO APP NOW SUPPORTS GMAIL

Yahoo announced on Thursday that they were released an update that would add IMAP support to use Gmail. This now gives users another e-mail service to go alongside Hotmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and AOL Mail. The Gmail on their app will work just like it would for any other mail service. The company states that this will now allow users to see all of their emails from all email services. They also say that emails will be able to be viewed from day one, not just recent ones.

APPLE HELPS YAHOO AS WELL

Google is not alone with helping in this ordeal. Yahoo stated that they also added a feature into Apple devices. They now will allow users using the iOS 9 to view their mail service via a small sidebar. All the users will have to do is just slide the bar over to view their messages. This will make it more convenient for Apple users. They also say this can be done without leaving the current app that you are on. This implementation will save iOS 9 users the time from backtracking to where they were before. Overall, not a massive upgrade, but it will provide users using this operating system on Apple phones a much easier time to use Yahoo’s app.

GMAIL STATISTICS SHOULD PROVIDE BOOST TO YAHOO

Google Play statistics lists the amount of installs for several email services. The statistics reveal that Yahoo Mail is already very successful having between 100 million and 500 million installs. However, these statistics also reveal that Gmail has had over 1 billion installs. This means that with the implementation of Gmail, Yahoo’s Mail service may continue to rise. This was a huge boost for them because, as the statistics show, Google has one of the most popular email services in the world.

YAHOO MAIL APP WILL HANDLE SWIPE ACTIONS DIFFERENTLY

The company has pointed out that their app will handle swipe actions for Gmail a little differently than others. An example is how it handles for a service like Outlook. When using Outlook from their app if a user swipes the message to the left it will be deleted. However, when doing this same motion in Gmail, it moves to the archived folder. Then, it can be retrieved later in the All Mail folder.

ANDROID WILL ALSO SEE A DIFFERENCE IN YAHOO APP

The company noted that they made some design changes for their app on Android phones. They now make it more readable for Android users as they darkened the text. They also said they now will have the settings on one single page, as well as making larger buttons. This will make the interface much easier to see and use. They also announced that they introduced patches. This will decrease the amount of data being used on networks.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YAHOO

This is undoubtedly huge for this company. As mentioned earlier, they were already experiencing many users installing and using their app. However, making the app more convenient for both Apple users and Android users was essential. Not only that but adding Gmail to their email services will have many around the world happy. The statistics provided earlier proved that Google’s email service gains more installs than Yahoo’s does. Now, they give their users the option of using Google’s email service.

Gmail and Apple Help Yahoo Not to Lose Business

Yahoo Expects to Beat Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Skype - http://clapway.com/2015/12/03/yahoo-expects-to-beat-facebook-messenger-whatsapp-and-skype/

Yahoo seems bound and determined to keep up with the most popular messaging apps in the world. Yahoo has recently released their newest messaging app. The senior vice president, Jeff Bonforte, also seems pretty confident that users will like it more than other messaging apps.

YAHOO MAKES THEIR NEW MESSAGING APP FASTER

The company has made no bones about the fact that the main aspect they were focusing on was speed. Bonforte mentions how users want services that allow them to connect with people quickly and easily. Bonforte talks about the fact that users will be able to upload images in groups. Basically, users do not have to upload images one after another. Instead, they can upload dozens of images at once. On top of this, Bonforte mentioned how the overall speed of messaging and sending photos has improved. He said they did a test and it took less than a second for the photo/message to be received by another user. Bonforte also stated that users will get access to GIF’s insanely quickly as they will be available to users within seconds.

YAHOO ALSO ADDS UNSEND FEATURE

Does anybody send a message or photo without thinking about the consequences? Or has anybody ever sent one of these things on accident? Well, Bonforte explained that they will allow users to delete their sent message or photo in their messaging app. He also said it does not matter how long it has been up, it can be erased at any time. Sometimes people say stuff without thinking. There are also times when people accidentally hit send when they do not want to. Adding this feature will add a backup plan just in case this happens.

WILL YAHOO MESSENGER NOW BE BETTER THAN FACEBOOK, WHATSAPP, AND SKYPE?

Just like with any comparison of products, it is mostly a matter of opinion. However, Bonforte has shown some confidence that users are going to eat this up. He has not officially stated that it will, but he has hovered around the idea. If Yahoo Messenger is indeed faster than all the others, then that is a big factor in determining which app is better.

Yahoo Expects to Beat Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Skype

Gmail is About to Destroy Yahoo - http://clapway.com/2015/11/22/google-is-about-to-destroy-yahoo123/

Yahoo has started blocking people who use their email tool and also have an ad blocker enabled. This has angered a lot of its users, and Yahoo’s intentions have not been clarified.

What Little Yahoo Users Are Left Are Leaving

According to some customers, they’ve been locked out of their account to test run a new feature, for which these users must not have any adblockers turned on. Apparently this feature only rolled out to certain individuals. The people who did receive this error message, however, were not pleased. They threatened to abandon the service entirely if the feature wasn’t lifted.

Other Publications Are Also Barring Ad Blocker Users

Yahoo is one of many services experimenting with barring ad block users altogether as the modern technology available to do so comes to be a lot widespread. The Washington Post tested out a function that routed ad block customers to a registration page in September, and also the London-based newspaper City AM began a similar trial this week. New York Times CEO Mark Thompson also stated in a current profits call that the paper is exploring “technical solutions” to fight blockers.

This is An Expected Move, Since Yahoo Profits Are Down

It’s simple to see why Yahoo has an interest in warding off ad blockers. The company had disappointing 3rd quarter results last month that might point to a wide decline for the business, as well as up till last summer, it had actually experienced numerous consecutive quarters of flagging advertising revenue.

Gmail is About to Destroy Yahoo

#LiveText is #Yahoo"s new answer to #better #connection in the #DigitalAge - http://clapway.com/2015/07/30/yahoo-launches-the-frankenstein-of-messaging-apps-and-its-called-livetext-342/

On Wednesday, Yahoo announced that it would be releasing a new messaging app that takes the best part of all the messaging apps before it. It’s called Livetext and it lets users see each other but not hear each other.

Yahoo’s Frankenstein

Livetext takes features from FaceTime, Skype, Snapchat, Meerkat, and Periscope and combines them to create a messaging app that doesn’t exist to compete with these platforms but complement them.

Adam Cahan, senior vice president of video, design, and emerging products of Yahoo, believes that audio can be inhibiting in some situations where you may want to see who you are communicating with, but can’t audibly talk to them.

With that in mind, Livetext allows users to chat via text and emojis like Periscope, it doesn’t archive media or other files like Snapchat, and it organizes contact lists and friend quests similar to Facebook Messenger and Snapchat.

Yahoo Doesn’t Believe Livetext is a Competitor to Its Peers

Cahan believes that Livetext serves a niche that will be carved out once people begin to see how useful it can be. If a user is commuting to work via public transportation and they want to FaceTime someone, it can be difficult to accomplish in such a noisy environment. Similarly, there are sometimes when a user doesn’t want to communicate solely via text and may want to see who they are talking to. Situations like these are what Yahoo hopes users will take advantage of by using Livetext.

“And what we found in our user studies and testing was that they found new times to use the product, starting to engage more and more frequently, and having more and more conversations on our service. They definitely get it,” said Cahan.

Livetext Will be Launching July 30

Last quarter, Yahoo reported that 20% of its revenue came from mobile. Historically, it hasn’t been interested in pursuing many social services, but it looks like that may soon begin to change as Yahoo bolsters its communication services with Livetext.

Yahoo said users in the United States and four other countries can begin to download the app on their Android and iOS devices on thursday.

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For more amazing inventions for long distance love affairs, check out Filmin:

 

Yahoo Launches the Frankenstein of Messaging Apps and It"s Called Livetext