Google Working on Indexing Instagram & TikTok Videos
Google is negotiating deals with Instagram and TikTok to index their content in search results, according to a new report.
The Information has the early details of Google’s talks with Facebook and ByteDance — parent companies of Instagram and TikTok respectively.
“Three people who were briefed about the discussions” tell The Information that deals are being worked on to get Google the data it needs to index and rank videos.
The deal is said to be similar to the one formed between Google and Twitter in 2015, in which Google was granted access to a “firehose” of tweet data for immediate indexing.
Prior to forming a partnership with Twitter, Google did not index and rank individual tweets in search results the way it does today.
Now it’s so common to run into Twitter content in Google’s SERPs it’s difficult to remember a time when tweets weren’t discoverable with a simple search.
Should the reported negotiations between Google, Instagram, and TikTok pan out, then short-form video content could end up being as common as tweets in search results.
Source: Google Working on Indexing Instagram & TikTok Videos
Microsoft Advertising launches Marketing with Purpose Business attributes
New attributes from Microsoft Advertising allow businesses to indicate their dedication to “responsibility, how your brand values align with the values of your customers, and how your brand is being inclusive,” said an announcement from Vi Nguyen, Crystal Zhang, and MJ DePalma.
“Marketing with Purpose Business Attributes allow you to communicate quickly and easily how your brand is ‘for someone like me.’ They allow you to be authentic, which is the key attribute to building trust with customers,” said the blog.
Marketing with Purpose. This initiative is exclusive to Microsoft Advertising and follows the lead the company has taken with its Marketing with Purpose playbook and course. The idea behind the initiative is to “build a brand that’s welcomed into people’s lives by earning genuine trust, upholding their values, and inclusively advertising.”
Attributes included. The attributes advertisers can choose from fall under four main categories: inclusion, environmental, community/social responsibility, and accessibility. Within those categories, there are 32 attributes that a business can choose.
How to set it up. “These attributes can be set at the account level and used to decorate text ads and product ads,” said the announcement.
Source: Microsoft Advertising launches Marketing with Purpose Business attributes
Important security patch released in WooCommerce
What actions should I take?
After updating to a patched version, we also recommend disabling Directory Listing on your web server, if it isn’t already. This feature displays a list of every file in the web directory when there is no index file present. You can check if this is active by visiting <domain>/wp-content/uploads in a browser. If you’re not sure how to disable this, please contact your web host directly.
How do I know if my version is up-to-date?
If you are running a version of WooCommerce that is not on this list, please update immediately to the highest version in your release branch. Once you update to any of the patched versions of WooCommerce below, WooCommerce Admin should update automatically.
Patched versions of WooCommerce
– 4.0.3
– 4.1.3
– 4.2.4
– 4.3.5
– 4.4.3
– 4.5.4
– 4.6.4
– 4.7.3
– 4.8.2
– 4.9.4
– 5.0.2
– 5.1.2
– 5.2.4
– 5.3.2
– 5.4.3
– 5.5.3
– 5.6.1
– 5.7.0
Why didn’t my website get the automatic update?
Your site may not have automatically updated for a number of reasons. A few of the most likely are: you’re running a version prior to one impacted (below WooCommerce 4.0.0), automatic updates have been explicitly disabled on your site, your filesystem is read-only, or there are potentially conflicting extensions preventing the update.
How can I check if my reports were affected?
You can check your site’s reports to see:
Visit <your-domain>/wp-admin/options.php and search for the woocommerce_admin_report_export_status field. If it is present, it is possible that one of the report files may have been downloaded.
Visit <your-domain>/wp-content/uploads in a browser. If you receive a list of files, rather than a blank page, it is possible that a report file may have been made public.
Source: Important security patch released in WooCommerce
Remote working jobs row shows how much tech has changed
Tech has changed over the last decade or so. While the overall number of people working in the average tech department hasn’t changed very much, the composition of that team has changed quite radically.
Once it was the hardware that mattered. Many organisations ran most of the technology they needed themselves. They had email servers and web servers and all manner of hardware in the data center or in the basement. All of that kit had to be looked after by an army of engineers.
The advent of cloud computing has changed all this, of course. The corporate data center is shrinking, and few organisations would see the point of building their own finance system or anything like that, preferring instead to buy it from the cloud.
This shift has changed the make-up of the IT department. It’s now much more focused on delivering the breakthroughs that can make organisations stand out and succeed. For the CIO and all the other managers that means that having excellent people skills and being able to align the team with the right business outcomes is vital.
But, because the developers and security experts and others that work in tech are so sought after and so highly mobile (have laptop, will travel), that also means that tech is inevitably one of the industries first impacted by changes in working life happening right now.
In particular, remote working has been the standard option for many office workers over the last 18 months and many are reluctant to change, even if bosses are keen to see desks filled again.
Source: Remote working jobs row shows how much tech has changed
Fake WhatsApp backup message delivers malware to Spanish speakers’ devices
Spanish authorities are warning of a phishing campaign that impersonates messaging service WhatsApp in an attempt to trick recipients into downloading a trojan.
Recipients are being urged to download copies of conversations and call histories from a location that offers only the NoPiques malware.
The NoPiques (“Do not chop”) trojan comes bundle in a .zip archive which, if opened and run on a vulnerable device, results in infection.
Believable phishing campaign
Dangerous emails typically come with the Spanish language subject line ‘Copia de seguridad de mensajes de WhatsApp *913071605 Nº (xxxxx)’, although this can vary.
Messages are written in grammatically correct Spanish, or at least with few errors – unlike many malware-peddling phishing messages in English and other languages.
The warning about the malware campaign comes from Oficina de Seguridad del Internauta (OSI) of the Spanish National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE).
The alert was promoted on social media by the Guardia Civil policing agency.
Source: Fake WhatsApp backup message delivers malware to Spanish speakers’ devices
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