Daily Minute Master Series – July 23, 2019
Social Media
Pinterest Adds New Self-Help Tool to Assist Users Dealing with Mental Stress and Fatigue
Pinterest is rolling out a new set of self-help tools which are designed to assist users who are dealing with mental health issues by offering quick exercises that they can follow along with, right from the app. Pinterest says that its users conduct “millions of searches” related to emotional health on the platform every year, which is what prompted this new initiative. Mental health has rightfully become a key focus for social media apps in recent times, with various reports showing that social media usage itself can be linked to psychological harm. As Pinterest notes, these simple tools are not designed to replace professional care, while searches related to self-harm will still be routed to relevant off-platform resources. But these quick, immediate response activities may help users in need at different times, providing another way to help ease the stress and provide guidance – as opposed to basic keyword search results.
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Facebook Identifies Significant Privacy Flaw in Messenger Kids App
Messenger Kids, the child-friendly variation of the company’s messaging flagship tool has suffered its first major blow – as reported by The Verge, over the past week or so, Facebook has been informing parents of children who have been using Messenger Kids of a flaw within its permissions process, which could have exposed their children to content from unapproved users. That violates the core promise of Messenger Kids, which is designed to provide parents with full control over who their children interact with – and the reassurance that comes with that. Regardless of the scale in question, the problem is that it again highlights a significant flaw in Facebook’s process, and the company’s capacity to manage information and user privacy. This is especially relevant in this case, not only because young, vulnerable users are impacted, but also because this is the core functionality of the app – this is the one key thing that this specialized version of Messenger is supposed to be designed to avoid.
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Marketing
Google Maps App Updated With Ability to Edit Business Information
Google has updated the Maps app on iOS, allowing business owners to edit their listing information without leaving the app. This will make it easier for verified owners and managers to edit their business profile. Business owners may find this feature especially helpful when looking up their own listing in Google Maps. Maybe you changed your hours or stopped offering a particular service, and the change isn’t reflected in the business listing. Now you can update the information immediately in the Maps app, rather than leaving the app and using a mobile browser or the Google My Business app.
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Advertising
Microsoft Advertising rolling out experiments A/B testing tool globally
Experiments is rolling out globally for testing ad copy, landing pages and bidding strategies and modifiers. Similar to drafts & experiments in Google Ads, experiments in Microsoft Advertising allows you to set up a duplicate of your campaign and run a test on a segment of its traffic. “This way, you can run a true A/B test within a campaign to determine whether a particular update will work well for you and your business,” wrote Subha Hari, senior program manager and Piyush Naik, principal program manager, for Microsoft Advertising in the announcement.
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