The newspaper's heyday is long gone and Facebook is now the primary driver of traffic to news media websites
In tech business news this week, Facebook overtakes Google as the main driver of traffic to news sites, and the Ashley Madison data dump.
Facebook main driver of traffic for news sites, not Google
Facebook has overtaken Google as the main social media vehicle to drive traffic to news sites, according to statistics from Parse.ly.
In a shift that has been coming, gradually, for about two years now, Facebook closed in on the search giant a few months back, with it’s position strengthened significantly in the latest figures.
By looking at its own clients, Parse.ly found that almost 40pc of traffic to news sites comes from Facebook, with Google (around 38pc) lagging behind.
In fact, 43pc of all referrals came through social, with Facebook entirely dominant in that sector.
Ashley Madison hackers dump data on dark web
Just days after dumping 10Gb of data relating to users of cheating website Ashley Madison on Tor, the Impact Team hackers have now dumped a further 20Gb of internal company data belonging to Avid Life Media (ALM) on the dark web.
“Hey Noel, you can admit that it’s real now,” the hackers taunted, in reference to ALM CEO Noel Biderman’s attempts to suggest the data wasn’t genuine.
Along with the message was a 20Gb archive that is understood to contain Biderman’s emails and more of the company’s internal data.
“The dump appears to contain all of the CEO – Noel’s — business/corporate emails, source code for all of their websites, mobile applications, and more,” said Dave Kennedy from TrustedSec.
Ireland’s newest mobile operator iD goes live
Dixon Carphone’s new mobile operator iD went live across Ireland on 20 August with 4G as standard on all plans. The average SIM-only plan on iD will cost customers €20.81 per month.
The new mobile operator will be selling its services across the entire Carphone Warehouse and Dixons chain of stores in Ireland.
The new operator will try to differentiate itself in the market by letting consumers build their own mobile plan, increasing or decreasing the amounts of minutes, texts and data, with the ability to adjust this every month.
Amazon storm: Bezos blasts ‘bruising workplace’ label as incorrect
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has refuted his company’s portrayal in a New York Times article as a bruising, data-driven Darwinian workplace, saying it “doesn’t describe the Amazon I know”.
At the weekend, the New York Times published a feature titled Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace by writers Jodi Kantor and David Streitfield.
The reporters behind the story had access to senior Amazon managers who were given permission to talk to media, but not Bezos or his management team, and also featured insights and views from former Amazon employees.
Samsung enters ‘internet for all’ race
Joining a host of other major competitors, Samsung has just entered the race to provide high-speed internet for everyone on the planet, penning a report on a satellite solution.
Farooq Khan, president of Samsung Research America, wrote of the company’s plans to interconnect a network of 4,600 low-orbit satellites.
Should it come to fruition, Khan said he believes this could provide one zetabyte per month to the world’s 5bn internet users — that equates to 20Gb/month, per person.
Khan said that the cost of this could be offset by co-locating bases with already established large data centres.
FinTech Innovation Lab London accepting applications for 2016
The application period for Accenture’s fourth annual FinTech Innovation Lab London has opened, launching the search for the top fintech innovators in the UK, Europe and elsewhere.
The FinTech Innovation Lab London is a 12-week mentoring programme, starting in January 2016.
The programme helps fintech entrepreneurs to accele rate product development and gain exposure to leading financial-industry executives.
15 start-ups will be selected to take part in the programme. Each will be partnered with a senior-level bank executive, who will work with them to fine-tune and develop their technologies and business strategies.
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