In the span of just 48 hours this week, two separate juries in two different US states delivered verdicts that could reshape the entire social media industry — not because of the dollar amounts involved, but because of what those verdicts legally establish for the first time. On Tuesday, March 24, a jury in Santa Fe, New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $375 million for failing to protect children from sexual exploitation on Facebook and Instagram. Less than 24 hours later, on Wednesday, March 25, a jury in Los Angeles found both Meta and Google (YouTube) liable for engineering addiction in young users — finding them negligent in the design of their platforms and awarding a further $6 million in damages. Two days. Two states. Two juries. Both pointing at the same conclusion: that Big Tech can no longer hide behind the legal shields it has relied on for nearly three decades. This is the story of what happened, why it matters far beyond the headline numbers, and what comes next for the s...
Google has released a new product that it has begun rolling out to all users. If you do not have it already you certainly will over the next few days. To explain this new concept briefly it would be: Google has now integrated Google+ much more deeply in its search results. So when you now perform your regular search on Google. You will be shown results from Google+ and people you are connected to. So when you search for say images of elephants. You will be surprised to see pictures of elephants either which you or your friends have shared on the web. Especially shared on Google+ and Picasa. This means a lot of the recommended search results from Google will have a personal touch to it. This personal touch is not theirs but yours. People you are connected to on Google+ will become a part of your search results. So when you search, results will incorporate pages, post, images and videos shared by people you already know. This is 'Search Plus Your world. In addition when you search fo...