‘Le Monde’ journalists are working to prevent Daniel Kretinsky from taking control of the iconic publication, widely considered to be France’s newspaper of record. Read more….
Category: Industry
Facebook engagement for publishers has bounced back strongly in early 2019. It’s more than a year since the social network changed its news feed to show fewer professionally produced posts, such as news stories and viral videos. Read more…
David Tamarkin, digital director of Conde Nast’s online food hub Epicurious, triggered the angry wrath of the Twitterverse after posting a tweet that announced a job opening. Read more…
Amazon said the number of Alexa “skills,” the voice-powered apps created for Amazon’s virtual assistant, topped 80,000 worldwide in early 2019.
The number of Alexa skills in the United States more than doubled to 56,750 in January 2019 from 25,784 a year earlier, according to Voicebot.ai. Alexa skill growth in the U.K. rose 233% to 29,910, while Germany’s skill count rose 152% to 7,869.
Number of Alexa Skills by Country, January 2019
| US | 56750 |
| UK | 29910 |
| Canada | 22873 |
| Australia | 22398 |
| Germany | 7869 |
| Japan | 2364 |
| France | 981 |
Google Assistant has “actions” as the apps that expand its capabilities beyond search.
Number of Google Assistant Actions in United States
| January 2019 | 4253 |
| January 2018 | 1719 |
| October 2017 | 724 |
| August | 468 |
| July | 378 |
| June | 304 |
| May | 232 |
| April | 165 |
Google Assistant Apps by Category – January 2019
| Category | % |
| Education and reference | 15.07 |
| Games and fun | 11.07 |
| Kids and family | 9.29 |
| News and magazines | 7.69 |
| Home Control | 6.91 |
| Travel and transportation | 5.60 |
| Shopping | 5.58 |
| Business and finance | 5.41 |
| Arts and lifestyle | 4.73 |
| Health and fitness | 4.25 |
| Social and communication | 4.03 |
| Music and audio | 3.83 |
| Food and drink | 3.50 |
| Productivity | 3.41 |
| Sports | 2.92 |
| Music, photos and TV | 2.76 |
| Local | 2.62 |
| Weather | 1.32 |
Google rolled out smart segmentation features in Google AdMob that use machine learning to categorize players based on their likelihood of making in-app purchases. Read more…
Apple acquired machine-learning startup Laserlike in a likely effort to boost its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, including for Siri, the iPhone maker’s virtual assistant that faces stronger competition from Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Read more…
Specialty lighting retailer Lamps Plus now lets customers seek help from store employees by sending text messages to any of its 37 locations. Read more…
Apple’s magazine subscription service is starting to take shape. The tech giant is expected to announce the service at a March 25 press event. Analysts also expect the iPhone maker to unveil a TV streaming service that will compete more directly with Netflix and Hulu. Read more…
Chinese news agency Xinhua’s first female artificial intelligence (AI) news presenter signals a threat to human news readers.
Other reading:
The Fight to Be a Middle-Aged Female News Anchor: “The average age of the anchors who lost their jobs was 46.8, while their replacements averaged 38.1 years. In one case, the difference was more than two decades,” reporter Steve Cavendish writes in the New York Times.
Older women on US television send subliminal message, Gillian Tett writes in the Financial Times.
Fewer Americans rely on TV news; what type they watch varies by who they are, according to Pew Research Center.
% of U.S. adults who get news on each TV segment
| 2017 | 2016 | |
| Local TV | 37% | 46% |
| Network TV | 26% | 30% |
| Cable TV | 28% | 31% |
% of U.S. adults who get news often on each platform
| 2018 | 2016 | |
| TV | 49% | 57% |
| News website | 33% | 28% |
| Radio | 26% | 25% |
| Social media | 20% | 18% |
| Print newspapers | 16% | 20% |
Home Depot was ranked No. 1 in a study of retailer mobile apps because of its functionality and strong user experience. Read more….