White Ops today reported that a group of Russia-based cybercriminals is stealing $3 million to $5 million daily from premium-video-focused advertisers. The fraud-fighting player discovered an extensive network of automated web browsers called Methbot, which it says consists of custom software running on data servers in Amsterdam and Dallas.
According to White Ops, Methbot runs differently than common fraud bots, which usually infect computers with malicious software that serve ads seen by zero people. The ring of fraudsters created approximately 600,000 counterfeit IP addresses that appear to be legitimate, the researchers said, by hacking into a pair of the world's regional internet registries.
The nefarious operators then registered those IP addresses to actual online service providers such as Verizon, Comcast and Spectrum (formerly Time Warner). This tactic made their faux internet activity appear genuine before commanding their bot army to generate 200 million to 300 million impressions and charging brands for premium video ads. ...
More than five years ago, Tom Rosenstiel and Bill Kovach released their guide to helping news consumers sort fact from fiction.
“Blur: How to Know What’s True in the Age of Information Overload” covers many topics — how to evaluate sources, how to know whether a news account is complete, how to verify questionable claims — that are timely given the avalanche of information that circulated during this election year.
One line in the first chapter is particularly prescient given the recent influx of fake news (wholly false stories) and misinformation (false or inaccurate information): “Citizens have more voice, but those who would manipulate the public for political gain or profit — be it corporations or the government — have more direct access to the public as well.”
Rosenstiel could never have predicted the details of how this would soon play out: teenagers in Macedonia, among others, profiting off fake news they created about the 2016 presidential election that spread quickly through social media. How would he amend his book given all that’s happened in the last year?...
Futurist and business consultant Amy Webb says that by asking the right questions, just about anyone can do what she does: separate real trends from hype and glean the paths that technologies will take.
In her recently released book, The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream, Webb shares some of her methods for analyzing the impact of innovations. She spoke to MIT Technology Review’s executive editor, Brian Bergstein, in an interview that Insider Premium subscribers can listen to here. Highlights condensed for clarity follow.
I think the result why social ecommerce is big in Southeast Asia is the fact that most online transactions happen within this social networking apps -- more specifically, Facebook. Since over here, your customers are definitely on Facebook, not only is it the best choice for online selling for that reason alone, but it also helps to understand that many Southeast Asian small businesses hardly even sell within their main website. Also, many small entrepreneurs, especially those who do buy and sell, don't even have a website of their own and are happily using their Facebook pages as their main online store.
Each month, MediaShift posts a chart from Storyclash ranking publishers and news stories that get the most social media interactions. Storyclash regularly publishes rankings of Social Media Trends, covering online articles with the most social media interactions on Facebook and Google+.
The top story of the year according to analysis from Storyclash wasn’t the election. It was the moon. The November supermoon got publisher ScienceAlert 2.8 interactions and beat out stories about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Queen. Below is the full list of the top social news in 2016 from Storyclash....
Your true love will need to raise his or her budget for your Christmas gifts this year.
PNC released its annual Christmas Price Index on Friday, and it showed that prices for items from the Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" rose by 0.7% from last year. That's slightly up from the 0.6% pace in 2015.
The cost of everything on the list, from the partridge to the drummers, totaled $34,363.49, an increase of a few hundred dollars from last year. The "core" index, excluding volatile swan prices, rose 1.1% to $21,238.49.
But as the carol goes, all of the gifts except the drummers are counted multiple times, bringing the cost up to $156,507.88....
If you're looking for a Christmas movie to watch, here are more than 80 of the most popular Christmas movies of all time in five great infographics. Very glad Die Hard 2 made it into the top ten! Recommended viewing. 10/10
How many Christmas cards are sent each year? Get Christmas facts about everything from trees and traditions with this Christmas by the Numbers infographic.
Christmas Day is a difficult time of year for dieters. As well as Christmas dinner, you will no doubt be attending plenty of parties and family events, all of which will have – you’ve guessed it... unhealthy food. That’s why Diet Chef assessed the calories contained in many of your favourite treats and came up with a few guilt-free alternatives.
For example, did you know that fruit-based stuffing is much healthier than sausage meat? Or that gravy has far fewer calories than cranberry sauce? They also looked into lots of party snack favourites such as quiche and sausage rolls, so check out the in...fographic to discover some less-calorific alternatives.
The people have spoken: with the red haze of those last, desperate days of Christmas shopping descending, we’ve polled the populace on how stressed they feel about… Christmas songs. And apparently, the last thing anyone wants to hear whilst out shopping is Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmas Time (so don’t click that link unless you’re one of the 12.5% of people who find it ‘Mildly Relaxing’).
Other songs that are considered ‘stressful’ by shoppers include Justin Bieber’s “Mistletoe” (which peaked at 21 in the UK Singles chart just two months ago) and of course, Cliff Richard’s “Mistletoe & Wine”. Just missing out on a position of the podium of Christmas infamy were the candy-cane sickly “There’s No One Quite Like Grandma”, the terminally over-played “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and Shakin’ Stevens’ “Merry Christmas Everyone”. So avoid them if you possibly can!
It’s not all bad news for Christmas tune-makers though. 60% of people surveyed said that Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” had a positive effect on their mood, making them feel more relaxed (and perhaps, less likely to shove in a thirty minute queue at a packed department store). Dean Martin’s “Winter Wonderland” was also looked on favourably, as was Bing’s “Little Drummer Boy” duet with David Bowie.
Put away Justin Bieber and Paul McCartney and put on Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and David Bowie instead.if you can believe this Christmas research about stressful songs.
If you haven't had time to regularly read about content marketing in 2016, it's ok! In this article we gathered 8 content marketing resources we truly loved this year.
Here are seven digital marketing data points this week that got our attention, including news about how brands may spend online next year, numbers around freshly successful video efforts, what some folks do wrong in emails, and a Russian ring of ad crooks. Check them out....
Twenty-sixteen was the year The Washington Post came of age — again. In its audience growth, in the ambitiousness of its journalism, in its impact on the American conversation, the Post became the U.S.’s fourth national newspaper company, joining The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today.
Now, come 2017, the Post seems to be doing something unique in daily journalism: It is adding journalists early in the year.“We’re adding dozens of journalists,” Fred Ryan, the Post’s publisher and CEO, told me late last week. Ryan, in arecent memo, said the Post was “profitable and growing.”
“We looked at what succeeded for us in 2016 and made investments there,” he says. Ryan doesn’t want to specify the exact number of hires or how they will be apportioned. “We’re still rolling this out internally.”...
Second Life is a online game that immerses players in a virtual world. For the past thirteen years, more than 90,000 players have entered the online community. Now, Linden Labs, the company behind the unique game is looking to enter the realm of virtual reality.
With the popularity of virtual reality headsets, there is an important need for companies to create software to go along with the new technology. That’s where Linden Labs comes in.
Creating software for VR is a hefty task and is pretty much impossible for small companies or organizations. Linden Labs is hoping to help those little guys out by creating what they call a ‘WordPress for Social VR’.
I personally haven't tried Second Life but it's been highly recommended by friends. I just might try this today. No VR yet but this should be interesting all the same.
Most conversion rate optimization experts you'll meet would agree: Copywriting first. Design second.
The idea is that copy (and the message you're trying to convey through that copy) should dictate design – not the other way around. Now, this is in no way meant to underestimate the importance of design. Design can breathe life into the story the copy is telling, and done properly, great copy plus great design will always outperform great copy alone.
The point is, it's not hard to find examples of "ugly" pages outperforming beautifully designed pages – and in those cases, it usually boils down to the copy....
Today’s short-run printing companies cater to self-publishers by offering easy-to-use book design templates and astoundingly quick service.
Here is a review of the companies from which you can get a PDF-formatted proof, approve it, and order 1, 25, or more books. "Because these services do not lock you in, you can print with whomever you like, changing print and distribution vendors at will."...
There’s no doubt about it, Americans LOVE pie. And when it comes to holidays, we really dig in. A recent survey from Pillsbury reveals that 94% of Americans plan to eat pie over the holidays and two-thirds of Americans prefer holiday foods over gifts!
So which pies are the favorite? A survey from Schwan’s (the makers of Mrs. Smith’s pies) asked American’s what their three favorite pies were and declared Apple pie the winner with an overwhelming 72% of the vote (47% for plain apple and 25% for apple-crumb pie). Second place fell to pumpkin pie, which received 37% of the vote....
Merry Christmas everyone! I guess you all gather around with your families to celebrate Christmas, right? In Indonesia, there aren’t a lot of traditions to celebrate Christmas, but in other countries each have their own traditions. To expand your knowledge, we have created an infographic about ‘Christmas in Every Country’. There are a lot of traditions that we did not know about the history of Christmas or how each country celebrates it. So here is our infographic. Enjoy!
Christmas as we know it today is a Victorian invention of the 1860s. Probably the most celebrated holiday in the world, our modern Christmas is a product of hundreds of years of both secular and religious traditions from around the globe. Discover the origins of Christmas traditions from around the world, like the Yule log, caroling and how Christmas is celebrated “Down Under.”...
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Big news of huge digital ad fraud by Russian perps.