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For this week’s edition of the Search Engine Journal Show, we have a special episode.
It’s me Greg Finn, a co-host over at Marketing O’Clock on the SEJNetwork, taking a crack at the first-ever pod panel here on the Search Engine Journal Show.
Together with Andrea Cruz, Digital Marketing Manager at KoMarketing, and Sam Ruchlewicz, Vice President, Digital Strategy & Data Analytics at Warschawski, we’re going to talk about what the Google Partners changes mean for agencies and clients.
Why Are We Here?The new Google Partners changes were first announced on February 12 and updated again on February 14 with little to no clarity.
There are three main differences than in the past:
1. SpendThere is still a 90-day ad spending requirement. But instead of $10,000, that requirement is jumping to $20,000.
2. CertificationPreviously, a company needed one user certified in Google Ads who was an admin or standard access.
Now, a company needs to have at least 50% of its eligible users to earn updated certifications from Skillshop.
Google has stated users need admin or standard level access to be considered eligible.
3. Company PerformancePreviously, companies simply needed to meet the performance requirement by delivering solid overall ad revenue and growth while maintaining a growing customer base.
Additionally, you had to have 12 months of spend activity.
That’s no longer the case.
Now in order to obtain your Google Partners badge, you are required to adopt 70% of Google recommendations in your accounts.
This is the overall recommendation optimization score and previously you could dismiss the changes and get up to 100%.
That is no more.
Google states:
“We evaluate the optimization score without dismissed recommendations for the company performance requirement.”
Discussion Before we proceed, is your agency a Google Partner?Andrea Cruz (AC): Yes, KoMarketing has been a premier partner for a while… We have always been in a relationship with Google.
Sam Ruchlewicz (SC): We are also a Google Partner agency. We have been for many years. I would say it’s a very similar experience but Andrea.
Sometimes they’re helpful. Sometimes they’re not. Sometimes they do crazy things.
Sometimes they want us to change spends in ways that are definitely not beneficial for the client. It’s kind of a mixed bag.
But like I think you said it perfectly… we’re always in the middle of an exchange between what Google wants us to do, what’s best for the client…
Do you think that that having the Google Partner badge has helped your business?AC: I think clients feel more trusting when they see that, “Hey, this is a business that has that relationship with Google.”
Or when a client can figure something out, they can go to us, their premiere partner specialist, and see if we can help them. In those cases, I think it’s useful.
It’s a nice thing and they look at it and they say, “Oh, that’s really interesting.”
It’s a mixed bag, I would say. And I’ve had that same experience where I was flabbergasted that some work could come from a specific agency and at that status so I think it seems like it’s across the board.
Is there anything that you really like about the Partners program?SR: I think I do appreciate the access that we get to some of the Google account managers or the partner managers, whatever they’re called these days.
I think that’s been helpful in some instances to escalate and resolve client issues and not having to go through the traditional support channels that are suboptimal.
Do you have any issues with the new Spend requirements going from $10,000 to $20,000?SR: I actually like that change and I’m fine with that. If you look at $20,000/month that’s under $7,000/month ad spend for three accounts.
I would still think that’s too low, to be honest. I know plenty of freelancers that run triple that and they’re definitely not an agency nor part of the partner program.
It’s just they’re a freelancer with four accounts and each account spends $4,000-$5,000 a month.
AC: I kind of agree with Sam. I do think that it’s nice that they are moving it a little bit all because if you have two or three accounts, even if they are small, they would get to $20,000 early.
I don’t think that’s a negative but of course, I’m in a larger agency so maybe that’s why I think it’s okay.
On changes to Company Performance requirements…Greg Finn (GF): Let’s talk about something that I haven’t really seen anybody talking about specifically – the change that you no longer have to have your account active for 12 months.
AC: It’s crazy… The thing I love about digital marketing is that it changes every single day and we get our curveball from Google every single day as well.
So I think that somebody who doesn’t have an account active for the past 12 months, it also makes sense for them to be a partner because the things that we were doing last year are very different from the things we’re trying this year.
SR: I think it’s awful… I’ve personally dealt with enough clients that have gotten really bad treatment from other agencies, partners or freelancers.
Like you said, you need a track record if you’re going to be a partner… As Google, you want to instill trust in it.
You can’t have two-bit hacks running around and putting Google partner badges on their website and the second something bad happens, you just open up a new shop and all of a sudden, they’re a Google Partner agency after a month. That’s craziness.
The whole point should be this instills trust and confidence that these are trained professionals we’re going to work and do what’s best for you, not random humans that went into business three weeks ago.
What are your thoughts on the changes to the Certification portion where 50% of eligible users needing Skillshop certifications?SR: I’m fine with it. I like the idea of making sure everyone that is working on your account is good.
It just means that half the members of your team we’re smart enough to sit and Google answers to the Google Skillshop certification for a half an hour on a random Tuesday, it’s not a meaningful point of difference.
And if you’re a small agency with a $20k spend, you might only be a two-person shop. Again it doesn’t instill confidence, it’s just one of you had the certification.
AC: I’ve always had this perspective that when you are new to Google Ads, I think it’s a good thing that you learn all the terms and how Google wants you to think because the experience and the practice in the agency will show you what Google wants you to do versus what you should actually be doing.
I think new people in PPC should do the certifications…
But my issue with it is I think Google tells me there’s this amount insane amount of people that should get certified which is incorrect.
I know that there are some people saying around how you can either exclude people from domains so it’s only the people from the agency that needs to get certified so that’s I don’t know…
It’s telling me that I have to get my clients certified which is not going to happen.
GF: I actually think they’re probably going to work that out. That seems like a bit of a mistake. I would hope that you don’t have to get your clients certified for your partner status.
So my guess is that for the most part, that’ll work its way out hopefully and that’d just be down to the 50% you at your partner company.
Overall, it doesn’t seem like there’s too much there as long as the clients are out of the equation for you.
SR: I actually agree with the fundamental idea of doing it. I think it’s good to make sure people are trained.
I don’t necessarily agree that the way Google’s doing it’s the right way to do it, but that’s one argument for another day.
What are your overall thoughts on Google’s Recommendations?AC: Most of them are awful. I always have this recommendation in my account which is to:
Implement target impression share (which is Google taking money away and have fun with it).
Use return on ad spend or one of the automated bidding targeting options (which some of them don’t align with what my client wants to do).
Increase your budget by X amount so you can get more traffic.
So that’s my issue with the recommendations. Those are the ones I mostly see in my accounts.
But I do know that, for example, if you’re a smaller agency or a single person just doing Google Ads on your own, it will be helpful to see recommendations such as keyword variations, etc.
My issue is with the other ones that are just to fill Google with more money than they already have.
SR: Using an analogy, I think the recommendations are kind of like a cargo ship or a cruise liner. They get you in the general right direction.
But that’s not where the money’s made. Where our clients really see differences in performances, you have to run a speedboat, so to speak, and make quick changes…
We have clients that are in very specialized and regulated industries and Google’s serving us keyword options that are not what the client does, not aligned with the business, and if we ever implemented them, they’d legally come down on us…
Especially for some of our B2B clients, some of those recommendations are just bad.
GF: I want to go in another direction here. Andrea, you had enlightened me about a month ago to the fact that you could dismiss the Recommendations and still get a 100% recommendation score. That got a lot of buzz around the Twittersphere.
According to the new rules, you can’t count dismissed recommendations toward company performance goals. What are your thoughts?
AC: …Google itself told me that you can dismiss the recommendations and your percentage will increase. They said that’s how it worked.
In fact, they also let me know that when you do this, you are actually telling the algorithm that the recommendation doesn’t apply to your account.
So I thought that was very interesting that they are now saying that if you dismiss them, it won’t work.
GF: Now, you can dismiss the recommendations but it will not count towards that number that you had to hit.
When [the changes] first came out, that number wasn’t clear and they clarified that to 70% of the recommendations out there.
SM: I think that’s bad because 70% of the recommendations aren’t good.
In that case, I’m being put in this weird situation as an agency where if I want to keep my Partner badge, I have to do what Google says even if I know or have a really good reason to believe or have been directed by a client to not do that.
So now my interests are opposed to my clients’ interests potentially if I care about the Partner badge. But it’s just no, I fundamentally disagree with that.
I just was with a client and agency one of the things in their agency’s reporting is that they hit a 100% optimization score on all their client accounts…
Apparently, it’s relatively common among the kinds of agencies that you probably wouldn’t refer to your clients…
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You're reading What Google Partners Changes Mean For Agencies & Clients
Artificial Intelligence And What Does It Mean For Education
Introduction
Internet… a world-changing invention that is involved in most of the things we do. When we talk about education in the modern-day, we cannot put aside the digital world. Online students can find
What Is AI?AI systems are such machines (or, perhaps, software) that can perform human-like tasks. By that, we mean that the algorithms behind them allow them to do tasks that are usually associated with people. AI systems rely on their algorithms for executing their functions. Via them, they examine the available information and reach conclusions. Once they reach such a conclusion, they then act. It can be perception, interaction, behavior reasoning, finding patterns, etc.
Through AI systems machines can perform high-level functions massively and rapidly. Sometimes they even resemble humans in their actions. Sure, this brings about not only excitement but also fear. There is a view among some circles that AI can replace humans. But it’s also possible that AI will work together with people, helping them in their day-to-day life. When we talk about education, we want to point out that human interaction is key. Still, AI can offer some help for teachers by automating various routine tasks.
AI and EducationTeaching is a highly sensitive area. Student-teacher interaction is close contact. Teachers need to build a trusting relationship with their pupils. Also, some types of feedback require human interaction. Thus, we cannot talk about AI replacing teachers. We don’t consider such a possibility for some tasks that require face-to-face contact. But some repetitive tasks can be automated using AI systems. This will allow teachers to put more emphasis on complex activities. AI can offer many possibilities for education. For instance, it can support teachers and collaborate with them. Of course, collaboration isn’t said in the traditional human-to-human meaning. No, AI can rather help teachers gain more knowledge of the strong and weak sides of their students. Yes, through the use of AI one can create specific assessments. They can then be used to allow teachers to understand how far along the material are their students. With such programs teachers can see which students excel where and where are the weak points. Also, teachers have a lot of students to work with. They cannot pay attention to anyone all the time. So, in some cases, they will be working with specific students. Via AI, though, they can understand what is happening to other students at that time. AI presents another opportunity, too. It can offer a way for students and teachers to collaborate better. It can also enhance the “work-together” skills of students.
When we are talking about complex problems and means of solving them,
ConclusionSure, there are still areas that will require human-to-human interaction. That’s for certain. But the introduction of AI into the classroom can help free teachers’ time for more important aspects. It can also improve the interaction in the classroom. AI systems are certainly something that will grow even more with time elapsed. We should think about how they can affect the future of education. They can do that in various ways. We mentioned some of the above, but we are certain that new and new inventions will arise. With all of them, we can get a better understanding of the learning process, how students interact with one another, of how teachers can tailor their study plans.
Internet… a world-changing invention that is involved in most of the things we do. When we talk about education in the modern-day, we cannot put aside the digital world. Online students can find legit writing services or, if they can’t decide on an essay service , they can get reviews and see which are the best. Or they can get some help with different questions they might have. Teachers, on the other hand, also have quite a lot of resources to pick from. There are opportunities to learn more about classroom management, student motivation, interaction, etc. When we talk about the digital world, though, we should pay some attention to artificial intelligence. This is a particular area of study that will grow more and more with the days to come. Artificial Intelligence, or the so-called AI, is gaining more and more steam as we continue to innovate it. We encounter it in quite a lot of places in our day-to-day life, for instance, in applications as Alexa. We also already know that with the current pandemic we experienced a growth in digital education. So, how do we see AI in the future of education in general?AI systems are such machines (or, perhaps, software) that can perform human-like tasks. By that, we mean that the algorithms behind them allow them to do tasks that are usually associated with people. AI systems rely on their algorithms for executing their functions. Via them, they examine the available information and reach conclusions. Once they reach such a conclusion, they then act. It can be perception, interaction, behavior reasoning, finding patterns, etc.Through AI systems machines can perform high-level functions massively and rapidly. Sometimes they even resemble humans in their actions. Sure, this brings about not only excitement but also fear. There is a view among some circles that AI can replace humans. But it’s also possible that AI will work together with people, helping them in their day-to-day life. When we talk about education, we want to point out that human interaction is key. Still, AI can offer some help for teachers by automating various routine tasks.Teaching is a highly sensitive area. Student-teacher interaction is close contact. Teachers need to build a trusting relationship with their pupils. Also, some types of feedback require human interaction. Thus, we cannot talk about AI replacing teachers. We don’t consider such a possibility for some tasks that require face-to-face contact. But some repetitive tasks can be automated using AI systems. This will allow teachers to put more emphasis on complex activities. AI can offer many possibilities for education. For instance, it can support teachers and collaborate with them. Of course, collaboration isn’t said in the traditional human-to-human meaning. No, AI can rather help teachers gain more knowledge of the strong and weak sides of their students. Yes, through the use of AI one can create specific assessments. They can then be used to allow teachers to understand how far along the material are their students. With such programs teachers can see which students excel where and where are the weak points. Also, teachers have a lot of students to work with. They cannot pay attention to anyone all the time. So, in some cases, they will be working with specific students. Via AI, though, they can understand what is happening to other students at that time. AI presents another opportunity, too. It can offer a way for students and teachers to collaborate better. It can also enhance the “work-together” skills of chúng tôi we are talking about complex problems and means of solving them, AI can help here, as well. It can boost the problem-solving skills of students and teachers alike both individually and as a group. With AI’s students can experience personalized learning. When a teacher is working with a class, personalized learning isn’t an easy thing to achieve. But it can be done through AI systems. Those systems will allow customization of the learning process for the particular student. Emotional well-being is something that is thought about, too. The emotional states of children impact how they learn. AI can help identify what is the emotional state of the students and give them support. Such support can be offered through gestures, words, or attempts at motivating the student. Artificial Intelligence can be used in various applications. Some of them we are already familiar with. But there are also other opportunities. For instance, AI can be used in learning apps. By them, students can experience gameplay that is related to learning specific materials and/or skills. Like, they can be learning math while playing a certain AI-powered game. Or they can ask for help with homework and questions that bother them and receive automatic answers from other students. Such applications can be used to tailor personalized learning plans for every student.Sure, there are still areas that will require human-to-human interaction. That’s for certain. But the introduction of AI into the classroom can help free teachers’ time for more important aspects. It can also improve the interaction in the classroom. AI systems are certainly something that will grow even more with time elapsed. We should think about how they can affect the future of education. They can do that in various ways. We mentioned some of the above, but we are certain that new and new inventions will arise. With all of them, we can get a better understanding of the learning process, how students interact with one another, of how teachers can tailor their study chúng tôi huge plus is the opportunity for a personalized learning process. Teachers cannot be with everyone all the time. Their teaching methodology cannot be tailored to every single student on their own, or they will have no time for everyone. Here comes AI. That system offers to give us a way to suit the learning plans specifically to every student. This will allow kids to learn at their own pace, strengthen their weak sides, and get even better in their strong aspects. AI cannot replace teachers but can certainly teach us something.
What Antarctica’s Massive Iceberg Could Mean For The Future
What Antarctica’s Massive Iceberg Could Mean for the Future A warning for climate change?
Scientists have been monitoring the accelerating crack in Antarctic ice for more than a year. In July 2023, the crack caused a massive iceberg to break from the Larsen C ice shelf. Photo by John Sonntag/NASA
In July 2023, an iceberg the size of Delaware broke off Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf and floated into the sea. This wasn’t the first time that a chunk of the Larsen shelf had severed, and it probably wasn’t the biggest iceberg ever, but the massive break, and dramatic photos of the 120-mile-long crack that formed it, captured the public’s imagination and made headlines worldwide. The event seemed to many an awesome—and terrifying—warning of climate change.
Sean Mackay, a postdoctoral research associate at Boston University and a member of BU’s Antarctic Research Group, has an intimate relationship with Antarctica and its ice, having travelled to the continent six times over the past nine years to collect information on ancient climate change from buried glaciers and other sources of old ice. He spoke to BU Research about what the iceberg calving could mean for the future, and what role it might play in rising sea levels. “Sometimes it takes the giant events to get people’s attention,” he says.
The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
BU Research: What happens to the iceberg now? Is it going to float up to Boston?Mackay: We don’t really know for sure, but Antarctica has this huge circumpolar sea current, and if the iceberg can reach that current, it will most likely break up into smaller chunks and start flowing north and east. Some estimates say it could reach the Falkland Islands. But when I say “it,” I mean a piece of it, not the whole shebang. So it’s not going to float up to North America.
That’s too bad.I know. Wouldn’t that be cool? It would be pretty awesome.
So why does it matter if a piece of Antarctica breaks off? Will the iceberg contribute to sea-level rise?Ice shelves are floating. That’s the definition of an ice shelf: it’s floating on the ocean. So the ice shelf itself, whether or not it’s attached to the Antarctic Peninsula, won’t contribute to any kind of sea-level rise.
The reason ice shelves are significant, though, is because they form, essentially, a cork that helps stem the outward flow of ice from the inland areas. And the Antarctic continent holds a huge amount of equivalent sea-level rise in the form of frozen fresh water, so when these ice shelves start to disintegrate, and especially if they disintegrate beyond kind of a point of no return, then those glaciers can flow more easily. And from the previous collapse of the Larsen A and the Larsen B ice shelves, we’ve been able to see firsthand—and directly measure—how quickly the upstream glaciers have accelerated. And it’s a lot. It’s up to three-to-five times faster.
Wow. And that increased flow would contribute to sea-level rise?Yes. Once the grounded ice that’s above sea level starts flowing and accelerating and getting into the global inventory of seawater, then it absolutely contributes to sea-level rise. To put it in perspective, if all of the glaciers situated above the entire Larsen ice shelf were to flow down into the ocean, we’re looking at maybe 8 to 10 cm of sea-level rise. But that’s if the entire ice shelf and the glaciers above it were to disintegrate. Nobody is saying right now that that’s imminent.
Sure, it’s not imminent, but it could potentially happen, right?Yes, for sure. One of the things that’s significant about this current event is, it’s a huge chunk of ice. We’re not talking about a little iceberg that just popped off and bobbed away. It’s 12 percent or so of the entire Larsen ice shelf. And the question is whether or not this may destabilize the entire system, so suddenly the entire ice shelf becomes more dynamic and may undergo a rapid disintegration. But then again, it may not. We still don’t know whether this particular area is going to “regrow” or whether it will start to disintegrate.
Ted Scambos, who’s a glaciologist from the National Snow & Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, characterized it as “suspicious,” and I think that’s reasonable. And what I mean by “suspicious” is that when you put it in context with the other changes which have been going on in the region, then it looks like this could be a harbinger of larger change to come.
The Antarctic Peninsula as a whole has warmed significantly and a lot faster than other parts of the earth, except maybe some parts of the Arctic. Since 1950, we’re looking at about 3°C (so maybe 4.5°F) of temperature increase. Although this warming trend has recently slowed, likely due to changes in regional wind patterns, this is still a lot. And then we’ve got a succession of ice shelf collapses, starting in the northernmost area—the warmest—and slowly working its way more and more south.
I know that scientists are reluctant to tie specific events to climate change. Do you feel confident saying that this iceberg is a result of climate change?In the context of all the other things going on in the region, my gut feeling is that climate change certainly contributed to it. However, as you said, it is not possible to draw a direct connection between climate change and this exact specific event. Ice shelves naturally shed ice from time to time. But yes, my gut tells me that something is up.
You have a personal relationship with Antarctica, and also a stake in it as a scientist. How does this event make you feel?It’s almost theatrical, right? As a human, I see an event like this and it’s awe-inspiring and beautiful and fascinating to watch. It’s a huge symbol—the breakup of ice—which is connected to all kinds of other social and global issues that we’re facing these days. But then I have to temper that by recognizing that things happen on time scales which are not always easy to grasp as human beings, and that this could be a once-every-so-many-thousand-year event that occurs, and then the ice shelf replenishes itself. My gut feeling is that it’s not, is that it is a harbinger of more changes to come. But it’s just simply too difficult for me to make a call right now.
And what about the penguins. Are there penguins on the chunk now, floating away? Separated, parent from child?As far as I know, the penguins didn’t particularly like this ice shelf anyway. Penguins tend to like places where they can get in and out of water pretty easily, and there’s no known major penguin rookery on the ice shelf. So the penguins aren’t floating away. There are other threats on penguins, don’t get me wrong, but not this one.
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Instagram Nfts Are Here… What Does That Mean For Artists?
It’s official: Instagram (IG) is diving head-first into the NFT ecosystem. With the recent launch of new in-app NFT features, a select number of influential creators were greenlighted to start interacting with blockchain tech on the larger-than-life social media platform.
Although Meta originally announced plans to create an Instagram NFT marketplace back in March, these latest features lean more towards content sharing rather than commerce. And why shouldn’t they? Considering that Twitter and Discord have proven to be the stomping grounds of the NFT community, some would say that IG taking the plunge into the NFT space is overdue.
Additionally, while Meta is undoubtedly still hard at work on Instagram’s impending NFT trading functionality, the NFT marketplace/Web3 social media race has continued to grow, with the anticipated Coinbase NFT Beta now live and blazing a trail through the NFT ecosystem.
But IG is, at its core, a social media platform geared toward visual art. It is vastly different than any other NFT platform or marketplace in existence. So what do IG NFTs mean for artists? Let’s take a look.
What are Instagram’s NFT features anyways?As previously mentioned, Instagram’s new features have not been made available to everyone. With this latest update, 16 artists, NFT creators, and collectors have been empowered to post NFTs that they either created or own on IG by linking third-party digital wallets (like Rainbow or MetaMask) in-app. There are currently no fees associated with posting or sharing a digital collectible on IG.
NFTs displayed on the app are differentiated from regular posts by way of a special “shimmer” visual treatment. Aside from looking different, NFT posts are also given a “digital collectible” badge that lists metadata including who the creator and/or owner of the NFT is, what platform it was created on, a brief description of the NFT, and an identifier linking it to the blockchain it was minted on.
An example of digital collectibles displayed on Instagram. Credit: Meta
While it seems Meta’s social media NFT endeavors have launched via Instagram, the company is also gearing up to roll out digital collectibles on Facebook, with more digital collectibles features also on the horizon for IG. Similarly, at this time only the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains are supported, with integrations for other top NFT blockchains like Flow and Solana coming soon.
How will artists use these new features?So far, artists are using IG’s NFT features as indented by posting NFTs that they created or own on IG by linking third-party digital wallets. Again, these features currently have no NFT trading elements built-in, but are rather meant to be a way for creators to share NFTs with their IG audiences.
This doesn’t mean that IG NFTs are a simple one-and-done process, and creators, especially those like IG-native aerial/street photographer Natalie Amrossi (@misshattan), are already finding unique uses for them.
“I decided to not just be the creator that posts NFTs that I’ve created, but also support other artists in the space,” Amrossi said in an interview with nft now. “And that’s the most beautiful thing about being able to connect your wallet and being able to share your NFTs. It’s not just the pieces that you create, but it’s also the ones that you collect.”
Now a prominent name in the NFT space, Amrossi has been creating and uploading her art to Instagram for years. With the recent launch of IG’s NFT features, she says she can clearly see the value of Instagram joining the NFT space in support of artists.
“Web2 gave me the tools that I needed to become an artist and make a living,” says Amrossi. “Before the term ‘influencer’ was even a thing, all I was doing was creating my art. And with Instagram’s help, I was able to reach so many different people and different brands, and that gave me a livelihood.”
Even artists like Sophia Wilson (@phiawilson) who haven’t yet amassed millions upon millions of views on their pieces are incentivized to share NFTs on IG. Wilson, a relatively new name in the NFT space, seems to have already gone above and beyond the scope of these new IG features. By pivoting to release her new NFT series “Losing My Mind” by way of IG NFT posts, she has circumvented the lack of IG NFT commerce by using her network to market her multi-piece collection.
“‘Losing My Mind’ is a photo series I’ve been working on for a while now. I was planning on releasing it as NFTs even before IG reached out to get involved, so it was kind of a match made in heaven,” Wilson tells nft now.
Wilson says the series is, among other things, about Black feminine figures and increasing representation in the media for those similar to herself. A respectable endeavor to be sure, as we’ve continued to see a huge lack of representation for POC artists in the NFT space thus far.
“Over the past year, I’ve been dealing with some mental health issues that caused my emotions to be so extreme that it was hard to function in everyday life for a while, so that’s really what inspired this photo series. I will be releasing a new photo with Meta from my series for sale every Wednesday and Friday for the next three weeks.”
In addition to providing her with a new platform through which she can share her own minted artworks, Wilson says she hopes that these new IG features might help further build a bridge between the NFT community and the many other subsections of the internet, many of which live and thrive on Instagram.
“NFTs can often seem daunting as an outsider, but having the ability to see NFTs so clearly on your day-to-day IG feed as you’re scrolling makes it a lot less foreign of a concept,” says Wilson. “I definitely think IG has tons of potential to become a hub of discovery for NFT enthusiasts, and this will make NFTs more accessible to artists and collectors alike.”
What does it all mean for the NFT space?If one thing has become clear surrounding Instagram’s new features, it’s that Meta’s NFT and metaverse endeavors will continue to impact the NFT ecosystem at large. Many hope that it will be for the better, as IG NFT scams have themselves become another major problem plaguing the NFT ecosystem.
Although IG’s new NFT features at present seem comparable to Twitter’s PFP NFT verifications, we could very well see Instagram’s tools helping to cut down on scams as users are now able to verify the creation and ownership details of entire NFT collections featured in IG posts.
Considering the massive volume of visual artists and NFT creators that use the platform, it’s possible IG could, as Wilson said, become yet another hub of discovery for NFT enthusiasts. But if this becomes the case, it calls into question just who might be most successful on Instagram. Will we see up-and-coming artists incentivized to share their NFTs? Or will those with an already established and robust fanbase dominate this new ecosystem?
To influential multidisciplinary artist Elise Swopes (@swopes), it’s the smaller artists who truly need to be the beneficiaries of these new features. Swopes has remained one of the most prominent visual artists on Instagram for years, earning accolades as one of the first accounts added to Instagram’s original suggested user list in 2012.
Swopes says that she would love to see IG become a hub of discovery, and acknowledges the importance of artists in the NFT space as well as the necessity of taking care of the creators that keep the NFT ecosystem going.
“I’d love to see [IG become a hub of discovery] not just for the Beeples and, you know, everybody who already makes a lot of money: like the Apes and PFPs. That’s great for them, but I think [IG NFT features] are more for utilizing this new type of technology to support artists at their start,” Swopes said in an interview with nft now.
“Especially music artists. I mean, this is all across the board. We’re talking dancers, poets, painters, sculptors, and musicians. It’s not just like digital artists and the element that I’m creating, it can be anything at this point. So I’m excited to see how people get creative.”
The sentiment of IG’s new features having the potential to uplift smaller artists seems to be shared across the board by Swopes, Wilson, and Amrossi. And while it remains to be seen just how these new features might truly impact the NFT ecosystem once unlocked for the rest of the growing IG NFT community, we will undoubtedly see more social media NFT integrations cropping up in the months and years to come.
4G: What Does This Really Mean?
4G: What does this really mean?
Texas resident, Keith Geissler, contacted the Better Business Bureau when he found that his ATRIX 4G was only pushing around 300kbps up the tube instead of the expected 5.5mbps.
The ATRIX is a HSUPA-capable device, and we currently are performing the testing and preparations necessary to ensure that, when we turn this feature on, you will continue to have a world class experience.
AT&T hasn’t quite gotten their act together as quick as they had hoped with this one. Sometimes the real answer is that these systems are technically the bleeding edge, and it’s not some conspiracy to keep you from achieving your top speeds on the wireless internet. Here’s a little help discerning the technical specs from behind the marketing malarkey surrounding the wireless broadband available on the market.3G, 4G, LTE, HSPA, WiMax
I could go into a Wikipedia-esque discussion of all of the various mobile data standards since the dawn of mobile data standards, but I’d rather not. I’m going to focus on disambiguation of a few of these key terms and let you know what you really need to know. If you haven’t heard of LTE, HSPA, or WiMax before, don’t be alarmed. They’re just protocols to govern wireless and mobile data transmission. They set standards so that your device can talk to any similarly equipped cellular tower
It makes it easier that these technologies are already cleanly divided along service provider lines. LTE has been deployed in the US by Verizon and MetroPCS. WiMax is the realm of Clearwire and Sprint. AT&TMo are known to use HSPA to provide their broadband. Of course these lines are shifting with the shakeups going on in the market, but that’s how things are currently arrayed.
HSUPA
What is HSUPA? Does it make sense that it was turned off? Should we clamor for AT&T’s summary execution? HSUPA is a part of the HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) wireless telecommunications protocol. It’s the part that lets you upload quickly. The HSUPA (The U stands for Uplink) works along side HSDPA (Downlink) to provide the whole protocol, HSPA. Get it? Really, the fact that this portion of the system was delayed is not really a surprise to anyone who has ever imagined the amount of real infrastructure that goes into producing the end-user-experience we expect. Honestly, whenever a telcom rolls out an upgrade project of this magnitude, it’s hilarious if anyone doesn’t expect delays in something. HSUPA was where the slack had to be this time, no big deal. Hey, AT&T, just let us know what the deal is before we have to go to the Better Business Bureau.
What’s up with all of these G’s? How many G’s do I need again?
The G designation on all of these various technologies is a generational marker by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Most smartphone users are more than happy with their current 3G connection. It allows for mobile e-mail browsing, web-surfing, and some amount of streaming video. I’ve enjoyed Netflix on my iPhone with no hiccups. With all that the 3G is able to deliver, it’s still all about the 4G. Or if you’re not into the whole brevity thing, the 4th Generation of Mobile Telephony Standards. None of the technologies available on the market can currently hang with the ITU’s 4G requirements. The ITU set “peak speed requirements for 4G service at 100 Megabits per second for high mobility communication (such as from trains and cars) and 1 Gbps for low mobility communication (such as pedestrians and stationary users).”
LTE vs WiMax vs HSPA
WiMax and LTE are standards that come from different organizational origins. WiMax comes from the side of the IEEE, known for bringing you the collection of standards we dub Wi-Fi. This standard Wi-Fi connection is governed by a set of protocols collectively known as 802.11. WiMax is governed by a set of protocols collectively known as 802.16. LTE is a product of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), spawned from the international GSM standard. “Work on LTE has been going on since 2004, building on the GSM/UMTS family of standards that dates from 1990”
My friend, Robert Evans, recently sang of the death of WiMax. The standard has had a good run of it since they’ve had NTT DoCoMo of Japan coming after it since 2004. What? You don’t remember when NTT DoCoMo called for LTE or Long Term Evolution, to become the international standard for wireless communication? Neither did I. Even with six years in the making, the long term goals of LTE have not yet been made manifest, as the standard is still considered to be a third generation communication technology as it’s currently deployed. Full fourth generation wireless transmissions will be coming out this year with specifications like the LTE Advanced.
We will continue to see increased transmission speeds and decreased latency via wireless over the next few years, regardless of the protocol in which the packets are scribed.
Read more about what’s going on with your wireless at Android Community.
[via Gadget Lab]
Android Jetpack: What Do The Recent Announcements Mean For Android’s Support Library?
What is Android Jetpack?Android Jetpack provides a series of unbundled libraries not tied to any particular version of Android, giving developers a way to support newer features on older versions of the Android operating system. In addition to backward compatibility, Jetpack promises to help you get more done, with less code, by providing the boilerplate to handle repetitive tasks like managing the application lifecycle.
Android Jetpack components are divided into these categories:
Foundation- This covers core system capabilities, such as AppCompat.
UI- This is the category for UI-focused components, including Fragment and Layout, but also for components that aren’t restricted to smartphones, such as Auto, TV, and Wear OS by Google (formerly Android Wear).
Architecture- This is where you’ll find modules to help you handle the challenges surrounding data persistence and the application lifecycle.
Behavior- This category contains modules such as Permissions, Notifications, and Sharing.
Android Jetpack also introduces five brand-new components:
WorkManagerWorkManager is a job dispatching service that lets you schedule tasks, specify some optional constraints, and then leave WorkManager to handle the rest. When you use WorkManager to schedule a task, it’s guaranteed to run as soon as the conditions are met. If you schedule a battery-intensive task to run when the device is charging, then this task will execute as soon as the device is connected to a power outlet, even if the user has exited your application or rebooted their device in the meantime.
By default, WorkManager executes the task immediately in a new background thread, but if your application isn’t running it’ll choose the most appropriate way to schedule the task, based on factors such as API level and whether the device has access to Google Play services. Depending on these factors, WorkManager may schedule the task using JobScheduler, Firebase JobDispatcher, or a custom AlarmManager and BroadcastReceiver implementation.
Navigation Paging SlicesThis is a collection of modules consisting of extensions that optimize the Android platform APIs for Kotlin. Using these extensions, you can make your Kotlin code more concise and readable, for example by using the androidx.core:core-ktx module, you can turn:
Code
sharedPreferences.edit() .putBoolean("key", value) .apply()Into:
Code
sharedPreferences.edit { putBoolean("key", value) }Note that Android KTX doesn’t actually add any new features to the existing Android APIs.
Is Android Jetpack replacing the Support Library?Code
dependencies { implementation fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar']) implementation "android.arch.work:work-runtime:1.0.0-alpha02" implementation "com.android.support:appcompat-v7:27.1.1" implementation "com.android.support.constraint:constraint-layout:1.1.0" androidTestImplementation "com.android.support.test:runner:1.0.1" androidTestImplementation "com.android.support.test.espresso:espresso-core:3.0.1"Here, we’re using Jetpack’s WorkManager component alongside several components from the Support Library.
Where do the Architecture Components fit in?If you’ve read through the list of Jetpack components, then you’ll have noticed that it also includes all of the Architecture Components:
Lifecycles. This is a library for managing application lifecycles and avoiding memory leaks, by creating lifecycle-aware components that respond to changes in the lifecycle status of other components.
ViewModel. UI-related data is often lost in configuration changes like screen rotations. Since ViewModel objects are retained across configuration changes, you can use this class to ensure your data remains available, even after an Activity or Fragment has been destroyed and then recreated.
LiveData. A lifecycle-aware data holder class that helps you avoid memory leaks, by only updating application components when they’re in an active STARTED or RESUMED state.
Room. This SQLite object mapping library aims to take the pain out of database management by creating a local cache of your application’s data that remains accessible, even when there isn’t an active internet connection.
Do I need to switch to the androidx.* namespace? Create a project that supports AndroidX out of the boxThis requires adding the following to your project’s gradle.properties file:
Code
android.useAndroidX=true android.enableJetifier=true Refactor an existing projectUpdate the detailed information about What Google Partners Changes Mean For Agencies & Clients on the Achiashop.com website. We hope the article's content will meet your needs, and we will regularly update the information to provide you with the fastest and most accurate information. Have a great day!