Sci-Tech Market

Facebook Traffic to News Sites Plummets by 50% in the Past 12 Months

Facebook Traffic to News Sites Plummets by 50% in the Past 12 Months

pgnewser May 15, 2024

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Excerpt from tribune.com.pk

Facebook’s referral traffic for major news publishers down by 50%

Chartbeat and Similarweb reveal significant decline in referral traffic from prominent media outlets worldwide

Major internet analytics firms claimed that the data showed Facebook’s referral traffic for major news publishers was down by 50% in 12 months, according to a report published in Press Gazette.

According to the report, Google’s first core algorithm update of 2024 did not favour the vast majority of publishers, as hundreds of news media groups experienced a gradual decline in referral traffic, even up to 50%.

News publisher analytics firm Chartbeat and digital intelligence platform Similarweb tracked some 792 news and media websites. Chartbeat reported that referrals from social media platforms, particularly Facebook, have witnessed a steep decline. Over the past six years, there’s been a staggering 58% plunge in referrals to news sites, dropping from a whopping 1.3 billion in March 2018 to just 561 million last month.

Critical vulnerabilities in BIG-IP appliances leave big networks open to intrusion– arstechnica.com

Critical vulnerabilities in BIG-IP appliances leave big networks open to intrusion– arstechnica.com

pgnewser May 9, 2024

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Excerpt from arstechnica.com

Researchers on Wednesday reported critical vulnerabilities in a widely used networking appliance that leaves some of the world’s biggest networks open to intrusion.

The vulnerabilities reside in BIG-IP Next Central Manager, a component in the latest generation of the BIG-IP line of appliances, which organizations use to manage traffic going into and out of their networks. Seattle-based F5, which sells the product, says its gear is used in 48 of the top 50 corporations as tracked by Fortune. F5 describes the Next Central Manager as a “single, centralized point of control” for managing entire fleets of BIG-IP appliances.

As devices performing load balancing, DDoS mitigation, and inspection and encryption of data entering and exiting large networks, BIG-IP gear sits at their perimeter and acts as a major pipeline to some of the most security-critical resources housed inside. Those characteristics have made BIG-IP appliances ideal for hacking. In 2021 and 2022, hackers actively compromised BIG-IP appliances by exploiting vulnerabilities carrying severity ratings of 9.8 out of 10.

Once-Hidden Hydrogen Gas Deposits Could Be a Boon for Clean Energy– www.scientificamerican.com

Once-Hidden Hydrogen Gas Deposits Could Be a Boon for Clean Energy– www.scientificamerican.com

pgnewser May 9, 2024

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Excerpt from www.scientificamerican.com

Laurent Truche, a geochemist at Grenoble Alpes University in France, has been searching for naturally occurring hydrogen for nearly a decade. This year, in a chromite mine in Albania, he and his colleagues struck gold, or rather another element on the periodic table. Nearly a kilometer below the surface, they discovered a hydrogen seep so strong it turned a murky drainage pond into something resembling a Jacuzzi. Truche had never seen hydrogen bubbles that big. “It was really intense,” he says.

Natural hydrogen is hydrogen gas in its molecular form (H2) that is generated through natural processes. Formed deep within Earth, it may get trapped on its way to the surface, creating accumulations of gas. Confusingly also called “gold,” “white” or “geological” hydrogen, natural hydrogen could offer us an energy source cleaner than other types of hydrogen because there is no carbon involved in the process that generates it (although drilling and distribution would still involve some carbon dioxide emissions, of course). A recent study estimated the greenhouse gas intensity of natural hydrogen to be 0.4 kilogram of CO2 equivalent per kilogram (kg CO2eq/kg), far less than the 22-26 kg kg CO2e/kg of black hydrogen (produced from coal) or the 10-14 kg CO2e/kg of blue hydrogen (produced from natural gas).

Elon Musk Aims To Deploy Tesla Robotaxis In China: Report– news.abplive.com

Elon Musk Aims To Deploy Tesla Robotaxis In China: Report– news.abplive.com

pgnewser May 9, 2024

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Excerpt from news.abplive.com

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, aims to implement his company’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology into robotaxi services in China, according to a report by staterun China Daily. Last month, the Tesla CEO made an unexpected trip to China, where he had a meeting with Premier Li Qiang, the country’s second-highest-ranking politician.

According to news agency Bloomberg, Musk, whose company is facing sluggish sales, received a significant boost when Chinese officials gave their initial approval for Tesla to introduce its FSD technology in the country. However, according to the report from China Daily, that wasn’t the sole topic of discussion.

The report, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that the Chinese government also offered partial backing to Musk’s proposal to integrate Tesla’s FSD technology into the country’s taxi services.

Musk’s wager on fully autonomous vehicles isn’t particularly unexpected, given the recent shifts he’s made to reorient the automaker as a software company.

Facebook will now let your business create entire ad campaigns using AI– www.techradar.com

Facebook will now let your business create entire ad campaigns using AI– www.techradar.com

pgnewser May 9, 2024

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Excerpt from www.techradar.com

In an effort to give businesses the best tools for success (but more importantly, to keep up with the likes of Google), Meta has unveiled new generative AI features for advertisers on its platforms.

The upgrades, which are set to roll out over the course of this year, will include full image and text generation capabilities.

Besides improving efficiency by automating certain parts of the ad creation process, Meta also says that its GenAI features will help to improve ad performance by offering up more creative variations.

The most eye-catching addition will be Meta’s image generation tool, which offers advertisers the ability to generate full image versions inspired by their original ad content. The tool includes text overlay capabilities and a handy image expansion feature to make adjusting the aspect ratio of an image easier.

GM CEO committed to China and electric vehicles– www.theblaze.com

GM CEO committed to China and electric vehicles– www.theblaze.com

pgnewser May 8, 2024

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Excerpt from www.theblaze.com

 

General Motors CEO Mary Barra said that the company will push forward with its operations in China despite a whopping loss in the country in the first quarter of 2024.

Barra recently visited China and promised that GM remained committed to the market, which has been a mainstay for the manufacturer since 1997. A $106 million loss in the first quarter in China was just GM’s third quarterly loss in the far east in the last 15 years, CNBC reported, but the company announced that it expects the numbers to turn around.

GM CFO Paul Jacobson reportedly told investors that the company expects similar or slightly lower than $446 million in profit, which is what it garnered in China in 2023.

However, 2023 was the lowest year for equity income for GM in China since at least 2012, but this has come at a much smaller market share. GM’s percentage of the market has shrunk from nearly 15% down to 8.6% in the last decade, lowering expectations.

Still, 2023’s numbers were more than $230 million lower than 2022, despite only losing 1.2% of the market share in that time. Comparatively, GM’s income in China stayed relatively the same between 2014 and 2018 despite its market share dropping by about 1%.

Elon Musk Tightens Grip on Tesla As Top Exec Gets Redeployed to China– www.businessinsider.com

Elon Musk Tightens Grip on Tesla As Top Exec Gets Redeployed to China– www.businessinsider.com

pgnewser May 7, 2024

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Excerpt from www.businessinsider.com

One of Tesla’s top executives has been reassigned to China in another sign that Elon Musk is tightening his grip on the electric carmaker.

Tom Zhu, who was previously in charge of Tesla’s US plants and sales — effectively making him second in command to Elon Musk — has now been named VP of China, Electrek reports.

Prior to the move, Zhu had assumed more responsibilities at Tesla as Musk was increasingly occupied by X, according to Electrek.

Reuters reported last year that Zhu — who had formerly led the Gigafactory Shanghai manufacturing plant — had been promoted.

Now, Musk has resumed control of Tesla’s North American sales operations, Electrek reports.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

WhatsApp CEO, Co-Founder Jan Koum Is Leaving Facebook– www.aol.com

WhatsApp CEO, Co-Founder Jan Koum Is Leaving Facebook– www.aol.com

pgnewser May 7, 2024

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Excerpt from www.aol.com

WhatsApp founder and Chief Executive Officer Jan Koum is leaving Facebook Inc., just a few years after his messaging app was acquired by the social-media giant for $22 billion.

Koum posted his plan to depart on his Facebook page, saying the decision was emotional. His mobile-messaging tool, which has been kept separate from Facebook’s main social network, its Messenger app and other businesses, is known for offering end-to-end encryption, meaning only the sender and recipient can see the content of messages. The app has about 1.5 billion users worldwide. The news received a quick response from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

“I’m grateful for everything you’ve done to help connect the world, and for everything you’ve taught me, including about encryption and its ability to take power from centralized systems and put it back in people’s hands,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Those values will always be at the heart of WhatsApp.”