Five things worth sharing from the last week or so, brought to you by a different member of the Browser Media team every Friday.
This week’s My Five is by Rob.
1. Google PageSpeed Insights gets an update
Version 5 is here, adopting Lighthouse as its analysis engine which, according to Google, ‘allows developers to get the same performance audits and recommendations everywhere’.
Overall the interface is easier on the eye and includes some pretty cool features, like screenshots of a website during the loading process, and the overall website score. The tool also includes several brand new features such as ‘lab data’ and ‘field data’, which users will no doubt find useful.
You can read release notes from Google here, or head straight to the PageSpeed Insight tool and test your site now.
2. Something worthwhile during Black Friday! In the US :(
The Whopper Shopper! Where Americans can sift through the usual Black Friday deals, but receive Whopper credit for purchasing from a company advertising on the site.
Everybody wins! Companies advertise deals, Burger King boosts its PR and customers buy Black Friday deals with free burgers…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU48o-3O7ms#action=share
3. Human microchipping to boost, erm… security?
You chip your dog so you can track them down if they happen to wander off; good stuff. But according to recent news reports, UK companies are considering chipping employees in an attempt to boost security and efficiency in the workplace.
Admittedly, the internal security benefits are clear as existing precautions, like access and ID cards, would become redundant for chipped employees. Yet threats would not be completely eradicated unless the chipping take-up included every employee. And what happens if the chips are susceptible to hacking? As let’s face it, technology can be hacked, it’s just a fact of the modern world we live in – so why should these chips be any different? Not to mention the human rights implications.
Is this real? If so, extremely troubling. Idea of employers microchipping workers raises massive ethical questions & huge potential for exploitation. https://t.co/RzCbhrzw5h
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) November 11, 2018
4. Fake everything
Ever heard of Threatin? According to their now deleted social media accounts, many people have and followed them as they toured across the US. So a UK tour was booked with venues snapping up the chance to host the band, who promised pre-sold tickets. The big nights came, venues were fully staffed with everyone prepared for big crowds – yet the fans never came.
Everything turned out to be fake… or did it? Although the fan base, social media accounts, record label and etc were all make believe, the band did perform in Manchester to an empty room. So the mystery is; have Threatin pulled a huge prank or told a couple of lies in the hope their tour would actually be a success?
5. Technology does it better than us
#China's delivery #robots.#robotics #AI #Iot #ML #NLP #TechCrunch #ThursdayThoughts @JolaBurnett @HeinzVHoenen @Salz_Er @RPK_Valerie @thomaspower @TerenceLeungSF @gvalan pic.twitter.com/j77ILPAqbp
— Automeme (@automeme) November 15, 2018
