Interesting Reads from Around the Web 4
Google’s Ad Tech Stack
Link: States considering breaking up Google’s At Tech Business
About: Google’s been slowly putting together a best in class adtech platform vertically integrated in a way that’s cornered the market. This has lead to concerns around competition within the industry and unmanageable influence.
Further Reading:
A new Ad Format has arrived
Link: Pandora rolls out interactive voice ads
About: With the explosion of podcasts and devices that can can be voice activated, it was just a matter of time before marketers voice a way into this medium outside of the traditional radio ad.
The format works in, prompting the listener to reply to a question within the ad, where they would hear additional information. It’s the voice version of the “text HELLYES to this [mobile number]” call to action through SMS of yesteryear.
Ransomware the modern day highway robber… or pirate
Link: Garmin get hit by ransomware
About: Ransomware infects a computer and holds your data ransom by encrypting it i.e. locked behind a (decryption) key, until you pay the demands which is usually in cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin.
This risk can be mitigated through regular file backups to a different location, but it’s become a common security threat plaguing companies with high reliance of digital systems (i.e. almost everyone at this point).
How Athen Apartments Affected the City’s Culture
Link: Behind the Accidentally Resilient Design of Athens Apartments
About: Due to urbanisation, their was a desperate need for more affordable housing in Athens. To do this, the Greeks conceptualised their own funding system called antiparochi which “developers saved themselves the cost of buying land by giving landowners a share of the constructed units when they were completed”.
This led to a few cultural by products. One being that units were ‘layered’ the cheaper floors at the bottom which progressively got more expensive. This meant that in the one building there’d be a mixture of residents from varying socioeconomic backgrounds and therefore no ‘rich suburbs’ vs ‘poor suburbs’.
