Big Tech ain't quite what it says it is
Reflecting on this summer's technology news leads to the conclusion that industry giants are producing a great deal more heat than light in this era
September is already upon us, and we are all collectively gearing up towards a sprint finish to a quite extraordinary 2024. One thing that the media industry doesn't lack is drama and disruption, and the year has not failed us in that respect so far.
Having just returned from a break, and catching up with news that affects our industry, there is no shortage of large ticket items, even during what here in the UK we affectionately call the Silly Season - when then news cycle dries up and everyone scratches around for something, anything, to write about, regardless of how ridiculous it may be.
I mean, it may feel like a silly season if you switched off for a couple of weeks. After laughably wanting to sue advertisers for exercising their free will and buying choices by not advertising on X, Space Karen has now managed to get X banned in Brazil for failing to comply with the Brazilian government's legal requests. There is now a war of words and threats between a tech giant and a South American land giant. Being a Big Tech company/platform these days means you feel empowered enough to start threatening the fifth largest country in the world. You may not like their laws, but they are a sovereign nation and can enforce their laws any which way they please.
Meanwhile, the brains at Google have seemingly managed to roll back the changes from the Harmful Content Update as we have "affectionately" called it here at Glide Towers. Our friend, Barry Adams, of Polemic Digital fame sensibly asks: "Will we at least get an apology for the massive economic harm caused?". Well, I for one am not expecting Google to even acknowledge it as a mistake. With law-makers already breathing down their neck, it is just as well for Mountain View that such economic harm is difficult to directly prove unless there is the specific political will to do so.
Speaking of political and legal will, a small bit of huge news is that a panel of judges in the US has batted away the section 230 defence put up by TikTok over a terribly sad case involving a young girl who died after performing a viral challenge she had been shown on the platform. Will such an unspeakable tragedy ultimately see the controversial Section 230 reconsidered, and place platforms under the same obligations that publishers already rightfully carry? The "we are not publishers" shtick is wearing so thin it puts nanothreads to shame.
Elsewhere, a sizeable smattering of AI companies are either being sued or are being sued. NVIDIA, the darling of AI-boom chip making has lost $280bn worth of value after the US Department of Justice OJ issued an antitrust subpoena against it.
Meta is going at it hard with GenAI (thanks to your personal data, dear reader), in the hope that the Metaverse and the $46 billion thrown at it will be forgotten forever.
Apple, without such a GenAI strategy and a messy relationship with Google has nothing new and genuinely exciting to offer to their loyal, but increasingly slow-to-upgrade fanbase.
Welcome back to work. A bit of distance though, provides also a bit of perspective.
What came to my mind is sitting on a panel with a competitor of ours and discussing the subject of GenAI. Our competitor was breathlessly going on about how we were at a dawn of Artificial General Intelligence. I have to admit to being unprofessional and rolling my eyes a bit. In turn, I explained that at Glide, we tend to see as AI as Augmentative Intelligence at this point, not some panacea that will take away all the ills of our much disrupted yet very resilient industry. Perhaps, we have been in media for too long (30 years for me this summer), but we find that cynicism is healthy as it keeps us rooted. It is important to see things for what they are, rather than what you are told they are.
I note that our competitor has now started using the term Augmentative Intelligence too. I am both pleased and flattered, good on them.
My own conclusion, as illustrated by my Summery summary, is that Big Tech has become better at PR and hype, legal battles, and monopolistic practices than it has at what made it, innovation. A good PR example is that the gargantuan compute and therefore energy power needed for GenAI is not really discussed, unlike it was with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, an area of innovation in which Big Tech has largely found itself outflanked. The legal firewall that is Section 230 has stood firm for 30 years, providing a shield that no publisher has the luxury of.
So, what of innovation? Well, innovation comes from constraints and pressure. Recently, I had pleasure of hearing that one of our customers, Poker.org, were marvelled at by a large gaming partner of theirs as to how much they have done with a small dev and product team (and Glide CMS and Glide Nexa as platforms of course, I am obliged to add!).
I was obviously delighted to hear that - how could I not? A third party validating both us and and our customer. There can be no greater endorsement.
Without namechecking all of our customers, seeing what they do, with the resources they have at their disposal, I am regularly blown away by the speed of innovation and agility shown. Small, capable teams delighting their customers day in day out, nimbly adapting to various Big Tech winds buffeting their businesses.
The media industry as a whole has had to be innovative to survive with fraction of resources that Big Tech has. And yet, the overwhelming feeling is that we are somehow laggards while Big Tech are some trailblazers. Perhaps it is the post holiday optimism talking, but I think we don't give ourselves enough credit.
Onwards!
Anderson v. TikTok
A US appeals court has revoked the protection offered by Section 230 in the Anderson v. TikTok case, rendering the tech giant legally answerable for user-generated content and its insufficient moderation. This ruling now places its fellow tech titans in a vulnerable position as well.
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New kids on the AI block
Entering the scene amidst the turmoil caused by SB 1047 in Silicon Valley's AI sector, an ex-OpenAI board member Ilya Sutskever has stacked $1 billion for his new "safety-focused" AI company.
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AI Overviews vs publishers' (in)visibility
AI Overviews are now taking center stage for 17% of queries in the UK and US, and publishers are gearing up for potential shifts in their visibility and traffic. Users in the US, UK, and some select other countries, be prepared to scroll further down the search results to find the original content Google is using to based their AIO on.
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Click challenge
Julia Alexander, previously a content strategist at Vox Media and now with The Walt Disney Company, discusses the persistent struggle between Google's (un)helpful content updates, AI Overviews and publishers. Case in point — Gannett shutting down its product reviews site Reviewed.
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Big Tech's cash-for-content clash
In case you've been delighting in some well-deserved time off or just haven't been keeping up with the latest, here's a catch-up on Google/Meta vs. news content and and the part governments are playing in ensuring Big Tech compensates publishers for content they profit from.
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Google monopoly 2.0?
Despite all the bleak outcomes, there remains a potential bright side for those in the publishing industry. Following the landmark search monopoly verdict, Google is bracing for another court session next week, which will zero in on its advertising strategies and impact on news organisations.
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Brazil says tchau to Musk
After an extended period of tension between Moraes and Musk, Brazil has banned X for refusing to comply with Brazilian Supreme Court orders. But while Musk is battling the South American giant, he treads lightly when it comes to European territory. The Irish Data Protection Commission has confirmed X has complied not to use European users' posts for AI training.
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Power of newsletters
Guidance on newsletter strategies from our technology partners, Poool. Lessons to be learned.
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Les-SEO-ns to be learned
A Detailed view into top domains on Google’s Top Stories feature in 2024, and a special appreciation of standout independents and their SEO success.
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Egyptian Streets' new chapter
A success story of an independent news outlet coming from the land of the pyramids and pharaohs.
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Wake up and scroll the coffee
The Economist turns towards younger audiences with a new AI-translated news app Espresso, serving up a free cup of news for students worldwide.
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