Advertising

Mozilla announced today that it's adding recommendations to the URL bar in Firefox through a new feature called "Firefox Suggest." Now, in addition to the autocomplete suggestions that show whenever you begin typing something, you'll see suggestions from Mozilla itself. It also looks like Mozilla will use Firefox Suggest to serve ads, though users will have some degree of control over the recommendations they see.

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The video you're likely about to watch was produced by Google to make you giggle. It was made to promote the Google Pixel 5a, sure, but less because it's a great phone and more because you love to watch ads during the Super Bowl. You might even forget what the video is about by the time you get to the end of it.

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After a leak of info earlier this week, it's become far more official: Samsung Pay will no longer have advertisements. This will require a software update in the near future, but should be coming soon. Samsung Mobile President Roh Tae-moon suggested that this move was due to requests from customers and employees.

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Today it appears that Samsung unofficially announced they'd be removing advertisements from inside their own apps. This means the Samsung Galaxy device apps like Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay, and so forth. It's been ages since we last heard about even the possibility that Samsung would remove advertisements for their own products inside the apps that are placed in their own products!

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If there were still any doubts about video gaming becoming mainstream, the fact that major brands are coming up with all sorts of antics to appeal to that crowd. No one can probably top KFC's gaming PC, but there are some that come a close second. Krispy Kreme's idea to celebrate the Xbox's 20th anniversary may seem tame in comparison, but it will at least give gamers a tasty treat while also offering the chance to get a new fridge, er, Xbox console in the process.

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There's a new song out in the world today by the 90's R&B group All-4-One. This new single is a parody of a song released decades ago, appearing here via Xbox All Access Records, itself a parody of the actual Xbox All Access gaming system. The group, the actual All-4-One music group, came together to record a brand new music video for the song "It's All There (I Swear Remix)" to promote Xbox All Access for gamers.

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Pinterest has announced sweeping changes to its ad policy regarding weight-loss advertisements. The company cites the surprising uptick in eating disorders and problematic eating habits that are primarily impacting young people. After months spent socially isolating, many people are heading back out and socializing -- and trying to crash diet to shed their pandemic pounds.

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Ads have unfortunately become an inescapable part of digital life, but, thankfully, there has been some pushback on the aggressive and invasive nature of ads. Given the nature of its business, it's no surprise that Google has become the poster child for often questionable advertising strategies. That came under the spotlight again this week when Google not only put video ads on the home screens of its Android TV and Google TV platforms but also made those ads automatically play with audio and no way to turn them off.

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Google's Privacy Sandbox, particularly its Federated Learning of Cohorts or FLoC, had the grand ambition of making third-party cookies unnecessary for target advertising, thereby protecting people's privacy even while making money from them. Like many of Google's grand ambitions, FLoC was met with no small amount of criticism and pushback. The company still maintains its position on the benefits of FLoC and its innocence from alleged ulterior motives. To give time to address those concerns, it is taking a small step back and delaying FLoC's implementation to 2023.

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Facebook has a sort of reverse Midas' touch where everything it touches gets stained by its own stigmas. Every product it buys or gets close to eventually gets involved in its privacy issues or, at the very least, its advertising businesses. It was the latter surprised, shocked, and even disgusted Oculus users last week when the social networking giant announced the start of its advertising tests on the VR platform. Users expressed their opposition so strongly that Blaston, the first and so far only game to test this system, has quickly pulled out from the program.

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Instagram Reels, the company's TikTok competitor, is going to start including adverts among its short video clips, expanding the marketing globally. It's the second big monetization push that Facebook has made this week, having announced yesterday that it planned to trial advertising in virtual reality experiences viewed through its Oculus Quest 2 headset.

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Facebook is adding adverts to Oculus Quest, revealing today that it's testing in-headset ads in a handful of virtual reality titles. It's an announcement that many predicted would one day happen, after Facebook acquired Oculus in early 2014, though until now the social networking behemoth had seemed content to leave its promotional campaigns to its smartphone and desktop interfaces.

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