Google to make it harder for users to find pirate websites
Search engines such as Google and Bing will make it harder for UK internet users to find pirated films and music as well as restrict the ease of illegally streaming sport.
Both search engines have signed up to a new voluntary code of practice, which will ensure offending websites – such as Pirate Bay – are demoted in search results.
The entertainment industry reached the agreement with the tech giants after talks were brokered by the government. The code – said to be the first of its type in the world – is expected to be in operation by the summer.
Eddy Leviten, director general at trade body the Alliance for Intellectual Property, said: “Sometimes people will search for something and they will end up unwittingly being taken to a pirated piece of content.
“What we want to ensure is that the results at the top of the search engines are the genuine ones. It is about protecting people who use the internet, but also protecting the creators of that material too.”
READ MORE: Google and Bing to demote pirate sites
Amazon set to hire 5,000 staff as it continues UK push
This year, Amazon will create more than 5,000 new full-time jobs and launch a new apprentice programme to offer 1,000 work placements.
The new UK jobs will include software developers, engineers and technicians at its head office, with roles also on offer at its customer service centre in Edinburgh and at a new fashion photography studio in Shoreditch.
There will be a particular focus at its product development centres in Cambridge, Edinburgh and London, with new staff required to work on emerging technology such as drone delivery.
In December, Amazon revealed it had trialled a small private drone delivery in Cambridge by delivering a TV streaming stick and a bag of popcorn to a garden, 13 minutes after the order was placed. The new jobs signal Amazon’s intentions to ramp up this programme, according to The Telegraph.
READ MORE: Amazon cements UK commitment with hiring spree for 5,000 staff
Uber to launch internal investigation following sexual harassment claims
Uber will launch an internal investigation on sexual harassment after a former female engineer wrote a blog about the sexism she experienced while working for a year at the company.
Former Uber engineer Susan Fowler alleged many women in the company were consistently sexually harassed by male employees. She claims complaints are dismissed by HR.
Her chief claim was that one manager had inappropriately sexually propositioned many women, but Uber management repeatedly “refused” to punish him as he was a “high performer.”
Read the response of Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick below:
READ MORE: Uber to investigate ‘abhorrent’ harassment claims
YouTube kills off its 30-second unskippable ad format
Long seen as an annoyance by users, YouTube has announced it will end non-skippable 30-second ads that appear before a YouTube video.
“We’re committed to providing a better ads experience for users online. As part of that, we’ve decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that work well for both users and advertisers,” says a Google spokesman.
However, this news doesn’t mean all unskippable ads are going to go away. Formats that include 15- and 20-second ads will stick around on YouTube.
READ MORE: YouTube will kill unskippable 30-second ads next year
The post Amazon, Google and Uber: Everything that matters this morning appeared first on Marketing Week.
Source: Marketing Week
Amazon, Google and Uber: Everything that matters this morning