Ludmila Kudryavtseva
Trying to make the world a better place by putting letters together. Love all creatures great and small, practice jiu-jitsu.
If the news about advertising in keyboards earlier today made you decide to abandon Android devices and switch to iOS, think again.
Developers of ad blocking apps Adblock and Weblock complained to the industry press, that their app updates were rejected by Apple.
Users of Android-powered HTC 10 and HTC U11 report ads appearing on the top of the stock keyboard. HTC representatives responded by an advice to remove the latest update of an app called TouchPal. It is an emoji keyboard preinstalled on HTC. There is supposed to be no ads in the preinstalled version, but ads show in the free (trial) app downloadable from Google Play Store.
For as long as advertisements have existed, people have been trying to avoid them. No surprise there. An advertisement is an unwelcome communication that distracts attention and intrudes at its own discretion and for its own purpose.
Marketing experts writhed in agony when video cassette recorders first started gaining popularity. "It’s over now," they thought. "TV advertising is dead. People will no longer just switch channels (where they can be caught) or go to the kitchen (where they can still hear the ads). Now they can avoid an ad altogether by just cutting it off!"
Data about ads, that users see online, and purchases they make in offline stores is now combined and collated by Google in order to measure advertisement performance. Google needs to prove to its advertisers that ads can generate sales in brick-and-mortar stores. It has partnered with a company that is said to have the access to 70% of credit and debit cards transactions in the US.
Global Accessibility Awareness Day takes place on the 18th of May. Its purpose is to raise awareness about the accessibility of digital products for users with disabilities.
It is important not to confuse accessibility with availability -- the latter refers to the technical performance, the ability of a server to respond to a client’s request. Accessibility describes the convenience of a website, software or an app for people with special needs, disabilities or diseases, the very possibility to be used by such people.
