Techmeme
February 16, 2022, 10:05 AM

Top News

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
Mark Zuckerberg outlines changes to Meta's corporate values, including “Move Fast Together”, “Live in the Future”, and “Meta, Metamates, Me”  —  Meta.  Metamates.  Me.  —  At a virtual all-hands meeting on Tuesday, Facebook escalated its attempts …
Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times:
Google says it plans to bring Privacy Sandbox to Android, limiting data sharing from smartphones, and promises the changes will be less disruptive than Apple's  —  It says it will give other companies plenty of time to adapt to changes to its Android software.  Similar changes made by Apple affected big internet companies.
DKB:
Google search quality is declining because of too many ads, SEO, and “smart” AI, prompting people to append “reddit” to queries to get more authentic results  —  Reddit is currently the most popular search engine.  The only people who don't know that are the team at Reddit …
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D) and Marsha Blackburn (R) unveil the Kids Online Safety Act, requiring platforms offer users under 16 extra safety and privacy tools  —  A bipartisan pair of senators on Wednesday unveiled a sweeping bill that aims to give parents more control over their children's time online …
IEEE Spectrum:
Blind patients with Second Sight's electronic retinal implants are in danger of losing their artificial vision as the tech becomes obsolete and unsupported  —  Second Sight left users of its retinal implants in the dark  —  Barbara Campbell was walking through a New York City subway station during rush hour …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Twitter expands a beta test of Safety Mode, which temporarily blocks accounts using harmful language in replies, to 50% of users in the US and 5 other markets  —  Twitter is broadening access to a feature called Safety Mode, designed to give users a set of tools to defend themselves …
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Facebook rebrands News Feed to just Feed after more than 15 years  —  The ‘News Feed’ is now just the ‘Feed’  —  Meta is changing the name of Facebook's News Feed, the primary part of the service that users scroll through to see what their friends and family have shared.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Roblox misses with Q4 revenue of $568.8M vs. $604M est., up 83% YoY, average DAUs of 49.5M, up 33% YoY, and average bookings per DAU of $15.57; stock drops 20%+  —  Roblox, the platform for Lego-like user-generated games, reported its bookings for the fourth quarter ended December 31 were $770.1 million …
Monica Chin / The Verge:
Google announces early access to Chrome OS Flex, a version of Chrome OS for businesses and schools that is designed to run on old PCs and Macs  —  It's made for schools and businesses  —  Google has announced early access to a new version of Chrome OS called Chrome OS Flex.
Ilena Peng / Bloomberg:
Shopify beats with Q4 revenue up 41% YoY to $1.38B, as GMV rose 32% YoY to $54.1B, but says FY 2022 revenue growth will be below FY 2021; shares drop 14%+  —  Shopify Inc. said it expects revenue growth to be lower in 2022 than it was last year as online spending resets after the Covid-19 induced boom …
Financial Times:
Sources: the UK Home Office is seeking changes to the Online Safety Bill to require platforms monitor “legal but harmful” content, worrying the tech industry  —  Radical powers in online bill would increase liability of global internet groups beyond current global regulation
Rafaela Lindeberg / Bloomberg:
Ericsson CEO says the company might have made payments to ISIS to gain access to transport routes in Iraq in 2018, causing shares to drop by over 8.5%  —  Ericsson may have made payments to the ISIS terror organization to gain access to certain transport routes in Iraq, in a shock admission following years of regulatory investigations.
Farah Elbahrawy / Bloomberg:
Digital security company Elm, owned by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, rises 30% in its Riyadh trading debut to $44.30 after raising $820M in its IPO  —  Elm Co., a digital security firm owned by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, surged 30% in its trading debut.
More: Arab News
Kyle Alspach / VentureBeat:
Akamai says it will acquire cloud hosting company Linode, which positions itself as an AWS alternative for SMBs and independent developers, for $900M  —  Akamai Technologies announced today it has reached an agreement to acquire infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform provider Linode …

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Zoho:
Celebrate and collaborate this holiday season with Zoho Cliq  —  The holiday season is a time for celebration, relaxation, and reflection.  While some people are busy wrapping presents for their loved ones …
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Mon. 12/23 - The Revenge Of Google Glass?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:05 AM ET, February 16, 2022.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Wall Street Journal:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: