Google kills off Android’s spam-ridden Nearby Notifications

After launching just three years ago, Google is putting an end to Nearby Notifications on Android. The feature, which was intended to serve up location-specific information, had recently become inundated with marketers and spammers. Android users wil...

Google-backed startup’s chat bots turn ads into conversations

AdLingo, a marketing platform fresh out of Google's Area 120 incubator program, is making advertisements "conversational" with the help of AI. AdLingo doesn't build its own chatbots, but instead connects third-party chatbot tools with a company's mar...

Netflix is distancing itself from the term ‘binge-watching’

The Oxford online dictionary has seen a spate of zeitgeist-related inclusions in recent times – 2014 was a particularly busy year, with "yolo," "clickbait" and "adorbs" working their way into the wordy hall of fame. Ditto "binge-watch," a term...

Marketers collected personal info from closed Facebook groups

It looks like Facebook has another privacy issue on its hands, this time over its closed groups. CNBC reports that Andrea Downing, a moderator of a closed Facebook group, discovered that a Chrome extension called Grouply.io let her download names, em...

Pizza Hut’s ‘smart’ shoes turn you into a fashionable couch potato

When it comes to fast-food PR stunts, Pizza Hut doesn't hold back. Seriously, this is the company that's made a jacket that keeps you as warm as, well, a pizza. The ridiculous garment came with the same insulating materials as those used in Pizza Hut...