What we think of this fortnight’s top tech news stories and rumours,
and how they affect you
Discuss web news at http://www.facebook.com/webusermagazine 22 Jan - 4 Feb 2020^9
Need to Know
tested early in 2020
and, if successful, will
roll out across the site
globally later in the
year. If and when it
does arrive, you’ll have
four options for each
post: Global, Group,
Panel and Statement.
The Global setting
lets anyone reply to
your tweet, as is the
case now, while Group
limits replies to people
who you follow or
mention in the tweet.
Panel allows replies
from only those people you
mention in the tweet and,
with Statement, no replies
are possible. Essentially, the
settings provide control over
who you’re willing to have a
conversation with.reminding users that they
don’t have to use Google
because other options are
available. Of course, you can
still switch to another search
engine manually at any time.What do we think?
This is a complicated way to
deal with the problem of
Google’s mobile dominance.
Most phone users simply
stick with the default settingsTwitter to let users control tweet replies
DuckDuckGo wins Android search ballot
Twitter is still developing
the feature but staff at the
company have suggested
that users would still be
able to quote a tweet if
they want to discuss it.What do we think?
More control for Twitter
users is generally a good
idea, and this could help
people who are frequently
abused or trolled on the
site. But it also makes it
harder for users to dispute
or correct false information
in a tweet, and the spread
of misinformation is
another serious problem
for the site. Twitter faces a
challenge in that
addressing one problem
may make another
situation worse.and apps, which makes it
difficult for other, smaller
developers to win market
share – even if they offer a
superior product. And
DuckDuckGo is well worth
a look for anyone who
doesn’t want everything
they do online used to
target them with ads. Don’t
wait for the search ballot
on your next phone – try
DuckDuckGo today.What happened?
Twitter is continuing its
efforts to clean up abuse
on the social network with
a new feature that lets
users restrict who can
reply to their posts. The
aim is to reduce “pile ons”,
when large numbers of
people reply to a tweet
with harassing or
aggressive messages
because they don’t like
something said in the
original post.
The feature could also
help to stop abuse by
anonymous accounts
because they won’t be able
to reply to all messages.
Twitter has already
introduced tools to limit
which messages you see if
you’re worried aboutWhat happened?
DuckDuckGo (duckduckgo
.com) has won the auction
to be advertised in the
Android search-engine
ballot, even though it
disagrees with the system.
Google was forced by EU
regulators to show Android
users alternative search
engines and browsers that
they can use on their
phones, rather than
sticking with the default
options of Google and
Chrome. The initial ballot’s
alternative options
appeared to be based on
market share so, to address
complaints from its rivals,
Google ran a sealed-bid
auction for three of the top
four slots.
DuckDuckGo won one of
those slots, which meansoffensive content, and this
move is the latest effort to
lessen the torrent of abuse
and bullying on the site.How will it affect you?
Twitter said the idea will beGoogle will offer the privacy-
focused search engine as an
option when users set up
their new devices.How will it affect you?
This particular ballot only
covers March until June of
2020, with another auction
set to follow for browser-
choice screens. By winning
the auction, DuckDuckGo will
be listed as a Google
alternative to all European
markets for that time period,
alongside Info.com and, in
the UK, Bing. One major rival,
Ecosia, will not be shown
because it refused to take
part in the “pay to play”
auction. DuckDuckGo also
disagrees with the auction
system, but still took part.
The screen is only shown
during setup of a new phone,