Five Links #19
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Absorbing
Five links for your inbox from this week.
1. John Gruber on businesses that rely on Facebook’s tracking
Facebook complaining about Apple’s ad-tracking privacy controls are like pawn shops complaining about the police cracking down on a wave of burglaries. Privacy belongs to users; Facebook was taking tracking information that wasn’t theirs to take without permission or knowledge. Small businesses that benefited by buying these ads — in some cases with business models that hinge entirely on the precision targeting afforded by Facebook’s user tracking — are downwind from the crime, but that doesn’t make their success from these ads legitimate.
(Emphasis my own.)
Does anyone say it better than John Gruber? Is this the moment people realise that building a resilient business takes more than relying on Facebook’s tracking ads (setting aside the rest of their ethically bankrupt practices)?
2. Color & Contast
“A comprehensive guide for exploring and learning about the theory, science and perception of color and contrast.”
3. Cost of solar panels
Another great post from Terence Eden’s blog, this time calculating the recouped cost on energy from solar panels when energy costs are increasing. Eden calculates an annual saving of £1,000 – a figure that will surely only increase in the short term.
4. Shop Different
Michael Steeber spent 7 months putting together this Apple Store Time Machine that lets you browse a few iconic Apple Stores from years past. Steeber gave an enlightening interview on The Talk Show looking at some of the details that went into putting this together.
5. Cal Newport on TikTok, Meta and social platforms
“This all points to a possible future in which social-media giants like Facebook may soon be past their long stretch of dominance. They’ll continue to chase new engagement models, leaving behind the protection of their social graphs, and in doing so eventually succumb to the new competitive pressures this introduces. TikTok, of course, is subject to these same pressures, so in this future it, too, will eventually fade. The app’s energetic embrace of shallowness makes it more likely, in the long term, to become the answer to a trivia question than a sustained cultural force. In the wake churned by these sinkings will arise new entertainments and new models for distraction, but also innovative new apps and methods for expression and interaction.”
In this prediction, I find optimism. If TikTok acts as the poison pill that finally cripples the digital dictators that for so long subjugated the web 2.0 revolution, we just might be left with more breathing room for smaller, more authentic, more human online engagements.
Food for thought (and optimism).
Projects + other things
- Scruples: We’ve had a last-minute slot open for one project in September/October. This doesn’t happen often. If you – or a client – might like to work with us, we’d love to chat.
- What’s the deal with privacy-focused analytics? If you start looking at how to make a website more privacy-focused, analytics will come up almost immediately. Why is this such a hot topic?
- My Unoffice Hours are available every other Wednesday. Next slot: August 24th.
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Until next time,
Dave