If you’re ready to bring your business online or thinking about starting your first blog, you’ll need a server. A dedicated server stores everything you upload to your website, so it can be viewed by anyone who follows your links. Fortunately, there are plenty of companies out there that let website owners use their servers […]
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Google alternative Ecosia is on a mission to turn search clicks into trees. The Berlin based not-for-profit reached a major milestone earlier this month, having used ad revenue generated by users of its privacy-sensitive search engine to plant more than 100 million trees across 25 countries worldwide — targeted at biodiversity hotspots.
However these good feels have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Ecosia has seen its monthly revenues slashed by half since COVID-19 arrived in Europe, with turnover falling from €2.6M in February to just €1.4M in June. It’s worried that its promise of planting a tree every 0.8 seconds is at risk.
It has also suffered a knock to regional visibility as a result of boycotting an auction process that Android OS maker Google has been running throughout this year, as a response to a 2018 Commission antitrust decision that found the tech giant had violated EU competition rules in how it operates the smartphone platform — including via conditions placed on phone makers to pre-load its own services (like Google search) as device defaults.
An auction process now determines which rival search engines appear on a search ‘choice screen’ Google began showing to Android users in Europe in the wake of the Commission decision. Currently, Google offers three paid slots via the auction to non-Google search engines. Android users setting up a new device always see Google’s own search engine as one of the four total options.
The tech giant’s rivals have consistently argued this ‘pay to play’ model is no remedy for its anti-competitive behavior with Android, the world’s dominant smartphone OS. Although most (including DuckDuckGo) felt forced to participate in its auction process from the get-go. Forgoing the most prominent route to the Android search market isn’t exactly a luxury most businesses could afford.
Ecosia, a not-for-profit, was the last major hold out. But now it says it’s been forced to end its boycott in a bid to remain competitive in the region. This means it will participate in the next auction round for the Android choice screen — scheduled for the beginning of Q4. If it wins any per country slots it will appear as a search choice option to those Android users in future, though likely not til next year given the length of the auction process.
It remains highly critical of Google’s pay-to-play model, arguing it’s no remedy for the antitrust violations identified by the Commission. It also laments that EU lawmakers are taking a ‘wait and see’ approach to determining whether Google’s ‘remedy’ is actually restoring competition, given all the evidence to the contrary.
“The main reason why we boycotted the auction is because we think it’s highly unfair and anticompetitive,” says Ecosia CEO Christian Kroll, speaking to TechCrunch via video chat. “Not only do we think that fair competition shouldn’t be sold off in an auction but also the way the auction is designed basically makes sure that only the least interesting options can win.
“Since we have a business model where we use most of our revenues to plant trees we basically can’t really win in an auction model. If you’re already a search engine that’s quite well known… then you have a lot of cannibalization effects through this screen. So we’re basically paying for traffic that we would get for free anyway… So it’s just super unfair and anticompetitive.”
Kroll expresses emphatic surprise that the Commission didn’t immediately reject Google’s auction model for the choice screen — saying it seems as if they’ve learned nothing from the EU’s earlier intervention against Microsoft’s tying of its Internet Explorer browser with its dominant desktop OS, Windows. (In that case the saga ended after Microsoft agreed to implement a ballot screen offering a choice of up to 12 browsers, which paved the road for Google to later gain share with its own Chrome browser.)
For a brief initial period last year Google did offer a fee-less choice screen in Europe, pushing this out to existing Android devices — with search rivals selected based on their market popularity per country (which, in some markets, included Ecosia).
However the tech giant said then that it would be “evolving” its implementation over time. And a few months later an auction model was announced as incoming for new Android devices — with that ‘pay-to-play’ approach kicking off at the start of this year.
Search rivals including DuckDuckGo and Qwant immediately cried foul. Yet the response from the Commission has been to kick the can — with regulators offering platitudes that said they would “closely monitor”. They also claimed to be “committed to a full and effective implementation of the decision”.
However the missing adjective in that statement is ‘fast’. Google rivals would argue that for a remedy to be effective it needs to happen really fast, like now — or, for some of them, the risk really is going out of business. After all, the Commission’s Android antitrust decision (which, yes, Google is appealing) already dates back two full years.
“I find it very surprising that the European Commission hasn’t rejected [Google’s auction model] from the start because some of the key principles from what made the choice screen successful in the Microsoft case have just been completely disregarded and been turned around by Google to turn the whole concept of a choice screen to their advantage,” says Kroll. “We’re not even calling it the ‘choice screen’ internally, we just call it the ‘auction screen’. And since we’re now stopping to boycott we call it the ‘no choice screen’.”
“It’s Google’s way to give the impression that there’s free choice but there is no free choice,” he adds. “If Google’s objective here would be to create choice for the user then they would present the most interesting options, which are the search engines with the highest marketshares — so definitely us, DuckDuckGo and maybe some other players as well. But that’s not what they’re trying to do.”
Kroll points out that another German search rival to Google, Cliqz, had to pull the plug on its anti-tracking alternative at the start of this year — meaning there’s now one less homegrown anti-tracking rival to Google in play. And while Ecosia feels it has no choice but to participate in Google’s auction game Kroll says it also can’t know whether or not participating will result in Ecosia overpaying Google for leads that then mean it generates less revenue and can’t plant as many trees… Or, well, any trees if the worst were to happen.
(NB: Kroll was speaking to TechCrunch ahead of signing an NDA that Google requires participants of the auction to sign which puts a legal limit on what they can say about the process once they’re involved — which, in turn, is a problematic element that another European search rival, Qwant, has also complained is unfair… )
“We don’t have any choice left, other than to participate,” adds Kroll. “Because we want to have access to the Android platform. So basically Google has successfully bullied everyone to play to its own rules — and it’s a game where Google is not only the referee but also they get a free ticket and they are also players…
“Somehow Google magically convinced the public but I think also the European Commission that they need to generate revenue in an auction because they have so many costs through the Android development and so on. It is of course true that they have costs… but they are also generating massive profit through the deals that they then make with the device makers and those profits are not at all shared.”
Kroll points out that Google shells out a (reported) $12BN per year to be the default search engine in Safari on Apple’s iOS platform — even as it pays nothing to get in front of the vast majority of mobile searchers’ eyeballs via Android (and does the same with Chrome).
“If they would pay the same amount of money for those platform they would soon be bankrupt,” he argues. “So they are getting all this for free and they are also getting other benefits for free — like having the Play Store preinstalled, like having Google Maps preinstalled, YouTube preinstalled and so on — which are all revenue sources. But they’re not sharing any of those revenue. They just try to outsource all of the costs that they have to their competitors, which is I think very unfair.”
While Alphabet, Google’s parent entity, doesn’t break out Google Play revenue specifically from within a generic “advertising” bucket when it reports its financials, data from SensorTower for the first half of 2020 suggests it generated $17.3BN in Play Store revenue alone over this six-month period, up 21% year-over-year. And Play is just one of the moneyspinners Google derives via ‘free’ Android.
Since the Commission’s antitrust 2018 decision against Android Kroll argues that nothing has changed for search competitors like Ecosia which are trying to offer consumers a more interesting value exchange for their clicks.
“What Google is doing very successfully is they’re just playing on time,” he suggests. “Our competitor, Cliqz, already went bankrupt because of that. So the strategy seems to work really well for Google. And we also can’t afford to lose access to those platforms… I really hope that the European Commission will actually do something about this because it has been done successfully in the Microsoft case and we just need exactly the same.”
Kroll also flags DuckDuckGo’s design suggestions for “a fair choice screen” — which we covered here last year but which Google (and the Commission) have so far simply ignored.
He suspects regulators are waiting to see how the market looks in another year or more. But of course by then it may be too late to save more alternative search engines from a Cliqz-style demise, thereby further strengthening Google’s position. Which would obviously be the opposite of an antitrust remedy.
Commissioner Margrethe Vestager already conceded last year that another of her interventions against the tech giant — the Google AdSense antitrust case — is an example of “enforcement that hasn’t succeeded because it has failed to restore competition”. So if she’s not careful her record on failed remedies could dent her high profile reputation for being an antitrust chief who’s at least willing to take on tech giants. Where competition is concerned, it must be all about outcomes — or what are you even doing as claimed law ‘enforcers’?
“I always fear that the point might come when big corporates are more powerful than our public institutions and I’m wondering if this point isn’t already reached,” adds Kroll, positing that it’s not clear whether the EU — as an economic and political project now facing plenty of its own issues — will have enough resilience to be able to enforce its own competition law in the near future. So really his key point is: If not now, when? (Or, well, how?)
It’s certainly true that there’s a growing disconnect between what the Commission is saying around competition policy and digital markets — where it’s alive to the critique that regulatory interventions need to be able to move much faster if they’re to prevent monopoly power irreversibly tipping these markets (it’s currently consulting on whether to give itself greater powers of intervention) — and its hands-off approach to how to remedy market failure. tl;dr there’s no effective enforcement without effective remedies. So dropping the ball after the fact of a decision really defeats the whole operation.
Vestager clearly recognizes there’s a problem in the digital context — telling the EU parliament last year: “We have to consider remedies that are much more far reaching”. (Albeit, still not committing to having much more far reaching remedies.) Yet in parallel she preaches ‘wait and see’ as her overarching philosophy — a policy ‘push-pull’ which seems to be preventing the unit from even entertaining taking on a more agile, active and iterative role in supporting markets towards actual restoration of competition. At least not before a lengthy consultation exercise which further kicks the can,
If EU lawmakers can’t learn the lessons from their own relatively recent digital antitrust history (Microsoft tying IE to Windows) to effectively enforce what is a pretty straightforwardly similar antitrust case (Google tying search & its other services to Android), you have to question why they think they need new antitrust tools to properly tackle digital monopolies now. Given they don’t seem able to effectively wield the tools they’ve already got.
It does rather look increasingly like the current crop of EU regulators have lost conviction — and/or fallen prey to risk aversion — in the face of platform power moves. (To wit: There are whispers the Commission is preparing to wave through Google’s acquisition of Fitbit, on paper-thin promises from Google, despite major concerns raised about privacy and increased data consolidation — which, if true, would again mean the Commission ignoring its own recent history of naively swallowing other similar tech giant claims.)
“My feeling is, what has happened in the Microsoft case… there was just somebody in the Commission crazy enough to say this is what the decision is and you have to do it… And maybe it just takes those kind of guts. That’s then maybe a political question. Is Vestager willing to really pick those battles?” asks Kroll.
“My feeling is if people really understand the situation then they would care but you actually need to do a little bit of explaining that it’s not good to have a dominant player that is in such an important sector like search, and that is basically shutting down the market for everybody else.”
Asked what his message is for the US lawmakers now actively eyeing antitrust concerns around Google — and indeed much of big tech — Kroll says: “I’m a fan of competition and I also admire Google; I think Google is a very clever company but I think there is a point reached where there’s so much concentration of power that it gets dangerous for society… We’ve been suffering quite a lot from all the dominance that Google has in the various sectors. There are just things that Google are doing that are obviously anticompetitive.”
One specific thing he suggests regulators take a close look at is how much money Google pays Apple to be the default search option on Safari. “It’s paying more money than it can actually afford to win the Safari search volume — that I think is very anticompetitive,” he argues. “They already own two-thirds of the market and they basically buy whatever’s left over so that they can just cement their dominance.
“The regulators should have a very close look at that and disallow Google to participate in any of those bids for default positions in other browsers in the future. I think that would even be beneficial for browsers because in the long term there would finally be competition for those spots again. Currently Google’s just winning them because they’re running out of options and there are not many other search providers left to choose from.”
He also argues they need to make Google repair “some of the damage they’ve done” — i.e. as a result of unfairly gaining marketshare — by enforcing what he calls “a really fair choice screen”; non-paid and based on relevance for users. And by doing so on Android and Chrome devices.
“I think until a year ago if you visited Google.com with your Safari browser or Firefox browser then Google would recommend to install Chrome. And for me that’s a clear abuse of one dominant position to support another part of your company,” he argues. “Google needs to repair that and that needs to happen very quickly — because otherwise other companies might [go out of business].”
“We’re still doing okay but we have been hit heavily by corona and we have a huge loss in revenue. Other companies might be hit even worse, I don’t know. And we don’t have the same deep pockets that the big players have. So other companies might disappear if nothing’s done soon,” he adds.
We reached out to Google and the European Commission for comment.
A Google spokesperson pointed us to its FAQ about the auction. In further remarks which they specified could not be directly quoted they claimed an auction is a fair and objective method of determining how to fill available slots, adding that the revenue generated via the auction helps Google continue to invest in developing and maintaining Android.
While a spokeswoman for the Commission told us it has been “discussing” the choice screen mechanism with Google, following what she described as “relevant feedback from the market, in particular in relation to the presentation and mechanics of the choice screen and to the selection mechanism of rival search providers”.
The spokeswoman also reiterated earlier comments, that the Commission is continuing to monitor Google’s choice screen implementation and is “committed to a full and effective implementation of the decision”.
However a source familiar with the matter said EU lawmakers view paid premium placement for a few cents as far superior to what Google was offering rivals before — i.e. no visibility at all — and thus take the view that that something is better than nothing.
The new Microsoft Edge browser (Chromium-based Edge) displays a background picture on the new tab page when using an inspirational or informational page layout. With version 86, Microsoft Edge offers a way to set a custom background picture for the new tab. This means that you can now change the default background picture of the […]
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On day one of TechCrunch’s Early Stage virtual conference, Ali Partovi joined us to discuss best practices for startups looking to hire engineers.
It’s a subject that’s near and dear to his heart: Partovi is co-founder and CEO of Neo, a venture aimed at including young engineers in a community alongside seasoned industry vets. The fund includes top executives from a slew of different industry titans, including Amazon, Airbnb, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Stripe.
Partovi is probably best known in the Valley for co-founding Code.org with twin brother, Hadi. The nonprofit launched in 2013 with a high-profile video featuring Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Jack Dorsey, along with a mission to make coding education more accessible to the masses.
It was a two-summer internship at Microsoft while studying at Harvard that gave Partovi an entrée into the world of tech. And while it was clearly a formative experience for the college student, he advises against prospective startup founders looking to large corporations as career launch pads.
“I spend a lot of time mentoring college students, that’s a big part of what I do at Neo,” Partovi said.
“And for anyone who wants to be a founder of a company, there’s a spectrum, from giant companies like Microsoft or Google to early-stage startups. And I would say, find the smallest point on that spectrum that you’re comfortable with, and start your career there. Maybe that’s a 100-person company or maybe for you, it’s a 500-person company. But if you start at Microsoft, it’ll be a long time before you feel comfortable doing your own startup. The skills you gain at a giant company are very valuable for getting promoted and succeeding in giant companies. They’re not often as translatable to being your own founder.”
Online shopping service Instacart says reused passwords are to blame for a recent spate of account breaches, which saw personal data belonging to hundreds of thousands of Instacart customers stolen and put up for sale on the dark web.
The company published a statement late on Thursday saying its investigation showed that Instacart “was not compromised or breached,” but pointed to credential stuffing, where hackers take lists of usernames and passwords stolen from other breached sites and brute-force their way into other accounts.
“In this instance, it appears that third-party bad actors were able to use usernames and passwords that were compromised in previous data breaches of other websites and apps to login to some Instacart accounts,” the statement reads.
The statement comes after BuzzFeed News reported that data on more than 270,000 user accounts was for sale on the dark web, including the account user’s name, address, the last four digits of their credit card, and their order histories from as recently as this week.
Instacart said that the stolen data represents a fraction of the “millions” of Instacart’s customers across the U.S. and Canada, a spokesperson told BuzzFeed News.
But who’s really to blame here: the customers for reusing passwords, or the company for not doing more to protect against password reuse?
Granted, it’s a bit of both. Any internet user should use a unique password on each website, and install a password manager to remember them for you wherever you go. That means if hackers make off with one of your passwords, they can’t break into all of your accounts. You should also enable two-factor authentication wherever possible to prevent hackers from breaking into your online accounts, even if they have your password. By sending a code to your phone — either by text message or an app — it adds a second layer of protection for your online accounts.
But Instacart cannot shift all the blame onto its users. Instacart still does not support two-factor authentication, which — if customers had enabled — would have prevented the account hacks to begin with. When we checked, there was no option to enable two-factor on an Instacart account, and no mention anywhere on Instacart’s site that it supports the security feature.
Data published by Google last year shows even the most basic two-factor can prevent the vast majority of automated credential stuffing attacks.
We asked the company if it plans to roll out two-factor to its users. When reached, Instacart spokesperson Lyndsey Grubbs would not comment on the record beyond pointing to Instacart’s already published statement.
Instacart claims security is a “top priority,” and that it has a “dedicated security team, as well as multiple layers of security measures, focused on protecting the integrity of all customer accounts and data.”
But without giving users basic security features like two-factor, Instacart users can barely protect their own accounts, let alone expect Instacart to do it for them.
Google AR search results are one of the coolest new things to come out of Google’s labs in recent months. After all, who doesn’t want to have a wide variety of animals blasted into their living room on command?
Starting today, Google has made its augmented reality search results a bit more terrifying with the addition of 23 3D insects.
If you want to check out the new insects, you’ll need to have an ARCore-supported Android device or an iOS device running iOS 11 and up. From there, you’ll just need to search for the insect you want to see in its larger-than-life form.
The Verge found that there are a total of 23 insects added with this update. And here’s the complete list of 3D insets you can now check out in augmented reality:
Typing in any of the names listed above will bring up your typical results, but you’ll also see a button labeled View in 3D. You just need to tap that button and you’ll be able to view the insect either in your room through AR or only on a blank background.
This update is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what you can find within Google AR search results. There are all sorts of animals, such as dogs, cats, tigers, and more. You can even look at different kinds of dinosaurs right in your home.
It’s a cool feature that makes searching the internet a more engaging and exciting experience. And if you can’t get enough augmented reality, check out these fantastic augmented reality applications you can download right now.
Read the full article: Google AR Adds 3D Insects to Its Search Results
Buying furniture can get pretty expensive. Fortunately, there are other people on the internet who are keen to give away their old goods. Below, we’ve listed four free furniture websites where you can find what you need, based on a couple of key geographic regions.
These sites are great for anyone who is on a minimal budget but still needs to fill their apartment or home.
Before you stuff your room with random items, you might want to consider how those objects look side-by-side. You can also learn the basics of design through these free online interior design courses that you can take right now.
If you already know what you’re doing, however—or you don’t care about how things look—then head over to Craigslist: the ultimate cornucopia of stuff.
Craigslist is available worldwide. It’s also the best site on this list to find free second hand furniture if you’re living in the US. Really, you can discover anything here—including a few dubious ads while looking for new items. So be careful when responding to advertisements, and make sure you know how to look for signs of a scam.
On the “Free” section of the website:
With that said, if you’re planning to pick something up at someone’s house (and not the curb) be wary. As mentioned, there are some dubious ads and individuals on the site, so asking to meet someone outside in a public place would be best.
Additionally: If you want to sell your goods, instead of finding goods, here is a list of sites like Craigslist to buy and sell used stuff online.
If you’re UK-based and you’re looking for some appliances via free furniture sites, the site Preloved has a nice little section called Freeloved. There, you can find all sorts of goods, including free furniture that you can pick up and use for your own apartment!
When you log onto the site:
Based on what we saw through our exploration of the site, there are no real categories for what types of free items exist. So when using this site, you’ll need to bring along some of your Googling skills. It’s useful to know how to search for keywords.
Now let’s say you’re on the North American side of the pond, but you’re not in the US. In fact, you’re north of the border in Canada, and you want to know where to get free furniture, too.
If this describes you, then you can use Kijiji.ca as an alternative to Craigslist. It basically performs the same classifieds function and works in a very similar manner. While you can browse the site without an account, you will need to register with your email address to use the website to its full extent.
By going to the Kijiji website, clicking on the “Free Stuff” link, then navigating to your geographic region, you can find all sorts of free items, including furniture. The furniture ranges from pianos to bookshelves and comes in various stages of pre-use.
I’ve personally used Kijiji for a variety of different functions, from apartment hunting to looking for old items to refurbish. My advice for anyone who wants to use Kijiji is the same advice you would give to a person using Craigslist:
Note: Kijiji was originally introduced to both Canadian and US markets, but became “one of eBay’s unsuccessful attempts to challenge Craigslist,” as detailed by The New York Times. While Kijiji never did well in the US, it reached stratospheric heights of popularity in Canada. It still holds onto that popularity to this day.
Jumping back across the Atlantic: If you’re based in the UK, the website Gumtree has a small selection of freebies where you can find various pre-used items, including free furniture.
To find the free second hand furniture, go to the website, then choose For Sale > Freebies from the directory at the top. You can also just bookmark the link we included above.
As for the selection of goods provided:
The internet can act as a massive retail repository for new and used goods. If you keep on digging, you can find free things to buy, including many practical items like free furniture. However, as with the case concerning all online classifieds, be very careful of who you speak to. Be careful about where you meet, as well.
If you’re looking for more resources to set up a comfortable living space, here’s a list of household hacks and DIY experts who can help you organize your home.
Read the full article: Where to Find Free Furniture Online: The 4 Best Sites
It’s natural to take design inspiration from other people’s work. But there’s nothing more annoying than seeing a font you love and not knowing what it’s called, or discovering that it’s way beyond your budget.
Fortunately, there are lots of tools to help you identify typefaces, or find similar fonts for free. So, let’s take a look at the best ways to find free fonts similar to paid fonts.
If you already know the name of the font you’d like to use, but just can’t afford to buy it, then Alternatype is the tool to use. The site has a large database of typefaces—just enter the name of the one you like and it will suggest one or two free alternatives.
Downloadable and web fonts are both supported, with a download link for each. There’s also a Specimen option that allows you see the font in action before you decide to use it.
Identifont works along similar lines, allowing you to enter the name of the font to get a list of possible alternatives. Each font page includes a display with upper and lower case characters, a few symbols, and links to where you can get the fonts.
But there’s more. Identifont also allows you to match fonts by feature. Click through a series of options—does it have serifs, descenders, and so on—and you’ll end up with a list of suggested alternatives. You might not find an exact match this way, but you could find something you like even more.
Unusually, you can search dingbats fonts as well, to find those that contain certain symbols.
If you’re not sure of the name of the font, or it’s not showing up in the Alternatype or Identifont databases, you could use an image to identify it instead. Using What Font Is, you can either upload a screenshot of the text or just use a link to an online image where the font appears.
You will then need to identify the individual letters in the word or phrase in your image. What Font Is can present you with all results, or filter down to only free fonts or only fonts that can be used commercially.
The larger the characters are the better chance What Font Is has of identifying the font. A few tests with smaller images yielded inaccurate results.
WhatTheFont, from myfonts.com, is quick and easy to use. Drag your image into the browser window and it should automatically detect the text. If not—or if there’s more than one font in use—adjust the crop box to select the text you need.
Hit the Identify button to instantly see some font suggestions. Once you’ve got your results you can test them out with text of your own. Commercial fonts are included among the results, with no filter options.
If you like WhatTheFont, there’s a mobile app version for iOS and Android, too. You can use these to take photos to identify fonts in magazines or on billboard posters.
Font Matcherator is available from fontspring.com, and claims to be more powerful than its rivals.
It works with images you upload, or on any image from the web—you just need to know the URL. It works best with text on a plainer background. We found it struggled to auto-detect text on busier images.
When this happens you can crop in to the text manually, and home in on specific characters to improve the recommendations.
What we like about Font Matcherator is that it works with OpenType font features, including substitute glyphs. So if you’ve got handwritten fonts, for example, it should work well with them where other services may struggle.
All of these other services run in your web browser. But if you’ve got Photoshop you can just use that instead.
The benefit is that it doesn’t just work with online fonts (Typekit or Adobe Fonts, in this case), it can match those you’ve already got installed on your system. Given how easy it is to amass a huge collection of fonts—and how hard it can be to organize them—this is a really valuable feature.
To get started, open the image containing the font you want to match. Go to Type > Match Font. Then drag the crop box over a portion of the text, and wait for the results to appear in the Match Font dialog box.
While it’s always good to be inspired by typography you see in existing projects, when it comes to free fonts you aren’t short of choices.
For the best free web fonts, take a look at our guide to Google Fonts you can use in presentations. Alternatively, you can download hundreds of fonts from our pick of the best sites for free fonts.
Read the full article: How to Find Free Fonts Similar to Paid Fonts
Dominoes is a type of turn-based tile game that has been around for a very long time. Each deck of dominoes has a collection of tiles marked with spots that correspond to different moves that you can make in a game.
There are also multiple, different domino games that you can play with a deck—just like you can with a deck of cards.
In the current era, the popularity of dominoes has continued. Now, you can play game of dominoes online as well. With that in mind, here’s a list of free dominoes games that you can play online, either on your phone or in a web browser.
As a large website devoted to casual apps, Agame.com has tried to bill itself as one of the principal places where you can “try many of the world’s best free online games.”
On Agame.com, the genres range from racing games and simulators, to board games like checkers. They also have a section devoted to dominoes, which we’ve explored in depth.
In the dominoes section, you can find lots of different apps, ranging from Block to Deluxe. Each of these games is free-to-play, and you can try them out at whatever speed you desire. Overall, we found these games enjoyable, although the interface for them was not the most responsive. There are also a lot of ads.
Basically, if you want to play a dominoes game online, Agame.com is free, easy, and can be accessed in your browser. Best of all, if you tire of dominoes, you can quickly try playing another genre on the website. It’s a great way to spend some time on a lazy weekend afternoon.
NB: Some of these games require Adobe Flash, but not all.
Playdrift is another website that allows you to play dominoes online, either with an account or as a “Singleplayer” guest facing off against a bot. If you’re a casual player looking to breeze your way through a short period of boredom, then playing as a guest is really all you need.
When playing in single-player mode:
Once all of these options are settled, you can start playing.
Additionally, the interface is responsive to your screen size, so you can resize Playdrift in one window while doing something simultaneously in another. As it is not a timed game, this means you can leave it alone for hours, and take your turns at your leisure.
Another major upside to using Playdrift is that it has far fewer ads than a site like Agame.com. These ads can and do disrupt your gameplay if there are too many of them at a time, so it’s good that Playdrift avoids this.
Overall, the website is engaging and user-friendly. Other than that—if you’re looking for additional, slow-moving, casual games with a user-friendly interface—here’s a list of the best classic board game apps for your phone.
Are you sick of browser games? Would you rather have your casual apps “to-go”? Then you need to download Dominoes, a game for Android and iOS.
To play, just open the app on your phone, Click New Game, then choose the settings for the game (i.e. first move, difficulty levels, starting hand, and win points). Then you’re set.
Some really cool features from this game that may make it preferable to playing dominoes in your browser:
Overall, Dominoes is a fun, casual app to try out.
Download: Dominoes for Android | iOS (Free)
Are you looking for a mobile dominoes option that is a bit flashier? If so, Dominoes Jogatina is another gaming app for Android and iOS. It’s free to play with a subscription available.
When you download the app, you can create an account, or play free as a guest. Additionally, there’s an option to upgrade to a VIP account, if you want to play without any ads.
Considering how many ads Jogatina plays, this subscription might be something that folks should look into. This is especially true if you play the game all of the time.
Despite the frequent ads, Jogatina is a slick-looking app that is actually lots of fun to play. The different domino games that you can try out include Draw, Block, and All Fives. You can play against users or bots, too.
When all is said and done, Jogatina is a good distraction for anyone who prefers to play on their phone. It’s also a good app if you don’t mind paying a bit of extra money to get an enhanced experience.
Download: Dominoes Jogatina for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
Dominoes is a fun game to play, and it’s fairly simple. After all, if you’re just looking for something casual to do to pass the time—whether you’re tied to your desk or on-the-go—then one of these websites or apps should do the trick. Even if you’ve never played dominoes before, it will make it easy for you to learn.
If you’re looking for more casual games to try out, and your heart isn’t set on dominoes, then read up on the mobile gaming hidden gems everyone should play.
Read the full article: The 4 Best Free Dominoes Games to Play Online
One of the most significant differences between Samsung phones and tablets and other Android-powered devices is the operating system. Sure, it’s Android, but it’s so heavily modified that it’s barely recognizable. Even the digital assistant is different, as Samsung uses Bixby, while most Android devices rely on Google Assistant instead.
That might be changing soon, though, as a report from Bloomberg indicates that Google and Samsung are in talks to scale back the use of Bixby and move Samsung devices over to Google Assistant.
According to the report, Google and Samsung are discussing some significant changes to Samsung’s devices. Rather than pushing Samsung’s application marketplace and Bixby, Samsung would put more focus on Google Play and Google Assistant. The report doesn’t indicate that Samsung’s software would be removed, but just that it would be scaled back.
When Bloomberg reached out to Google for comment, the representative didn’t deny the talks but didn’t confirm them either.
The representative said, “Like all Android device makers, Samsung is free to create its own app store and digital assistant. That’s one of the great features of the Android platform. And while we regularly talk with partners about ways to improve the user experience, we have no plans to change that.”
Google and Samsung are negotiating a major deal that would give the search giant's products more prominence on Samsung phones https://t.co/Op810UAuj3
— Bloomberg (@business) July 29, 2020
Samsung also commented, downplaying the talks but not denying them outright.
“Samsung remains committed to our own ecosystem and services,” said the Samsung representative. “At the same time, Samsung closely works with Google and other partners to offer the best mobile experiences for our users.”
Of course, if this were to happen, Samsung probably wouldn’t do it for free. Google would stand to make a lot of money if it was to have Google Assistant and Google Play featured more heavily. Samsung is the largest smartphone maker in the world, which means a lot of users would likely embrace Google’s ecosystem if this were to go through.
Right now, nothing will change. Samsung’s current suite of devices will continue to use the company’s modified version of Android OS and Bixby. However, if the talks go ahead, future Samsung devices could look a lot more like Google’s Pixel phones than the current lineup.
Are you thinking about getting a Samsung device like the Galaxy S20? Then here’s everything you need to know about the Samsung Galaxy S20 series before you throw down your hard-earned money.
Image Credit: Samsung
Read the full article: Samsung Phones May Get More Google and Less Bixby
Google AR search results are one of the coolest new things to come out of Google’s labs in recent months. After all, who doesn’t want to have a wide variety of animals blasted into their living room on command?
Starting today, Google has made its augmented reality search results a bit more terrifying with the addition of 23 3D insects.
If you want to check out the new insects, you’ll need to have an ARCore-supported Android device or an iOS device running iOS 11 and up. From there, you’ll just need to search for the insect you want to see in its larger-than-life form.
The Verge found that there are a total of 23 insects added with this update. And here’s the complete list of 3D insets you can now check out in augmented reality:
Typing in any of the names listed above will bring up your typical results, but you’ll also see a button labeled View in 3D. You just need to tap that button and you’ll be able to view the insect either in your room through AR or only on a blank background.
This update is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what you can find within Google AR search results. There are all sorts of animals, such as dogs, cats, tigers, and more. You can even look at different kinds of dinosaurs right in your home.
It’s a cool feature that makes searching the internet a more engaging and exciting experience. And if you can’t get enough augmented reality, check out these fantastic augmented reality applications you can download right now.
Read the full article: Google AR Adds 3D Insects to Its Search Results
Buying furniture can get pretty expensive. Fortunately, there are other people on the internet who are keen to give away their old goods. Below, we’ve listed four free furniture websites where you can find what you need, based on a couple of key geographic regions.
These sites are great for anyone who is on a minimal budget but still needs to fill their apartment or home.
Before you stuff your room with random items, you might want to consider how those objects look side-by-side. You can also learn the basics of design through these free online interior design courses that you can take right now.
If you already know what you’re doing, however—or you don’t care about how things look—then head over to Craigslist: the ultimate cornucopia of stuff.
Craigslist is available worldwide. It’s also the best site on this list to find free second hand furniture if you’re living in the US. Really, you can discover anything here—including a few dubious ads while looking for new items. So be careful when responding to advertisements, and make sure you know how to look for signs of a scam.
On the “Free” section of the website:
With that said, if you’re planning to pick something up at someone’s house (and not the curb) be wary. As mentioned, there are some dubious ads and individuals on the site, so asking to meet someone outside in a public place would be best.
Additionally: If you want to sell your goods, instead of finding goods, here is a list of sites like Craigslist to buy and sell used stuff online.
If you’re UK-based and you’re looking for some appliances via free furniture sites, the site Preloved has a nice little section called Freeloved. There, you can find all sorts of goods, including free furniture that you can pick up and use for your own apartment!
When you log onto the site:
Based on what we saw through our exploration of the site, there are no real categories for what types of free items exist. So when using this site, you’ll need to bring along some of your Googling skills. It’s useful to know how to search for keywords.
Now let’s say you’re on the North American side of the pond, but you’re not in the US. In fact, you’re north of the border in Canada, and you want to know where to get free furniture, too.
If this describes you, then you can use Kijiji.ca as an alternative to Craigslist. It basically performs the same classifieds function and works in a very similar manner. While you can browse the site without an account, you will need to register with your email address to use the website to its full extent.
By going to the Kijiji website, clicking on the “Free Stuff” link, then navigating to your geographic region, you can find all sorts of free items, including furniture. The furniture ranges from pianos to bookshelves and comes in various stages of pre-use.
I’ve personally used Kijiji for a variety of different functions, from apartment hunting to looking for old items to refurbish. My advice for anyone who wants to use Kijiji is the same advice you would give to a person using Craigslist:
Note: Kijiji was originally introduced to both Canadian and US markets, but became “one of eBay’s unsuccessful attempts to challenge Craigslist,” as detailed by The New York Times. While Kijiji never did well in the US, it reached stratospheric heights of popularity in Canada. It still holds onto that popularity to this day.
Jumping back across the Atlantic: If you’re based in the UK, the website Gumtree has a small selection of freebies where you can find various pre-used items, including free furniture.
To find the free second hand furniture, go to the website, then choose For Sale > Freebies from the directory at the top. You can also just bookmark the link we included above.
As for the selection of goods provided:
The internet can act as a massive retail repository for new and used goods. If you keep on digging, you can find free things to buy, including many practical items like free furniture. However, as with the case concerning all online classifieds, be very careful of who you speak to. Be careful about where you meet, as well.
If you’re looking for more resources to set up a comfortable living space, here’s a list of household hacks and DIY experts who can help you organize your home.
Read the full article: Where to Find Free Furniture Online: The 4 Best Sites
It’s natural to take design inspiration from other people’s work. But there’s nothing more annoying than seeing a font you love and not knowing what it’s called, or discovering that it’s way beyond your budget.
Fortunately, there are lots of tools to help you identify typefaces, or find similar fonts for free. So, let’s take a look at the best ways to find free fonts similar to paid fonts.
If you already know the name of the font you’d like to use, but just can’t afford to buy it, then Alternatype is the tool to use. The site has a large database of typefaces—just enter the name of the one you like and it will suggest one or two free alternatives.
Downloadable and web fonts are both supported, with a download link for each. There’s also a Specimen option that allows you see the font in action before you decide to use it.
Identifont works along similar lines, allowing you to enter the name of the font to get a list of possible alternatives. Each font page includes a display with upper and lower case characters, a few symbols, and links to where you can get the fonts.
But there’s more. Identifont also allows you to match fonts by feature. Click through a series of options—does it have serifs, descenders, and so on—and you’ll end up with a list of suggested alternatives. You might not find an exact match this way, but you could find something you like even more.
Unusually, you can search dingbats fonts as well, to find those that contain certain symbols.
If you’re not sure of the name of the font, or it’s not showing up in the Alternatype or Identifont databases, you could use an image to identify it instead. Using What Font Is, you can either upload a screenshot of the text or just use a link to an online image where the font appears.
You will then need to identify the individual letters in the word or phrase in your image. What Font Is can present you with all results, or filter down to only free fonts or only fonts that can be used commercially.
The larger the characters are the better chance What Font Is has of identifying the font. A few tests with smaller images yielded inaccurate results.
WhatTheFont, from myfonts.com, is quick and easy to use. Drag your image into the browser window and it should automatically detect the text. If not—or if there’s more than one font in use—adjust the crop box to select the text you need.
Hit the Identify button to instantly see some font suggestions. Once you’ve got your results you can test them out with text of your own. Commercial fonts are included among the results, with no filter options.
If you like WhatTheFont, there’s a mobile app version for iOS and Android, too. You can use these to take photos to identify fonts in magazines or on billboard posters.
Font Matcherator is available from fontspring.com, and claims to be more powerful than its rivals.
It works with images you upload, or on any image from the web—you just need to know the URL. It works best with text on a plainer background. We found it struggled to auto-detect text on busier images.
When this happens you can crop in to the text manually, and home in on specific characters to improve the recommendations.
What we like about Font Matcherator is that it works with OpenType font features, including substitute glyphs. So if you’ve got handwritten fonts, for example, it should work well with them where other services may struggle.
All of these other services run in your web browser. But if you’ve got Photoshop you can just use that instead.
The benefit is that it doesn’t just work with online fonts (Typekit or Adobe Fonts, in this case), it can match those you’ve already got installed on your system. Given how easy it is to amass a huge collection of fonts—and how hard it can be to organize them—this is a really valuable feature.
To get started, open the image containing the font you want to match. Go to Type > Match Font. Then drag the crop box over a portion of the text, and wait for the results to appear in the Match Font dialog box.
While it’s always good to be inspired by typography you see in existing projects, when it comes to free fonts you aren’t short of choices.
For the best free web fonts, take a look at our guide to Google Fonts you can use in presentations. Alternatively, you can download hundreds of fonts from our pick of the best sites for free fonts.
Read the full article: How to Find Free Fonts Similar to Paid Fonts
Dominoes is a type of turn-based tile game that has been around for a very long time. Each deck of dominoes has a collection of tiles marked with spots that correspond to different moves that you can make in a game.
There are also multiple, different domino games that you can play with a deck—just like you can with a deck of cards.
In the current era, the popularity of dominoes has continued. Now, you can play game of dominoes online as well. With that in mind, here’s a list of free dominoes games that you can play online, either on your phone or in a web browser.
As a large website devoted to casual apps, Agame.com has tried to bill itself as one of the principal places where you can “try many of the world’s best free online games.”
On Agame.com, the genres range from racing games and simulators, to board games like checkers. They also have a section devoted to dominoes, which we’ve explored in depth.
In the dominoes section, you can find lots of different apps, ranging from Block to Deluxe. Each of these games is free-to-play, and you can try them out at whatever speed you desire. Overall, we found these games enjoyable, although the interface for them was not the most responsive. There are also a lot of ads.
Basically, if you want to play a dominoes game online, Agame.com is free, easy, and can be accessed in your browser. Best of all, if you tire of dominoes, you can quickly try playing another genre on the website. It’s a great way to spend some time on a lazy weekend afternoon.
NB: Some of these games require Adobe Flash, but not all.
Playdrift is another website that allows you to play dominoes online, either with an account or as a “Singleplayer” guest facing off against a bot. If you’re a casual player looking to breeze your way through a short period of boredom, then playing as a guest is really all you need.
When playing in single-player mode:
Once all of these options are settled, you can start playing.
Additionally, the interface is responsive to your screen size, so you can resize Playdrift in one window while doing something simultaneously in another. As it is not a timed game, this means you can leave it alone for hours, and take your turns at your leisure.
Another major upside to using Playdrift is that it has far fewer ads than a site like Agame.com. These ads can and do disrupt your gameplay if there are too many of them at a time, so it’s good that Playdrift avoids this.
Overall, the website is engaging and user-friendly. Other than that—if you’re looking for additional, slow-moving, casual games with a user-friendly interface—here’s a list of the best classic board game apps for your phone.
Are you sick of browser games? Would you rather have your casual apps “to-go”? Then you need to download Dominoes, a game for Android and iOS.
To play, just open the app on your phone, Click New Game, then choose the settings for the game (i.e. first move, difficulty levels, starting hand, and win points). Then you’re set.
Some really cool features from this game that may make it preferable to playing dominoes in your browser:
Overall, Dominoes is a fun, casual app to try out.
Download: Dominoes for Android | iOS (Free)
Are you looking for a mobile dominoes option that is a bit flashier? If so, Dominoes Jogatina is another gaming app for Android and iOS. It’s free to play with a subscription available.
When you download the app, you can create an account, or play free as a guest. Additionally, there’s an option to upgrade to a VIP account, if you want to play without any ads.
Considering how many ads Jogatina plays, this subscription might be something that folks should look into. This is especially true if you play the game all of the time.
Despite the frequent ads, Jogatina is a slick-looking app that is actually lots of fun to play. The different domino games that you can try out include Draw, Block, and All Fives. You can play against users or bots, too.
When all is said and done, Jogatina is a good distraction for anyone who prefers to play on their phone. It’s also a good app if you don’t mind paying a bit of extra money to get an enhanced experience.
Download: Dominoes Jogatina for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
Dominoes is a fun game to play, and it’s fairly simple. After all, if you’re just looking for something casual to do to pass the time—whether you’re tied to your desk or on-the-go—then one of these websites or apps should do the trick. Even if you’ve never played dominoes before, it will make it easy for you to learn.
If you’re looking for more casual games to try out, and your heart isn’t set on dominoes, then read up on the mobile gaming hidden gems everyone should play.
Read the full article: The 4 Best Free Dominoes Games to Play Online
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg appeared less than entirely truthful at today’s House Judiciary hearing, regarding last year’s major Onavo controversy, in which his company paid teenagers to use a VPN app that reported detailed data on their internet use. Though he may not have outright lied about it, his answers were evasive and misleading enough to warrant a rushed clarification shortly afterward.
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) was asking Zuckerberg to confirm a series events last year first reported by TechCrunch: A VPN app called Onavo, owned by Facebook, was kicked out of Apple’s App Store for collecting and reporting usage data while purporting to provide a protective service.
Soon afterward, Facebook quietly began paying people — 18 percent of whom were teenagers — to install the “Facebook Research” app, which did much the same thing as Onavo under a different name. TechCrunch reported this and Apple issued a ban before the end of that day; Facebook claimed to have removed it voluntarily, but this was shown not to be true.
Rep. Johnson questioned Zuckerberg along these lines, and the latter repeatedly expressed his unsureness about and lack of familiarity with these issues.
Johnson: When it became public that Facebook was using Onavo to conduct digital surveillance, your company got kicked out of Apple’s App store, isn’t that true?
Zuckerberg: Congressman, I’m not sure I’d characterize it in that way.
Johnson: I mean, Onavo did get kicked out of the app store, isn’t that true?
Zuckerberg: Congressman, we took the app out after Apple changed their policies on VPN apps.
Johnson: And it was because of the use of the surveillance tools.
Zuckerberg: Congressman, I’m not sure the policy was worded that way or that it’s exactly the right characterization of it… [The policies are explained below.]
Johnson: Let me ask you this question, after Onavo was booted out of the app store, you turned to other surveillance tools, such as Facebook Research App, correct?
Zuckerberg: Congressman, in general, yes, we do a broad variety—
Johnson: Isn’t it true, Mr. Zuckerberg, that Facebook paid teenagers to sell their privacy by installing Facebook Research App?
Zuckerberg: Congressman, I’m not familiar with that, but I think it’s a general practice that companies use to, uh, have different surveys and understand data from how people are using different products and what their preferences are.
Johnson: Facebook Research app got thrown out of the App Store too, isn’t that true?
Zuckerberg: Congressman, I’m not familiar with that.
Image Credits: YouTube
Of course, the idea that Zuckerberg was not familiar with events that made headlines, took down Facebook’s internal apps for days, and prompted an angry letter to him from a senator is absurd. (After all, Facebook responded.)
Perhaps intuiting that this particular claim of ignorance was a bridge too far (and perhaps in response to some frantic off-screen action in the CEO’s barnlike virtual testimony HQ), Zuckerberg took the opportunity to backpedal a few minutes later:
In response to Congressman Johnson’s question, before I said that I wasn’t familiar with the Facebook research app when I wasn’t familiar with that name for it. I just want to be clear that I do recall we used an app for research and it’s since been discontinued.
Of course, although Zuckerberg may plausibly have been unsure about the name, it’s not to be believed that he was not familiar with the events of that time, as they were both highly publicized and very costly for Facebook. Naturally he would also have been refreshed on them during preparation for this testimony.
That Zuckerberg is unfamiliar with the exact wording of Apple’s rules is possible, even probable, but it was no secret that the rules were changed basically in response to reports of Facebook’s Onavo shenanigans. Here is what Apple said at the time:
We work hard to protect user privacy and data security throughout the Apple ecosystem. With the latest update to our guidelines, we made it explicitly clear that apps should not collect information about which other apps are installed on a user’s device for the purposes of analytics or advertising/marketing and must make it clear what user data will be collected and how it will be used.
Later, when TechCrunch showed that Facebook had been using an enterprise deployment tool to essentially sideload spyware onto teenagers’ phones, Apple said this:
We designed our Enterprise Developer Program solely for the internal distribution of apps within an organization. Facebook has been using their membership to distribute a data-collecting app to consumers, which is a clear breach of their agreement with Apple. Any developer using their enterprise certificates to distribute apps to consumers will have their certificates revoked, which is what we did in this case to protect our users and their data.
So Facebook was the reason, implicitly first, then later explicitly, for these App Store lockdowns. Rep. Johnson put the whole thing quite plainly at the end of his questions.
Johnson: You tried one thing and then you got caught, made some apologies, then you did it all over again. [long pause]… Isn’t that true?
Zuckerberg: Congressman, I respectfully disagree with that characterization.
You can watch the full hearing here:
