Morning Tidings

Tag: recommendations

  • Instagram To Let Creators Know if Their Posts Are Being Blocked; See How To Check Bans on Post Recommendations (Watch Video)

    Instagram To Let Creators Know if Their Posts Are Being Blocked; See How To Check Bans on Post Recommendations (Watch Video)

    New Delhi, Dec 8: Meta-owned Instagram will now tell creators and businesses if their posts are not been recommended to other users, and are being blocked from recommendation and discovery features on the platform.

    Instagram head Adam Mosseri said the company is expanding Account Status “so professional accounts can understand if their content may be eligible to be recommended to non-followers”. New UPI Feature: RBI to Add Single-Block-and-Multiple-Debits Function to Online Payment Platform.

    In the settings menu, under account and then account status, “professional accounts can now check to see if any of their posts are banned from being recommended to users who don’t follow them,” Mosseri posted on Twitter.

    See how to check if your content is eligible for post recommendations:

    “We’re announcing new transparency tools so you can see whether or not your photos and videos are recommended,” he said.

    Creators and businesses can go to Profile Settings and can see if any photos or videos they posted “have been taken down because they violate our community standards or community guidelines”. Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg Brings Digital Avatars to WhatsApp Users.

    In order to be eligible to appear on Explore and other places, Instagram posts must follow community guidelines and rules around recommended content.

    Creators and businesses will be able to edit, delete, or appeal Instagram’s decision on posts flagged as being ineligible for recommendations.

    “We know it’s important for creators to understand how Instagram works if they’re going to use it over the long run,” said Mosseri.

  • Netflix Adds ‘Two Thumbs Up’ Rating Option To Offer Better Recommendations

    San Francisco: Popular video streaming platform Netflix has added a new ‘Two Thumbs Up’ rating option for users to offer better recommendations. The company said that it is to let the video streaming platform know what types of series and films users want to see more of. Netflix Rolls Out Support for UPI AutoPay Feature in India.

    Netflix Double Thumbs Up

    Netflix Double Thumbs Up (Photo Credits: Netflix)

    “Our current Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down buttons are a good way for you to tell us how you feel about a series or film, and in return, you get a profile that’s better personalised to your taste,” the company said in a blogpost.

    “However, we have learned over time that these feelings can go beyond a simple like or dislike. Providing an additional way to tell us when you are really into something means a profile with recommendations that better reflect what you enjoy,” it added.

    “A Thumbs Up still lets us know what you liked, so we use this response to make similar recommendations. But a Double Thumbs Up tells us what you loved and helps us get even more specific with your recommendations,” the company said.

    Users can find this option next to the Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down buttons on your TV, Web, Android and iOS mobile devices. The company said to consider the new option as a way to fine-tune your recommendations to see even more series or films influenced by what you love.

    (The above story first appeared on Morning Tidings on Apr 12, 2022 03:48 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website morningtidings.com).

  • Regulator’s 5G Recommendations in 7-10 Days; Work in Final Stages: Trai Secretary V Raghunandan

    New Delhi, Mar 29: Telecom regulator Trai’s much-awaited recommendations on 5G spectrum pricing and other modalities will come out in the next 7-10 days, a senior official said on Tuesday.

    Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Secretary V Raghunandan told PTI that the spectrum reference given to the regulator spanned multiple bands and thereby involved detailed and exhaustive deliberations.

    “We are in the final stages, and will come out with the recommendations shortly in 7-10 days,” Raghunandan said. 5G Trials Get Approval From Telecom Department, Telcos to Start 5G Trials in Different Locations Across India.

    Trai’s views on spectrum pricing and other nuances are crucial as it will set the pace for the auctions and subsequent rollout of the fifth-generation services that will usher in ultra-high-speed and spawn new-age services and business models.

    The telecom industry was expecting the regulator’s recommendations to come by March-end.

    The telecom regulator, in November-end last year, had released a detailed consultation paper to discuss threadbare the modalities for auction of spectrum across multiple bands, including pricing, quantum and other conditions — preparing the groundwork for upcoming 5G auctions.

    Trai’s comprehensive consultation paper runs into 207 pages and throws up 74 questions for industry-wide discussion, touching on crucial aspects like valuation and reserve price of 5G spectrum, quantum of the spectrum, block size, eligibility conditions for participation in the auction, roll-out obligations, spectrum cap, and surrender of the spectrum.

    Norms will also be worked out for new frequencies such as 526-698 MHz and millimetre band that is 24.25 – 28.5 GHz, in addition to bands like 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, and 3300-3670 MHz.

    The last round of spectrum auctions, held in March 2021, had raked-in winning bids of over Rs 77,800 crore for 855.6 MHz of spectrum. But, nearly 63 per cent of the total spectrum remained unsold.

    As the country gears up for the mega auction, the industry players have been making an aggressive pitch for lowering spectrum pricing. Telecom operator Bharti Airtel’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Randeep Sekhon had recently made an emphatic appeal for “affordable” pricing of 5G radiowaves, saying pricing “will play a very important role”.

    “If operators are made to buy very expensive spectrum, naturally their cash flows will be limited, they will have to pay. But if it is very reasonable, then it is very possible that the operator will bring the same money on increasing footprint faster,” Sekhon had said last week.

  • Russia-Ukraine War: Twitter Pauses Ads and Recommendations in Russia and Ukraine To Safeguard Users From Misinformation

    New Delhi, February 26: Twitter on Saturday announced to pause ads and recommendations in Russia and Ukraine to safeguard users from misinformation, as it monitors risks associated with the Russia-Ukraine war.

    The company said it is proactively reviewing Tweets to detect platform manipulation and taking enforcement action against synthetic and manipulated media that presents a false or misleading depiction of what’s happening.

    “We’re temporarily pausing advertisements in Ukraine and Russia to ensure critical public safety information is elevated and ads don’t detract from it,” the company posted in a tweet. Facebook Bans Russian State Media from Running Ads, Monetizing Platform Over Ukraine Invasion.

    For people using Twitter in Ukraine and Russia, “we also paused some Tweet recommendations from people you don’t follow on Home Timeline to reduce the spread of abusive content”.

    The platform said it is identifying and disrupting attempts to amplify false and misleading information. “We’ll continue to take steps to safeguard people on the service and the communities they operate within, while enforcing the safety and integrity of the platform during this time”.

    Earlier, after blocking several researchers’ accounts as Russia began a military strike against Ukraine on Thursday, Twitter admitted it “mistakenly” removed a number of accounts sharing details about Russian military activity. President Volodymyr Zelensky Vows to Defend Ukraine As Russia Closes in on Kyiv (Watch Video).

    Several researchers sharing Russia-Ukraine information found their Twitter accounts “unexpectedly” suspended. Twitter’s Head of Site Integrity, Yoel Roth, said in a tweet that the company’s human moderation team made the mistake.

    “A small number of human errors as part of our work to proactively address manipulated media resulted in these incorrect enforcements. We’re fixing the issue and reaching out directly to the affected folks,” he posted.

    (The above story first appeared on Morning Tidings on Feb 26, 2022 12:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website morningtidings.com).

  • Android TV gets new features including Immersive Detail Pages, improved Watchlist, Tune recommendations, and more- Technology News

    Android TV gets new features including Immersive Detail Pages, improved Watchlist, Tune recommendations, and more- Technology News

    FP TrendingJul 21, 2021 14:10:51 IST

    Starting this week, Google TV will be offering its services to Android TV. The features include a Watchlist, improved recommendations, and detail pages, and so on. Google shared the update on the Android TV community forum. Amir F, Google’s Android TV community manager shared a post on the new features of Android TV that are set to make the users’ experience “more immersive and helpful than ever”.

    Google TV is adding a tab called “Immersive Detail Pages” to Android TV, which will essentially have the trailers playing on the home screen when you access specific content.

    The “Discover” tab now allows you to see your current watchlist as a row. You can now add new content to the current watchlist by long-pressing on the “Add to Watchlist” option available on the Android TV “Discover” tab. You can add and remove the content from your watchlist from other devices, including your smartphone or laptop, via Google Search or the Google TV mobile app.

    Another feature added to Google TV is the ability to “tune” your recommendations. You can like or dislike any content based on your preferences which will be further used by Google TV to improve your recommendations on the “Discover” tab. You can also access it by going to Settings > Device Preferences > Home Screen > Content Preferences. You can then click on the left and right buttons on your remote to filter through the recommendations. The left button says “Less like this” while the right button says “More like this”.

    Lastly, Google TV is adding a tab called “Immersive Detail Pages” to Android TV, which will essentially have the trailers playing on the home screen when you access specific content. These trailers will play automatically as soon as you open the details page. This is an optional feature that can be turned off in the Settings.

    To turn them off, you can go to Settings > Device Preferences > Home Screen and turn off “Enable video previews”.

  • Algorithmic recommendations inaccurate for some music lovers

    Algorithmic recommendations inaccurate for some music lovers

    The music streaming industry has become popular today, having more than 400 million subscribers worldwide, according to analytics firm Statista

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    Algorithms help users search, sort and filter music from range of collections. But the suggestions may be inaccurate for fans of non-mainstream music like pop and hard rock, according to a study titled ‘Support the underground: characteristics of beyond-mainstream music listeners’ by the Graz University of Technology in Austria.

    The team of researchers used a dataset containing listening histories of 4,148 users of the music streaming platform Last.fm who listened mostly to non-mainstream music or mostly mainstream music.

    Also Read | Spotify launches Loud & Clear to shed light on artistes’ revenues and streaming stats

    They noticed the algorithm categorised music listeners into four main types: listeners of genres with only acoustic instruments like folk, users of high-energy music like hard rock and pop, users of music with no acoustics and no vocals like ambient music, and listeners of high-energy music with no vocals like electronica.

    By comparing each group’s listening histories, they noted that the willingness of a user to listen to music outside of their primary preferences also had a positive effect on the quality of recommendations.

    This indicated a bias in music recommendation algorithm, with listeners of high-energy music receiving the least accurate music recommendations and those who mainly listened to ambient music.

    Also Read | First-ever non-fungible token-based rock album is out

    This isn’t the first time algorithm-based music recommendations have been criticised of bias. A separate study by the Pompeu Fabra University in Spain said that the algorithm is more likely to pick up music by male artists than female artists.

    The music streaming industry has become popular today, having more than 400 million subscribers worldwide, according to analytics firm Statista.