October 12, 2012

Friday Tech, Money & Business: Google’s Profit, eBay Redesign & Inequality

How much do Google and Facebook profit from your data?

Hot on the back of our blog regarding how much you are worth to Google, a just-released privacy add-on for Firefox and Chrome aims to tell users the value exchange that goes on between them and the sites they frequently visit. Highlighting the fact that there is no average user, their analysis found that Facebook users can range from a mere $1.68 to a rather more substantial $12, dependent on your demographic. However, this is a drop in the ocean compared to how much Google makes. The user who was worth $1.68 to Facebook puts a whopping $700 on Google’s profit sheet!

 

eBay announces site redesign, a Pinterest-like discovery feed

Ebay-new-layout

eBay’s recent rebranding was a sign of things to come for the long standing behemoth of online commerce. As well as completely refreshing their overall look and feel, eBay have included a Pinterest-like feed that aims to mimic the discovery model that’s seen Pinterest become the 4th largest traffic driver on the internet, overcoming Yahoo, Bing and Twitter in the process. The feed isn’t live for everyone yet, but you can get a taster of what’s to come by visiting here.

 

Capuchin monkeys reject unequal pay


A little different to our normal agenda but interesting none the less. Frans de Waal, a Dutch primatologist and ethologist conducted an experiment using capuchin monkeys to see how they respond to inequality. First of all, he asked them to conduct a task and rewarded them both with cucumber. As long as this remained the same, they continued carrying out the task. However, when one monkey was given a grape instead of cucumber, their reaction is quite different.

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