Daily Tech Snippet: Friday, September 4

Google Dreams of a World After Apps but It’s a Nightmare for Rivals: With one search algorithm tweak this week, Google rekindled deep-seated fears that it is doing its damnedest to nuke apps. Maybe. Google earns more money when people are on the mobile Web, not in apps. Publicly, the company has voiced support for solving the nagging problems of apps, discovery and dormancy. Internally, however, chatter is less about crippling apps than imagining a world beyond them. Conversations with people inside and recently departed from Google reveal that the company is spending considerable attention on what comes after mobile apps, and how Google can usher that era in. A primary vehicle for doing so is app indexing and deep linking, methods to tie content within and between apps. Apple and a host of Silicon Valley startups are doing this as well. But Google’s effort is unique in that it is wrapped tightly with search and artificial intelligence — and, like Google’s approach to the Web, it is all-encompassing in its scope. There are some hints of how Google envisions mobile evolving beyond apps. Now on Tap, its feature launching soon in Android, inserts Google’s personal assistant tech and search intel into apps that allow it, essentially allowing a more seamless transition from app to app on a phone. A chat in email about a movie, for instance, would jump quickly to the app of IMDB. Voice control plays a role in the app-less future, too. Several rivals, along with app publishers and ad sellers, interpreted Google’s move this week as hostile. “It’s basically Google starting to meddle with people’s products,” said Alex Austin, CEO of Branch Metrics, a deep-linking firm. Austin noted that with Google’s app indexing drive, it is pushing app creators to build mobile websites. “In an app world,” he said, “Google is nothing.”

Facebook Takes a Step Into Education Software: Facebook, which transformed communication with its social networking service, now wants to make a similar impact on education. The Silicon Valley company announced on Thursday that it was working with a local charter school network, Summit Public Schools, to develop software that schools can use to help children learn at their own pace. The project has been championed by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and chief executive, and one of his top lieutenants, Chris Cox. The software allows students to work with teachers to create tailored lessons and projects. Teachers can also administer individualized quizzes that the software can grade and track. The platform, which is separate from the Facebook social network, is now being used by nine Summit schools and about 20 others. Ultimately, Ms. Tavenner said, “our motivation is to share it with everyone and anyone who wants it,” including other charters and public school districts. The software would be free for all users. Mike Sego, the Facebook engineering director running the Summit software project, said making money was not an immediate goal. “Whenever I ask Mark, ‘Do I need to think of this as business?’ he always pushes back and says, ‘That shouldn’t be a priority right now. We should just continue making this better.’ ”

Amazon Announces Purchase of Video-Software Company Elemental: Amazon is buying Elemental Technologies, a provider of technology for distributing videos to Web-connected devices, seeking to expand its portfolio of cloud-computing services. The online retailer paid about $500 million for Elemental, which helps media and entertainment providers reformat video made for cable, satellite and airwaves broadcast so that clips can be transmitted to desktop computers, smartphones and tablets. Amazon described the acquisition as a way to bring more video capabilities to Amazon Web Services, its Internet computing business. The Web retailer also offers movies and TV shows, which may also benefit from Elemental’s technology. Elemental has more than 700 media customers and supports over-the-top TV applications such as BBC’s iPlayer, CNNGo and ESPN ScoreCenter, and will continue to operate under its existing brand.

Extra screen time drags down teenagers' exam grades, study finds: Teenagers who spend an extra hour a day surfing the internet, watching TV or playing computer games risk performing two grades worse in exams than their peers who don't, according to research by British scientists. An extra hour in front of the TV or online at age 14-and-a-half was linked with 9.3 fewer exam points at age 16 -- equivalent to two grades, for example from a B to a D. Two extra hours was linked to 18 fewer points. Unsurprisingly, the results also showed that pupils doing an extra hour of daily homework and reading scored better - getting on average 23.1 more points than their peers. The scientists said further research was needed to confirm the effect conclusively, but advised parents worried about their children's grades to consider limiting screen time. In a breakdown analysis of different screen activities, the researchers found that TV came out as the most detrimental in terms of exam performance. In a study of more than 800 students aged 14 and 15, researchers from Cambridge University also found that physical activity had no effect on academic performance. Since this was a prospective study, in which the researchers followed the pupils over time to see how different behaviors affected performance, the scientists said it was reasonable to conclude that too much screen time reduced academic achievement.

Indian Shopkeepers Help You Tap ‘Buy’: Since 2013, at least $8.6 billion has poured into Indian e-commerce companies. The slice of the population that’s ever shopped online: 4 percent. As the country’s leading Internet bazaars—Flipkart, Snapdeal, and Amazon India—hawk wares to the urban, English-speaking middle class, they’re all but ignoring the 510 million working-age adults living in rural areas. “These people don’t trust an app or a website” even if they have a phone, says Krishna Lakamsani, founder of e-commerce startup IPay. “They will only buy from someone they know and trust.” That’s why IPay and rival StoreKing are recruiting local shopkeepers to sell online goods in their stores in exchange for commissions. By relying on merchants to persuade people to buy online, IPay says it moves about $1.6 million worth of merchandise each month through 6,000 shopkeepers’ tablets in India’s southern states; StoreKing sells $4.2 million through 10,000. The early returns are promising, even if they’re a sliver of Flipkart and Snapdeal, each of which says it sold $300 million worth of goods in June. Amazon wouldn’t disclose sales. For the shopkeepers, commissions range from 4 percent to 10 percent, and the tablets—$134 from IPay, $226 from StoreKing—quickly pay for themselves. During the eight months Panjala has had the IPay unit, he says, each day he’s done about $30 worth of business on it, one-seventh of his sales. Using shopkeepers to push the tablets means IPay and StoreKing don’t have to worry about training most customers to order through their apps. Because shipments get delivered to the shops, there’s less risk of losing goods on remote roads. And the buyers pay cash, so the companies don’t have to invest in electronic payment systems. “We’ve been generating operating profits from Day One,” says StoreKing Chief Executive Officer Sridhar Gundaiah. “That’s something none of the big e-commerce companies can boast of.” Amazon and Snapdeal say they’re experimenting with kiosks that also help customers buy online. StoreKing and IPay are creating a rural e-commerce market in India by selling via tablets in thousands of local stores.

Facebook Makes It Easier To Optimize Ad Campaigns Based On Conversions: Facebook is unveiling an improved version of its Conversion Lift measurement tool, which first launched in January. Previously, Facebook allowed you to measure whether your ad campaign was actually improving online and offline sales. Now, you can also test different ads to find the best approach. Conversion Lift previously looked at two groups — a group of users who saw the ad and a group who didn’t. It then compared each group’s conversion data (the data can be pulled from Facebook’s Custom Audiences pixel, an in-store point-of-sale system and elsewhere), which should reflect whether an ad actually succeeded in driving sales. With the improved Conversion Lift tool, advertisers can compare multiple test and control groups. That means they can see which ad units are delivering the best results, compare brand and direct response ads, see how mobile ads are performing compared to the rest of the campaign or compare ads featuring product versus lifestyle-format photos. For example, website builder Wix compared a group that saw only direct response ads with another group that saw direct response and video ads. It turned out that the combined of formats did a better job of improving premium subscription signups — that group saw uplift of 7.4 percent, compared to the DR-only group, which saw uplift of 6.8 percent. Also part of the update: Conversion Lift can now look at how ads improve in-app sales, as well, so that app developers aren’t just optimizing campaigns to deliver the most downloads, but instead focus on improving revenue.