Twitter appears to be more often than not selecting the faces of white people for thumbnails on the site

Twitter algorithm appears to prefer white people for thumbnails

Dozens of Twitter users experimenting with Twitter’s automatic thumbnail generation have been stunned to discover the site appears to favor the faces of white people
YouTube can be a frustrating experience for many, with bugs and experience issues collecting dust for years. *Image by Szabo Viktor*

The ludicrousness of being forced to watch YouTube in 480p on a 4K TV, and other YouTube bug wrangling

A wealth of long-standing bugs, AI clumsiness, and experience issues make using YouTube’s app a frustrating experience
Writers and journalists need a laptop with a different balance of performance, portability, and features than those aimed at the general market. We explore these needs and guide you through the best laptop for writers in 2020.

The best laptop for writers

Writers and journalists need a laptop with a different balance of performance, portability, and features than those aimed at the general market. We explore these needs and guide you through the best laptop for writers in 2020.
An F/A-18F Super Hornet flies over USS Gerald R. Ford via [navy.mil](https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=101711)

The futuristic war tech in America's newest aircraft carriers

Entering its final testing phase, the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier is bristling with bleeding edge technology that will set standards for decades to come.
Undeserving website can pay to climb Google's rankings and reach the lucrative top positions

Google Search is being routinely gamed by fake blogs and has been for years

For years, fraudsters have been getting away with tricking Google into pushing them higher up on the search result pages than they deserve to be. We’ll look at a PBN example, and explore if search engines can do anything about them.
The device is triggered when the car's involved in a serious crash, but can also be triggered manually

In Europe, cars automatically call for help if they crash

New cars sold in the EU are required to include a device that can record audio and track the car’s location. It’ll save lives, but will it impact privacy?
Google's AMP technology broke the URL bar, now they want to make it right. *Photo by Carles Deluvio*

The hoops you'll have to jump through to use your domain with AMP

For three years, AMP pages have appeared with Google’s domain in the address bar. Now, there’s a way around it. We explore how hard is it to get your domain back.
The relative freedom of Android means users can do more with their phones than their iPhone-using friends. *Photo by Tom Sodoge*

Shady Netflix, blocking ads, and other mischief in the Android App Underground

There’s a whole hidden world of apps that Google doesn’t want you using on your Android phone. Luckily it’s easy to get them, and you can do some pretty incredible things with them.
Android updates are being rolled out slower every year

Android updates are getting slower and slower, despite Google's best efforts

For a decade, Google has tried to speed up updates to Android phones. For a decade, they’ve failed. Even worse, updates are getting slower every year.
Twitter and Reddit are similar in lots of ways, but only Reddit has effective tools to dissuade the vitriol

Trolls and Consequences: What Twitter needs to learn from Reddit

Twitter and Reddit are both huge, anonymous networks. But only Twitter has earned a reputation for abuse like rape and death threats. How does Reddit keep the trolls behaving?
Google can rank a site based on terms that don't appear on the page

Google may rank sites for queries that don't appear on the page at all

An undocumented ranking method can result in sites appearing in Google search results for queries that don’t appear on the page.
Google's power over the web allows them unprecedented control over the media

Google AMP lowered our page speed, and there's no choice but to use it

Google’s AMP project is supposed to speed up your web site. But what do you do when it makes your site slower? Do publishers have a real choice about using it?
Bill Gates verifying his identity for Reddit. We're not sure what's happening either. Via [Twitter](https://twitter.com/billgates/status/836260338366459904).

Bill Gates casually chats with people on Reddit when he isn't saving the world

It’s not every day you chat to a billionaire, but on Reddit you might just throw some words at Bill Gates without even realizing.
It's possible to save your sanity, battery, and data by blocking ads in apps, on the web, and even video ads on Android. *Image by Thom Holmes*

Block ads in apps on Android (including video ads)

Regain your sanity by learning how to block ads in apps on Android, including video ads.
Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel and his husband Gauthier Destenay.

"The Prime Minister and his husband": Gay leaders around the world

Meet the trail blazing LGBT politicians elected to lead their countries.
Google helps us find information easily but at what cost?

How Google is getting between readers and publishers

Google’s harvesting of information from the web is fundamentally changing what publishers produce, but are publishers bearing an unfair burden, and is the web better this way?
SegWit is a backwards-compatible change to how Bitcoin transactions are formatted, with two huge benefits.

How to switch to SegWit in 5 minutes (and why)

This Bitcoin tweak helps the whole network process more transactions, and you can start using now.
An early incarnation of the Lightning Network's testnet.

Bitcoin's Lightning Network doesn't require you to open a channel for each person you want to pay

Although Bitcoin’s Lightning Network is now up and running, there’s still misconceptions about what using it is like.
The factors effecting cryptocurrency prices are particularly elusive.

When Does A Cryptocurrency Bubble Burst?

There’s a long history of predicting the prices of traditional assets, but what could end the run away growth of cryptocurrency investment?
The irresistible urge to resist doing what we know we should is universal, but is it a matter of laziness or something deeper?

You might be procrastinating for good reason

Putting off work seems like an irrational, emotional thing to do. But there might be logical reasons why you’d rather be doing something else.
Uber code texts don't stop trips you never took being charged to you. *Photo by Dan Gold*

Your money can be stolen from your Uber account with shady Uber code texts

We’re used to companies securing our accounts by sending us SMS codes - but they aren’t as secure as we think.
There's better ways to organize classes in a video game than a hierarchy. Image via [jurgenappelo](https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurgenappelo/5201869924)

Game developers: don't use inheritance for your game objects

For game developers: we look at why you shouldn’t use inheritance for your classes, and what you can use instead.

Resources

SEO tools

Get your site to ranking with this list of the best tools in the SEO world.

Game developer resources

It’s tough sometimes to find graphics, music, and sound effects for your games. This list of websites is teeming with them.

Reviews

Writers and journalists need a laptop with a different balance of performance, portability, and features than those aimed at the general market. We explore these needs and guide you through the best laptop for writers in 2020.

The best laptop for writers

Writers and journalists need a laptop with a different balance of performance, portability, and features than those aimed at the general market. We explore these needs and guide you through the best laptop for writers in 2020.

The best white laptops

We researched the best white laptops available in 2021, for those who prefer a clean, minimalist design to the typical, boring silver or black laptops.