Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 02/25 - Is Signal The Next Big App?

Episode Date: February 25, 2020

Netflix launches Top 10 lists, Firefox rolls out DNS over HTTPS, Amazon Go Grocery means no cashiers or checkout lines, consolidation or super app in the Southeast Asian on demand transport space, and why this might be Signal’s moment to go mainstream. Sponsors: Facebook: The Inside Story by Steven Levy Tinycapital.com Rhone.com/ridehome Promocode: ridehome for 20 percent off Links: New Netflix feature reveals the top 10 most popular programs on its service (TechCrunch) Netflix added a top 10 list of its most-watched content — here’s how to find it (The Next Web) Firefox turns encrypted DNS on by default to thwart snooping ISPs (Ars Technica) Intuit confirms that it is buying Credit Karma for $7.1B in cash and stock (TechCrunch) Inside ‘Amazon Go Grocery’: Tech giant opens first full-sized store without cashiers or checkout lines (GeekWire) Grab raises up to $856M to boost payments business as rumors swirl of a merger with rival Gojek (TechCrunch) EU Commission to staff: Switch to Signal messaging app (Politico.eu) SourceCode Newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech Beam Ride Home for Tuesday, February 25th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. Netflix launches top 10 lists. Firefox rolls out DNS over HTTPS. Amazon Go Grocery means no cashiers or checkout lines, consolidation or super app in the Southeast Asian on-demand transport space, and why this might be signals moment to go mainstream.

Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Another one of those truisms that we've come to think of as Ironclad has, bit in the dust today, put this in the same category as Twitter not being able to ship product innovations, we can no longer say Netflix will never report viewing numbers, sort of. Now, Netflix is not going full Nielsen. They're not going to say, you know, this show specifically got some X number of million downloads over the last week. But whereas Netflix used to be religious about not reporting anything in terms of the performance of individual pieces of content, they suddenly seem to be leaning into the idea of having a scorecard in some form or other

with the launch today of top 10 lists to rank the most popular shows and movies. The lists will update daily, will be region-specific, and Netflix says this is designed to help you watch what everyone else is watching, quoting Sarah Perez and TechCrunch. The shows and films making the list will also receive a special top 10 badge wherever they appear on Netflix. That means if you're searching for something to watch or browsing through your recommendations, it will be easier to see if a top 10 program is among your search results or personalized suggestions. Netflix says this is the first time it has ever rolled out a top 10 ranking system,

but the company has been experimenting with the top 10 feature before today in markets including the UK and Mexico. Users responded well to those additions, which is why the company decided to roll out its top 10 list worldwide, the company says. The top 10 list will appear on your Netflix home screen, but the list's actual position, will vary based on how relevant the shows and films are to you. For example, if you only watched documentaries and horror, a top 10 list filled with teen rom-coms and comedies may not appear as high on the screen for you as it would for others, end quote. If you want to see the list right now,

here's how to find it according to the next web. Quote, when you open Netflix, navigate to either the movies or TV shows tab, the top 10 list, which includes both Netflix's own content and licensed movies and shows, appears as a specially designed row. in different places on each tab. On the TV tab, in both the browser and app, it appears near the top of the list, just under trending now and critically acclaimed in the browser, and under both of those, and watch it again on the app. On the movies tab, on the other hand, it's a bit further down. We found it way down under Netflix's originals titles, and the list of genre films in the browser and almost in the same place in the app, end quote.

Sure enough, I just checked this. The top movies in the U.S. at the time of this writing are, The Last Thing He Wanted, followed by The Foreigner, followed by a haunted house. Dr. Seuss's The Grinch is weirdly at number 10, though that does line up with my household's viewing habits because my son Max watches that movie nearly every day. So for whatever reason, I can confirm that kids love Dr. Seuss's The Grinch. For TV shows, Love is Blind, Narcos, Mexico, and something called Lock and Key, we're in the top three. The office comes in at number seven, no surprise there. Still, this is such a big philosophical change for Netflix.

Sort of a step in the Spotify direction, maybe. Quoting Steve Zychik. This is a very interesting turnaround from the customized algorithmic philosophy Netflix has long sworn by, and while it may reduce feelings of overload, it also advances a mass culture short-tail mindset streaming was supposed to be the antidote for, end quote. The Firefox web browser,

has begun rolling out encrypted DNS over HTTPS by default for U.S.-based users in order to prevent your ISP from spying on all the sites that you visit, quoting Ars Technica. DNS over HTPS helps keep eavesdroppers from seeing what DNS lookups your browser is making, potentially making it more difficult for internet service providers or other third parties to monitor what websites you visit. As we've previously written, Mozilla's embrace of DNS over HTPS is fueled in part by concerns about ISPs monitoring customers' web usage. Mobile broadband providers were caught selling their customers' real-time location data to third parties, and internet providers can use browsing history to deliver targeted ads.

Wireless and wired internet providers are suing the state of Maine to stop a web browsing privacy law that would require ISPs to get customers opt-in consent before using or sharing browsing history and other sensitive data. The telecom companies already convinced Congress and President Trump to eliminate a similar federal law in 2017. While Firefox's encrypted DNS uses cloud flare by default, users can change that to next DNS in the Firefox settings or manually enter the address of another encrypted DNS service. Firefox users can also disable the new default setting if they don't want to use any of the encrypted DNS options.

Mozilla has said it is open to adding more encrypted DNS providers as long as they meet a list of requirements for privacy and transparency and don't block or filter domains by default, unless specifically required by law in the jurisdiction in which the Resolver operates, end quote. Again, this is only being turned on by default in the U.S. for now, but if you're outside the U.S., you can still enable DNS over HTPPS in the settings. Go to preferences in Firefox, then general, scroll down to network settings, click settings, then click Enable DNS over HTTPS. Is this Signals moment? I mean, in the messaging wars, are people ready for a new messaging platform, one that isn't owned by one of the existing

big tech mega platforms? I know I probably am, and there's been a lot of heat around Signal lately. I've passed on doing stories like earlier this month, the European Commission, a group that obviously cares deeply about privacy and has no love for big tech platforms, how they recently told their staff to start using Signal. Also, Signal has apparently become the go-to app on Capitol Hill and the White House. And just anecdotally, I've started to have people push Signal more and more as their go-to point of contact for just run-of-the-mill business stuff. The appeal of Signal is obvious. It's fully encrypted. It's based on open-source technology. And again, it's not owned by a corporate oligarch. And this morning in the source code newsletter, David Pierce made a compelling case that this could be the moment that Signal goes mainstream.

Quote, Signal has more to come. It has recently been spending the $50 million it got from WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton on building its team and making the app ready for prime time. The major transition signal has undergone is from a three-person small effort to something that is now a serious project with the capacity to do what is required to build software in the world today. Founder Moxie Marlon Spike, creator of Signal and owner of Hands Down, the coolest name in tech, told Wired a few weeks ago. The app could shake up a fairly stagnant messaging ecosystem. I message rules in the U.S., WhatsApp in most other places. Facebook Messenger is big, but Facebook has become harder to trust, something that's also becoming a problem for WhatsApp. And again, let's not even talk about SMS. Messaging is a big business with cultural implications that has seemingly been in need of a new player

that's both trusted and powerful for several years. If it uses that $50 million wisely, Signal has a real chance to be the new default messaging app for lots of people, end quote. Quick follow up to acknowledge that Intuit is indeed officially buying Credit Karma for $7.1 billion in cash in stock, and Intuit says it plans to keep operating Credit Karma as a standalone entity. Quoting TechCrunch, the acquisition is an obvious fit for Intuit where it will serve two purposes. Intuit can tap Credit Karma's customer base and range of services. It partners with some 100 financial service providers in its marketplace to complement those it already offers to help upsell those users to Intuit's premium paid services.

And Intuit can use it to grow its wider business by tapping a set of consumers, typically younger users, that Credit Karma has possibly been more successful in capturing than Intuit has. Including this deal, Intuit has made some 31 acquisitions to date. It has a track record of acquiring startups with big potential. and running with them. One of its major business units today, Mint, for personal financial planning and management, is based on a startup of the same name that it bought in 2009 for the relatively modest sum of $170 million, end quote. Yeah, it's crazy to look back and realize what small

numbers companies could be taken out at during the early part of the Web 2.0 era. That Mint acquisition would have been multi-billions of dollars if it happened today. started this podcast two years ago. One of the big stories in those first few months were Amazon's experiments with cashierless convenience stores. The fervor around that story faded a bit. And some people were starting to wonder if the experiments maybe weren't bearing fruit, if you will. Well, as Geekwire puts it, Amazon is going full grocery with the opening of an Amazon Go grocery store in Seattle, a full-sized grocery store that extends this whole cashierless concept and also does away with checkout lines, quoting Geekwire. The debut is also the answer to a long-standing

mystery about the 7,700 square foot space at 61 East Pike Street in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. Amazon's plans for the property have long been under wraps. Last fall, the company confirmed that its Amazon Go team was running internal tests at the location, but declined to say more until now. Geekwire got a sneak peek at the store during a recent media preview, entering by scanning a smartphone app and strolling the aisles of the completely stocked store. The banks of cameras and sensors overhead track everything put into a shopping cart with the help of artificial intelligence, rendering unnecessary the old-fashioned ritual of scanning

and paying at a checkout stand. Items are charged to a shopper's Amazon account shortly after they walk through the exit. Apart from the larger size, the concept is very simple. similar to the Amazon Go convenience stores that first opened to the public in Seattle in January 2018. Amazon Go has expanded to 25 locations across cities, including San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. That smaller concept, size between 450 and 2,700 square feet, ushered in an era of grab-and-go shopping.

Quote, what Amazon did for central business districts, like locating it very close to where people work so you can get breakfast, lunch, snacks, Amazon Go grocery does the same thing, but closer to home, said Dilip Kumar, vice president of physical retail and technology for Amazon. It's a new format. It's not just a bigger Amazon Go. It's a much more expanded selection that caters to what people are looking for shopping for groceries, end quote. Click through to the story for a ton of pictures. Look, for example, at the fruit and vegetable sections. I'd love to know how the cameras get that right. If you just grab an apple or maybe half a thing of bananas, though things do generally look like they're mostly bundled.

For example, there's no meat or seafood counter. Items like that are individually wrapped and pre-priced. Amazon wouldn't say how many of these stores it plans to open or where the next one will be, but again, look at those pictures closely. They look exactly like the inside of your average Whole Foods. So you know, maybe this will be coming to a neighborhood near you sooner than you might think. Grab is one of those on-demand transport startups that has basically, basically been wrestling the Southeast Asian market away from Uber. And Grab has just balked up

for battle with its competitors by raising up to $856 million from Japanese investors, including Mitsubishi, UFJ Financial Group, and TIS InTech, a Japanese IT Solutions company. Grab says it wants to use this money to build out its payments and financial services business to complement the on-demand transport thing. But what everyone has been talking about in the space has been consolidation. We've discussed before how investors think there are too many transport players, especially in markets like Southeast Asia and South America, quoting TechCrunch. The news comes directly on the heels of rumors that Grab is in talks to merge with its biggest regional rival, Gojek. Gojek has denied the reports directly to TechCrunch, while Grab declined to comment at all,

but pointily did not deny. Although a source close to one of them confirms that they have been talking for about three and a half months, starting just after Gojek founder and former CEO left the company in October to join Indonesian President Joku Widodo's cabinet. Ever since the Gojerk founder left the startup, there has been internal tension at the firm, the source said. The tension escalated after Gojek failed to secure new funds from SoftBank, the talks of which have not been previously reported, the source said. This led the startup's board to push for a merger, end quote. So with a $14 billion dollar valuation. Grab is actually the larger company of the two, backed by SoftBank and Uber. But Gojek is

backed by Tencent, Google, and Visa. Because, see, this is also part of that whole Asian-style super-app trend we've also discussed previously, quoting again. Grabs growth of its super app, which it, like others pursuing a similar strategy, provides a one-stop shop for consumers to both see to their transportation needs, but also other aspects of their connected consumer life, such as eating, entertainment, and managing their money, and has involved the company partnering with a number of other financial giants, including MasterC, Credit Céson, Chubb, and Zongong, online P&C insurance, end quote.

That is all for today. Nothing pithy for you. Follow me on Twitter at Brian MCC. If you've never rated or reviewed us in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts or wherever you can rate and review podcasts, maybe do that today. helps people discover the show. And heck, if you're someone with a large-ish Twitter following and you listen every day, why not tell your followers that you do listen every day?

How you love the TechMeme ride home so much, you wish you could marry it. Talk to you tomorrow.