Get rid of annoying Facebook ads

Technology quickly changes and the flood of information is more of a waterfall than a fire hose.

Here are five items you may have missed this week that you should know:

1. TweetDeck got hacked

TweetDeck is one of the two most popular platforms for managing Twitter (the other being Hootsuite). An Austrian computer science student discovered this when he was trying to display a heart in tweet using TweetDeck. He contacted Twitter but not before some hackers decided to have some fun. They sent one message nearly a thousand times. The flaw only applies for TweetDeck users on Google Chrome. The solution? Log in and out every time.

2. Opting out of Facebook ads

Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean you won’t have to ever see an ad again. But Facebook will still let users in the US (then the rest of the world) have more control over which ads they do see. Facebook said: When we ask people about our ads, one of the top things they tell us is that they want to see ads that are more relevant to their interests. Today, we learn about your interests primarily from the things you do on Facebook, such as Pages you like.

“If you don’t want us to use the websites and apps you use to show you more relevant ads, we won’t. You can opt out of this type of ad targeting in your web browser using the industry-standard Digital Advertising Alliance opt out, and on your mobile devices using the controls that iOS and Android provide.

“People also tell us they want more control over the ads they see. That’s why we’re introducing ad preferences, a new tool accessible from every ad on Facebook that explains why you’re seeing a specific ad and lets you add and remove interests that we use to show you ads. So if you’re not interested in electronics, you can remove electronics from your ad interests.”

3. Pinterest improves search

For the 140 million and more users of social media site Pinterest, it is time to rejoice. On Wednesday, Pinterest announced it is rolling out Guided Search, which was expanded from its mobile rollout a few months back. 

In an official Pinterest blog post, software engineer Yuliang Yin said: “Now when you search for something, descriptive guides will help you sift through all the good ideas from other Pinners. Scroll through the guides and click any that look interesting to steer your search in the right direction. You might be surprised where you end up!.”

The company rolled out the mobile version of guided search a few months back.

Yin said: Along with the visual guides, you’ll notice that the search bar is now front and centre for speedier finds. We also made it easier to filter your search by Pins, boards or other Pinners who you might be looking for.”

4. Firefox OS smartphones coming

Mobile company Spice Retail Limited has decided to enter the smartphone market fray by partnering with Mozilla to bring Firefox powered phones in July 2014. The demographic will be for first-time smartphone buyers and will be priced at the lower end of the market.

5. Playstation TV will be the ‘Netflix of games’

It has been in Asia for a while under the branding of Playstation Vita. The service is supposed to reach the US and European markets by the end of the year. Sony is hoping to become the Net-flix of gaming and people will be able to connect to Playstation Now.