Why are publishers and platforms excited about ActivityPub?

Why are publishers and platforms excited about ActivityPub?

Read this issue for the answer to these questions, plus:

• What is ActivityPub?

• The “cookiepocolypse” has been delayed,

• Guardian lets readers “reject all” cookies, promoting Light instead,

• Media Product Updates from Meta, beehiiv, Ghost,

• Using Awwwards for design inspiration

Let’s see.

📑 What is ActivityPub, and why is everyone excited about it?

ActivityPub is not new, but it is newly popular, and it’s making waves in publishing, ads, and social media. The social platforms we now use are confined spaces where your data is locked. ActivityPub is different: it is an interoperable protocol, much like how email works, free from the constraints of any single company. So, it basically connects a “federation” of social apps, including Mastodon. With an official WordPress integration plugin and Ghost’s recent decision to join, it seems ActivePub can be a new frontier. 

I’m going to talk about this more in future issues, so stay tuned.

🍪 The “cookiepocolypse” has been … delayed?

Google has moved the timeline again. It seems like an admission that deprecating 3rd-party cookies may not be as simple as previously imagined. The company published a blog post saying it will be delaying the gradual cookie phase-out to early 2025 – although the details will be released on April 26th. In an announcement, Google’s Privacy Sandbox team listed “challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry” and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority’s decision timeline as the main reasons. I already covered this in a previous issue, but the UK’s CMA has started an investigation into the Privacy Sandbox to find out if it will turn Google into even more of a monopoly. It seems Google has decided to give them the time they need.

⚡ Guardian lets readers “reject all” cookies, promoting Light instead

Guardian has jump-started its cookieless solutions by allowing readers reject all cookies in a single click. It offers a straightforward “No, thank you” button on the usual cookie notification. Despite this, the Guardian has assured advertisers and clients that its recent adtech product, Guardian Light, can still show the right ads to users with relevant interests.

📲 Media Product Updates

beehiiv released a Website Builder, and it looks great!

beehiiv now has its own website builder, taking it closer to a full-on CMS. They describe the change as one of their biggest updates yet, and it looks good enough for that description.

GHOST joins ActivityPub

Ghost, the publishing platform, has joined ActivityPub. In its announcement, it calls ActivityPub the largest publishing network in the world, and it’s not wrong. See the paragraphs at the start where I talk about this open protocol. 

MetaAI is now live on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp (powered by Llama 3)

Meta’s new Llama3 is now powering its new product, Meta AI, which is available across the usual Meta apps: Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. This new LLM is enhancing UI/UX and content personalization at the same time. Met has taken a big step in becoming the leading company in AI-powered social me

ia.

👀What caught my eye this week

When you work in design and development, you need inspiration on what this or that feature of a product or website can look like. There are a lot of listicles with titles like “50 best contact page designs,” but I find the awwwards website provides a much better experience.

This is it for this issue of Product in Media. Subscribe to my beehiiv for curated tech and product updates from news and media.