2018 may well be remembered as the year to forget given all the climate change-induced disasters, US political chaos, and the death of the queen of soul, but there were also lots of calamities online that deserve a hearty good riddance.
On the social media front, Facebook had a particularly bad year, starting with their admission that they allowed Cambridge Analytica to snatch user data and use it for political propaganda, a blunder which forced founder Mark Zukerberg to explain himself in Congressional hearings. That was fun to watch, but it was only the beginning. Facebook later announced that a bug released the data of 29,000,000 Facebook users, and later another bug allowed app developers access to up 6.8 million users and 1,500 apps. And yet, people like me still use Facebook, go figure.
Google announced they found a bug in their social media platform that revealed data on at least a half million users, prompting them to shutter Google + , which is ok since no one really uses Google + anymore, including moi. I wonder if their 5 billion dollar fine from the EU for anti-trust violations had something to do with their decision.
And, goodbye Stumbleupon, we hardly used ya.
The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect and the run up to the deadline brought back memories of Y2K. Users and developers went into overdrive to add statements of privacy policies and data protection mechanisms to their sites and magically not so many have heard a peep from the EU about violations. Clearly, it's a matter of time.
On the upside, in WordPressland, users were kept on the edge waiting for the launch of the super-hyped version 5.0 update – Gutenberg or Bebo Valdés – which finally happened on December 6th. And the Internet sky did not fall! Two security updates later, and with options to opt-out of the new editor, users are using the famous "blocks" and finding their sites are not crashing, as was predicted and feared. Bullet dodged!
Blogsite Studio's Top Posts of 2018
Looking back on our top-viewed stories of 2018, it's clear that Gutenberg (or Valdés) loomed large in users minds as did the GDPR. If you missed what we published, here's a list of our top 10 posts of 2018.
#10
November 28, 2018
#9
September11, 2018
#8
September26, 2018
#7
April 18, 2018
#6
January 30, 2018
#5
January 17, 2018
#4
June 6, 2018
#3
October 23, 2018
#2
April 9, 2018
#1
July 3, 2018
Happy New Year!
What was your favorite story of 2018 and why? Please tell us in the comments below.
Otherwise, good job on making it to 2019! May we all reduce our fossil-fuel emissions this year.
Cheers,
-Mari