17 October, 2024
Google is making your movie and TV reviews visible under a new profile page
Google is making reviews of all your movies, TV shows, books, albums and games visible under one profile page starting June 24, according to an email sent to users last month. These profiles are also searchable through Google searches, which can lead to users’ being profiled based on their likes and dislikes.
The company launched the ability to post reviews of movies for India-based users in 2017. Over the years, this functionality has expanded globally. Last year, the company told TechCrunch that they made review profiles public and searchable in some regions, starting with the U.S. and India. Now, they are making all profiles public globally.
Essentially, you can click on any user profile and look at all the reviews they have posted. Google told TechCrunch that the company provides a toggle to make their profile private. But that toggle wasn’t available until earlier this week, as observed by SEO consultant Gagan Ghotra and TechCrunch.
“Profiles make it easier for people to see and manage their reviews of things like movies and TV shows in one place and make reviews more helpful for others. These reviews were already public, and we provide people with control to make their profile private or delete it altogether, along with options to privately edit or delete their reviews,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to TechCrunch.
Google also makes all profiles public by default. That means if you don’t know about having a profile page of your reviews or haven’t paid attention to emails from Google (which may have ended up in your spam or updates folder on Gmail), your profile will be viewable for all.
The company told TechCrunch that it sent notifications of the hiding profile control to users through the Google Profile interface. Plus, it notified users of the new Google Profile via a pop-up on their existing reviews. However, if users don’t know a new profile exists, they are unlikely to visit the page. And there is a slim chance that you would be going back to read your own review of a show or a movie frequently. Google needs to do better to notify the user of an entirely new page related to their account.
Ghotra told TechCrunch over direct messages that searchable profiles could also be used by potential employers to know the opinions of their future employees, impacting their chances of hiring. Plus, it is an easy target for advertisers to scrap this data and serve targeted ads to users.
How to hide your profile
Here is how you can make your preview profile private:
Go to profile.google.com Click/tap on the three-dot menu next to your profile nameSelect the “Profile Options” itemTurn on the Profile Privacy toggle
Even if you hide your profile, your individual reviews will still be visible under a movie or a TV show title, but it won’t link back to a page with all of your reviews. Notably, your reviews on Google Maps are not part of this rollout.
Paytm sells movie ticketing business to Zomato for $244 million
Zomato, the Indian food delivery giant, has acquired the entertainment ticketing business of financial services firm Paytm for $244.1 million, signaling a strategic move to expand its “going out” offerings.
The acquisition, among the largest M&A deals among new-age Indian tech companies, includes Paytm’s ticketing services for movies, sports and events. As part of the deal, Paytm’s flagship app will continue to host these offerings for up to 12 months and 280 of its employees will join Zomato, the companies said.
Like food delivery, the new business operates in a duopoly, with Reliance-backed BookMyShow controlling three-fourths of online movie ticketing and over half of online event ticketing, and the rest is with Paytm, according to Jefferies.
The acquisition coincides with a remarkable performance in Zomato’s stock market value with shares soaring over 100% this year as the food delivery giant’s quick commerce business makes deeper inroads in India.
Brokerage firm UBS said this week that it now values Blinkit, Zomato’s quick commerce service, at $15.4 billion, ahead of the Noida headquartered firm’s core food delivery business.
Zomato, which ended trading Wednesday at $27.3 billion market cap, has about $1.5 billion cash on its balance sheet.
The acquisition also aligns with Zomato’s broader strategy to diversify its services, Bank of America analysts said. The move could significantly bolster Zomato’s ambitions to become a one-stop destination for dining and entertainment options, they wrote in a note.
“The proposed acquisition helps us add more scale and offer newer use-cases (like movie and sports ticketing) to our customers in this segment,” Zomato founder and chief executive Deepinder Goyal said in a statement. “It makes us more relevant for our customers which also gives us an opportunity to spin-off the business into a new app (we are going to call it District) which could be a game changer for each of these use cases given the need for a single brand as a destination in this segment.”
Meanwhile, Paytm has been refocusing its efforts on its core fintech operations amid increased regulatory scrutiny. The company’s ticketing division, which was built through the acquisitions of Insider.in and TicketNew, contributed about 9% to Paytm’s overall revenues in the recent quarter and 4% to FY24 net revenues. Paytm acquired Insider.in and TicketNew for a sum of about $32 million.
“Paytm’s move to sell its entertainment ticketing business underscores its core focus on payments and financial services distribution,” Paytm said in a stock exchange filing.
Google is making your movie and TV reviews visible under a new profile page
Google is making reviews of all your movies, TV shows, books, albums and games visible under one profile page starting June 24, according to an email sent to users last month. These profiles are also searchable through Google searches, which can lead to users’ being profiled based on their likes and dislikes.
The company launched the ability to post reviews of movies for India-based users in 2017. Over the years, this functionality has expanded globally. Last year, the company told TechCrunch that they made review profiles public and searchable in some regions, starting with the U.S. and India. Now, they are making all profiles public globally.
Essentially, you can click on any user profile and look at all the reviews they have posted. Google told TechCrunch that the company provides a toggle to make their profile private. But that toggle wasn’t available until earlier this week, as observed by SEO consultant Gagan Ghotra and TechCrunch.
“Profiles make it easier for people to see and manage their reviews of things like movies and TV shows in one place and make reviews more helpful for others. These reviews were already public, and we provide people with control to make their profile private or delete it altogether, along with options to privately edit or delete their reviews,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to TechCrunch.
Google also makes all profiles public by default. That means if you don’t know about having a profile page of your reviews or haven’t paid attention to emails from Google (which may have ended up in your spam or updates folder on Gmail), your profile will be viewable for all.
The company told TechCrunch that it sent notifications of the hiding profile control to users through the Google Profile interface. Plus, it notified users of the new Google Profile via a pop-up on their existing reviews. However, if users don’t know a new profile exists, they are unlikely to visit the page. And there is a slim chance that you would be going back to read your own review of a show or a movie frequently. Google needs to do better to notify the user of an entirely new page related to their account.
Ghotra told TechCrunch over direct messages that searchable profiles could also be used by potential employers to know the opinions of their future employees, impacting their chances of hiring. Plus, it is an easy target for advertisers to scrap this data and serve targeted ads to users.
How to hide your profile
Here is how you can make your preview profile private:
Go to profile.google.com Click/tap on the three-dot menu next to your profile nameSelect the “Profile Options” itemTurn on the Profile Privacy toggle
Even if you hide your profile, your individual reviews will still be visible under a movie or a TV show title, but it won’t link back to a page with all of your reviews. Notably, your reviews on Google Maps are not part of this rollout.
Google is making your movie and TV reviews visible under a new profile page
Google is making all your movie, TV shows, books, albums and game reviews visible under one profile page starting June 24, according to an email sent to users last month. These profiles are also searchable through Google searches, which can lead to users’ being profiled based on their likes and dislikes.
The company first launched the ability to post reviews of movies for India-based users in 2017. Over the years, this functionality has expanded globally. Last year, the company told TechCrunch that they made review profiles public and searchable in some regions, starting with the U.S. and India. Now, they are making all profiles public globally.
Essentially, you can click on any user profile and look at all the reviews they have posted. Google told TechCrunch that the company provides a toggle to make their profile private. But that toggle wasn’t available until earlier this week, as observed by SEO consultant Gagan Ghotra and TechCrunch.
“Profiles make it easier for people to see and manage their reviews of things like movies and TV shows in one place and make reviews more helpful for others. These reviews were already public, and we provide people with control to make their profile private or delete it altogether, along with options to privately edit or delete their reviews,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to TechCrunch.
Google also makes all profiles public by default. That means if you don’t know about having a profile page of your reviews or haven’t paid attention to emails from Google (which may have ended up in your spam or updates folder on Gmail), your profile will be viewable for all.
The company told TechCrunch that it sent notifications of the hiding profile control to users through the Google Profile interface. Plus, it notified users of the new Google Profile via a pop-up on their existing reviews. However, if users don’t know a new profile exists, they are unlikely to visit the page. And there is a slim chance that you would be going back to read your own review of a show or a movie frequently. Google needs to do better to notify the user of an entirely new page related to their account.
Ghotra told TechCrunch over direct messages that searchable profiles could also be used by potential employers to know the opinions of their future employees, impacting their chances of hiring. Plus, it is an easy target for advertisers to scrap this data and serve targeted ads to users.
How to hide your profile
Here is how you can make your preview profile private:
Go to profile.google.com Click/tap on the three-dot menu next to your profile nameSelect the “Profile Options” itemTurn on the Profile Privacy toggle.
Even if you hide your profile, your individual reviews will still be visible under a movie or a TV show title, but it won’t link back to a page with all of your reviews. Notably, your reviews on Google Maps are not part of this rollout.