Flickr photo by Duncan HolmesWelcome to the Friday Wrap, my weekly summary of stuff I have found in the last seven days that didn’t grab the big headlines but is still important, interesting, and/or worthwhile for communicators and marketers. I collect these on my link blog, which you’re welcome to follow.

News

Google provides details on “right to be forgotten” requests—Google has received requests to remove half a million links under the European “right to be forgotten” ruling. To date, Google has complied with nearly 42% of those requests. Most of the requests have come from France, followed by Germany, the UK, Spain, and Italy. Most of the links removed lead to Facebook—3,332 of them—followed by profileengine.com and YouTube. Among the requests Google has not honored: a financial professional who wanted 10 links removed that led to information about his arrest and conviction for financial crimes. Among those honored were links that exposed victims of crimes. Read more

Whisper is tracking its anonymous users—The app Whisper is supposedly anonymous; co-founder Andy Heyward calls it “the safest place on the Internet.” A Guardian article, however, exposes the processes Whisper uses to track the locations of users, among them some who have requested that they not be followed. After learning the Guardian would publish these findings, the company quietly changed its terms of service, giving the company permission to determine the location of users who have disabled geolocation. After the story was published, Whisper editor-in-chief Neetzan Zimmerman tweeted, “The Guardian made a mistake posting that story and they will regret it.” Read more

Goodbye, Vocus—A former ARCO communicator once asked me how the name of the company was pronounced after it was acquired by British Petroleum. The punchline: “It’s pronounce BP. The ARCO is silent.” That seems to be the case with the merger of Cision and Vocus. The new company’s name: Cision. For a while, the combined company was (oddly) called Cision and Vocus. If you thought this was a merger of equals can put those beliefs to rest. Read more

Cisco launches coalition to retrain engineers for the Internet of Things—Up to 2 million engineers stand to undergo retraining to address security, privacy, and the ecosystem for the rapidly growing Internet of Things (IoT). The networking company has brought 11 corporationso n board to “overhaul the education system to re-skill the 2.4 million people in networking to be equipped with the skills for working in a world with connected devices,” according to Cisco and general manager of services, Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn. Read more

Let me tweet you a few bucks—Twitter and French bank Groupe BPCE have teamed up to allow the bank’s customers to send money to one another via tweet. The deal is an effort by Twitter to jump into the online payment world, a source of revenue that isn’t based on advertising. Read more

New IFTTT introduces great new Twitter triggers—If you’re a user of If This Then That (and if you’re not, why the heck not?), you’ll be delighted to learn about a new set of Twitter triggers that let you set up actions when you are mentioned in a tweet, when a specific user sends a tweet, when someone tweets in a particular geographic area, and more. These recipes represent something a first since they’re not just about your own actions; they let you “query deeper into Twitter’s stream.” Read more

Google wants to be your medical consultant—You’re not feeling well. You query Google about your symptoms. How would you react if the search results included a suggestion that you connet with a specific doctor via an extension of Google Helpouts? It’s a new service currently in trials. Read more

Site lets your workers look for new jobs on the QT—Poachable is a startup that will serve as a broker for workers looking for new jobs who don’t want their employers to know they’re on the hunt. Job-seekers complete a profile that outlines what it would take for them to jump ship, and Poachable’s algorithms match them with companies that think they’d be a good fit. The employee’s identification is kept secret and current employers will never be included in the companies introduced to the worker. Read more

Mobile

Click-through rates aren’t a great metric—Mobile marketers are using click-through rates (CTRs) to assess the effectiveness of ads, but the rate of accidental taps and the inability to measure post-click engagement make it a poor metric. Instead, according to a report from xAd, Nielsen, and Placed, SARs are a better measure. Secondary Action Rates that determine whether you made a call, got directions, or took some other action after tapping an ad are “better indicators of mobile ad awareness, engagement or purchase intent. Read more

The Dick Tracy real-time video watch is real—and it’s Android—There’s no shortage of skepticism around wearables, including watches. What problem do they really solve? many are asking. That may change—particularly in the enterprise - with Citrix’s introduction of a GoToMeeting app for Android-powered watches. Read more

Trends

App lets restaurants respond quickly to bad reviews—Using a new app called SayBack, restaurant and cafe owners can be notified immediately when a bad review appears on Yelp, Google+, or TripAdvisor. Once they see the reviews, they can respond from inside the app. Read more

Young affluent audiences are fine with native ads—The uproar over native advertising continues—not without justification as some in the business continue to scoff at ethics standards—but over 40% of affluent respondents to a survey said they “pay more attention to ads that appear on sites with a good reputation.” According to the report, there’s no need to disguise ads as content, but affluent young readers in particular pay attention to content-based ads. Two-thirds of young affluent respondents said they don’t care who wrote an article—a journalist or an advertiser—as long as it’s relevant. The results were part of The Martini Report, a deep dive into the affluent online audience.Read more