Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

February has been a brief and breezy month, and fittingly so, with the <keyword id="6489583" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Valentines-Day">Valentine’s Day</keyword> ushering back love and romance in our humdrum existence. As we near the end of the month, it’s time to check out the titles published this month and creating the most buzz. As we said last month, it’s a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Best-Reads-OfJanuary-7-Books-That-Will-Take-You-On-Journeys-You-Never-Made/articleshow/29602612.cms">journey of discovery</a> – a <keyword id="6374782" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="journey">journey</keyword> taken together to find our way back to the <keyword id="2037892" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Printed-words">printed words</keyword> we have neglected so long. We don’t know yet whether these <keyword id="5050" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="books">books</keyword> will top the <keyword id="2081025" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Best-sellers">best-sellers</keyword>’ list or not but this time, it is a collection of fiery five that can provide you the knowledge and the <keyword id="53180" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="courage">courage</keyword> to push the frontiers and explore new territories. True to the <keyword id="4167782" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="V-day">V-day</keyword> spirit, the <keyword id="2081016" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="February-books">February books</keyword> are an assorted lot – varying from never-before insights into <keyword id="31602" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="brain-power">brain power</keyword> to the power of human love and the grit to defy the raw deals life meets out. “Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live,” said <keyword id="1816003" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Gustave-Flaubert">Gustave Flaubert</keyword> and we believe that is the <keyword id="31559" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Essence">essence</keyword> of existence, experience and elevation. So welcome on board and happy reading. 
 
Image credit: Thinkstock Photos/Getty Images

February Fab Reads: 5 New Books That Will
Help You Push The Frontiers

<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vongerlachter/">Flickr/vongerlachter</a></div></div>
This post originally appeared on <a href="http://www.details.com?mbid=synd_bizinsider">Details.com</a>. People get passionate on Valentine's Day - long before the evening winds down and, if all goes well, the clothes come off.
Some love the day, reveling in and dispensing as much heart-shaped, gooey sentiment as they can fit into 24 hours. Others view it as an unnecessarily pressure-ridden faux-holiday and would rather hide under the covers until the clock strikes midnight and it's officially February 15th. 
If you're like us, you buy into the idea that it might be nice to do something special with your significant other, but you'd rather not go through the motions and trot out the same tired tricks. So this year, try one of our alternative ideas that'll make you look inspired, and also happen to be very easy to pull off.
1. The Cliché: Dinner at a romantic restaurant
The Alternative: Cook for your mate, you lazy b---ard
The Details: You don't have to be a genius in the kitchen to knock the socks (and other items of clothing) off your lover. In fact, it's best to avoid any complicated preparations that will unduly stress you out. In other words, keep it simple.
Hell, boil some water and make <a href="http://www.details.com/style-advice/food-and-drinks/201009/how-to-make-homemade-pasta-sauce-meatballs-recipes" target="_blank">pasta</a>. Pair that with a bottle of wine, candles, and some music (preferably what your partner would like), and you've got a setting infinitely more romantic than any restaurant crammed with lovey-dovey couples paying through the nose for a V-Day prix fixe.
If all goes well, you may find yourselves having dessert in the bedroom.
2. The Cliché: A Hallmark card
The Alternative: An onslaught of sticky notes 
The Details: Save the card for Mom. The key to the sticky-note scheme is saturation: the more, the better. Put them everywhere you can think of: on the bathroom mirror, on the computer monitor, on a milk carton.
When your mate opens his/her wallet at lunch, for example, and sees a note that says "I love to kiss your lips," that's guaranteed to put you over the top on the romantic meter.
3. The Cliché: A box of chocolates
The Alternative: An unexpected aphrodisiac
The Details: There's nothing wrong with chocolate, but have you tried figs? They've been associated with sexual desire since ancient Greek and Roman times and are alleged to have been one of the favorite foods of the temptress Cleopatra.
Another sexy and sweet (and sticky) treat is honey, a.k.a. the nectar of Aphrodite, Goddess of Love (and, incidentally, the lady who aphrodisiacs were named after).
On the opposite end of the palate, try dishing up some oysters. The 18th-century Italian lover Casanova was a proponent of the oyster as a sexual aide of sorts (he supposedly ate dozens of them for breakfast), and science has since confirmed that the <a href="http://www.details.com/blogs/daily-details/2013/02/are-oysters-really-aphrodisiacs.html" target="_blank">bivalves really do pump up the libido</a>.
4. The Cliché: A romantic stroll
The Alternative: A romantic adventure
The Details: The variations are endless. Your options include the skinny dip (the beach works if you don't have a pool), the secluded hike (bring bug spray and a flask filled with hot chocolate or booze, or boozy hot chocolate), the rooftop stargazing journey, or the literary pub crawl (identify spots in advance where writers once lived and drank).
One word of advice: Bring a flashlight so you don't get really lost-which is not the sort of adventure you're going for.
5. The Cliché: A romantic movie
The Alternative: A burlesque show
The Details: Chick flicks are tame. VD (that's Valentine's Day) is time to get dirty. What's more, venues across the country are hosting special V-Day shows.
So whether you're in <a href="http://www.gothamburlesque.com/" target="_blank">New York City</a>, <a href="http://lalas.tunestub.com/show.cfm?id=135166&amp;cart" target="_blank">Los Angeles</a>, <a href="http://tickets.thetripledoor.net/eventperformances.asp?evt=75" target="_blank">Seattle</a>, <a href="http://www.houseofblues.com/tickets/eventdetail.php?eventid=85383" target="_blank">Dallas</a>, or <a href="http://www.originaltease.com/lincolntap.html" target="_blank">Chicago</a>, you can get your fill of va-va-voom girls in pasties and double entendre-spouting hosts. (For a thorough listing of shows nationwide, visit the fantastic directory <a href="http://www.burlesquebitch.com/calendar.php?currentMonth=2&amp;currentYear=2014&amp;location=~~&amp;filter=&amp;keyword=&amp;x=48&amp;y=14" target="_blank">Burlesque Bitch</a>.)
6. The Cliché: A dozen red roses
The Alternative: A 12-song playlist
The Details: In days past, giving someone a mixtape was a heartfelt gesture capable of transmitting a variety of messages too difficult to put into words. Today, cassette tapes are long gone and even CDs are looking like dinosaurs, but the mixtape lives on in the form of iTunes and Spotify playlists.
Hopefully you've got your own ideas for songs that strike the right mood, but if you need a nudge, then check out Billboard's list of the <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/list/959432/the-50-sexiest-songs-of-all-time" target="_blank">50 Sexiest Songs of All Time</a>.
7. The Cliché: Champagne
The Alternative: Champagne cocktails
The Details: You want bubbly because it activates the salivary glands, awakens the taste buds, and looks cool in a glass. But a regular bottle of champagne, cava, or Prosecco shows no imagination.
Instead, try cocktails like the <a href="http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/French-75-Cocktail-350235" target="_blank">French 75</a>, <a href="http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chandon-Brut-Mojito-361529" target="_blank">Chandon Brut Mojito</a>, <a href="http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/blood-orange-champagne-cocktail" target="_blank">Blood Orange Champagne Cocktail</a>, and of course <a href="http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chandon-Brut-Mojito-361529" target="_blank">the classic Champagne Cocktail</a>. Even better if you sip from each other's navels.
8. Bonus: The Love Poem Generator App
Simply input your beloved's name and the app instantly crafts a poem from one of its 4,294,967,296 combinations of verse. Feel a line isn't living up to your standards? Tap it and it's replaced with an alternative.
Naturally, you can share the poem via e-mail, but you can also play it aloud as read by the app's slightly creepy sexy robotic voice. <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/love-poem-generator/id368780496?mt=8" target="_blank">iTunes</a>; $1
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image">Details</div></div></div>More from Details: 
<a href="http://network.details.com/post/the-top-five-hairstyles-for-men-2013?mbid=synd_bizinsider">The Top 5 Hairstyles For Men</a>
<a href="http://www.details.com/celebrities-entertainment/movies-and-tv/201008/child-actors-adult-stars?mbid=synd_bizinsider">7 Child Actors Who Made It Big</a>
<a href="http://www.details.com/style-advice/the-body/201104/healthiest-snack-foods-to-buy#/slide=1?mbid=synd_bizinsider">The 14 Healthiest Snack Foods To Buy</a>
<a href="http://network.details.com/post/how-to-make-your-beard-grow-faster?mbid=synd_bizinsider">How To Make Your Beard Grow Faster</a>
<a href="http://www.details.com/style-advice/the-body/201104/foods-to-make-you-look-younger#/intro?mbid=synd_bizinsider">5 Foods That Will Make You Look Younger</a>
<a href="http://www.details.com/blogs/daily-details/2014/01/post-6.html?mbid=synd_bizinsider">The Truth About Testosterone - And How To Get More Naturally</a>

The 7 Worst Valentine's Day Cliches And What To Do Instead

<ul><li><keyword id="6358664" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="sasikala">Sasikala</keyword> has been an important part of <keyword id="6378684" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="tamil-nadu-politics">Tamil Nadu politics</keyword> for over three decades, functioning as the woman ‘next in power’ after the late <keyword id="42104" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jayalalithaa">Jayalalithaa</keyword>. </li><li>“I believe she would want to correct the perception that Jayalalithaa was the good person and Sasikala was the bad influence. She will want to set the record straight,” a senior journalist said.</li><li>Sasikala will be formally released from jail today after serving a four-year sentence for a corruption case. She, however, will continue to be treated in the hospital for COVID-19. </li></ul>VK Sasikala, once one of the most powerful women of Tamil Nadu and the closest confidante of former Chief Minister, the late J Jayalalithaa, will be formally released from jail today after serving a four-year sentence for amassing wealth through corruption. Neither her chequered past and the jail term, nor being infected by COVID-19 virus, would make her less of a player in Tamil Nadu politics. Hopes and fears are surging about the role that she could choose to play in the upcoming state assembly elections. <div type="image" title="sasikala" msid="80475129" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Sasikala surrounded by supporters in a file photo.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The Sasikala factor is something all parties including her home party the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (<keyword id="41902" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="AIADMK">AIADMK</keyword>) ⁠— which she was ousted from after being jailed⁠— as well as rival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) led by MK Stalin would be wary of. The incumbent Chief Minister, Edappadi Palanisamy, was Sasikala’s choice before the party distanced itself. He recently <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/tamil-nadu-cm-edappadi-k-palaniswami-rules-out-any-ties-with-sasikala/articleshow/80358126.cms">said</a> there’s no chance Sasikala will be reinstated into the AIADMK but as the cliche goes, there are no permanent friends or foes in politics. Sasikala isn’t just the woman in jail no. 9234. She has been an important part of Tamil Nadu politics for over three decades, functioning as the woman ‘next in power’ after Jayalalithaa. After the death of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) chief, Sasikala rose to power as calls for Chinamma (an epithet used to position her as the heir to Jayalalithaa, who was called Amma, meaning mother), as she was fondly called, to be the Chief Minister filled the air. Jayalalithaa was the first accused even in the disproportionate assets case, in which Sasikala was jailed. <div type="image" title="supporters" msid="80475198" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Sasikala and Jayalalithaa supporters hold placards with photos of the two leaders&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> “It may be too soon to comment on whether she will be included again in the party⁠— whether as a General Secretary or mentor or any other role⁠— but many AIADMK leaders have objected to criticising Sasikala in any form,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvzKEsu8rxA">explained</a> a senior journalist Rangaraj Pandey on his YouTube channel, Chanakya on Jan 16. “For Sasikala, the most important thing will be to erase the taint on her reputation. I believe she would want to correct the perception that Jayalalithaa was the good person and Sasikala was the bad influence. She will want to set the record straight.” If Sasikala does return to prominence in Tamil Nadu one more time, it won’t be a surprise. Here’s a look at how she lost and regained power one too many times. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="From running a video cassette business to being Tamil Nadu’s second most powerful woman" comment="subhead" text="From running a video cassette business to being Tamil Nadu’s second most powerful woman">From running a video cassette business to being Tamil Nadu’s second most powerful woman</cmsannotation> In the early 1980s, in Chennai’s Alwarpet tucked away was a tiny little shop “Vinod Video Centre”. That video rental business was run by Sasikala Natarajan. Her husband R Natarajan worked as a Public Relations officer in Tamil Nadu government. It is through him⁠— and a senior civil servant <a href="https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/frenemies-forever-tracing-25-year-history-between-jayalalithaa-and-subramanian-swamy-51260">VS Chandralekha</a>, who continues to play a key role in Tamil Nadu politics even now as an advisor to senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy ⁠— that Sasikala first met Jayalalithaa, a superstar at the time being groomed by the then leader of AIADMK and Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran. MGR’s death in 1987 put the spotlight on Jayalalithaa, who after being manhandled by MGR’s supporters and his wife, swept the assembly elections in 1991 and began her tenure as the state’s Chief Minister, a position she went on to win six times. Standing beside her, for most that period, were Sasikala and Natarajan, both of whom moved into Poes Garden with her. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The rise of the Mannargudi Mafia" comment="subhead" text="The rise of the Mannargudi Mafia">The rise of the Mannargudi Mafia</cmsannotation> Even when Jayalalithaa ousted Natarajan from the house in 1990, Sasikala stayed back. She then continued to walk one step behind Jayalalithaa, while her family became all that the CM had. <div type="image" title="jaya sasi" msid="80475214" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;File photo of Sasikala with Jayalalithaa&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Sasikala kept chipping away until people she chose or trusted went on to hold some of the most important posts in the Tamil Nadu government. Just like the fictional character Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather, Sasikala’s clout, often derisively described as the “Mannargudi Mafia”, is still omnipresent in the state. “Their men are everywhere from Jaya TV to Ministers’ offices, and have stooges in police and IAS, top to bottom. The system got weakened after the fall of Sasikala in 2012, but once she was back, they were too. And they don’t leave out anything, even the cycle-stand contracts in bus-stands are taken in by them," an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer told <a href="https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/mannargudi-intrigue-how-sasikalas-family-grew-control-tns-power-structures-43001">The News Minute in 2016.</a> <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Jayalalithaa and Sasikala – not a completely rosy picture" comment="subhead" text="Jayalalithaa and Sasikala – not a completely rosy picture">Jayalalithaa and Sasikala – not a completely rosy picture</cmsannotation> The duo, who had ruled politics in Tamil Nadu, also had their ups and downs. In a move that shocked many, in 2011, Jayalalithaa had expelled Sasikala and 13 of her family members from AIADMK. “All party men are directed not to have any contact whatsoever with all these expelled persons,” Jayalalithaa had <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/content/212823/jayalalitha-expels-sasikala-13-others.html">said then. </a> Earlier in 1996, Jayalalithaa had first distanced herself from Sasikala when they were arrested in the ₹66 crore disproportionate assets case. It was reported that Sasikala’s growing clout in AIADMK that began to bother Jayalalithaa. But soon after in 2012, the Tamil Nadu CM marked a U-turn by reinstating Sasikala, after she publicly disassociated herself from her family members and wrote an apology letter to Jayalalithaa. <div type="image" title="jaya sasi 1" msid="80475258" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;File photo of AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa with her close aide V K Sasikala&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Jayalalithaa’s death and Sasikala’s close brush with being the CM" comment="subhead" text="Jayalalithaa’s death and Sasikala’s close brush with being the CM">Jayalalithaa’s death and Sasikala’s close brush with being the CM</cmsannotation> Sasikala bounced back to prominence and cemented her position as Jayalalithaa’s most important aide by the time of the latter’s death in December 2016. <div type="image" title="jayalalitha death" msid="80475235" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Sasikala at Jayalalithaa&amp;#39;s funeral&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Even as conspiracy theories <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/jayalaithaa-slowly-poisoned-to-death-by-sasikala-with-unsuitable-food-alleges-aiadmk-minister/story-IyKNIgM5rO73a26ORJC5AK.html">alleged</a> that it was Sasikala who had slowly poisoned the leader, the party stood by Chinnamma. And so did the powers that be in New Delhi. “I emphatically request that respected Chinnamma has to immediately take over the leadership of the Government, as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu,” wrote deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha M Thambidurai <a href="https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/know/sasikala-in-ammas-likeness/article9461395.ece">in a letter</a>. <div type="image" title="sasikala11" msid="80475285" hostid="261"></div> Sasikala continued to live in Poes Garden – a house that was never hers, and Jayalithaa never left a will. Until she was arrested. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Sasikala’s world goes tumbling down" comment="subhead" text="Sasikala’s world goes tumbling down">Sasikala’s world goes tumbling down</cmsannotation> In February 2017, Sasikala was sent to jail along with her nephew V N Sudhagaran and sister-in-law J Elavarasi in the disproportionate assets case. The Supreme Court of India over-ruled the Karnataka High Court’s decision from 2015, which had acquitted Jayalalithaa and others, and sent them all packing to jail. During the <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/978884/vk-sasikala-pays-rs-10-crore-fine-in-disproportionate-assets-case-lawyer-says-early-release-likely">investigation</a>, it was found that Sasikala and her relatives through shell companies had bought properties worth ₹300 crore in and around Chennai. In 2020, Sasikala’s relatives paid the ₹10 crore fine on her behalf. During her tenure in jail, <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/top-prison-official-accused-of-accepting-2-crore-from-sasikala/article19265812.ece">reports</a> said that Sasikala had allegedly bribed jail officials for preferential treatment. She had also been let out first on a five-day parole in 2017 to meet her ailing husband Natarajan and then again on a 15-day parole in 2018 to attend his funeral. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="One more chance for Sasikala" comment="subhead" text="One more chance for Sasikala">One more chance for Sasikala</cmsannotation> To put it very mildly, Sasikala’s emergence from jail ahead of the Tamil Nadu polls is likely to make it a lot more interesting. <div type="image" title="sasikala1" msid="80475272" hostid="261"></div> While the DMK is touted to be ahead in the electoral race, as per many estimates, the incumbent AIADMK government under E Palanisamy is stronger than it was when she was arrested. There were many who thought the AIADMK government wouldn’t survive its full term but it did. The party did break as Sasikala’s nephew TTV Dinakaran took charge of the faction that was spun out. However, he has, in the past, underscored that his commitment is to protecting Jayalalithaa’s legacy more than any party. If he sticks to that stance, there is room for the rival factions to unite. And as far as the AIADMK is concerned, there is a need for it too. The tug of war between the Chief Minister Palanisamy and the Finance Minister O Panneerselvam continues till date. Sasikala can fix that too. The question is whether she wants to. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/old-vehicle-owners-may-have-to-pay-up-to-3800-per-year-as-green-tax/articleshow/80473971.cms">Old vehicle owners may have to pay up to ₹3,800 per year as ‘Green tax’</a>

Sasikala returns in an election year⁠ — a woman who has won and lost it all one too many times has another shot at power

<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"></div></div><ul><li>The co-founder of Vine and current CEO of HQ Trivia went off at a Daily Beast reporter during a phone call for writing an unauthorized profile about the app's game show host, Scott Rogowsky.</li><li>HQ Trivia is a hot startup that offers a live trivia game show, where players compete for real money.</li><li>The CEO, Rus Yusupov, threatened to fire Rogowsky if the Daily Beast ran its profile, which revealed that Rogowsky's favorite salad&#xa0;chain is Sweetgreen.</li><li>The story ran and included details of Yusupov's reaction. The CEO ultimately apologized on Twitter.</li></ul>&#xa0;The&#xa0;CEO of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-hq-trivia-app-iphone-2017-11">the mega-popular app HQ Trivia</a> learned a lesson about public relations - and Sweetgreen salads - on Tuesday after going off on a Daily Beast reporter during a phone call.Rus Yusupov, cofounder&#xa0;of HQ Trivia and the now defunct video streaming app Vine, recently&#xa0;<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/ceo-of-hq-the-hottest-app-going-if-you-run-this-profile-well-fire-our-host">threatened to fire his star employee</a>&#xa0;and game show host,&#xa0;Scott Rogowsky, if the Daily Beast ran a lighthearted profile it had written about&#xa0;Rogowsky.The <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/ceo-of-hq-the-hottest-app-going-if-you-run-this-profile-well-fire-our-host">full Daily Beast story</a>&#xa0;is worth a read, but in short, Yusupov was upset&#xa0;that the Daily Beast reporter, Taylor Lorenz, interviewed the HQ Trivia&#xa0;host without his permission.The CEO was particularly upset that Rogowsky said on the record that he&#xa0;was able to go outside and "order his favorite salad from Sweetgreen" without people noticing him.&#xa0;<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="iTunes" title_caption="Promotional materials for the HQ Trivia app show Rogowsky smiling at the camera." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5a158900f914c35b018b591b-960/triptico1511360703774.jpg"></a>iTunesPromotional materials for the HQ Trivia app show Rogowsky smiling at the camera.</div></div></div>The Daily Beast reported that Yusupov shouted at Lorenz on the phone, saying, "He cannot say that! We do not have a brand deal with Sweetgreen! Under no circumstances can he say that."In the wake of the odd phone call, Lorenz&#xa0;decided to&#xa0;change the focus of her story from Rogowsky's cult following&#xa0;to Yusupov's threat to fire&#xa0;the game show host if the profile was published.So what happened to cause such a reaction? The heart of the issue appears to be Yusupov's fundamental misunderstanding about how journalism works, and what reporters are and aren't authorized to do when reporting on a subject."If you reached out to an Apple engineer and they gave you information about the new iPhone, would you run it? No, because you'd have to go through proper press channels," Yusupov is reported as having said in the phone call with Lorenz. The Apple example&#xa0;doesn't make much sense, of course, as&#xa0;details about the latest iPhone routinely leak out ahead of the device's unveiling, with many publications including The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg citing sources within Apple in their reporting.Journalists also routinely go around corporate communication channels and report on unauthorized information. Business Insider, for example, did not request permission from HQ Trivia or The Daily Beast before writing this story.&#xa0;(We did, however reach out for comment. Neither company immediately responded to request for comment.)At the end of the day, the Daily Beast got an even more exciting story about HQ Trivia than anticipated, and Yusupov got a crash course in how to handle being on the receiving end of unflattering press.In the wake of the Daily Beast story going live, Yusupov put out&#xa0;a call on Twitter for "a good PR agent" and ended the day by apologizing to Lorenz through a picture of him and Rogowsky eating together at Sweetgreen.&#xa0;"Q: Who's a cliche, stressed out startup founder? A: me," Yusupov tweeted at&#xa0;Lorenz.&#xa0;"Sorry for being a jerk. Lunch some time?"&#xa0;(Disclosure: Lorenz has previously worked for Business Insider.)<div></div><div></div> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/vegetarians-eat-meat-first-time-2016-11">What happens when vegetarians eat meat for the first time</a></h3> <div> </div> </div></hr>

HQ Trivia CEO apologizes for 'being a jerk' to a journalist and threatening to fire his star employee

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Insider met with Nobel laureate <keyword id="46540" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Paul-Krugman">Paul Krugman</keyword> on Wednesday to discuss the US <keyword id="34412" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="economy">economy</keyword>.</li><li>Topics ranged from the <keyword id="6355253" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="federal-reserve">Federal Reserve</keyword>'s rate strategy to the need to pay for Biden's spending plans.</li><li>Presented below is a lightly edited transcript of the half-hour conversation.</li></ul><keyword id="22195" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Inflation">Inflation</keyword>. Multitrillion-dollar spending proposals. The Federal Reserve's rate strategy. The <keyword id="46126" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="economic-recovery">economic recovery</keyword> in general.There wasn't a lack of topics to discuss when Insider spoke with Paul Krugman, a Nobel laureate and the author of "Arguing With Zombies: Economics, <keyword id="6358883" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="politics">Politics</keyword>, and the Fight for a Better Future." Krugman is among the world's most prominent economists and has been outspoken in his thoughts on the recovery from the COVID-19 recession.Presented below is a lightly edited transcript of the Wednesday conversation, in which Krugman addresses his biggest concerns around the rebound, what he's monitoring for possible inflation shocks, and the mistakes policymakers made over the past year, among other things.Ben Winck, Economy Reporter at Insider: Great to sit down and chat with you. The first question I'd like to ask is: How would you characterize the current inflation outlook?In the inflation debate, we have people on one end arguing it's going to be transitory, and another group saying we risk seeing rampant inflation. Is either side winning yet? Paul Krugman: Well, no. I'm on the transitory side, although not with high certainty. There's the cliche about uncharted territory and all that, but it really is. Nothing like this has ever happened in the record.But if you believe in the transitory thing, you're very much of the belief that you can expect to see some scary-looking numbers. You expect to see lumber prices soaring and shipping costs soaring for a little while. You expect to see bottlenecks and blips.Basically, both sides are predicting the stuff that we're seeing now. Anyone who wasn't expecting to see some prices of some things rise as the economy came roaring out of the pandemic wasn't paying attention.It's too early to tell, and it's going to take a while ... we don't know anything right at this point.Insider: The Fed has said it's going to look at headline inflation when it shows up, and that it's not going to look at forecasts or expectations. What are you watching for that first glimpse of broad inflation? Krugman: I'm going to be tracking this like everyone else. In the past, just the Fed's core inflation was good enough. I don't think that that will work this time, because we're gonna have special bottlenecks that will affect core prices as well.I'm going to be looking at things like a couple of the Atlanta Fed indices. I'm going to be looking at sticky-price inflation. I'm going to be looking at trimmed-mean inflation, which would purge the bottleneck effects.And to the extent that we can get information, wage contracts. It's going to be much harder than it used to be. A long time ago, long before you were born, we could do union contracts. There basically are no unions now, so that doesn't work anymore. But we'll be wanting to see if companies are building in the expectation of higher inflation into wage settlements.The whole question is whether prices that are not changing all the time are being set with the expectation of inflation in the future. Whether we get this kind of leapfrogging process, which is what makes inflation - once embedded in the economy - hard to get rid of. Things like sticky-price inflation indices and trimmed-mean inflation indices are probably our best bet.And, you know, talk to people. I'm going to be forcing myself to read the Beige Book these days, because I think, in some ways, it's going to be a better guide than the statistics are. Insider: As far as the Fed's updated inflation target, what do you think it means for the future of not just economic policy, but what we consider to be a strong economic recovery? Krugman: The tricky thing here is, the Fed has basically accepted that they kind of screwed up. That the 2% target ended up being a 2% ceiling, and that was not a good thing. They're not ready to go ahead and say, "actually 2% is too low." Although at some, at some level the arguments they're making would actually suggest that. That we have an economy with a low neutral real interest rate, which means, in order to have room to fight recessions when they happen, you actually want to have more inflation in the system.The old judgment was that 2% inflation was enough to ensure that you would never hit the zero lower bound. Nobody can believe that now. But I don't know if they're ready to go there, and it's not clear that there's any contemplation of an inflation target high enough that we can consider ourselves immune to the kinds of crises we've had. Insider: This is the question that is on everyone's mind, but I'd be remiss if I didn't ask. Do you have any timeline in mind for when tapering would begin or if any rate hikes are going to arrive before 2023? Krugman: The probability is pretty high, that we'll hit the wall before then. Not hit the wall, because that's the wrong way to put it, but that you'll want to have some lift-off on interest rates.If we're going to be growing at 8%, it doesn't take very long for us to an economy that is running extremely hot. Probably by the end of this year, we'll have a very hot economy.Now, the thing that I would be that makes it confusing is that the stimulus is time-limited and we're getting this big slug of fiscal expansion. But it will be in the rearview mirror by sometime next year.I think we're likely to have an economy that's looking hotter than is sustainable by early next year.It seems likely that we'll have an economy that is overheated but in a very mild sense. Not in a scary sense, but nonetheless overheated by early next year. But we'll also be looking at a looming fiscal contraction because the American Rescue Plan will have done its thing already.Whether the Fed will actually feel that it needs to raise rates is unclear for that reason. I think we're going to recover really fast. But the question is, are we going to be in a situation where the Fed feels that it needs to slam on the brakes over and above the deceleration that will come from the fact that the rescue plan is fading into the past. Insider: Both the Fed's interest rate plans and Biden's spending proposals have been referred to as "experiments." What would you tell everyday Americans if you were to reassure them that the outlook is still positive and there's no reason to panic? Krugman: We've learned two lessons from the past dozen years. The US economy can in fact run a lot hotter than we thought. It is, in fact, okay to have nice things. We can have full employment and it doesn't mean that that hyperinflation is around the corner. And the debt doesn't seem to be a problem at anything near current levels.So there's basically not much of a downside to having a very rapid economic recovery. If you're an ordinary American, you can say, "look, the odds are that by this time next year, jobs will be plentiful, things will be looking pretty good. Inflation might be a bit higher, but your income will be more than keeping up with it."And nobody here is being stupid or responsible. They might be making mistakes because policymakers always do. But the whole discussion among policymakers is amazingly reality-based at this point. That's reassuring. Insider: I know it's still early and we're not out of the woods yet. But we've looked back and reflected on a lot of the mistakes that we made in 2008 and 2009. What mistakes, if any, are, do you see emerging from this recovery? <div type="image" title="paul krugman" height="1673" width="2231" msid="82480645" hostid="261"></div> Krugman: I have a funny concern, which a fair number of people that I've talked to have.We're getting this big slug of money, a lot of which is still going out. Special props to Biden for ending the tyranny of cute acronyms. Instead of PATRIOT Acts and CARES acts, we now have "American" everything. The first American, well, most of that money has already gone out, and the economic effects will take some time to play out.With the second two - the infrastructure plan and the family plan - I'm worried that they're excessively paid for. In principle, they're supposed to be fully paid for. But take what we knew about the economy in 2019. We were really kind of in secular-stagnation land with low neutral real rates. We had full employment then, it was only thanks to extremely low interest rates and persistent deficit spending.What the doctor ordered is some sustained moderate deficit spending. So public investment - both in stuff and in people - was paid for in part by issuing debt. I'm a little worried that the Biden team seems to want to do these things with full pay-fors.That's what worries me a little bit. That we're still too worried about fiscal responsibility and not sufficiently worried about persistent weakness of demand. Insider: So you'd argue, in this case, we should try to have our cake and eat it too? Krugman: Yeah, that's one way to put it.I'm mixing metaphors here. We've got a lot of savings all dressed up with nowhere to go. That's basically the secular stagnation problem.And when savings are all dressed up with nowhere to go, yes, there is a free lunch. Putting all these savings that businesses don't actually want to invest, even at very low interest rates, to work is just a win all around.It's not reflected in that the numbers that they're throwing around, although there's reason to believe that the numbers are over-optimistic on the revenue side. And of course they know about this, no question. One of the weird things about right now is I'm actually talking to these people!Anyway, being fiscally responsible is way down on the list of things you should be worrying about. Insider: Are there certain pay-fors that appeal to you more than others? Krugman: Greater IRS enforcement is a win all around. There seems to be a lot of money there and it's also a real element of fairness.The corporate tax is also okay. I think we've learned that corporate taxes are not nearly the problem that we thought they are. And if we could actually get a crackdown on tax havens, that would be a really good thing as well.It's not clear that we really are getting at the issue of untaxed gains from wealth. The attempts to tighten up taxation of capital gains look a little weak.If it was up to me, I would say that the case for something like a wealth tax is still there. And it hasn't gotten any weaker from the facts. It's just that, with President Joe Manchin having veto power, lots of stuff doesn't really happen. But that's still something I'd like to see.As for the rest, I'm not very concerned about the tax issues in general. I don't think we have a problem of paying for stuff. I also don't think the incentive effect of taxes are anything near as big as people imagine that they are. It's just a very low-passion issue for me. Insider: I'm not sensing a wholehearted endorsement of <keyword id="7390959" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Modern-Monetary-Theory">Modern Monetary Theory</keyword>, but I'm catching some hints at that. Do you think the way we've handled this recovery is going to at least elevate the debate around <keyword id="255878" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="MMT">MMT</keyword>? <div type="image" title="President Joe Biden and Janet Yellen White House.JPG" height="2957" width="5914" msid="82480649" hostid="261"></div> Krugman: I could do the old academic put down about MMT: There's much that's true, and there's much that's new, but what's true isn't new and what's new isn't true.When people ask, "well, isn't this a vindication of MMT?" Well yeah, but it's also exactly what IS-LM macro would say.I haven't seen people make this point: In the overheating debate, MMTers, at least if they're consistent with their own doctrine, are substantially to the right of people like me. Because I say, "Look, if the stimulus that comes out of the rescue plan is too big, that's okay. The Fed can tighten monetary policy and prevent an inflationary problem."But the MMTers is don't seem to believe that monetary policy can ever be used for anything useful. We've actually had Stephanie Kelton saying you can't control inflation by raising interest rates.I'm not sure I understand their doctrine, but if that's what you believe, then you should be very worried about excessive stimulus. Because their view is the only way to reign in inflation is to have a fiscal tightening. And since that's probably not in the cards, you should actually be very worried that the first round of fiscal stuff might be too big.Whereas if you believe in conventional Keynesian macro, you say "yeah, well, but the fed can contain it by raising interest rates."If you take this stuff seriously, MMT is actually something that would make you more cautious and less willing to go wholeheartedly into these progressive policies than if you were a conventional Keynesian. Insider: In that, you don't have the Fed to serve as that backstop? Krugman: That's right. From my point of view, you want to go big because it's asymmetric. If you go too small, then you hit the zero-lower-bound and, and the Fed can't help you if you go too small.But if you go too big, the Fed can contain any overheating. If you have a doctrine that says monetary policy doesn't matter, then you don't have that asymmetry. So you don't have the argument for going really big. It's a really weird thing.The two groups of people that are not all that political who I find the hardest to talk to are supporters of MMT and cryptocurrency. Insider: And I promise that cryptocurrency isn't on the docket today. The last question I wanted to ask is, what do you find most encouraging so far about this recovery? And what concerns you the most in the months ahead? Krugman: The most encouraging thing is there's no real sign of the scarring that people worried about. We're getting more than a few stories about businesses that aren't coming back, but there are new businesses being started and people seem to be eager to go back to work. Not enough to make companies that don't want to pay higher wages happy. But this whole thing is really looking like a V-shape recovery. That's a tremendously encouraging thing.Five years after the fall of Lehman Brothers, we were still a high unemployment, depressed economy. It doesn't look extremely likely that's going to be the case five years after the coronavirus hit. So that's really good news. Insider: And your top concerns? We mentioned a few, but any others? Krugman: Well, I'm concerned obviously about a lot of things that are not economic. But, my main concern right now is that the world in 2023 will probably look a lot like the world in 2019.The world in 2019, although we had full employment, was actually really fragile. Interest rates were close to zero and fiscal policy did not appear to be a useable tool. The virus broke a lot of the rules.Back in 2019, I was saying to people: "I don't know where the next shock is coming from, but I think our shock absorbers are completely shot." What I'm afraid of is that we may find ourselves in that position again just a year or two down the road. Insider: Quick follow-up then. Does the Fed's change in language from "full employment" to "maximum employment" - looking at gaps across race, income level, and gender - give you any more hope toward how we pursue a higher labor market? Krugman: Some. It's nice to see that the Fed is keeping up. We're finally getting past the NAIRU. We're finally realizing we don't know how hot the economy could run, and the only way to find out is to try it. And the Fed has picked up on that, which is great.But the Fed can always reign in a boom, but pushing on a string is still a real issue. I would be much happier if there were 16 members in the Senate who talked the way the Fed does. It matters a lot more, whether the legislative branch is willing to think in those terms than whether some people who fundamentally control short-term interest rates believe in those things. Insider: I think it's a great place to conclude. Thank you so much. Really appreciate you making the time. It's been a privilege to chat.

Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman on inflation, Modern Monetary Theory, and why government underspending worries him

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">AP Photo/Rogelio V. SolisLocation firms are trying to get out of <keyword id="35666" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="advertising">advertising</keyword>.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>A number of location-based tech firms are trying to ditch their advertising businesses that target ads based on someone's whereabouts to focus on data instead.</li><li>GDPR and privacy questions have cut back on investor interest, but a couple of companies that don't focus on advertising have recently gotten new funding.</li><li>Agencies say they want to use location data in more ways than tech firms offer - like being able to mash it up with their own email and app data.</li></ul> Marketers have long been intrigued by the potential to zap ads at consumers' phones with precise targeting based on the stores they routinely visit.It's become a tired ad industry cliche: "Someday, you'll be walking by a Starbucks and you'll get a coupon for your favorite drink."But the hype hasn't worked out the way that industry veterans once expected. It's still safe to walk by Starbucks.In fact, explaining to advertisers <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-secret-of-location-based-mobile-ads-2013-2">the complex ways </a>that ads are served to someone from GPS technology built into phones, as well as mounting consumer privacy concerns, is causing tech firms to rework their businesses.Over the past few years, a number of location tech firms have tried to shift their business models from advertising into software that brands use to track foot-traffic patterns. Firms are also under growing scrutiny from the European Union's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-gdpr-regulation-explained-2018-4">General Data Protection Regulation</a> that puts strict regulations around how businesses can explicitly use data to serve and measure ads without explicit permission from consumers, causing investors to cool.Just this week, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/09/11/googles-location-privacy-practices-are-under-investigation-arizona/?utm_term=.12b42c7d34de">The Washington Post reported</a> that Google's practice of collecting location data is under investigation in Arizona."It has definitely been morphing over the years and as far as investor interest, I would say that it has probably waned a bit if it is focused on advertising exclusively," said Brian Andersen, cofounder and head of digital marketing investment banking at Luma Partners. "But with things like data-focused companies, there's still definitely interest."Case in point: Two of the most recent companies to receive funding in this space don't sell ads.<h2>Venture capital money is moving away from location ad companies to newer models</h2>Hyp3r is a startup that plugs into Salesforce and Adobe's marketing clouds and matches up location data with CRM data from email, apps, and websites for brands like Marriott and 24 Hour Fitness. The company has attracted $17 million in Series A funding that CEO and cofounder Carlos Garcia said will go to growing a team to partner with other enterprise companies.And last week, Factual <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/05/factual-funding/">raised $42 million </a>to expand its Asia-Pacific business, bringing its total funding to $104 million. The firm's business is split between an arm that helps advertisers analyze and measure location data and a non-advertising arm that pipes location stats into apps like Uber and Apple Maps."Because we're a data company, we don't sell any media - we primarily work with brands and agencies to help them understand how to use location data but they access it through a network of ad-tech platforms across the ecosystem," said Factual CMO Brian Czarny."Today there's a lot more companies calling themselves location data companies than there probably were 12 or 24 months ago. You're starting to see companies change the way they position themselves like a data company but yet still sell media."<h2>Location-based firms are rapidly trying to shed their media businesses </h2>Firms like PlaceIQ, GroundTruth, and NinthDecimal built businesses years ago latched onto the rise in mobile advertising by amassing pools of location data and then tying the data to ad networks and media campaigns that promised advertisers superb ad targeting."It's relatively easy to build some level of scale by having a media business, but it's one that the markets or acquirers haven't valued as much because it's not predictable and stable," said Dick Filippini, partner and head of mobile investment banking at Luma Partners.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</div></div></div>But over time as margins on digital ads get squeezed, and the duopoly of Facebook and Google <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-and-facebook-dominate-the-world-of-online-advertising-charts-2017-12">continue to eat up ad budgets, </a>location companies are quickly trying to move away from media businesses and spin their data into software, analytics, and subscription-based models more akin to the business models of enterprise companies.According to eMarketer, US mobile advertising will make up $75 billion this year. Google will bring in more than $23 billion of that money while Facebook is expected to generate $19 billion. A separate report from BIA/Kelsey found that all location-targeted mobile advertising spend - including ads sold by tech companies and publishers - will <a href="http://www.biakelsey.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/BIA-GroundTruth-Mobile-TVBroadcast-HighImpactCampaigns.pdf">reach $22.1 billion this year.</a>"They're just arbitraging digital media with their data layered on," said JC Uva, managing director at MediaLink. "There's not enough money moving through the pipeline to make it a business with massive scale when you can do all that on Facebook, Google, and the big platforms."While firms are trying to pivot, media still makes up the bulk of revenue for location-based firms, according to Uva."They're in this transitional phase - they're trying to do two things at once," he said. "The lights stay on because the media business is there - they're trying to move into <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAS_(software)">SAS revenue </a>as fast as possible but they can't totally ditch what they've got because it pays the bills."Most location firms offer some form of software tools that package location stats into a dashboard that is sold to either agencies or increasingly directly to brands to analyze their specific stats.For example, ad-tech firm GroundTruth sells its location platform as software to brands that they can use to zero in on foot traffic data for their stores and competitors' stores. The company also provides targeting tools that brands can use to make location-based audiences for serving ads - like people who regularly shop at a particular store.GroundTruth CMO Eric Hadley declined to explain how the firm's revenue is broken out but said that it's self-serve business launched in February and "it's an exciting new business for us."A PlaceIQ spokesman also declined to break out its media and data revenue but said that the company is profitable and that media makes up the larger portion of revenue.The problem with dashboards is that location companies only have a sliver of data that brands are looking for and marketers often have to work with multiple partners to extrapolate and package data the way they want to."We're looking for a consolidated view of our marketing," said Jeff Ratner, chief media officer at iCrossing. "I don't want three dashboards - I want one dashboard."<h2>GDPR isn't helping already wary investors</h2>On top of more competition, investors and advertisers are spooked by GDPR and similar regulation in the US that will require companies to collect consumers' permission before using their data for ad targeting. For ad-tech firms that already struggle to explain how location-based technology works, they now have to answer more pressing questions about privacy like:<ul><li>Do consumers know that you're tracking their location?</li><li>Where is your data from and is it safe?</li><li>How long do you keep your data?</li></ul>While those may seem like basic questions for ad-tech veterans, "the questions that need to be answered multiple times are around privacy, consent, and the quality and safety of the data," Medialink's Uva said."The stakes are high enough that [advertisers] have to have a very high degree of confidence that what you're being told is actually in compliance," he said. "It seems like there is enough general confusion about what will ultimately constitute a violation that people are taking a broad approach to this until you can get precise about what compliance looks like."Concerns over GDPR have already caused location firms<a href="https://adexchanger.com/mobile/verve-closes-european-business-thanks-to-gdpr/"> like Verve and Drawbridge</a> to shut down their European operations.Meanwhile companies like Factual are <a href="https://www.adweek.com/digital/how-one-location-based-data-firm-is-preparing-for-gdpr/">scrapping their European databases</a> completely to rebuild them from scratch and temporarily cutting down services available to European marketers. The company has stopped offering audience and measurement products to European advertisers until "we're sure that we have the ability to get proper consent and have a sizable enough pool to make them meaningful," Czarny said.According to Luma Partners' Andersen, GDPR could help investors' interest in location-based ad firms in the long term because firms will be forced to clean up how they collect data."You're weaning out unreliable data sources and making sure that you're getting clean data sets from consumers who have opted in from quality sources," he said. "I would imagine that the signals are getting more accurate - we're too early to see if that's the case but theoretically it absolutely could be."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Julie Zeveloff/Business Insider</div></div></div><h2>Companies aren't as innovative as they were a few years ago</h2>There's also a lack of innovation among location companies, Jessica Peltz-Zatulove, partner at MDC Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of agency holding company MDC Partners, said. MDC Ventures is an investor in location-based firm PlaceIQ, which has gone through <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/placeiq#section-funding-rounds">six rounds of funding</a> since it was founded in 2011. Peltz-Zatulove said that MDC Ventures isn't fishing around for other location-based firms to add to its portfolio, partly because it hasn't seen much innovation in location when it comes to granular analytics and measurement."We haven't made any new investments in that category because we always want to understand what the white space is in our portfolio when we make an investment," Peltz-Zatulove said. "I've seen different solutions in that space [but] nothing that I believe is so differentiated or any incremental improvement versus solving an entirely new way of thinking about the category."<h2>Agencies want to roll up location data and use it elsewhere</h2>Agencies want location data but not in the way that location firms can provide.Agencies are increasingly asking tech firms for the ability to take their data and use it in a completely different way than it may have been originally intended, Peltz-Zatulove said.Instead of tying location to specific ad campaigns, advertisers instead want to roll up location data and mesh it with first-party data collected from email or loyalty cards, for example. Or an advertiser might want to combine location stats with purchase data stats from a survey to estimate how many people bought something after going into a store.Both of those scenarios are hard to do when a location-based firm is only looking at data through the lens of serving advertising, she said."If you look at the history of how location data has evolved, the secret sauce initially was access to a data set but now advertisers and marketers want that data to be more flexible, real-time and they want to mash it up with multiple data sets to create new dimensions of insights," Peltz-Zatulove said. "There's so many different ways to layer on additional data on top of location - location becomes one ingredient into a much robust perspective into the customer's daily life."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Shutterstock</div></div></div><h2>Agencies want a deeper look under the hood of ad-tech</h2>WPP's GroupM is currently in the process of auditing a handful of location-based companies specifically for verification. The goal is to understand how often the location of devices that firms report are accurate."Very often, the only proof of performance for a data provider is the resulting attribution or conversion tracking that we can generate from a campaign," said Joe Barone, GroupM's managing partner of brand safety in the Americas. "As the location space has matured, we've taken more of a verification-oriented approach to it."Dentsu Aegis Network-owned Carat also routinely vets partners, starting with a test among 20 companies in 2016. Three of the 20 companies passed the agency's review."Every year we've been able to refresh this test because new entrants are coming from a pure data perspective," said Michael Liu, director of mobile and innovation strategy at Carat. "We've done a bunch of tests where we've tried to sift through who is coming into our agency because we have so many uninformed campaigns where people will take the salesperson at face value and believe that their data is the best."The agency also asks some location companies to dump their data into its own systems and is piloting a data-licensing program that helps retailers and fast-food companies make sense of location data without working through third-party companies."We don't want to be so dependent on one person's platform," he said. Another problem: A lot of location data is the same but packaged up in different ways."They'll all tell you that they have the best data and the biggest footprint but at the end of the day, most of them are drawing their location data from the same couple of SDKs (software developer kits) or the same kind of apps," said iCrossing's Ratner. "It again creates a bit of confusion in the market."<h2>Location companies don't want to be known for location</h2>It's no surprise then that some ad-tech companies don't want to be associated with the word location."I don't even like to use the term location anymore because I think it's somewhat antiquated," said David Staas, president of NinthDecimal. "We think of it more as offline behavior - it's not just looking at where you go but also what you buy, what you watch, and offline signals."CMOs, he said, are struggling to grow their brands and are folding location platforms into marketing stacks to follow foot-traffic trends for longer periods of time than a campaign."The CMO is saying, 'I don't want you just measuring a couple things here and there. I want you to measure everything all the time across all of my types of media and let's do this on a two-year basis.' We get into that kind of level, which is much more like an enterprise model from a mar-tech versus an ad-tech perspective," Staas said.Foursquare is another example. The company's roots are in location data collected from its consumer apps but Foursquare wants to use that data to help brands make broader marketing decisions - like how to slice up a budget between social media, television and billboard ads."There's a lot of consultative work that we're doing and we want to do more of," said chief revenue officer Liz Ritzcovan. "Putting advertising and monetization on campaigns is really important but it's an output - customers offline and online are discovering new ways that maybe they didn't know about because of data."Agencies said those are the kinds of talks that get their attention but it can be tough for companies to provide enough data for them to actually make bigger decisions when it comes to ad budgets."This has always been an interesting thing," said Carat's Liu. "What [data companies] aren't getting is more nuance - they're trying to understand more about the consumer that can supplement the data." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/woke-up-430-am-like-navy-seal-exercise-discipline-2018-7">I woke up at 4:30 a.m. for a week like a Navy SEAL</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

You Searched For "V Day clich" and got 9 results

February Fab Reads: 5 New Books That Will Help You Push The Frontiers

Sanghamitra Mandal

The 7 Worst Valentine's Day Cliches And What To Do Instead

Details.com

Sasikala returns in an election year⁠ — a woman who has won and lost it all one too many times has another shot at power

Sanchita Dash

HQ Trivia CEO apologizes for 'being a jerk' to a journalist and threatening to fire his star employee

Becky Peterson

Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman on inflation, Modern Monetary Theory, and why government underspending worries him

Ben Winck

How confusing tech, GDPR, and a shifting consumer climate killed the once huge promise of location-based ads

Lauren Johnson

27. Harley-Davidson Rides to Live

Sarah Wyman,Dan Bobkoff,Amy P…

17 Jokes That All Political Reporters Love To Make On Twitter

Brett LoGiurato

The founder of billion-dollar startup Carta dissects the pitch decks that helped him raise $448 million

Shana Lebowitz

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides