Skip to main content

Zuckerberg says Apple’s approach to ads is ‘ridiculous’

Do you prefer free services that target you with advertising? Or expensive services that aren’t so interested in collecting marketing data on you?

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg are on opposite sides of the fence when it comes to the issue, and Zuckerberg took the opportunity in an interview with Time to put across his own take on the matter.

Recommended Videos

Zuckerberg was responding to comments made in September by Apple boss Cook: “When an online service is free, you’re not the customer. You’re the product,” he wrote on the Apple website in response to concerns over iCloud security and online privacy. That flies in the face of the business built up by Facebook as well as Web services from the likes of Google and Yahoo.

Zuckerberg isn’t having it, however. “A frustration I have is that a lot of people increasingly seem to equate an advertising business model with somehow being out of alignment with your customers,” he told Time in the interview, published earlier this week. “It’s the most ridiculous concept. What, you think because you’re paying Apple that you’re somehow in alignment with them? If you were in alignment with them, then they’d make their products a lot cheaper!”

The main focus of the Time feature was Facebook’s part in the Internet.org initiative designed to bring online connectivity to some of the most remote parts of the world — the ultimate aim is to improve education and healthcare through Internet access, though of course Facebook accrues more users as a long-term result of getting these people online.

“Our mission is to connect every person in the world,” explains Zuckerberg. “You don’t do that by having a service people pay for… There are no steps that are clear steps to make this an awesome business or to have it fully rolled out across the world, but I’m pretty confident we can do it. I’m pretty confident it’s going to be a good thing.”

David Nield
Former Contributor
Dave is a freelance journalist from Manchester in the north-west of England. He's been writing about technology since the…
How to change margins in Google Docs
Laptop Working from Home

When you create a document in Google Docs, you may need to adjust the space between the edge of the page and the content -- the margins. For instance, many professors have requirements for the margin sizes you must use for college papers.

You can easily change the left, right, top, and bottom margins in Google Docs and have a few different ways to do it.

Read more
What is Microsoft Teams? How to use the collaboration app
A close-up of someone using Microsoft Teams on a laptop for a videoconference.

Online team collaboration is the new norm as companies spread their workforce across the globe. Gone are the days of primarily relying on group emails, as teams can now work together in real time using an instant chat-style interface, no matter where they are.

Using Microsoft Teams affords video conferencing, real-time discussions, document sharing and editing, and more for companies and corporations. It's one of many collaboration tools designed to bring company workers together in an online space. It’s not designed for communicating with family and friends, but for colleagues and clients.

Read more
Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs
A person using a laptop that displays various Microsoft Office apps.

For the last few decades, Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard for word processors across the working world. That's finally starting to shift, and it looks like one of Google's productivity apps is the heir apparent. The company's Google Docs solution (or to be specific, the integrated word processor) is cross-platform and interoperable, automatically syncs, is easily shareable, and perhaps best of all, is free.

However, using Google Docs proves it still has a long way to go before it can match all of Word's features -- Microsoft has been developing its word processor for over 30 years, after all, and millions still use Microsoft Word. Will Google Docs' low barrier to entry and cross-platform functionality win out? Let's break down each word processor in terms of features and capabilities to help you determine which is best for your needs.
How does each word processing program compare?
To put it lightly, Microsoft Word has an incredible advantage over Google Docs in terms of raw technical capability. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Microsoft has added new tools and options in each successive version. Most of the essential editing tools are available in Google Docs, but users who are used to Word will find it limited.

Read more