2019 was marked by several challenges and controversies involving major brands and Internet platforms. Among the most read articles in the dnetc this year, there are the games that moved users on Twitter, like the mystery of green or pink sneakers. The e-commerce giant Amazon arrived in Brazil once and for all with a greater variety of products and faster deliveries. Google found itself the target of yet another controversy, this time relating women to pornographic content in their searches. Check out the highlights of the Software editorial section at dnetc in this year.
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Social networks were involved in the main software highlights of 2019 – Photo: Nicolly Vimercate / dnetc
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Amazon arrived in the national territory in January this year, installing a distribution center in São Paulo. With free shipping for purchases over R $ 149.00, the company has adopted a stock of more than 120 thousand new items and promises fast delivery of its products, within two days. Before, operating in a market place model – in which other stores offered their products within the platform – the e-commerce giant also started selling its items directly to the final consumer.
With a wide variety of categories and sectors, such as toys and beauty products, the novelty also provided customers with other delivery possibilities, with different values ​​and deadlines, facilitating the process of purchasing products by Amazon.
Amazon arrived in Brazil offering a greater variety of products and faster deliveries – Photo: Disclosure / Amazon
2. Tennis mystery: gray or pink?
The controversy that had already gone viral in 2017 came back with everything this year, but resignified. The sneaker color game, in which some users see the piece gray and others pink, has returned to Twitter and rekindled a new debate about the real color of the accessory. However, the return of the discussion brought more information to justify the color difference, the predominant side of each person’s brain. «People with dominance on the left side of the brain see gray and green sneakers. Those with dominance on the right side see pink and white,» said most posts that sought to solve the mystery.
Still in 2017, dnetc discovered the truth about the real color of sneakers, with the help of an application. By selecting the colors and analyzing them in scale, with the help of PicsArt, it was possible to find the real shade: the sneakers would be gray, with details in water green. According to neurologist Rafael Monteiro, the hemisphere theory has no scientific proof.
Mystery of color-changing tennis is back on a high in 2019 – Photo: Reproduction / Girlsmouth
3. 8 Ă· 2 (2 + 2): how much is the equation?
In August, Twitter was taken over by another mystery, for many without an exact answer. The joke of the day was the mathematical equation 8 Ă· 2 (2 + 2), which confused many users for having two different results, both correct in their own way, according to the order of resolution of the logical operations. Attempts to resolve the account exceeded 14,000 tweets, between professionals and experts in the field of exact and lay people on the subject. The ambiguity of responses is due to the way in which the person solves the equation.
In the PEMDAS method, in the order of operations, multiplication would come before division, while the BODMAS method has, as a rule, the division operation before multiplication. Thus, when solving the account using the PEMDAS method, the equation would result in the number 1, as an answer. In BODMAS, the equation would have 16 as the final result.
Mathematical problem puzzled Twitter users – Photo: Reproduction / Twitter
4. Free Market: fake purchase scam
Criminals made several victims using Mercado Livre, one of the biggest selling platforms on the internet. In the scam, criminals bought products on the website and received them without paying salespeople. For this, the scammers used fake e-mails to prove that the financial transactions for the purchase of the products had been carried out.
The fake e-mails, simulating a message from Mercado Livre confirming the payment, including all the buyer data and instructions for the product shipping procedure. With a layout and content very similar to the real messages sent by the platform, it was only possible to identify the scam by carefully observing the sender’s email address. To avoid the scam, Mercado Livre guides sellers to always check the status of their sales in the «My purchase» area on the website.
5. Instagram controversy takes widow’s millionaire inheritance
Instagram was the subject of yet another controversy in May 2019. The social network found itself involved in a lawsuit, becoming «responsible» for taking a millionaire inheritance from the widow of singer Johnny Hallyday. The curious fact happened after the children of the rocker, as a result of his first marriage, used photos published by the singer in his personal profile on the network. David Hallyday and Laura Smet, the children, then obtained the right to share the millionaire legacy left by Johnny, thanks to the images used in the trial.
The lawsuit started after the singer left a will naming his current wife as the sole heir to all of his assets. However, according to the French inheritance law, your children must be paid part of the amount. Then, using the images published by the father on the social network, the children were able to prove that Johnny spent most of his life in France and not in the United States. In this way, David and Laura were able to have access to the sharing of assets, valued at tens of millions of dollars.
6. Website reveals the origin of surnames
The Ancestry website was one of the highlights of 2019. The platform allows you to discover the origin of your surname, retrieving detailed historical records around the world. It is possible to know the place of origin of the surname, as well as its meaning and demographic data, displaying official files such as immigration records, passenger lists, among other information. Free, the site offers an interface in English only, but all information can be translated by any online translator.
The Ancestry website allows you to discover the origin of surnames – Photo: Reproduction / Marvin Costa
In September of that year, the Federal Government created Semana do Brasil, an event whose objective was to move Brazilian industry and trade. With discounts of up to 80%, the initiative promoted the promotion of the purchase of products in physical and virtual stores across the country. Due to the low performance of sales in this period of the year, the Government tried to make a «Brazilian version» of Black Friday, during the 6th and 15th of September.
The number of participating stores surpassed the mark of 3,000, including big retailers such as Ponto Frio, Casas Bahia and Ricardo Eletro. Semana do Brasil was an action in partnership between the public and private sector, receiving participation from small, medium and large businesses, from all Brazilian states.
Promotion campaign website Semana do Brasil – Photo: Reproduction / Marvin Costa
Filled with optical illusion games on Twitter, the year was marked by yet another challenge of its kind. In the game, users had to find out if the shared image was of a beach or a car, generating debates about the functioning of the brain. In July, a photo posted on the social network showed what looked like a beach at night, under a stormy sky. However, according to the author of the image, it was all a picture of the damaged door of a dark car.
Very similar to the tennis color challenge, the justification for the divergent interpretation of the image would be the predominant side of the brain. While those who see a beach would have a predominance of use on the right side of the brain, people with greater use on the left side would see the damaged car door. According to the theories, this is because the right side is responsible for creativity, while the left is considered more analytical and logical.
Beach or car? Image generates debate among Twitter users – Photo: Reproduction / Twitter
A video shared on Twitter in August was responsible for confusing thousands of users of the social network. The confusion originated with yet another optical illusion in which it was possible to see, at the same time, a rabbit and a crow. The clip showed a hand caressing an animal that, at first, resembled a rabbit, however, when paying more attention, it was possible to notice that the animal was, in fact, a crow.
Duality occurs because it is possible to see the bird’s beak as being the ears of a rabbit, pointed and pointed upwards, while the crow’s head appears to be the mammal’s snout. According to scientist Dan Quintana, the optical illusion between the bird / rabbit relationship is very common in the field of psychology, so it would be so easy to see both animals in the same video.
10. Google searches show pornography by relating women and education
Google became the subject of controversy in October of that year. Users noted that when relating women to education in the search, searches with sexual and pornographic content were returned. The company had previously been accused of racism and sexism when showing the same type of content for the «black woman teaching class» search. When searching for «redhead / blonde / Japanese woman teaching», the site returned images with women during sexual acts. However, when searching for «white woman teaching class», the result did not disclose pornographic content.
Google’s press office said the company was investigating the problem and has no intention of showing explicit results, in addition to clarifying that they do not produce the content, only display what is already available on the web. The display of results would be related to the fact that the word «giving», when associated with women, has a sense of sexual connotation.
Google search returns explicit sex images – Photo: Reproduction / Google
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Gray or pink sneakers? Find out what is the true color of the photo
