Sunday’s Recommended Reads

Some recent saved favorites from Pocket:

Facebook’s New Offline Sales Measurement Trick Could Make Ad Clicks Obsolete: Facebook is launching a new way for brick-and-mortar business owners to measure if their Facebook ads drove in-store sales, even if customers never clicked. – by Josh Constine – http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/13/facebook-custom-audiences-measurement/

What Tech Hasn’t Learned From Urban Planning: SAN FRANCISCO — The tech sector is, increasingly, embracing the language of urban planning — town hall, public square, civic hackathons, community engagement. So why are tech companies such bad urbanists? – by Allison Arieff – http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/14/opinion/what-tech-hasnt-learned-from-urban-planning.html

14 ways Google gets it right even after 15 years: Earlier this fall, Google wished itself a happy 15th birthday. There was pomp, circumstance, and of course, a Google doodle. And the company has every right — if there ever was any doubt about its dominance, it’s gone now. – by Scott Gerber – http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2013/12/14/14-ways-google-gets-right-even-15-years/#!pWAwr

T-Mobile’s self-defeating resurgence: It’s a standard part of flying, these days: the minute you touch down, you pull out your phone and get back up to speed with the world — especially if you’ve been on a long flight without wifi. And then there’s the standard exception: when you’re flying internationally, you don’t. – by Felix Salmon – Tags: telecommunications – http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2013/12/15/t-mobiles-self-defeating-resurgence/

Chromecast in 2014: an open SDK, big international plans and maybe even new devices: Google landed a bit of a coup with Chromecast this year, launching a device that no one saw coming but that has proven to be very popular. – by Janko Roettgers – Tags: Chromecast,Dial,Google Cast,Mario Queiroz,multiscreen technology,Smart TV – http://gigaom.com/2013/12/13/chromecast-in-2014-an-open-sdk-big-international-plans-and-maybe-even-new-devices/

Samsung: Uneasy in the Lead: Lee Kun-hee, the man who built the most successful, most admired and most feared business in Asia — a $288 billion behemoth that is among the most profitable in the world — had a message for his employees this year: You must do better. – by ERIC PFANNER, BRIAN X. CHEN – http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/technology/samsung-uneasy-in-the-lead.html

A Message That Tries to Blend In: AS Madison Avenue continues debating the pros and cons of a hot trend in marketing known as native advertising — digital pitches styled to look like the editorial content of the publications in which they run — Vanity Fair magazine is voting “aye” by bringing out its first such effort, for – by STUART ELLIOTT – http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/business/media/a-message-that-tries-to-blend-in.html

Ford Unveils Its First Autonomous Vehicle Prototype: Ford has thrown its hat into autonomous car ring with the debut of its Automated Fusion Hybrid Research Vehicle, the latest in a series of steps the automaker is taking to realize its grand vision of transportation in 2025. – by Damon Lavrinc – http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/12/ford-fusion-hybrid-autonomous/