NBC’s Embraces Spoilers in Olympics Social: Unlike the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games, this year NBC is embracing the real-time nature of social when it comes to live coverage and real-time results of the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang. Previous years (aka #NBCFail) relied on tape delays and primetime replays pretending like the athletes were live. But this year NBC is streaming clips on Facebook, posting them on Twitter and YouTube, and posting snaps and live video on Snapchat. TV viewership is down this year, but access to real-time info about the games is on the rise. Video and information is going out on social media as soon as it happens, so if you’re waiting to watch South Korea vs Switzerland in round-robin women’s Curling action on your DVR tonight, good luck navigating the spoilers. (LINK)
Robot Olympics > Human Olympics: Beyond the human athletes in Pyeongchang this week, eight robotics team hit the slopes about an hour’s drive from the Olympic Games to compete in a tournament called “Edge of Robot: Ski Robot Challenge.” The goal? Race robots down a ski slope without crashing to take home $10,000. And the results were disastrous. And hilarious. (LINK)
Google Debuts Mobile-Only AMP Stories: The next time you Google something on your phone, look for their new AMP Stories designed for publishers (e.g., CNN, Condé Nast, Hearst, Mashable, WaPo) to deliver news and stories through a mobile-focused format. Goodbye retrofitted article pages, this format is based on Google’s “Accelerated Mobile Pages” framework (AMP, get it?) for loading content onto your phone super quickly. It’s like Snapchat Stories for the news. On Google! To try it out, go to g.co/ampstories on your phone and search for CNN. Look for more AMP Stories across Google products and Search in the coming year. (LINK)
Google Introduces Default AdBlocker in Chrome: This week you may have heard that Google has started blocking intrusive ads by default in its Chrome browser. This move is a result of the Coalition for Better Ads, which works to set standards for advertising and user experience in digital. However, this isn’t a death knell for all online advertising. Google isn’t blocking all ads like a third-party ad blocker. Instead, they are working to stop certain types of disruptive ad experiences people hate — pre-sital, autoplay and screen-covering ads — while letting normal ads through. (LINK)
The Furby Organ: In this week’s nightmare fuel, please enjoy 44 Furby toys hard wired into an organ. 2018 has already peaked, you guys.
GREG SWAN 