SocNet Updates: Twitter is testing a new, larger image Tweet carousel ad format. It looks like this. Instagram is developing a sister app to promote constant, intimate sharing between close friends called Threads. Pinterest is changing its search results to avoid health misinformation. Snap is debuting an NFL 100 AR Lens for the Bears vs Packers game next week. And Facebook is updating Messenger, including phasing out the Discover tab.
Roblox is #1 for Kids: As games emerge as the primary way kids communicate these days, new comScore research shows that kids under 13 spend more time in Roblox than on YouTube, Netflix and Facebook combined. Users come to Roblox to “create adventures, play games, role play, and learn with their friends in a family-friendly, immersive, 3D environment.” Adults can play, too. Sign up here!
YouTube Kids Comes Online: This week YouTube announced they are evolving their YouTube Kids app to be available online at https://www.youtubekids.com/ — no app required. Parents set the age settings, and YouTube does their best to limit the content kids will see.
Augmented Reality Coming to Our Cars: This week futurist Bernard Marr wrote that he believes heads-up AR display technology will be the next automotive technology that comes to the masses. He predicts it will be installed standard in new cars and also made available as after-market technology. From Face ID to collision avoidance to real-time traffic data, it seems it won’t be long until we’re all driving around like an F-35 Fighter Pilot.
I Loved That Video 10 Years Ago: YouTube Decade shows the most-viewed videos published on any given day, exactly ten years earlier. It refreshes every day, and lets you time travel through the most important video sharing platform of our generation.
Interactive Milestones: The Wizard of Oz turned 80 this week. Google “Wizard of Oz” and then click on the sparkly slippers to trigger a tornado of fun. Windows 95 turned 24 years old this week. Watch the anthem video here! Netflix shipped its 5 billionth DVD disc (did you know they still snail mail 1 million discs/week?).
App of the Week: Notable Women is an app developed by Google and former US Treasurer Rosie Rios that uses augmented reality to let people see what it would look like if women were on US currency – featuring a database of 100 women, including Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks and Sally Ride. Download it here and try it out!
Newsletter of the Week: @thecramm is a daily round-up of news created by a 13 year-old girl and written through the filter of the next generation. Sign up here. Read what Teen Vogue says about it here.
Binge of the Week: Netflix’s newest bingeable pick is “Better Than Us,” a Russian drama set in the near-future where human-like robot helpers are mainstream, A.I. and holograms are part of everyday life, and oh, one of the bots starts violating Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, which are designed to prevent robots harming humans. In fact, it starts killing us. The English overdubbing is pretty good, too.
GREG SWAN 