Five things worth sharing from the last week or so, brought to you by a different member of the Browser Media team every Friday.
This week’s My Five is by Lisa
1. Happy Birthday, Google Doodle
The much loved Google Doodle has just turned 18! N’aaaaw.
According to Google, right now:
“Doodles are the fun, surprising and sometimes spontaneous changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries and the lives of famous artists, pioneers and scientists.” – via www.google.com/doodles/
But back in 1998, the first ever doodle, designed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, was a “comical message” to notify users that the pair were ‘out of the office’ and at The Burning Man Festival, just in case the tiny servers of the time crashed in their absence.
Here it is!
Over the years, Doodles have become more frequent and more complex, as well as including hyperlinks and accompanying search results. The first animated Doodle was Isaac Newton in 2010, closely followed by the first interactive Doodle, Pac-Man.
Doodles clearly violate those logo-consistency-guidelines (users can even submit their own ideas via proposals@google.com) but with such initiative and strategy, the concept has grown to become an integral part of Google’s identity.
2. YouTube is dead
YouTubers who make big bucks from their content are getting themselves in a darn tizz.
This is because YouTube apparently just tightened its advertising rules for the types of video that will be able to make money from adverts.
The updates will affect how YouTube alerts uploaders to what it considers as “inappropriate content”.
YouTubers are not happy and took to Twitter to vent their frustrations in a #YouTubeIsOverParty.
#YouTubeIsOverParty Literally the future of YouTube pic.twitter.com/sATTzclPDL
— ionu? | Lady Gaga (@BraveForGaga95) September 1, 2016
Who’s going bankrupt and not having any good creators after the new guidelines? #YouTubeIsOverParty pic.twitter.com/bYSY2RkFD1
— maria (@marrieletsgo) September 2, 2016
3. Snakey Stunt
A viral video of a hawk flying around with a snake in its mouth, before dropping said snake near to a family having a picnic, has been causing quite a stir this week.
It caught the eyeballs of news outlets all over the world, and many questioned its authenticity.
Despite accusations, the guy who uploaded the video stuck to his guns, telling Huffington Post, “Yes it is real footage”. He went on to explain that his uncle had even been bitten by the serpent.
But, in a snakey turn of events, Richard Vaughan Hughes, of The Woolshed Company – an independent production studio renowned for creating viral videos – has just revealed that the whole thing was a stunt for an Australian football team. Rattled!
4. Celebrities will sponsor your product for as little as £143,000
Social media stars and ‘celebs’ are charging an average of $187,000 (£143,000) for each brand sponsored video, according to US talent agency, Captiv8.
These influencers also make around $75,000 for a single post on Instagram or Snapchat, and $30,000 for a single Tweet.
These figures were announced in the New York Times, following Kim Kar-trash-ian’s latest post on Instagram, in which she used #ad to promote some miracle hair pills.
TL;DR: Brands are spending big to have these celebrities praise their products to millions of social media followers, but this is raising big questions about the lack of hard-and-fast disclosure rules in place for these types of ‘relationships’.
5. Got 413,786 hours to kill?
Waiting for a flight connection is a dull experience at the best of times, but a 47-year wait is enough to test anyone’s patience.
James Lloyd from Lincolnshire was using travel website, Skyscanner, to plan a journey from New Zealand to the UK, when it churned out an unusually long-haul result.
Lloyd took to Facebook to ask Skyscanner what he should do in Bangkok to help pass the years, and rather than receiving an apologetic PR-friendly response, he was advised by employee, Jen, to maybe take a river cruise, and head to the moon bar.
The exchange earned plenty of attention and lead to many others posting similar stopover glitches from the site. Jen knew exactly how to handle it though, and even suggested one customer have a sleepover (or 17,155) at Sydney zoo.
