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 Vic.
1. Find out if your YouTube videos are appearing in SERPs
Google has announced that you can now view some snazzy new reports on video in Search Console.
The better you optimise your YouTube videos, the more data you’ll get in the reports, but it’s handy for seeing how well your videos rank in search, and what search queries they appear for.
2. Instagram stalkers just lost a valuable tool
If you’re the type of person who just has to know what posts a dog meme Instagram account that you follow has been liking, I’ve got some bad news for you.
The ‘Following Activity’ tab, (a feature that I only recently found out even existed) has been scrapped, as One; nobody really used it, and Two; those who did seemed to be using it for the sole purpose of, well, for want of a better word, stalking people.
Find out more here.
3. Holy diver
For those of you who don’t know, Elon Musk is a sort of rich mad scientist who shoots cars into space for a laugh. He also designed a car with an autopilot feature that kills people. And he smoked some of the devil’s lettuce on a podcast to show how edgy he is. He’s such a badass.
Anyway, a while back, a kids’ football team was trapped in a cave in Thailand, and at the time, rescue efforts seemed pretty bleak. Nobody knew what to do, except Musk of course, who suggested sending in a submarine or something.
His idea was shot down by an experienced cave rescuer, Vernon Unsworth, who suggested that Musk should stick the submarine up his butt, accusing him of using the crisis as a PR stunt.
And it all escalated pretty quickly from there, with Musk calling Unsworth a ‘pedo guy’ on Twitter. People were all like, ‘WTF dude?’, but instead of leaving it there, Musk instead decided to validate his claim by hiring a private investigator to dig up dirt (which he failed to do). Turns out, the private investigator was properly dodgy, too.
Bearing in mind the very public accusation Musk made about Unsworth, a defamation case was filed. The case started this week and the transcripts are truly something else.
For more reasons on why Elon Musk is such a massive jerk, you can read about him here and here.
4. Facebook fails to crack down on fake news (again)
Yet another tech bro pulls a wack move this week. This time, it’s Mark Zuckerberg, a chap who has already been in trouble multiple times for his platform, Facebook, being prolific in the spread of false information.
The Facebook Ads rules state that you cannot publish misinformation. This includes “ads that include claims debunked by third-party fact checkers or, in certain circumstances, claims debunked by organizations with particular expertise”.
So if I wanted to put out an ad offering services saying I had created a magic drink that can make you lose 25kg in a week, I’d be banned. Fair dinkum. But, if you are a political party wanting to say any old made up gubbins, that, apparently, is totally cool.
The Verge reported several instances of where the Trump campaign has lied in its Facebook Ads. But who cares about democracy as long as those sweet dollars keep rolling in? Right, Mark? You jerk.
5. Career in the toilet?
For some reason (money), Joe Swash has decided he likes locking himself in his bathroom for a nap, with the sweet smell of *checks notes* Toilet Duck providing the ambient aroma he needs to help lull him off to sleep.
Each to their own.
I'm not really sure what to say… pic.twitter.com/uVuvmgZ5Ga
— Nick Walker (@nickw84) October 8, 2019
