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 Will.
1. Twitter’s ‘Super Follow’
Earlier this week, Twitter announced what could arguably be the biggest update to the platform in a long time. On Thursday, Twitter shared the early details on its first-ever paid product, a new feature called “Super Follow.” Although the details are still very vague and the timeline is currently unknown, the new feature aims to support creators in a similar fashion to Patreon through a subscription service.
The above screenshots were shared by Twitter and showcase the feature that will allow users to subscribe to their favourite creators for a monthly fee. Once subscribed, the followers will receive a number of perks including exclusive content, subscriber-only newsletters, as well as potential deals, discounts and much more. Additionally, the creators within the program will be able to put certain media they share such as tweets and fleets behind a paywall.
This new feature is still in the very early stages and the full details are unknown, but it’s certainly an interesting thing to look out for.
2. 10 years of Panda
This week marked the 10-year anniversary of Google’s landmark algorithm, Panda.
Google just launched a new algorithmic ranking change. Here's the blog post: http://goo.gl/J1e0a
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) February 25, 2011
If like me, you weren’t in the SEO and digital marketing world in 2011 you will not have experienced the impact of the update first hand, however, you will be well aware of the fallout. The target of the update was poor quality sites that were reliant on content farms and directories to boost their popularity in search. At the time, many thought that SEO was dead, and many still believe that today, however, it’s simply not the case. The update simply removed some of the worst black-hat practices and aimed to focus on quality content.
The SEO world is constantly evolved with regular algorithm updates and the fallout from Panda is still felt by certain marketers who are expecting the old-school tactics to bring results.
With the anniversary of Panda passing, it raises an interesting chain of thought about the future and how the SEO world will change over the next 10 years.
3. Mr Potato Head
On Thursday Hasbro announced a huge change to everyone’s favourite vegetable friend as they will be dropping the Mr from their famous Mr Potato Head brand. The brand’s decision was made in order to be more inclusive and portray the message that all are “welcome in the Potato Head world.” It was announced that later in the year the new range of products will drop the Mr and Mrs title, allowing children to create their own type of potato family, whether that is with two mums or two dads.
While many are questioning the change, Hasbro has subsequently posted a tweet to clear up the confusion.
Hold that Tot – your main spud, MR. POTATO HEAD isn’t going anywhere! While it was announced today that the POTATO HEAD brand name & logo are dropping the ‘MR.’ I yam proud to confirm that MR. & MRS. POTATO HEAD aren’t going anywhere and will remain MR. & MRS. POTATO HEAD pic.twitter.com/6I84KrxOLQ
— Hasbro (@Hasbro) February 25, 2021
The change has been widely praised by GLAAD, an LGBTQ advocacy group, whose chief communications officer Rich Ferraro said, “Hasbro is helping kids to simply see toys as toys, which encourages them to be their authentic selves outside of the pressures of traditional gender norms.”
4. Twitter clamps down on abuse
In a week of announcements from Twitter, they have outlined a new anti-troll feature, which they are calling ‘safety mode’. The new feature will allow users to automatically block and mute abusive accounts by switching on the new feature.
Twitter commented on how the feature will work, claiming it will “automatically block accounts that appear to break the Twitter Rules, and mute accounts that might be using insults, name-calling, strong language, or hateful remarks.”
Again, there is very little information on the feature, however, it is certainly a step towards making the platform a much safer place.
5. Let’s go to the pub
With BoJo’s most recent announcement injecting a small sense of hope that we may actually be able to return to a somewhat normal world in the near, but not too near, future, maybe, who knows it could all change, in a typically British fashion, we all got excited about the possibility of going to the pub.
This feeling was perfectly summed by Brett Domino, a musical comedian, who released this absolute banger.
See you all at the pub!
