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Google plans Snapchat-esque stories for mobile search results
Assuming you have a basic understanding of social media and haven't been living under a rock for the last year, you're going to be familiar with "Stories" -- full screen displays of content that you can swipe or tap through, which are available for a limited time. Snapchat got the ball rolling, Instagram got on board, Facebook followed suit, and now Google is getting in on the action, following the initial report it would back in August. According to a Google blog post, "AMP Stories" are in the works, and soon they could completely shake up the look of your search results.
UK government has its own AI for detecting extremist videos
Stemming the tide of extremist online content has been a major focus for tech giants in recent times, but despite their efforts, the UK parliament has condemned companies such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for "consciously failing" to take robust enough action. To mitigate the problem, the Home Office has developed its own AI program that can detect Islamic State (IS) propaganda online with a 99.99 percent success rate.
Twitch updates policies on hate speech, harassment and sexual content
The fight against online hate speech and harassment continues to gain momentum. Twitter's new policies against such behavior went live last November, while Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg began the new year with a new pledge to combat abuse and hate, too. Now video game live-streaming platform Twitch has updated its community guidelines to be clearer about what constitutes harassment, hate speech, and sexual content, which are all already prohibited. The new rules will go into effect February 19th at 9:00 AM Pacific Time.
Apple nabs murder mystery series starring Octavia Spencer
Apple set a $1 billion budget to secure new original shows back in August and have quietly secured several star-laden productions since. The tech giant just acquired another series, and it's timely. Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures, The Help) will star in Are You Sleeping?, a show based on Kathleen Barber's novel of the same name about a woman whose father's grisly murder is explored in a true crime podcast.
CNN kills its made-for-Snapchat daily show
Four months after it launched The Update on Snapchat, CNN is canceling the daily news show. According to the Wall Street Journal's sources, CNN realized "there wasn't a clear enough path to make money" with the show. That's not the most surprising revelation - no one really knows if Snapchat shows are actually successful or how to measure the results.
Facebook nabs a trio of shows from Machinima for its Watch tab
The last time Machinima was in the news it was for paying "influencers" to say nice things about the Xbox One. Now, the company has inked a deal with Facebook for three new shows that'll live on the social network's Watch platform, according to Deadline. Those include a comic-book talk show (Action Figures), a gaming themed dating show dubbed Co-op Connection and sketch comedy in the form of Dank/Fire. The deal says as much about Facebook as it does Machinima. For the former, it's willing to spend that billion dollars on TV programming from just about any source. And for Machinima, this gives the network an even bigger platform to broadcast on than its 12-million subscriber YouTube channel.
Instagram opens its paid post tools to more 'influencers'
In June, Instagram introduced a new tool that makes sponsored content a little more obvious. The feature allows users posting images and stories that qualify as ads to make that clear right up top with a "Paid partnership with [brand]" tag. That tool was expanded to more users in August and now, Instagram has made it available to users with a high level of engagement and anyone with access to its Insights data -- Instagram's analytics tool for those with a business account. Additionally, those that can use the tool will also begin receiving notifications when Instagram systems detect a post that could be an ad but hasn't been tagged as such.
‘Final Fantasy XV’ multiplayer DLC pushed back to November 15th
Back in September, Square Enix announced upcoming multiplayer DLC titled Comrades for Final Fantasy XV, its blockbuster game that came out a year ago. Unfortunately, the extra content was delayed past its initial Halloween release date, but not for much longer: The publisher tweeted that it's coming out on November 15th.
Viacom chases mobile deals to make up for cord-cutting
To win over young US cable-cutters, Viacom is attempting to cut deals with mobile phone networks to provide their subscribers with its content. The media conglomerate's move is a quiet strategic redirect to target younger users where they are -- on their phones and devices -- instead of insisting they'll eventually return to cable television.
‘Lawbreakers’ adds new content despite few players
Despite a player count that's bottomed out at ten people in the last week, Lawbreakers is forging ahead with a content release that includes two new maps and the launch of competitive mode, Boss League. The number of players has been reliably under a hundred every night, but studio Boss Key Productions is keeping its promise to continue on its roadmap of DLC.
Casey Affleck's production company signs Amazon movie and TV deal
Amazon's foray into big-actor dramas paid off after the film it distributed, Manchester By The Sea, won awards, including a Golden Globe and Academy Award for its lead actor, Casey Affleck. Today, he seemingly repaid the favor by announcing that his production company Sea Change Media has signed an exclusive first-look deal with Amazon Studios.
Facebook's Instant Articles will no longer appear in Messenger
Shortly after Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook is working on a paid-content model with partner publishers, the company has made further tweaks to the way users can view external articles. According to TechCrunch, Instant Articles will no longer appear in Messenger. The faster-loading article format, hosted by Facebook itself, arrived in Messenger last July and was denoted by a lightning bolt icon on the top right corner of some links shared within the platform. This content would load up to 10 times faster than a standard mobile web article.
Snapchat plans to add college newspapers to its Discover section
A plethora of publishers have joined Snapchat's safe news digest, Discover, since it launched back in January. Some are straight news, like NBC and CNN, while others are culture outlets like Buzzfeed and Vulture -- in other words, most are broadly-appealing online publications. But according to Recode, Snapchat wants to shake that up a bit by spotlighting a particular breed of local content on Discover: College newspapers. But you can only read their stories if you're on-campus.
Everyone in the US can watch shows on Facebook
Facebook announced last month that it would be swapping out its video button for Watch, its new platform for shows. The social giant has been slowly rolling the service out to users in the US for the last week, and they've already got content from scrappy amateur creators to shows from established publications like National Geographic.
Chris Redfield is back in free 'Resident Evil 7' DLC this December
We were delighted (and scared silly) playing Resident Evil 7, which turned the franchise around and brought it back to its sinister, horrific roots. The game's first two Banned Footage DLC packs came out mere weeks after the main game launched back in January, but the third additional content pack, End of Zoe, is finally coming out on December 12th. But if you've held off buying the game, Capcom is releasing a gold edition of the title on the same day that loops in all the DLC for an undisclosed price.
Apple sets $1 billion budget for original TV shows
Apple is finally putting its money where its mouth is, setting aside $1 billion to pursue the original programming agenda it's been making so much noise about it recent times. In June, the company poached Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg -- the TV execs behind Breaking Bad and The Crown -- from Sony, noting at the time that it "had exciting plans in store for customers". Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, Apple has opened its war chest to make those plans a reality.
Plex update brings local video playback to its Android app
Plex's last few big announcements include unveiling live TV streaming for its premium subscribers and launching Plex Cloud, which lets users pipe media stored on cloud-based services (like DropBox) to any device with Plex's app installed. But the software provider hasn't forgotten folks who like locally storing content. The newest version of Plex's Android app now lets you play any video file on the device (or SD card) without needing to route it through a media server or a third-party app.
‘Castlevania’ series goes vampire hunting July 7th on Netflix
These days, Netflix isn't just releasing a lot of streaming content, it's betting on topicality and nostalgia to win. In the last week, it confirmed a Dark Crystal prequel and a tweet-inspired Rihanna/Lupita Nyong'o buddy series, with a possible Ellen standup special to boot. You could extend the childhood appeal to shows like Castlevania, an adaptation of Konami's gothic adventure series Netflix announced would come out later in 2017. But the content provider's Twitter account just released both a teaser and a release date: July 7th.
YouTube pushes harder to tag videos 'too offensive' for ads
Weeks ago, an investigation by the Times revealed that plenty of mundane advertisements were unknowingly presented alongside extremist videos on YouTube, sparking outrage and a few companies to withdraw from the ad program. Google quickly vowed to take "a tougher stance" and "remove ads more effectively" from offensive content. But that didn't stem the exodus quickly enough. Now, the search titan is reportedly allowing external firms to vet whether advertisement quality standards have been met.
'Hearthstone' gets first expansion of the year in early April
It doesn't take much to set video game fans down rumor rabbit holes these days, but in this case, hints about Hearthstone's first expansion in 2017 were correct. Blizzard has officially announced that Journey to Un'Goro will be the next content block added this year, bringing dinosaurs and new mechanics to the digital card game when the set launches in early April.
