🔗Weekend Links
Your antisocial media favorites all in one place: Context Collapse #172
In This Issue: Cocomelon rules everything around me / Google Search improvements / TikTok for oldsters / +More
The weekend’s here. A few things that are on my radar, as a freebie from me (comms consultant working in the trenches all week) to you (the beloved reader):
Google is rolling out a whole, whole lot of new features for Search, Maps and Shopping. (Aisha Malik, Techcrunch)
TikTok’s new Discover List is both “a showcase of 50 incredible creators who are driving positive impact on TikTok and beyond” and a way to explore TikTok’s content beyond the For You Page algorithm. (TikTok)
Kids content still rules YouTube. (Sam Gutelle, Tubefilter)
NBC News’ coverage of the Paul Pelosi assault keeps looking weirder and weirder. (Lachlan Cartwright, Daily Beast)
Sam’s Club is starting a snack bar hot dog price war with Costco. This is the biggest recession indicator I’ve ever seen since… ever. (Joseph De Avila, WSJ)
Axios explains why venture firms like hiring marketing and PR teams. (Eleanor Hawkins, Axios)
WhatsApp is boosting its in-app ecommerce capabilities with seamless purchasing from inside messages. Big news for everyone outside of the USA and, well, everyone who uses WhatsApp (David Cohen, AdWeek)
Italian app developer Bending Spoons acquired Evernote, the beloved notetaking app which has been running into headache after headache the past few years1. (Kyle Wiggers, Techcrunch)
The Milwaukee Bucks had to change their uniforms because their cream color confuses the algorithm that serves courtside digital ads on TV broadcasts. Really. (Paul Lukas,
)CNN to on-air talent who don’t happen to be Anderson Cooper or Andy Cohen: You’re not allowed to drink on-air while doing the New Year’s Eve Show. (Brian Steinberg, Variety)
Scared crapless by the advertising suitability apocalypse on Twitter, LinkedIn is launching a new brand safety hub for custom ad blacklists and allow lists. (Andrew Hutchinson, SocialMediaToday)
Subway is launching sandwich vending machines for placement in airports, hospitals and college campuses. (Jordan Valinsky, CNN)
Freddie deBoer on why writers don’t need Twitter. (
)Luis Gusto is a popular YouTube personality who primarily makes Chicago travel and food content. He made a pretty frank video about the economics of working as a travel YouTuber that discusses the reality of making money from YT:
Former Twitter senior software engineer Peter Clowes posts thread on what’s happening behind the scenes at Musk-era Twitter:
Last but not least, another thread with 29 mission-critical problems with Twitter that their new leadership will have to solve. Easy peasy!
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I was a daily user of Evernote for years and years. It was indispensable in my work and personal lives. Then it started getting buggy, the bugs weren’t fixed quickly and doing searches (important for a notetaking app!) started taking forever. Then I found new apps and products to use instead of Evernote and life was fine.