When Microsoft teamed up with Machinima to launch a promotion that paid affiliated YouTubers for shilling for the Xbox One console in January 2014, we questioned whether any potential negative publicity and regulatory hassle would be worth it. Turns out, we were right to think the company would face scrutiny from federal regulators, as the Federal Trade Commission says it has cleared Microsoft of wrongdoing and settled charges that Machinima pushed videos of people endorsing the video game without disclosing they had been paid. [More]
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Company That Paid YouTube Users To Promote Xbox One Settles Charges Of Deceptive Advertising
By 9.2.15
Instagram Decides It’s Not Hip To Only Be Square, Will Now Allow Rectangular Images & Videos
By 8.27.15
If you’ve ever had to take a screenshot of a rectangular photo on your phone just so you could crop it into a square to post on Instagram, you’ll be glad to hear this news: the photo-sharing app announced Thursday that it’ll now allow landscape and portrait photos and videos instead of only square-shaped media. [More]
People Mad About Dinner Roll Lawsuit Keep Calling Wrong Attorney
By 8.14.15
When you’re the lawyer behind an infamous lawsuit against a beloved institution, members of the public will call you. For example, there’s the one where a woman is suing a restaurant after she was injured by a hurtling dinner roll at a restaurant famous for its “throwed rolls.” Fans of the restaurant are looking up the lawyer behind it and calling or e-mailing to complain. The problem: they’re calling the wrong attorney. [More]
YouTube’s Video Views Counter Will No Longer Get Stuck At 301+
By 8.5.15
Gone are the days of the baffling “301+” views on popular YouTube videos: the company says it’s rolling out an updated view counter, and will no longer strand videos with rapidly climbing views to the 301 limbo. [More]
Twitter Removes Its Ads With Autoplay Videos After Epilepsy Group Calls The Promos “Irresponsible”
By 7.10.15
Twitter has pulled two ads promoting its new music service after an epilepsy organization complained that the auto-playing videos with brightly flashing colors could trigger seizures. [More]
YouTube Kids Accused Of Running Beer Ads, Crotch-Grabbing Lessons, Wine-Tasting Tips
By 5.19.15
Since Google launched the YouTube Kids app in February, the service has come under fire from consumer advocates for its advertising practices. Now, instead of focusing on the commercials shown through the service, several of those same groups are raising concerns with federal regulators over what they call disturbing and potentially harmful content for young children to view. [More]
Watch The Very First YouTube Video, Uploaded 10 Years Ago Today
By 4.23.15
It might be hard to remember a time when getting one’s mug on the Internet involved more than just point, shoot and upload, but it was only 10 years ago that we came stumbling out of the Dark Ages and into the light of web videos for all, where we promptly posted whatever the heck we wanted to YouTube for strangers to watch. To that end: The first video ever uploaded, 10 years ago today, features thrilling commentary on the nature of elephants. [More]
YouTube Will Let Viewers Watch Videos Ad-Free For A Monthly Fee
By 4.9.15
If your dream is watch hours upon hours of animals from different species being best friends without the insistent interruption of ads, you are within reach of that reality — if you’re willing to cough up a payment every month to YouTube. [More]
Watch Workers Replace A Retention Pond With A Trader Joe’s
By 3.20.15
The dilemma at a shopping center in Schaumburg, Illinois was a true modern one: Trader Joe’s wanted to build a store there, but there was no vacant space in which to build a store. The resourceful owners decided to make more space by covering an artificial pond with the store and its parking lot. [More]
JetBlue Wants Us To Talk About In-Flight Etiquette While We’re On The Ground
By 1.8.15
When you’ve been guzzling coffee and soda during your flight and have to squeeze past two dozing strangers to get to the rest room, what do you do? What do you do? Recently, everyone from on-board animals to airline executives have been behaving like jerks during air travel, and flights have been disrupted because of legroom wars. and JetBlue wants us all to start talking about it while we’re still on the ground. [More]
Video Of Confused Lady At Gas Station Leads To Useful Driving Tip
By 12.31.14
It’s not often that a viral video that gives you giggle fits leads to learning an actual useful piece of information, but it does happen sometimes. Today’s important lesson: how to determine which side of an unfamiliar car the gas tank is on before you park on the wrong side of the pump and make an idiot of yourself. [More]
Lewis Black Rants About The Expansion Of Black Friday
By 11.20.14
Most Americans don’t go shopping on Black Friday or on Thanksgiving Day, but it remains a popular topic for us in the media to yap about. This year, the increasing number of stores opening on Thanksgiving Day and growing controversy over the practice has prompted Lewis Black, professional ranter, to weigh in. [More]
JCPenney Will Make You The Most Fashionable Family In 1986
By 10.8.14
The winter holidays are coming up, with family gatherings and parties that you don’t want to attend, but have to look nice for anyway. That means it’s time to go shopping for red sport coats and bow-bedecked blouses, to keep your family looking sharp! Because it’s always 1986 in my imagination, let’s go to…JCPenney. [More]
Here’s A Video For Anyone Who’s Dared To Wonder What’s Inside A Slim Jim
By 6.11.14
I still remember eating my first Slim Jim, at the age of 5, purchased from the concession stand at my neighbor Mitch Mitchell’s softball game. In the three decades since, I’ve probably consumed enough of the salty meat-like sticks to feed a small island nation for a few weeks, but I’ve never once wanted to know what goes into making one of them. [More]
Coke And Mentos Geyser Tests The Limits Of A Condom
By 3.31.14
It probably isn’t necessary for us consumers to test the structural integrity of our condoms, but this video published last week features a bold Italian experimenter doing just that. [More]
Home Depot Worker Swoops In To Save Falling Baby
By 1.16.14
So imagine you’re working at the store one day when out of the corner of your eye you see a baby about to fall to the floor from atop a shopping cart. Would you be fast enough to save the day? [More]
This Video Will Forever Change The Way I Sleep
By 12.17.13
In spite of a college education and decades of legally being a responsible adult, paying my bills, not getting arrested, keeping a job, occasionally shaving, I have yet to figure out how to properly insert a duvet into a duvet cover and then keep it from quickly turning into mangled mess. And judging by the response to this video, I’m not the only one who has been losing the battle of the bedcovers. [More]
This 1976 Commercial Shows How People Never Used To Feel About Kmart
By 10.23.13
In the company’s early history about a hundred years ago, a now-familiar brand was called Kresge. That doesn’t roll off the tongue very easily, so in the ’60s they changed their name to Kmart. You know, that store where other kids in school made fun of you for buying your clothes there. It’s still around, of course, but people just aren’t as enthusiastic about it as they apparently were in this 1976 commercial. [More]
