The Curator’s News Feed: December 7, 2012
This week we’re reading about personalized ads, social media forecasts and the newest color of the year. Happy Friday!
Jimmy Fallon, Mariah Carey and The Roots: "All I Want for Christmas is You," YouTube. Christmas is nearing and I thought what better way to spread a little holiday cheer than to share this "unplugged" version of one of my all-time favorite Christmas songs. – Jennifer
Who’s watching who? PSFK. We’ve all grown accustomed to targeted ads online – buy a pair of shoes on Zappos, and suddenly your Google searches are littered with Keens and Toms. But what if your TV targeted ads based on whether you were eating or cleaning? It’s a concept Verizon is working on (though, they’re not the first) that hopes to deliver ads that matter to you. I can’t imagine who would opt in to something like this, but the concept is as fascinating as it is creepy. What do you think, would you be open to reciprocal TV viewing? – Matthew
Verizon DVR Patent Spies TV Advertising, Huffington Post. I love hearing and reading about exciting and thought-provoking innovation, there’s certainly a lot of great ideas out there, but sometimes it can just get creepy. If Verizon’s idea moves forward, I imagine the debate pro and con will be intense. It will be interesting to see where we decide the “line” is in innovation, and if this crosses it. – Julia
Star Trek Into Darkness trailer(s), iTunes. Unless you opened an overhead storage bin on the Enterprise and became trapped under a pile of Tribbles, you've probably heard that the first trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness hit the web this week. But did you know that there are actually TWO trailers? The Japanese version contains an additional 14 seconds of footage, which features more talking from Benedict Cumberbatch's villain (Khan? Gary Mitchell? Garth of Izar?) and a callback to a famous scene from The Wrath of Khan. That may be a spoiler, or maybe that's just what the guys who created Lost want you to think. Anyway, the message boards that I totally do not lurk on are going crazy. – Paul
Instagram and Twitter not getting along, San Jose Mercury News. I was wondering how things would play out between social media powerhouses Instagram and Twitter following the purchase of the photo app by Facebook. Will be interesting to see what happens in the months to come. As a frequent Instagram user I am really dreading the day when advertising starts spamming the app – guess we will see how it shakes out! – Chelsey
Why Facebook Just Turned Your Subscribers Into 'Followers,' Mashable. Facebook became a little more like Twitter this week by announcing that it will be turning your "Subscribers" into "Followers." This follows the debut of the Subscribers/Followers feature last year, which allowed any Facebook user to receive your public updates without being your Friend (to see if you have the feature turned on, go to this link and look at the message to the left of the silhouettes). Why the change? "We found it is a term that resonates better with people using the service," Facebook tells Mashable. I say good call, since Followers is a term commonly understood across the internet. – Paul
Color of the Year, Pantone.com. Goodbye, Tangerine Tango. Hello, Emerald. On Thursday, Pantone announced the color of the year for 2013. Prepare to see a heck of a lot more green on your Pinterest boards, people. – Ann Marie
Marathons And Heart Health: Running Farther, Faster Could Shorten Your Life, Huffington Post. Runners will be altering their running routines due to new research about the negative effects of jogging. According to studies by James Keefe, head of preventative cardiology at the Mid America Heart Institute, running too far, too fast or for too long can be detrimental to your health. It seems that moderation is the key, because as the saying goes, “too much of anything is bad.” — Johanna
Foursquare is a Waste of Time, Locker Gnome. Interesting take on Foursquare and the benefits of location-based services. I’m not sure any LBS service (Facebook Places, Foursquare, Yelp) are mainstream enough yet to be viable in the long term. There’s certainly the ability for them to get there, but they’ll have to make some changes if they want to get mass-market appeal. – Dan