This Week in Social brings you the latest news from the most popular social platforms, with some creative inspiration thrown in too.
So, what’s been happening in the world of social this week?
GIFs are finally working on Facebook
Facebook is now allowing GIFs from other websites to play properly. All you need to do to is embed your favorite GIF, drop the link in your status to a GIF hosted on any site, like Tumblr or Imgur, and it’ll automatically play online.
A new Chrome extension shows that your location can be tracked to individual streets through the precise data that Facebook shows to the people you chat with. Every time a person sends a Facebook message from a phone, it sends out their location to the person chatting with them. The extensions scrapes all of that data and overlays it on a map, meaning that a precise chart of people’s movements can be done using these conversations.
iPhone text crash bug hits Twitter and Snapchat
Apple’s text messaging bug, that can crash iPhones with a simple text, is also affecting Twitter and permanently breaks Snapchat text chat. The message can be sent over Twitter either using direct messages or public mentions. If the recipient uses an iPhone and has notifications turned on, a message will instantly crash their smartphone.
Video/Visual
Watch Google’s amazing 360-degree Jump YouTube videos right now
Google presented its amazing new VR platform that includes GoPro camera support (the Jump array) and special software (the Jump Assembler) that lets users create 360-degree videos that can be uploaded on YouTube. You’ll be able to scroll in any direction in order to discover a new vantage point in the videos listed in this article.
Social Winners
Spontex Has the World’s Most Immaculate Twitter Feed – Nothing but white space, with hidden notes
A household cleaning brand called Spontex, hid messages in a whole feed of white space, which can be discovered by clicking on the tweets.
Pizza Hut Warns You Against The Dangers Of Selfie Sticks
In a funny short video, which is obviously aimed at selling pizza, the selfie stick is portrayed as the object that has taken all of the attention away from selfie addicts who were previously only focused on themselves. They showcase that a selfie stick can also take pictures of other objects and even people around them with subtle references to pizza.
Social Losers
Contest to name BC Ferries vessels backfires
B.C. Ferries announced a contest to name its three new foreign-built boats. Since its #NameAFerry contest was launched Tuesday, dozens and dozens of frustrated riders have jumped on the chance to take swipes at the company with mock suggestions on social media. Favorite topics include overpaid executives, axed sailings, and overpriced fares.
Creative Spots of the week
Striking data dandelions offer a new take on infographics
EE has brought together a beautiful new take on infographics, with a look at 4G networks. Each point, or floret, of the dandelion represents a specific number of actions on the 4G network. The stem captures the huge volumes of data those actions generate; the thicker the stem, the more data is required for that action.
Cool idea of making Instagram likes interactive using ♥ as a part of the uploaded illustrations
This Instagram account has a bunch of unfinished sketches, where you can reveal the final image by pressing on like and making the Instagram heart appear.
