This time last week, Google employees held massive walkouts across the country to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment in the wake of a damning New York Times piece. This morning, CEO Sundar Pichai sent a note to employees about the events that was also shared via the company’s blog.
“We recognize that we have not always gotten everything right in the past and we are sincerely sorry for that,” the executive says in the letter. “It’s clear we need to make some changes.” The memo follows another recent letter, in which Pichai noted the termination of 48 employees for sexual harassment over the past two years.
This latest letter also makes note of a private “action plan.” While not spelled out in its entirety, Pichai breaks down a handful of policy changes, including mandatory training for employees and the ways in which the company will handle sexual harassment claims going forward. Here are the bullet points:
We will make arbitration optional for individual sexual harassment and sexual assault claims. Google has never required confidentiality in the arbitration process and arbitration still may be the best path for a number of reasons (e.g. personal privacy) but, we recognize that choice should be up to you.
We will provide more granularity around sexual harassment investigations and outcomes at the company as part of our Investigations Report.
We’re revamping the way we handle and look into your concerns in three ways: We’re overhauling our reporting channels by bringing them together on one dedicated site and including live support. We will enhance the processes we use to handle concerns—including the ability for Googlers to be accompanied by a support person. And we will offer extra care and resources for Googlers during and after the process. This includes extended counseling and career support,
We will update and expand our mandatory sexual harassment training. From now on if you don’t complete your training, you’ll receive a one-rating dock in Perf (editor’s note: Perf is our performance review system).
We will recommit to our company-wide OKR around diversity, equity and inclusion again in 2019, focused on improving representation—through hiring, progression and retention—and creating a more inclusive culture for everyone. Our Chief Diversity Officer will continue to provide monthly progress updates to me and my leadership team.
Of course, all of this only arrives in the wake of both a serious piece highlighting disturbing complaints about former employees, along with a very high-profile walkout on the part of Google employees. It never bodes well for a company’s underlying culture when these sorts of actions are required to induce a fundamental change.
On the heels of Tinder’s plans to go more casual, Facebook is today expanding access to its own dating service, Facebook Dating. First launched two months ago in Colombia for testing purposes, the social network is today rolling out Facebook Dating to Canada and Thailand. The company is also adding a few new features to coincide with the launch, including the ability to re-review people you passed on and take a break by putting the service on pause, among other things.
If that latter feature sounds familiar, it’s because it’s also something dating app Bumble recently announced, as well.
Bumble in September launched a Snooze button for its own app, which addressed the problem many online daters have – the need for a detox from dating apps for a bit. Sometimes that’s due to frustration or just being busy; while other times it’s because they’ve matched with someone and want to give them a chance.
Facebook says you can still message people you already matched while on pause.
Meanwhile, offering daters a chance to give someone a second look is also common among dating apps, though it’s presented in different ways. For example, OKCupid may resurface people you’ve passed on, while Tinder’s newer “Feed” feature lets you keep track of updates from matches that you had earlier decided to ignore.
Second Look will be in Facebook Dating’s Settings, and show people in reverse chronological order. You can go back through your Suggested Matches and even review people you may have accidentally passed on – features other dating apps charge for.
Also new today is the ability to review a blocked list, support for non-metric units (for things like range and height), and more interactive profile content, including tappable entry points for conversations – like a shared hometown or school.
These features will arrive in the new version of Facebook Dating, rolling out today, the company says.
It has tweaked the user interface a bit, too. Now, when scrolling through Groups and Events to unlock, these will appear vertically, instead of horizontally as before.
Facebook says it’s also working now on a pre-emptive block list, based on user feedback.
This would let you search for people who are not already your Facebook friends in Facebook Dating that you know you don’t want to see – for example, an ex you’ve unfriended but not blocked on Facebook, a family member, etc., the company tells TechCrunch.
You’ll be able to search for specific people regardless of whether or not you know they have a Dating profile, and doing so won’t reveal to you if that person has a profile on Facebook Dating or not.
Originally announced at F8 this May, Facebook has already figured out some of the larger details about how it wants its dating service to operate. That includes its decision to limit users from expressing interest in no more than 100 people per day, and other settings to open the service to matching with strangers or with friend-of-friends.
There’s a certain (evil) genius in launching a Facebook Dating service, given that Facebook is already the place people go – along with Instagram – to research their new matches and potential dates, once things progress to that point. Plus, the service can leverage Facebook’s data. After all, if anyone knows who you are and what you’re like, it’s them. That could save users time in answering the ‘getting to know you’ questions some apps pose to their users to help perfect their matching algorithms.
It also helps that Facebook is positioning the service for those who want relationships, given the leading dating app – Tinder – is known for the opposite.
But user trust in Facebook today is lacking. And dating is something many considerate private – not something they’d want exposed on a network where they’re connected with work colleagues, industry peers, and extended family. While Facebook vows to maintain user privacy, its track record on this front is poor, which could limit the service’s growth.
Facebook has not said when the service will launch in the U.S., nor has it detailed the number of signups to date.
“We don’t have any specific metrics to share, but we’ve been pleased with the response in Colombia thus far and are excited to roll it out to Thailand and Canada,” a spokesperson said.
There’s a new Sony PS4 Pro and it’s much quieter than the original. Right now, it’s only available in a Red Dead Redemption bundle but eventually, it will likely be available as a standalone product, too.
The new CUH-7200 version reportedly dropped the console’s noise from 50 decibles to 44 decibels though as EuroGamer notes, it can still top out at 48 decibels. The noise reduction is reportedly thanks to improved cooling, which in turn, reduces the strain on the cooling system within the PS4 Pro. The original Playstation Pro came out two years ago, and at times, it can roar like a jet engine.
The revised model looks the same as the original so check the model number on the box to ensure you’re getting the quieter option.
I’ll admit that I’ve been caught up in the Bose hype. I’ve worn qBoseSony WH-1000XM3, a pair of wireless/wired cans that truly give everything else I’ve tried a bad name.
These $349 headphones come with a USB cable, audio cable, international audio adapter, and a compact case that holds the whole thing in a tight package. The headphones also support Bluetooth and will automatically swap to wired mode when you insert the headphone cable. The WH-1000XM3s support full noise cancellation that turns even the noisiest situation into a blissful escape. An ambient audio feature lets you listen to external sounds at the touch of a button and there is even a “Quick Attention” feature that turns the headphones down instantly when you need to speak to someone. Sony touts 30 hours battery life on one charge, a claim that I won’t refute as I haven’t recharged these things after multiple flights and they’re still going strong.
In short, these things are great.
Sony likes to brand all of its features and these headphones are no exception. The cans contain a “HD Noise-Canceling Processor QN1″ that run two 1.57 ” drivers that can handle up to 40 kHz. Something called a SENSE ENGINE notices what you are doing – walking, sitting, talking – and automatically changes the audio and noise reduction. Finally, the headphones offer multiple styles including stages, clubs, and outdoor stages. I doubt many will use or notice these features but they’re nice to have.
How do they sound? First, understand that these are not audiophile headphones. You get nice separation, great sound stage, and high quality audio out of these things but mostly you’ll be listening wirelessly to music on your phone or listening to awful audio being blasted out of your seatback entertainment system. Put garbage in, as they say, and you get garbage out. That said, I found these headphones superior to nearly every other model I’ve tested recently, including my Bose QuietComfort 35 IIs. The Sony models were bright and crisp and sounded great with noise canceling on or off. I also tested the headphones in loud environments including cafes and at home with lots of ambient audio playing. The ambient audio immediately disappeared when I turned on noise canceling, leaving only great sound.
They charge via USB and easily pair with any Bluetooth device instantly.
Now for some quibbles. The WH-1000XM3 has no physical power switch, a feature that lets you ensure your headphones are completely off. This single feature could mean the difference between a good flight and a bad flight. Further, the power button is right next to and the same size as the noise cancelation button. This makes it hard to tap this button if you’re wearing the headphones.
Thankfully, the headphones work when turned off, a feature that many lower-end noise canceling models lack. This means you can still listen to headphones if the battery is dead. I also noticed a bit of a bass heaviness in the WH-1000XM3s, but that could be a relic of using the fairly flat Bose headphones for so long.
The headphones also have some fairly cryptic touch features on the right cup including a call and music pause feature that works when you tap the sensitive surface. You can swipe through songs and turn the audio up and down and change the soundstage with a little button next to the power button.
Sony produces excellent audio products and these are no exception. I fly nearly every week these days and find myself reaching for these headphones over anything else I have in my extensive test collection. Time will tell if these cans survive the rigors of travel but given the price and the build quality I wouldn’t be surprised if these headphones are nestled in my backpack for years to come. Now I just have to break up with my Bose and I just know there will be drama.
“Who am I going to be worried about? Oh Facebook seeing? No, I’m not worried about Facebook seeing. They’re going to look at my great art collection and say they want to come steal it? No, I never really thought about it.” That’s my 72-year-old mother Sally Constine’s response to whether she’s worried about her privacy now that she has a Facebook Portal video chat device. The gadget goes on sale and starts shipping today at $349 for the 15.6-inch swiveling screen Portal+, $199 for the 10-inch Portal, and $100 off for buying any two.
The sticking point for most technology reporters — that it’s creepy or scary to have a Facebook camera and microphone in your house — didn’t even register as a concern with a normal tech novice like my Mom. “I don’t really think of it any different from a phone call” she says. “It’s not a big deal for me.”
While Facebook has been mired by privacy scandals after a year of Cambridge Analytica and its biggest-ever data breach, the concept that it can’t be trusted hasn’t necessarily trickled down to everyone. And without that coloring her perception, my mom found the Portal to be an easy way to video chat with family, and a powerful reminder to do so.
When we look at our multi-functional smartphones and computers, connecting with loved ones isn’t always the first thing that comes to mind that way it with an old-school home telephone. But with the Portal in picture frame mode rotating through our Facebook photos of those loved ones, and with it at the beck and call of our voice commands, it felt natural to turn those in-between times we might have scrolled through Instagram instead chatting face to face.
My mother found setting up the Portal to be quite simple, though she wished the little instructional card used a bigger font. She had no issue logging in to her Facebook, Amazon Alexa, and Spotify accounts. “It’s all those things in one. If you had this, you could put Alexa in a different room” the Constine matriarch says.
She found the screen to be remarkably sharp, though some of the on-screen buttons could be better labeled, at least at first. But once she explored the device’s software, she was uncontrollably giggling while trying on augmented reality masks as we talked. She even used the AR Storytime feature to read me a bed time tale like she would 30 years ago. If I was still a child, I think I would have loved this way to play with a parent who was away from home. The intuitive feature instantly had her reading a modernized Three Little Pigs story while illustrations filled our screens. And when she found herself draped in an AR big bad wolf costume during his quotes, she knew to adopt his gruff voice.
One of the few problems she found was that when Facebook’s commercials for Portal came on the TV, they’d end up accidentally activating her Portal. Facebook might need to train the device to ignore its own ads, perhaps by muting them in a certain part of the audio spectrum as one Reddit user suggested Amazon may have done to prevent causing trouble with its Super Bowl commercial.
My mom doesn’t Skype or FaceTime much. She’s just so used to a lifetime of audio calls with her sister back in England that she rarely remembers that video is an option. Having a dedicated device in the kitchen kept the idea top-of-mind. “I really want to have a conversation seeing her. I think i would really feel close to her if I could see her like I’m seeing you now” she tells me.
Convincing jaded younger adults to buy a Portal might be a steep challenge for Facebook. But if it concentrates on seniors and families with young children who might not have the same fears of Facebook or practice using smart phones for video chat, it may have found a way to actually bring us closer together in the way its social network is supposed to.
It took about six months for popular consumer drone maker DJI to fix a security vulnerability across its website and apps, which if exploited could have given an attacker unfettered access to a drone owner’s account.
The vulnerability, revealed Thursday by researchers at security firm Check Point, would have given an attacker complete access to a DJI users’ cloud stored data, including drone logs, maps, any still or video footage — and live feed footage through FlightHub, the company’s fleet management system — without the user’s knowledge.
Taking advantage of the flaw was surprisingly simple — requiring a victim to click on a specially crafted link. But in practice, Check Point spent considerable time figuring out the precise way to launch a potential attack — and none of them were particularly easy.
For that reason, DJI called the vulnerability “high risk” but “low probability,” given the numerous hoops to jump through first to exploit the flaw.
“Given the popularity of DJI drones, it is important that potentially critical vulnerabilities like this are addressed quickly and effectively,” said Oded Vanunu, Check Point’s head of products vulnerability research.
A victim would have had to click on a malicious link from the DJI Forum, where customers and hobbyists talk about their drones and activities. By stealing the user’s account access token, an attacker could have pivoted to access the user’s main account. Clicking the malicious link would exploit a cross-site scripting (XSS) flaw on the forum, essentially taking the user’s account cookie and using it on DJI’s account login page.
The researchers also found flaws in DJI’s apps and its web-based FlightHub site.
By exploiting the vulnerability, the attacker could take over the victim’s account and gain access to all of their synced recorded flights, drone photos, and more. (Image: Check Point)
Check Point reached out in March, at which time DJI fixed the XSS flaw in its site.
“Since then, we’ve gone product-by-product through all the elements in our hardware and software where the login process could have been compromised, to ensure this is no longer an easily replicable hack,” said DJI spokesperson Adam Lisberg.
But it took the company until September to roll out fixes across its apps and FlightHub.
The good news is that it’s unlikely that anyone independently discovered and exploited any of the vulnerabilities, but both Check Point and DJI concede that it would be difficult to know for sure.
“While no one can ever prove a negative, we have seen no evidence that this vulnerability was ever exploited,” said Lisberg.
DJI heralded fixing the vulnerability as a victory for its bug bounty, which it set up a little over a year ago. Its bug bounty had a rocky start, after the company months later threatened a security researcher, who “walked away from $30,000” after revealing a string of emails from the company purportedly threatened him after finding sensitive access keys for the company’s Amazon Web Services instances.
This time around, there was nothing but praise for the bug finders.
“We applaud the expertise Check Point researchers demonstrated through the responsible disclosure of a potentially critical vulnerability,” DJI’s North America chief Mario Rebello said.
“Who am I going to be worried about? Oh Facebook seeing? No, I’m not worried about Facebook seeing. They’re going to look at my great art collection and say they want to come steal it? No, I never really thought about it.” That’s my 72-year-old mother Sally Constine’s response to whether she’s worried about her privacy now that she has a Facebook Portal video chat device. The gadget goes on sale and starts shipping today at $349 for the 15.6-inch swiveling screen Portal+, $199 for the 10-inch Portal, and $100 off for buying any two.
The sticking point for most technology reporters — that it’s creepy or scary to have a Facebook camera and microphone in your house — didn’t even register as a concern with a normal tech novice like my Mom. “I don’t really think of it any different from a phone call” she says. “It’s not a big deal for me.”
While Facebook has been mired by privacy scandals after a year of Cambridge Analytica and its biggest-ever data breach, the concept that it can’t be trusted hasn’t necessarily trickled down to everyone. And without that coloring her perception, my mom found the Portal to be an easy way to video chat with family, and a powerful reminder to do so.
For a full review of Facebook Portal, check out TechCrunch hardware editor Brian Heater’s report:
When we look at our multi-functional smartphones and computers, connecting with loved ones isn’t always the first thing that comes to mind that way it with an old-school home telephone. But with the Portal in picture frame mode rotating through our Facebook photos of those loved ones, and with it at the beck and call of our voice commands, it felt natural to turn those in-between times we might have scrolled through Instagram instead chatting face to face.
My mother found setting up the Portal to be quite simple, though she wished the little instructional card used a bigger font. She had no issue logging in to her Facebook, Amazon Alexa, and Spotify accounts. “It’s all those things in one. If you had this, you could put Alexa in a different room” the Constine matriarch says.
She found the screen to be remarkably sharp, though some of the on-screen buttons could be better labeled, at least at first. But once she explored the device’s software, she was uncontrollably giggling while trying on augmented reality masks as we talked. She even used the AR Storytime feature to read me a bed time tale like she would 30 years ago. If I was still a child, I think I would have loved this way to play with a parent who was away from home. The intuitive feature instantly had her reading a modernized Three Little Pigs story while illustrations filled our screens. And when she found herself draped in an AR big bad wolf costume during his quotes, she knew to adopt his gruff voice.
One of the few problems she found was that when Facebook’s commercials for Portal came on the TV, they’d end up accidentally activating her Portal. Facebook might need to train the device to ignore its own ads, perhaps by muting them in a certain part of the audio spectrum as one Reddit user suggested Amazon may have done to prevent causing trouble with its Super Bowl commercial.
Convincing younger and middle-aged adults to buy a Portal might be a steep challenge for Facebook. But if it concentrates on seniors and families with young children who might not have the same fears of Facebook or practice using smart phones for video chat, it may have found a way to actually bring us closer together in the way its social network is supposed to.
Read this slowly: The White House’s press secretary has tweeted a manipulated video shared by the editor-at-large of conspiracy theorist outlet Infowars to attempt to justify its decision to suspend the press credentials of CNN’s chief white house correspondent.
CNN’s Jim Acosta had his press pass pulled by the White House earlier today after press secretary Sarah Sanders claimed he had “plac[ed] his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job”.
The journalist had being trying to continue asking president Trump questions during a contentious exchange at a White House press briefing.
During this exchange Trump cut over him verbally — saying “that’s enough” — at which point a female White House intern moved towards Acosta and attempted to take the microphone out of his hands.
The journalist dodged and then blocked several attempts to take the microphone by using his arm and the side of his hand against the intern’s arm, addressing her with “pardon me ma’am” as he did so, and indicating that he was trying to ask Trump another question.
You can see what happened in a video shared by NBC News which captured footage of the incident (below). In the footage the intern can be seen stopping trying to remove the mic after Acosta speaks to her. He goes on to ask Trump if he is “worried about indictments coming down in [the Russia] investigation”.
Trump does not answer, repeating “that’s enough” and “put down the mic”.
Getting no answers, Acosta does then relinquish the mic.
BREAKING: White House aide grabs and tries to physically remove a microphone from CNN Correspondent Jim Acosta during a contentious exchange with President Trump at a news conference. pic.twitter.com/fFm7wclFw2
Far right conspiracy theorist outlet Infowars quickly spun into action after this episode — publishing a couple of posts on its website couching Acosta’s actions as a “physical confrontation with female White House staffer”, and asking in a lengthy video post whether Acosta “assault[ed] a woman?”.
In the video Infowars editor-at-large Paul Joseph Watson can be seen following the modern political disinformation playbook — avoiding personally claiming the incident constituted an assault while repeatedly showing manipulated, slowed down footage, stripped of its audio, to make it look like an assault — all the while suggestively reframing what happened to whip up hyperpartisan sentiment (‘what if this had been a conservative reporter ranting at Obama’ etc) in order to manipulate his audience to side with the president against CNN.
Watson was also active on social media, seeding a further doctored version of footage on Twitter — which includes a repeat close crop that zooms in on the CNN reporter’s hand against the intern’s arm, making it look as if Acosta is giving her a karate chop.
Yes the incident clearly did happen. Acosta placed his hands on a woman. Do you think we're all stupid? pic.twitter.com/lbYOXtgXJx
This is very clearly not what the unedited video shows.
In the unedited footage Acosta can be seen essentially brushing off the intern’s attempt to grab the mic — and addressing her politely at the crucial moment, when the side of his hand is resting on her arm. She responds to his polite “pardon me ma’am” by stepped back and stopping trying to take the mic away.
Acosta then asks Trump more questions which Trump does not answer.
Now Infowars conspiracy theorists creating doctored videos to try to spin hyperpartisan junk news is not new or news. Their business model is based on manipulating viewers’ emotions to flog them, er, junk supplements.
But what is new is that three hours after Sanders issued her series of tweets accusing Acosta of inappropriately placing his hands on a young woman, the White House press secretary tweeted again — this time appearing to share the exact same doctored video that had been shared earlier by Watson, as he worked to put the Infowars’ divisive alternative spin on reality.
Sanders referred directly to the video in her tweet, claiming that “inappropriate behaviour” had been “clearly documented in this video”:
We stand by our decision to revoke this individual’s hard pass. We will not tolerate the inappropriate behavior clearly documented in this video. pic.twitter.com/T8X1Ng912y
So the White House is using video footage that’s been manipulated through a conspiracy theorist lens to justify a free speech-chilling ban on an actual journalist.
I’ll say that again: The White House is using a manipulated video shared by conspiracy theorists to justify suspending the press credentials of CNN’s chief white house correspondent.
And once more: The White House is using lies to justify pulling the press credentials of a genuine journalist.
turns out, as we probably all knew it would, that we didn't need deepfakes for nation states to start pushing lies using video https://t.co/rghBqSNcgO
Trump has made no secret of his hatred for CNN — repeatedly badging the cable news network ‘fake news’ in myriad vitriolic tweets since taking office.
Now his administration has gone a step further in seeking to stamp out reality by using manipulated video to bar a genuine news outlet from presidential press briefings. A news outlet that the president especially hates.
Let that sink in.
It’s not just conspiracy theorists who use this kind of information manipulation playbook of course. Authoritarian regimes, terrorists, criminals, racists… the list goes on.
Now you can add the White House press secretary to that ignominious list.
We’ve reached out to the White House to ask why Sanders chose to share the Infowars video — rather than sharing unedited footage of the incident. We’ll update this post with any response.
Meanwhile, on the list of people being allowed into White House press briefings these days…
Amazon is mailing out printed holiday catalogs to millions of its customers across the United States. Titled “A Holiday of Play”, it’s packed full of the hottest toys your kids are going to want this Christmas. And Amazon is hoping you’ll buy from them.
A Holiday of Play (and Profits for Amazon)
“A Holiday of Play” is Amazon’s first ever printed holiday catalog. And the timing is no coincidence. Toys R Us went bust and shut all of its U.S. stores in June 2018. And Amazon is clearly hoping to fill the void left behind by the iconic retailer.
The catalog runs to 70 pages, and is packed with glossy photos of toys. There are Amazon products, such as the Echo Dot Kids Edition, plus brands such as LEGO, Marvel, Disney Pixar, Barbie, Fisher-Price, Vtech, Play-Doh, Hasbro, Nerf, and Hot Wheels.
Theo loves snuggling by the fire and thumbing through the latest @amazon catalog.
“A Holiday of Play” includes actual stickers, unlike the virtual stickers you can now get on WhatsApp. And to actually buy the products listed you just scan the SmileCodes (basically Amazon’s kid-friendly name for QR codes) using the Amazon app.
Interestingly, there are no prices listed in the catalog. The obvious reason for this is fluctuations in price. However, it also makes customers much more likely to visit the actual product page on Amazon to see the price of the item they’re considering purchasing.
Amazon Is Mimicking Bricks-and-Mortar Stores
Amazon really has thought of everything here. So there’s a ready-made “Holiday Wishlist” where kids can make a note of the toys they want. And there’s even a Kindle edition of “A Holiday of Play” for when kids have thumbed the printed copy to shreds.
This is Amazon’s latest attempt to mimic bricks-and-mortar retailers. Which is ironic given that many retailers have gone bust thanks to increased competition from Amazon. Still, expect more Amazon Go stores and Amazon 4-star stores to pop up near you soon.
Dropbox has launched Extensions as a way of making its users’ lives easier. These Dropbox Extensions will enable users to start content-based workflows without ever leaving Dropbox. Bringing an end to the days of toggling between different apps.
Dropbox Extensions Let Users Start Workflows
Dropbox Extensions are “a series of new integrations that let users start workflows” right from within the Dropbox platform. The idea is that people are storing their files on Dropbox so why not give them the tools to do things with them rather than send them elsewhere.
In order to bring Extensions to Dropbox, the company has partnered with Adobe, Autodesk, DocuSign, Vimeo, airSlate, HelloFax, HelloSign, Nitro, Pixlr, and Smallpdf. So if you use Dropbox and any of these services your life is about to get a whole lot easier.
Quentin Clark, SVP of Engineering, Product, and Design at Dropbox, said:
“We want to empower people to choose the best tools for their work by removing the friction between them. So we’re making it seamless for users to connect with partners that offer the right tools for the task at hand.”
Dropbox cites several examples of how you can use Extensions. You’ll be able to “take a contract from first draft to final PDF to signature,” “digitally fax that signed contract to its final destination,” and “annotate videos or edit images […] for real-time feedback”.
More Partners and Deeper Integrations to Come
Dropbox is starting small, with 10 Dropbox Extensions launching on November 27, 2018. However, the company is promising to “add more partners and deeper integrations” to its ecosystem in order to create less friction between the different tools people use.
You’ve surely seen the word meme in your travels around the internet. But if you’re not well-versed in internet culture, it can be difficult to find a clear explanation of what exactly a meme is.
We’re here to help. Let’s go over the definition of memes, explore their usage, and look at some examples of classic memes and those that are popular right now.
What Is a Meme?
You might be surprised to know that the word meme didn’t originate online. In fact, author Richard Dawkins first used the word in his 1976 work The Selfish Gene. The book looked at evolution and used meme to describe an idea or behavior that spreads across people in a culture.
When someone says meme nowadays, they’re probably referring to an internet meme. This is the common usage we’ll discuss here and builds on Dawkins’s use of the term.
For a basic meme definition, we’ll use the following:
A piece of media, often humorous, that spreads rapidly through the internet.
With the instant communication that services like Twitter, Reddit, and similar allow us to perform online, it’s no wonder that memes spread so quickly.
Often, memes go through small alterations like the game of telephone. Sometimes, memes even beget new memes. What’s fascinating is that the nature of online memes means we can trace their origins, evolution, and changes in popularity.
Now that we have a simple definition, we’ll look at some meme examples to help you better understand how memes originate and spread.
Meme vs. Image Macro
Before we continue, we should address a common wording mistake. Many people use the word meme to refer to any image that has text overlaid on it.
For example, here’s a random image of a guy using a computer with some text I added:
The proper term for this is an image macro; this is not a meme. Why not? Because this hasn’t spread across the internet. It’s just a random image I made. If you posted this on Reddit, nobody would recognize the format.
Some image macros are memes, but not all memes are image macros (as we’ll discuss below). And someone creating an image macro and sharing it doesn’t make it a meme.
Historical Meme Examples
Let’s walk through some famous memes from years past.
1. LOLcats
This classic meme plays on the internet’s love of cats. Its format is simple: one or more cats, usually in some adorable situation, with overlaid text. The wording is intentionally poor English that now has its own name: lolspeak.
2. Condescending Wonka
Here’s one of many examples of the Advice Animals subgenre of image macros. Advice Animals refers to an image macro template that revolves around some character trait of the animal (or person) in the image.
In this case, Condescending Wonka is exactly as it sounds. It’s an image of Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, taken from the 1971 movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. The meme features patronizing statements from Wonka.
3. Gangnam Style
Gangnam Style is one of the internet’s best-known viral videos. It released in July 2012 and quickly spread like wildfire, racking up more than nine million views per day for two months during the height of its popularity. Everyone from mainstream news outlets to celebrities was talking about it before long.
Thousands of people created reaction videos, parodies, and more. It was the first YouTube video to hit both one billion and two billion views. In fact, it had so many views that it surpassed the memory YouTube had for its view counter at the time. And it’s still one of YouTube’s most-watched videos.
Gangnam Style is an unforgettable phenomenon that perfectly illustrates how quickly something can spread through the internet.
4. Chuck Norris Facts
Chuck Norris has been a martial artist, actor, film director, and more in his life. But online, he’s not known for any of that. Instead, he’s become famous for “Chuck Norris Facts”, a meme that chronicles absurd feats of Norris.
These facts exaggerate his toughness, claiming impossibilities like that he can win a game of Connect Four in three moves. Norris has stated that he finds the facts funny, and has no doubt enjoyed renewed fame from the meme.
5. Do a Barrel Roll
Here’s a quote from the 1997 space shooter game Star Fox 64 that has enjoyed a long life on the internet. In the game, your wingmate Peppy advises you to do a barrel roll to avoid enemy fire.
Due to the game’s cheesy voice acting, this became an oft-repeated phrase online. It’s just one of many gaming memes that made it into the mainstream. In fact, try searching for do a barrel roll on Google and see what happens.
Recent Meme Examples
In internet time, the above memes are ancient history. Here are some of the most popular memes right now from 2017 and 2018.
6. Distracted Boyfriend
One of 2017’s top memes, this one is largely responsible for the trend of object labeling image macros (in which the meme changes by labeling the image elements). It comes from a stock image where a guy is checking out another woman while his girlfriend has an upset look on her face.
After labeling the objects, the “other woman” usually represents something tempting, while the girlfriend represents what you’re supposed to do. It has endless variations, making it a smash hit.
7. Who Killed Hannibal?
This is one of the most popular memes of 2018 and illustrates several meme principles quite well. It comes from a video clip that’s years old, is easy to modify, and continues the recent trend of object labeling.
The original clip comes from The Eric Andre Show, in which Andre “shoots” his co-host Hannibal and then turns to ask who killed him. This became a meme where the characters have labels and Andre asks “Why would X do this?” to point out everyday hypocrisy.
8. Elf on the Shelf
Elf on the Shelf is a kid’s Christmas book that came with an elf doll. The doll has gone through a few meme variations, but the latest one uses a silly rhyme.
The recent Elf on the Shelf meme includes the caption “You’ve heard of Elf on the Shelf, now get ready for” on an edited image. Like “elf” and “shelf” this image includes two rhyming items, such as “Shrek on a deck” above.
9. Shooting Stars
Another slow-burning meme, this one was built around a song released in 2008 by the artist Bag Raiders. Years later, the song started appearing in silly YouTube videos and becoming more popular.
In 2017, Shooting Stars took off thanks to the above video. The song combined with footage of an overweight man diving started a new meme format. Editing clips of people to look like they were flying through space paired perfectly with the song.
10. By Age 35
By age 35 you should have a huge box of cables but you can't throw them out because you're pretty sure you still need a couple of them but you're not sure which ones
Many recent standout memes have been image macros, but not this one. It was a result of Twitter users reacting to a Market Watch article that claimed:
By age 35, you should have twice your salary saved, according to retirement experts.
Many found this absurd advice that most people have no hope of achieving. Thus came all sorts of jabs at the advice, claiming that by age 35, for instance, you should have collected all the Chaos Emeralds from the Sonic games.
We’ve taken a tour of five classic and five modern memes, but this is only a tiny sampling. Memes are constantly emerging and dying off—what’s insanely popular today is stale next week.
Many memes originate from corners of the internet like 4chan and Reddit. Eventually, if they stay popular, they make their way to mainstream social networks. If you keep an eye out, you’ll eventually learn to identify the latest meme trends.
For an all-around reference, we highly recommend checking out Know Your Meme. This encyclopedic resource is dedicated to cataloging the origins, use, and examples of memes. It’s a great place to learn how a meme started or see what’s popular recently.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the most epic open world games ever made. There’s a lot to do in the game, from story missions to sidequests, from hunting animals to robbing banks. And that means Red Dead Redemption 2 can, at times, feel overwhelming.
There are some fundamental things you need to learn in order to enjoy Red Dead Redemption 2. And they should help you succeed at playing the game without dying too often. So, here are some essential Red Dead Redemption 2 tips all players should know…
1. Take Note of Your Surroundings
This may seem obvious to some, but it’s worth mentioning. Don’t just focus on your destination or waypoint. Instead, scan the horizon for places worth exploring and people worth meeting.
Smoke rising into the air means someone has a campfire. A white circle denotes a stranger mission is close by. You’ll also see or hear animals close by that may be worth hunting.
2. Always Set Destinations on Your Map
The map in Red Dead Redemption 2 is vast. So vast, in fact, that a fast travel option becomes available in Chapter 2 by upgrading Arthur’s lodgings.
However, if you are riding anywhere, always set a destination on your map, just as you would with Google Maps. The game will guide you via the shortest route, and with a destination set you can enable the cinematic camera and travel hands-free.
3. Keep an Eye On Your Cores
In Red Dead Redemption 2 your character and horse have cores that need to be maintained. Your character has cores for health, stamina and dead eye, while your horse has cores for health and stamina.
These all need to be maintained, or your character will suffer. So keep an eye on your cores, and eat, sleep, and take tonics as required. This is especially important when you’re heading into a mission.
4. Pay Your Bounties Off ASAP
For every crime you commit (even by accident) you’ll earn a bounty. This will be specific to the region in which you committed the crime, making it difficult to travel there in the future.
If you commit a crime don’t make it worse by killing people to escape the law, as that will just increase your bounty. Instead, surrender to lawmen or clear the area while they investigate. Then, as soon as you’re able to do so, go and pay the bounty off at the nearest post office.
5. Bond With Your Horse
Horses are crucial in this game. Without one you’ll struggle to get anywhere or do anything. Which is why it’s important to bond with your horse as much as possible.
Doing so will open up new moves (making it easier to get away from enemies) and increase the range at which you can whistle for your horse. And all you need to do is pat, brush, and feed your horse now and again (by standing near your horse and opening the relevant menu).
6. Greet Everyone You Meet
Red Dead Redemption 2 employs an honor system. Do good deeds (such as helping strangers) and your honor will increase. Do bad deeds (such as killing people camping in the wild) and your honor will decrease.
There are advantages to being honorable, including getting money off items for sale in shops. And one simple way of increasing your honor is simply greeting everyone you meet. Just don’t accidentally press the wrong button and shoot them dead instead.
7. Do Talk to Strangers
As kids we’re taught not to talk to strangers, but in the case of Red Dead Redemption 2 you definitely should. Even random NPCs can pass on useful or interesting information. Or provide you with a reward for helping them out.
However, it’s the strangers in the stranger missions that you should seek out. You’ll get rewards, tips, and extra strands of story often ranging over several chapters.
8. Use Dead Eye Whenever Possible
To survive in Red Dead Redemption 2 you need to be handy with your gun. You can fire off the hip or take aim in the hopes of killing someone with a single shot.
However, Dead Eye is by far the best method of winning a gunfight. It enables you to tag a number of enemies at once in slow-motion, giving you a definite advantage.
To activate Dead Eye, hold down the aim button, and then click the right stick. Everything will then slow down, allowing you to tag enemies before firing off a barrage of shots.
9. Keep Your Weapons Clean
Over the course of Red Dead Redemption 2 you’ll pick up a lot of different weapons. And unless you’re an absolute saint you’ll shoot them all numerous times as well.
Your weapons will get dirty, and when they’re dirty they’ll be less accurate and slower to load. So buy some gun oil and clean your weapons more often than your character cleans his clothes.
To clean your weapons, just open the Weapon Wheel, highlight a weapon, and press the right stick to inspect it. You’ll see the condition it’s in, and can select the option to clean it.
10. Make Friends With the Fence
In Red Dead Redemption 2, fences are black market traders who will buy and sell illicit objects. You’ll unlock one after a Chapter 2 mission, but you can also take the long ride out to Saint Denis to meet one early.
Fences are invaluable assets. They’ll buy your ill-gotten gains off you without asking questions, and sell you valuable items such as new recipes, talismans, and a silent lock breaker.
Savor Every Minute of Red Dead Redemption 2
There’s one more piece of advice that you need to heed. Which is to savor every minute of Red Dead Redemption 2. Rockstar has built a living, breathing version of the American Frontier circa 1899, and you should embrace every part of that.
Don’t rush through the storyline to get to the end. Don’t skip stranger missions to save time. Instead, camp out under the stars, visit saloons late at night, and ride your horse to the four corners of the map with the cinematic camera enabled.
This is the only way to truly appreciate the world Rockstar has created. And when you finally finish the game using our Red Dead Redemption 2 tips you should check out some other classic games set in the Wild West.
Twitter is where some of the biggest influencers from around the world share what’s on their mind, whether it’s Donald Trump or Elon Musk. But in this flurry of worldwide messages, how do you find tweets from a specific location?
This short guide will show you how to search Twitter by location to find tweets from any particular place. Before we start, you should know the basics of how to use Twitter. Then we’ll show you how to use both Search and Advanced Search, on both desktop and mobile.
Get an Account and Enable Location
You can use Twitter without an account, and that extends to search and advanced search. But searching by location is better if you have an account and have enabled location information.
To enable Location in Twitter:
Go to Twitter > Profile and Settings (your display picture) > Settings and Privacy.
Go to Privacy and Safety.
Check the box for Tweet Location. If already checked, don’t do anything.
Scroll down, click Save Changes, and exit.
How to Search Tweets From People Near You
The easiest place-based search is to find tweets sent by people who are near your location. For this feature, even if you don’t have location enabled in settings, Twitter uses your device’s IP address (which includes the current or closest major city) to figure out where you are right now.
In the Search bar (top-right corner), type what you want to search, and press Enter.
In the search results page, expand Search Filters.
Click the second drop-down box, and change Anywhere to Near You.
That’s all there is to it. Twitter will now show you search results from tweets sent from somewhere close to you.
You can sort these tweets based on the top tweets, latest, famous people, tweets containing photos or videos, and news tweets.
You can also choose multiple filters, such as only showing tweets from people you follow, or the language the tweets are written in.
How to Search Twitter by Any Location
The easiest way to state which area to search is through Advanced Search, which is one of the Twitter tips even pros don’t know about. Here’s how to use it to find tweets or people from a certain location:
Put in the operators you want to search in the field boxes under Words, People, and Dates. The boxes are self-explanatory.
The Places tab will be set to your current location by default. If you want to search for tweets close to you, don’t do anything.
If you want to search in a specific location other than your own, click the Places tab and type the name of a location. Don’t press Enter immediately, wait for Twitter to suggest locations in the drop-down bar, based on what you typed. This is important because there are multiple Londons and New Yorks in the world, and Twitter will show results from all places that share the name. Wait to pick the place you want, and you’ll get relevant tweets from one place you select.
Once you’ve got the location you want, click Search.
You will now get the search results closest to that particular place. By default, Twitter searches within a 15-mile radius from the specified location.
For Phone Users: Unfortunately, the mobile version of Twitter’s Advanced Search does not show the Places tab, or let you change it. If you’re trying this method on a phone or tablet, you will need to go to your browser’s settings and load the desktop website on mobile.
For location-based search, you need to know the two operators near: and within: and how to use them.
The near: operator is followed by the name of the location, which can be an area, city, state, country, postal code, or geocode. Out of all these, the most accurate target is a geocode.
A geocode is a location’s GPS coordinates. You can find the latitude and longitude coordinates of any place with a quick Google search, or by tracking the place on Google Maps.
The within: operator is followed by distance. By default, Twitter will use 15 miles, but if you want to reduce or expand that, add that in miles.
So for example, if you want to find tweets about pizza in Chicago with a 5-mile limit, here’s what the search term would look like:
“Pizza near:Chicago within:5mi”
It’s that simple. If you ask us, you can skip the “within” operator most times because it sometimes gives you nonsensical results, or takes away something you need to know.
For Phone Users: Both the search operators near: and within: are used in the regular Twitter search, not advanced search, and hence work on Twitter’s mobile app too.
Don’t Use Third-Party Twitter Apps
By using the above tips and tricks, you should be able to get tweets from any location you desire. And it’s best if you use these on the official Twitter app or website. While there are a few apps you can use for deep searches on Twitter, and new ones surface every now and then, we don’t recommend using third-party apps.
This is because Twitter has a history of crippling third-party apps through different means. In fact, advanced search is missing on all apps, which is just one of the features you lose with a third-party Twitter client. Instead, stick to the official app, and use the tricks above to search Twitter by location.
