YouTube kicks trolls out, Snapchat turns down billions and Miley’s naked again: #StuffToKnow this week

YouTube exploded with trolls no longer having a bridge of anonymity to hide under as Google+ kicks them out. There is a guy named Evan who just said nope to US$3-billion (yes you read that correctly). In boring news Miley is naked in space but on the good news front we are finally safe from our age-old nemesis the Kreepy Krauly.

INTERNET

Turns out Snapchat turned its nose up at a US$3 billion offer from Facebook
Seriously this guy just said no to US$3 000 000 000 bucks! Facebook offered that colossal sum to Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel for the photo-sharing app he helped build while still studying at Stanford University. He is hoping that teenagers will continue to download the app that deletes the messages soon after being sent and so increase his user base and, in turn, valuation. Well let’s hope the offer doesn’t act like his service and disappear in a few months… there is a former CEO of Yahoo wincing right now at his missed opportunity to sell.

10 reasons YouTube’s new Google+ comments really are a good thing
Wow people are upset about this one. I should clarify — those who were very used to YouTube as a stand alone site with its own ecosystem of a community, and the trolls ruled over the video site were upset — or more accurately, mad as hell. But then guess what? Google owns YouTube and finally has a community ecosystem of their own (Google+), so naturally they converted the engagement (i.e. the comments) to that of Google+.

Yahoo finally takes its new-look homepage global, bringing it to seven int’l markets
So much better! There is no massive Google design influence here… nah… not at all. Cue Yahoo! CEO Marissa Meyer’s eyes suddenly averting any gaze (she also oversaw the layout of Google’s well-known, unadorned search homepage). In all fairness though it is a good and overdue interface update — slowly but surely Yahoo! is climbing back.

Twitter announces ‘Custom Timelines’, lets users curate collections of tweets on any subject
This is more an update for TweetDeck than Twitter itself but since Twitter long ago bought the app that orders your various lists and feeds from the 140 character based social media service, here we are. The new feature allows you to make custom timelines by dragging and dropping those you want into a new list, which you can also embed on a website.

Afrihost slashes mobile data prices
We’ll you don’t see that often. Afrihost has given their customers a very nice present and it’s not even Christmas yet. They have doubled the data allocations on mobile packages without charging anything extra! Very cool. Now if only Telkom would take the hint…

The new Myspace is already laying off 5% of its workforce
Well that lasted long. Justin Timberlake (along with some other not-so-famous people)’s, pet project revitalizing the once massively popular social network into one focused around music and bands is now the butt of social media jokes since its downfall into obscurity. It will take more than a US$25-million TV campaign (though it is a decent start) to get back into the game especially with players like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to compete with. It seemed to be gaining the traction — they were getting a decent spike in user base and traffic but still no revenue and so have to make the necessary business sacrifices to stick around and try their luck at bringing sexy back to Myspace.

TECH

You can now join an official waitlist to be a Google Glass Explorer
So close yet so far. By the word “you” here they actually mean “you US citizen with a spare $1500” if that’s you (lucky) then sign up here. In more cool news of what you would get…

Google Glass now has music integration

Redesigned Facebook Messenger with phone number integration opens to Android and iOS users
A new far more cleaner minimalist interface upgrade has come to the Facebook Messenger app. Though I can’t help think who doesn’t just use the Facebook app to message people? Anyway to each his own. It now also allows you to chat to other users who are not your friends via their phone numbers, however as a reasonably fair caveat you have to give your number up to the system to use this feature.

ENTERTAINMENT

Paranormal romance ‘Ghost’ may be floating to TV screens
This should be interesting — let’s see if they redo the sexy clay scene that was later copied in so many other 90s movies.

Divergent Trailer released, You Only Have One Good Quality
Argh.. another teenage fantasy movie. At least this one wasn’t written by Stephenie Meyer with a glittering male character… this one is covered in tattoos. Although also based on a book (by Veronica Roth) and again the protagonist is a young girl, it centres on a young woman named Tris Prior who doesn’t quite fit into her society where each person is only allowed to have one of the five virtues, namely: The Selfless, The Intelligent, The Brave, The Peaceful and The Honest. Shockingly our hero is more than just one these (thus we can all identify with her) and so has to fight against the very structured society (which from the trailer looks very similar to the Hunger Games).

Miley Cyrus is a nude alien in ‘Real and True’ music video
Really, Miley… Really… Can we at least space these cries for attention out a bit more?

NICE FIND

A Kreepy Krauly wrangler from South Africa
This ad is South African advertising at its best, utterly brilliant. Hopefully it will bring some nostalgic memories of swimming away from the humming creature that seemed to swallow anything that came near its mouth. Serious kudos to Kreepy Krauly for stepping up to this level of digital marketing.

Random college guy creates best compilation of Vines I’ve ever seen
This collection of Vines is just fun to watch, but he really does need more friends.

Let me know if I missed anything this week in the comments. They’re also a good place to leave any big things I should mention next week.