#no in game content for the two since 3.6 or something

[royallyprincesslilly]

Title: True Peace {One-Shot}***

Title: True Peace {One-Shot}***

Lewis Hamilton x Undefined FWB Best Friend Reader

Warning: Fluff, 18+ Mature Content, NSFW, SMUT, Male & Female Receiving, Mild Crude Language, No Glove Lovin, Mild Angst

Words: 3.6

Summary: Lewis' tension and stress levels are at an all time high and it has him in quite a mood. Luckily there is one person he can always count on.

Note: While writing this I envisioned reader from “One Night”, so there are slight references to that fic relationship. You guys are free to envision anyone you like or even yourself.

As always, thank you for reading. I appreciate it.

If you enjoyed this, please, LIKE, COMMENT, REBLOG!! ❤️❤️

***NOT Edited/Proofread***

~~~~~~~~~~~~

To say he was in a bad mood was putting it mildly. He was in one of the worst moods he'd allowed himself to be in for a while. It had been a shit week, with shit results where he'd had to take more than enough shit. It was too early in the season to be dealing with a repeat of seasons past. He was beyond tired, beyond annoyed and just feeling done.

It had been a while since he'd felt these emotions and the last time he found himself in a funk like this it was you who sat with him for an entire night until the sun was bighting the sky the next day playing video games with him, not letting him beat you in MK, Street Fighter or DC vs. Marvel but then peacefully taking all the Ls when he won every F1 driving round.

Then when he got tired of playing you listened as he vented everything that was weighing on him until there was nothing more to say and he fell silent leaving only the sounds of the city outside trying to burst the bubble of peace and contentment. Then you'd both fall asleep on the couch watching cartoons.

After your relationship changed after that one night, one afternoon and several nights, mornings and afternoons since, it ended with you gently sliding onto his lap and hug his head to you while letting him squeeze you as tightly as he wanted. After venting it always left him feeling hopeless and vulnerable and needed to anchor to something. It was you he anchored to. You he found solace in.

It was comforting and dangerous all at once. It was a danger neither of you needed, let alone him. It was that reason he did not call or text you to come over even though he could feel himself ripping apart at the seams. It was like drowning and then pointedly ignoring the lifebuoy in front of you. It was stupid but sometimes there was necessary stupidity.

Sighing, he turned off the water in the shower but stood there for a few more moments letting the water drip from his body. The shower was supposed to relieve some of the weight bogging him down, but it barely worked. He still felt encumbered by more than his body weight, it was the weight of all his ambition and expectations and disappointments.

Did he expect too much from everyone? From himself? Did he want too much?

They were questions he'd asked himself many times before, questions he never seemed to be able to answer. After he'd slipped into his walk-in closet, he went through his routine though every motion took more and more effort. By the time he'd finished and slipped on a comfortable t-shirt and grey sweat shorts he was ready to just get lost in something distracting and probably bad for him.

Planting himself on the couch in front of the tv, he let the light of the screen light up the room while he silently scrolled through his social media. Again, your face popped into his mind as he looked at the messaging button. He knew the last thing you'd spoken about in DMs. It was barely three days ago, and he'd been the worst texter with one or two word replies. You hadn't called him out on it so hopefully you hadn't taken offense.

Just then he heard the sing-song tone of his door opening while his phone lit up with the alert that someone had walked inside. There was a limited amount of people who had keys to his house, but everyone would have called or texted before they came. They knew and respected his rules.

"Lewis?"

At the sound of your voice his belly flipped and heart rapidly thudded. It was a reaction that had only intensified over the months since your relationship drifted to the other side of platonic.

"Lewis? I know you're here. Find my big dick bff with benefits pinged you here."

He was tempted to snort but his mood wouldn't allow him. When he saw you appear you had both your hands filled with bags. You smiled then walked to the kitchen.

"I cooked your favorite dish earlier and thought through the goodness of my heart I would share and not eat it all."

You placed the bags on the large island then started unpacking the glass containers. His eyes raked over your back taking in the way your tight skirt hugged your hips and showed every curve you possesed. You were bad from the beginning but now you were fine as fuck. He felt his body come alive and knew just what distraction h was going to have.

"I know you don't like people showing up unannounced, but I am using my exception card to veto that shit outta here and if you don't like it oh well, I'm already here."

You walked across the kitchen to put the bags away in a drawer and he watched you bend over. For the love of God, you looked so good. Over the last several months, he's gotten very well aquatinted with your body. He knew every inch, every dip, curve, and slope. He knew your reactions and knew everything you needed before you even said a word. He had new admiration for your body, new love for it.

With a sigh, he stood and sidled across the room to you. Before you could move, he was right behind you. Your signature scent bombarded him, Lotus, Peony, Lemon Verbena, and lite notes of vanilla. Your scent was all over this place but long gone from his skin. It was time to rectify that. Inhaling deeply, he let your scent wrap around him like a cocoon of comfort and warmth. 

"How much can you handle tonight?"

Your body stiffened letting his hand rest against your belly. A thought of breeding you attacked him and that thought made him so much harder he was sure he could poke a hole through his shorts. He felt you lean your back against his chest giving him your weight. He didn't feel encumbered though, he liked the feel of you against him especially in a nonsexual capacity.

"Uh--we--well it depends," you purred, your voice hinting at your playful mood.

He turned your head to the side then brushed his face against the side of your face, his lips lingered against your jaw. He then pushed you forward so your front and face were pressed against the wall while he pressed up against your ass making sure you felt every hard inch of him. Your moan was wanton and matched the rising desire within himself. He could envision the way you looked right now--eyes closed; teeth sunk into your bottom lip.

God, you'd always been perfect to him. The perfect fit for him in more than one way, hell all ways. Shaking his head, he suppressed any thought like that. He would not go there, would not entertain any thoughts as such because that was not how tonight would go. It wasn't what tonight was for.

"Fuck, you're so hard," you mewled.

He grabbed the back of her neck.

"Tonight, you only say these words. Yes, No, Please, Deeper, I love your dick, Fuck me harder, I'm cumming. Understood?"

"What about--."

He cut your words off with a sharp slap across your ass. You gasped, flinched and moaned all at once.

"Lewis--."

For further emphasis on what you'd done wrong, he hiked your tight skirt up around your hips then groaned when your bare ass was revealed to him. He then ripped your thong off of you and finally cupped your sex. Again, you gasped.

"Again. Yes, No, Please, Deeper, I love your dick, Fuck me harder, I'm cumming. That's it. I've had a horrible week and I'm beyond frustrated, and I'd hate to obliterate that beautifully tight pussy. So, you're gonna obey me and take every inch of this long thick dick. Every fucking inch. Understood?"

You whimpered like an injured cub and the hardness in his pants impossibly increased. He was going to completely wreck your shit whether you obeyed or not. He squeezed your sex tighter dipping two of his digits inside your molten lava core. You released a high-pitched sigh as you bared down trying to take more than he gave. Naughty girl, he thought and chose to reward that naughtiness by adding a third finger.

"Mmmm!"

"Understood?"

"Yes," you panted.

"Good girl. Now get on your knees and put this dick down your throat."

Pulling his fingers free he watched you turn and drop to your knees. He dipped his fingers in his mouth and licked your juices savoring the sweetness of you. He noticed you watching and offered you one of his fingers to finish off. You seductively licked and sucked his fingers clean giving him a preview of what his dick was in store for.

"Get to it. This dick ain't gonna suck itself."

You pulled his shorts down along with his boxer-briefs and watched his dick bob in the air before you. Grabbing him with both hands, you jerked his need in both your hands moving in different directions. A low sigh escaped him as he watched you prepped him. Your hands felt so good, soft and gentle, but powerful. When you guided him to your mouth he watched as you circled your though around his head then suck it between your lips only to pull it free seconds later.

"Gah!"

He should have expected this. You'd always been a tease. It was what you enjoyed. You liked driving him crazy, liked seeing how far you could push him before it was too far. You even liked when he was too far gone. The feel of your lips sliding down his shaft brought him back to the present. You lowered your mouth down his length until he'd disappeared completely in your mouth. For show, you wiggled your fingers in the air as if to say, "look no hands".

Cheeky little minx, he thought.

Thrusting forward, he lodged himself in your throat then held your head still when he felt you retreating. Your eyes locked and understanding shined through. You shook your head while opening your mouth wider and the feel of the angles in your throat sent his head back. You slurped his flesh then bobbed on his dick never letting him escape the tight confines of your hot and hungry throat.

"Fuck, Y/N!"

He released your head and lifted off his shirt. The short reprieve allowed you to pull your lips off of him, however seconds later you'd brought them back to wholeheartedly suck on him. With your hands attached to your lips the suction of your mouth and swirl of your hands drove him so much closer to his release. He bit into his bottom lip then drove forward fucking your mouth with quick, deep strokes. You took everything he gave no matter the speed or the force and the sight of it only made him want you even more.

"Shit!"

Pulling from your mouth, he squeezed the base of his dick hoping to stave off the strong urge to cum across your lips.

"Come here."

You stood and he instantly went to the zip at your hips. He yanked them down then completely ignored the buttons on your blouse and ripped it open. You didn't complain or argue. You stood before him in just your bra now and a look of complete seduction on your face. He couldn't hold himself back anymore.

Dipping down he lifted you, hoisting you onto him. You wrapped your legs around his waist as his lips claimed yours. The urgency of his kiss matched yours and together it made a sweltering amount of hunger. You sucked his tongue as he walked back to the living room.

Standing before the large sectional couch, you held yourself onto him with the sheer power of your thighs around him. Once he unhooked your bra, you allowed the garment to fall from you and his hands cupped your mouth-watering breasts. Using his thumb he swiped across your nipples, thoroughly enjoying the way your back arched and you jutted them out to him every time he did it. He couldn't get enough of you.

Lowering you to the couch, he looked over you pressing the way you looked to memory. Perfection wasn't the right word. He needed one that meant so much more.

"Flawless."

You smiled then beckoned him forward. He dipped down hovering over you and kissed you once, then twice before he kissed a trail down the center of your body to your dripping core. After placing a sloppy open-mouthed kiss right against your clit, he went to work. He didn't plan on going slow or teasing you until you begged him to fuck you, no he planned on ruining you right off the bat.

Slurping your flesh, he flicked his tongue wildly across your clit then delved it inside of you. You gasped then gripped his free hanging braids as you rocked across his mouth.

"Mmm, yes, yes, yes! Fuck yes!"

He bit down on your clit, it wasn't enough to hurt but enough to send a jolt through you.

"Ah, Lewis!"

It was a reminder to you about your words but when you wrapped your thighs around his head, he knew you liked the bite. Fuck, he thought. You were too perfect for him. You loved mixing pain with your pleasure just as much as he did. Prying your legs apart, he pressed them down to the couch then slammed into you. Your scream echoed throughout the open concept first floor of his home, and it fed his ego even more. The euphoria he felt being inside of you nearly had him spilling his seed on contact, but he fought the urge with everything in him.

"I love your fucking dick!"

You reached for him pulling him completely into your body. A growl escaped him as you clenched around him tempting him further.

"Fucking hell!"

"Fuck me harder. Fuck me Lewis!"

That was just what he did. Flicking his hips forward, he slammed into you hard enough that your breasts swung. With another thrust then another he rocked into you with reckless abandon increasing his speed until he was jackhammering into you.

"Fuck! Yes. Yes. Yes!"

You gripped your breasts as your back arched off the couch. He could see the goosebumps prickling your skin telling him how close you were. 

"Does princess love this dick?"

"Yes!"

"Does princess want more?"

You nodded unable to form words.

"Beg for it."

You whined as he ground his hips into you.

"Pl--pl--please. More--please fuck me deeper."

He spanked across your clit making your body jolt.

"I'm cumming Lewis!"

He watched you cum all over his dick and he lost it then. Before you came down, he flipped you onto your knees so your chest was pressed against the back of the couch with your ass poking out to him. After gripping your rounded derrière, he lifted then released allowing it to rise and fall as it willed. He loved your ass, and you knew he did. He watched you gyrate sending your ass bouncing against his needy shaft. With every bounce he became more and more mesmerized.

How could you still get him like this after all these months? How hadn't he gotten tired of your tricks? It still felt like the first time, still felt new like something he never wanted to stop doing. You were it.

Without wasting anymore time, he propelled himself forward filling you once again. Just as he was about to move you beat him to it. You bounced on him again flicking your hips back and forth fucking him, taking from him what you needed. A heavy-handed slap landed across your ass making you flick your head backward. Grabbing the back of your neck, he pulled you to him and held you right there and lost himself in you and the ecstasy you gave him.

"Yes, Y/N. You have no fucking idea what you do to me."

"Harder!"

Obeying, he gave you every fucking thing he had and when you screeched and braced your hand over his, he knew you'd begged for too much. Yet still, you took it and whimpered the entire time. Soon he was chasing his release and lost in the sensations he felt, lost in the stress and disappointment that was leaking out of every pore of his body. You were infusing him with so much more, pleasure, peace, harmony, contentment, joy, and so much light. The heaviness he'd felt all week melted away, the tension his body held on to faded making him feel nimble and carefree.

Somehow you felt like salvation. Biting down just where your neck and shoulder met, he lost all control and shattered filling you with every drop of his seed, every single drop. As you screamed, he burrowed deeper and deeper inside of you wanting only to remain right where he was for as long as he could. Every worry he'd had before was gone and replaced with you, a hunger and need he knew he would never be able to satiate.

"Aaah!"

Your moans and pants melded together as you both relished the intoxicating pleasure your coupling brought. He reluctantly pulled from you and tumbled to the couch but seconds later you'd crawled over him and slipped him back inside of you then laid your head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around you then sighed as if he'd found his peace.

Slowly, he expressed everything in his heart. He told you everything he'd kept in this entire week, all his frustrations, his worries, his stress--everything. You said not one word, you listened while rubbing soothing circles onto his neck urging him to continue until he felt better. He didn't know how you knew he needed you, but he was so fucking thankful to have you in his life. He was so grateful that when the context of your friendship changed nothing else had between you.

When he finished, several minutes of silence stretched. His body relaxed even more, and his thoughts slowed until he felt more like his usual self.  After a few more minutes of silence, you kissed his chest right over his lion tattoo.

"You are this lion. Strong, powerful, commanding, brave, unique, caring, ambitious. It is your perfect spirit animal."

Again you kissed his chest. "You are powerful beyond measure. Don't every doubt that Lewis."

You lifted your head, cupped his chin forcing him to look at you. His throat became tight with emotion that you easily dug up in him.

"You do not expect too much from people. You expect the levels you give to everyone around you--100%. You expect what you give of yourself--loyalty, dedication, everything.  Everything you expect from yourself is not too much, it's called ambition, it's called drive. You have all of it babe. You have the vision, you have the ambition, you have the will and drive. Everything you deserve will come to you, every greatness in this world and this life plus the next is coming love and I will be there every single step of the way. Every boulder you have to push I have your back and I'll push it with you."

No matter how many times he swallowed the lump in his throat wouldn't go down and he knew he must have looked so open and vulnerable right now, but it was a level of vulnerability he was comfortable showing only you.

"So--I don't want too much?"

"Fuck no. You should want it all cause that is what you deserve. Every motherfuckin thing."

He smiled, grabbed your face and pulled your lips to his. There was no hurry in this kiss, he wanted you to know how much he appreciated you, how much he truly cared for you. Slowly his tongue swirled around yours as one of his hands roamed down your back. You moaned against his lips quickly getting into the kiss. You nibbled his bottom lip and wrapped your arms around his neck.

His heart beat so wildly the vibrations went all through him. Three words pounded in his head. Three words that he'd often felt near bursting to utter but had restrained himself every time. Those three words were at the tip of his tongue right now and at not one of his brain's finer moments he let them lose--against your lips.

You pulled back from him with your brow crooked. "What was that?"

He laid there frozen in place as his mind ran through a plethora of scenarios, reactions and endings. He had no confidence in any of them though. Sighing he smiled softly.

"Thank you."

You snorted. "For the fuck?"

"For being the only place I can find true peace."

You held his gaze for a few moments then you gently clutched his chin before you softly kissed him.

"Anytime. You know I gotchu."

He held his pinky up and you rolled your eyes. "So childish," you replied as you hooked your pinky with his. Both of you then kissed the other's pinky sealing the unspoken vow between you.

Forever whenever you need me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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[kandikorne]

What’s Left of Me [BTS AU]

Words: 3.6 K

Summary: Jungkook was a typical college student. Nothing interesting there, his only friend, Kim Seokjin, or as he calls him, Jin, is terribly ill with an unknown illness that not even the doctors can prescribe. One night Jin asks Jungkook if he wants to play a game. Only the game isn’t what Jungkook thought. But it’s just a game right? What’s the worst that could happen?

Genre: Angst, Mature Content, Horror/Thriller. 

~ ~ ~

It was nearing midnight as Jungkook had arrived back to his flat after a long drive across town just to deliver some notes and cards to Jin, who was currently running a fever with a mysterious illness. The doctors weren't even a hundred percent sure what was wrong with Jin, maybe it was a strain of pneumonia?   

Yeah that has to be it, thought Jungkook as he slid off his shoes and went straight to his computer, he logged on and started to type up his essay on emotions and how they play into day to day life, but the emotion his professor gave him was quite difficult. It was sadness.

Sure the assignment was simple and all but never really experiencing true sadness he didn't know how to start it off. Besides a cheesy quote about feeling broken and alone. 

He felt like he was about to go insane, he never felt true sadness and he was sure his professor would want it to be about something really depressing over just, ‘I lost my pet cat named Pete,’ but something more.

WIth a loud beep his phone went off alerting him of a text from Jin:

 "Kookie thank you for the study materials!" 

Jungkook smiled and was about to send him a response when Jin replied again:

 "Have you played What's Left of Me? Or heard of it?"

“Honestly no... What is it?” 

Before Jin responded Jungkook reread the name of the game and typed it in on his search bar for What’s Left of Me, all that popped up was a book. Frowning he knew this is not what his hyung meant so he went back to the search bar and tweaked his search adding Game. What popped up was Google claiming an error that Google was not responding. 

“Odd...” He muttered before he tried to open a new tab only for the new same message to reappear. “You have to be kidding me,” he groaned and continually refreshed only to keep getting the same message and that Google had crashed. 

“Why?!” He exclaimed, brows furrowing as he looked over at his phone only to see a video link from Jin. Clicking it he heard a soft female voice, practically whispering all while there was a black screen. 

“Hi... I’m not gonna introduce myself because what’s the point.... Well obviously you’re here for my game What’s Left of Me. The game’s a bit different than your average game, there’s no shooting of others but decisions and story based themes, you the Player decides what happens. Nothing is reversible so play how you feel but do it carefully. I am giving you the extent of five players to choose from and that is all. Thank you for your consideration and I hope you enjoy.” 

The video ended causing a frown to play on the young males features as he texted his hyung. 

“That gave me the chills. Her voice was so sad, yet so familiar. WHY WAS SHE WHISPERING???” 

Sent from Jin at 12:03

“I like how her video was, her voice was soft and peaceful as it captures your attention immediately. I’m ready to play it!” 

Sent from Jungkook at 12:03

“Ok... Did you download it?”

Sent from Jin

“Yea are you going to Kookie?”

Sent from Jungkook

“It won’t even let me view the game.”

Sent From Jin

“Restart your computer.” 

Why, thought the younger male but did as told, he waited for the system to reload and as it did their was a new file on his computer. WHAT’S LEFT OF ME in all caps. “How did this get here?” Scared Jungkook looked around his dark room but nothing was out of place, he even scanned his computer for a virus. Nada.

“Did it work?” Texted Jin, Jungkook could barely breathe yet alone focus on the situation at hand. How did this happen?

“Yeah the game was already on my computer somehow...” 

“Huh strange, maybe you clicked download.” Responded Jin and as he read the message he shook his head, Jin didn't seem to get it. The game just appeared. He hadn’t even had the option to download it as it never popped up when he searched it. 

“No because I couldn't even find the game when I originally searched it.” 

Sent from Jin

“Computer was probs lagging but at least you have the game now. I think I want to play Namjoon. He seems interesting. What about you?”

Sent from Jungkook

“Erm hang on let me load the game, I haven’t open it yet.”

“K.” Was all Jin said as the younger male moved his cursor over the game and clicked open. As the game was loading an eerie song was playing in the background, Hell it wasn’t even a song, more so screeching and loud crashes.  Every now and then the screen would glitch out and he’d get a brief glance at a girls face. He was only at 10% as the game completely froze except for the song which was on an endless loop and began repeating the word why over and over as the depressed girls face froze on screen before him, a single tear running down her smooth skin.

“You left us...” She whispered before the game automatically shut down and sent Jungkook staring at his home screen, eyes wide and breathing rapid. “What the literal fuck,” he cursed as the game restarted and took him back to the loading screen yet it was all different. Instead of a sad song on loop and the sad girl, the game played a soft happy tune as the background was all black and the title appeared in a bloody font. What’s Left of Me the words practically dripping down the screen as a candle flickered beneath the text casting long shadows revealing a room. 

He had to admit this game had some freaky cool artwork. He clicked the title, not really sure what else to do as there was no options for the game. His options appeared before him carved into the desk that the candle was sitting on. The game title was on the gray wall behind the candle. 

Jungkook read his options slowly and wondered if Jin saw the same things as him. 

Continue Game

New Game

Leave?

Curious as to what Continue Game would do for him, since he’s never played it before and was sure no one has played it on his computer he clicked the option. The game file loaded and he was quickly inserted into a dark bathroom, a young man with copper hair, almost golden, was crying in the middle of the room. The only sounds besides the poor males soft spoken sobs was the sound of the bath running and pouring out onto the tiled floor all around the sobbing man. The game glitched and instead of water surrounding the copper haired male it was now a dark red substance which Jungkook could only assume was blood. He was no longer crying but screaming at the top of his lungs, “WHY WHY WHY!” His dark gaze looking dead at the screen, his eyes finding Jungkook’s, it was if he was was aware of Jungkook watching him. It was like the male wasn’t in the game.

Jungkook’s throat constricted with fear. The game crashed and he was back to the main menu. He most certainly wasn't going to try to continue that again unless it was his own saved progress, but even then he still didn't want to do this. 

Why is he even considering this game? For Jin, he softly reminded himself. But why did Jin even want to play this game, it was so freaky and weird. Did Jin not get the same intro as him? Maybe Jin was smarter than him and decided not to try and continue the game, speaking of the Continue Game option that was no longer present instead it said, Can’t Continue Something You Never Started or Cared For. 

Chills ran down his spine as he took a picture and went to send it to Jin who had been blowing up his cell. Jungkook didn't even read his messages from his hyung as he instantly went to send Jin the freaky message from the game. Only the test wouldn't go through, he was shot with an error. “What the Hell?” He grumbled and tried once more only for it to not send. 

“Why’s this happening? I paid my bill!” Biting his lower lip in confusion he looked at Jin’s messages and hoped his hyung would understand his technical difficulties. 

 From Jin sent at 12:10

Jungkook you there?

Hey did you start the game?

Kookie, kookie, kookie?????

Ok spam time 

Hello

What does a janitor yell at a party?

SUPPLIES! hahaha get it? Supplies 

I’m worried you alive? 

Wait are you asleep? 

If so sorry. Send a bunny emoji if you’ve been kidnapped.

I’m gonna start the game, Namjoon is pretty cool and looks good. What about you? Who will you play as, you have five options, all of them epic.

From Jin sent at 12:12 

I get it, you hate the game and you haven’t even started.

Jungkook shook his head and chuckled, Jin is so childish and impatient, he thought to himself and sent a quick apology text. Sent, he managed to send a text! His eyes widened as he tried to send the picture only the picture wouldn’t go through. 

Why was that?

Why was it that he could send an apology to Jin but not a picture? Did he not have enough storage? Was their text history too long? 

It just didn't add up. Whatever, he thought, It doesn’t even matter. It’s just a game. 

Clicking on the New Game option he was sent to a  character page. Five characters like Jin said, but there was an outline of a missing character, two actually. He hovered his cursor over both of them but all he got for their stats was:

Name: ???

Age: ???

Height: ???

Gender: ???

Description: ???

He looked at the outline and noticed the lock in the middle of their chests, he had to unlock them. How come he didn't see that when he was first looking at them? 

Whatever, just find a character and start the game so Jin won’t be upset. With a sigh he moved his over a young male with a blonde mullet, a boxy smile on his perfectly proportioned face. 

Name: Kim Taehyung. 

Age: 23

Height: 5′10 

Gender: Male

Description: Taehyung is a happy go lucky, one of a kind guy, unlike any others that you will ever encounter in life. 

Already interested and a tad bit jealous of how happy and lucky Taehyung gets to be while he, himself, is worried for Jin’s health and stressing over stupid projects that are all nearing there due date. Shoving some his hair out of his face he moved on to the next character, the one from the Continue Game option. Curious as to see what was wrong with him and who he was he began to read the stats.

Name: Worthless

Age: Does it matter? I’m just gonna fade away...

Height: Too short just like life....

Gender: Dead

Description: You let me die, it’s your fault. Why didn't you care about me? How could you let me go through with it? WHY’D YOU LEAVE ME?

Shaking his head with a low sigh escaping his lips, he wondered who was this character and why was he so depressed? But also curious of his stats, he asked Jin. 

Sent from Jungkook at 12:13

Jin who is the copper haired male after Taehyung?

Sent from Jin at 12:13

Who Jimin? Y? 

“Jimin,” whispered Jungkook softly almost as if he was testing out the name. His name was so nice compared to his description. The characters blank stare held his gaze, honestly Jungkook felt a bit guilty for this made up character. 

Sent from Jungkook at 12:15

I couldn't see his stats 4 sum reason. :/ 

Sent from Jin at 12:15

The pausing of this game is janky... Lemme go back to the lobby. Pray that my game saves

Sent from Jungkook at 12:16

I pray it saves

Sent from Jin at 12:17

Okay Name: Park Jimin Age: 22 Height: 4′8 Gender: Male duh Description he’s a chill dude with a beautiful smile.

*Height 5′8 lol he’s not that short. That’s about it.

Sent from Jungkook at 12:17

Is this some sort of dating sim?

Sent from Jin at 12:17

No most certainly not. I don;t really know what it is, but I know it’s not a dating sim. Each character has a different story, that’s all I know. 

Sent from Jungkook at 12:18

This is some srs bull.

Sent from Jin at 12:18

Please don't use acronyms Kookie. 

Jungkook laughed and shook his head at his hyungs requests when, he too, use abbreviations such as why to y.

Sent from Jungkook at 12:18

Yes boss

Sent from Jin at 12:19

😈 Lol picked your character yet?

Sent from Jungkook at 12:19

No not yet, my game’s acting up. 

Sent from Jin at 12:19

Well hurry up so you can play!!!!!

Sent from Jungkook at 12:20

Ok gimme a minute.

Placing his phone down in his lap he moved on to the next character, a tall male with silverish purple hair with deep brown eyes that seemed to be able to read your soul and a soft dimpled smile. 

Name: Kim Namjoon

Age: 23

Height: 5′11

Gender: Male

Description: A bookworm, a really hard worker with excellent grades, who’s also a natural leader. Pretty cool guy once you meet him. 

Jungkook chuckled at the last part, “once you meet him.” Like he’s gonna meet Kim Namjoon in person, he’s just a character in a video game, closest thing he’d get to meeting Namjoon is playing as him. Which he won’t because this is Jin’s character. 

The next character’s picture was sweaty, his tongue out, black hair in his eyes, as a black hat rested on his head. 

Name: Jung Hoseok

Age: 24 

Height: 5′10

Gender: Male

Description: Hoseok, Hobi, is an all around ray of sunshine, with constant happy vibes. Always there for you when you need it, remember?

He frowned, why is it like the game is talking to him directly, “Fine if I play as Hoseok or Hobi, whatever his name is I’ll remember that he’s a ray of sunshine to help others.” He grumbled but a small smile played on his features as a warm aura seemed to enclose around him. 

Moving away from the friendly happier male he moved onto the one dressed in all black, a mask covering his mouth and nose as his dark brown eyes stared at him judgingly. He was more ominous looking than scary.

Name: Min Yoongi

Age: 25

Height: 5′9 

Gender: Male 

Description: Always quiet but observant, known to stand up for those in need, tired but always working. 

Nodding his head, understanding each character he finally decided that he’s play as Taehyung. He would’ve played as Jimin if he was able to, but the game simply would not help let him. 

Starting up as Taehyung he was given the option:

Play as Kim Taehyung?

Yes?     No?

“Obviously,” he said with a chuckle as he selected, yes, the game loaded with ease, compared to when he first started the game. A small transition of a butterfly landing onto a window sill was played in the background, then he heard the sounds of a camera snapping a photo. 

“Babe,” came a male voice in the background, the loading symbol stopped as the clip began to play. The light filtered into the room showing a few dust particles floating around as the butterfly stayed on the sill slowly moving it’s beautiful blue and black wings. 

“In here,” came the females voice, the door opened and the floor groaned with the males footsteps. “Are you coming, we’re about to leave?”

“Sorry was taking a picture.”

“You’re obsessed with that thing.”

“Photos keep memories.”

“Yeah but can also steal a part of your soul.” Spoke the deep voiced male jokingly as the girl laughed. What a sound to be heard, it was like music, so carefree and soft. Jungkook wished he could listen to her laugh all day, she seemed so happy, unlike any other girl he’s ever met and tried to talk to.

“Well this camera can’t have my soul,” she stated promptly. The camera angles changed revealing a small girl, her hair covering her face, until the man, who Jungkook recognized as his player Kim Taehyung, moved his hand to her face brushing her short dark brown hair away from her eyes. “You look so much better showing your face.” She shook her head, the hair falling back into her brown eyes as her dimpled grin moved to crinkle her eyes. 

“Whatever oppa,” she teased softly punching his arm. “I’m serious,” he muttered pulling her closer to him, her hands rested upon his chest and the camera still in her left hand. The butterfly flew past the camera showing the two lovers. 

The room changed, it was no longer the happy loving environment that Jungkook was originally thrusted into. Instead his character was sitting on his bed, his head in his hands, shoulders shaking with sobs. Every now and then he would repeat a name, it was obviously the girl that he was with name.

“Elli,” he whimpered, even his dog was sniffling and whimpering. His puppy rested his head on Taehyung’s thigh. Both of them were honestly too sad to watch causing Jungkook to push away from his desk and move to his bed. 

“What the fuck is this game? It said Taehyung was a happy go lucky guy, what the fuck happened to that?” Raking his fingers through his hair he took a deep breath and texted Jin:

I can’t play, I have class tomorrow 8 am. 

He lied flatly and went to send only it wouldn’t. “Again with this bullshit?” He questioned aloud pissed, throwing his phone across the room and onto his bed. “Fuck this,” he grumbled as he moved to his couch, falling heavily onto the cushions and looking up at his ceiling in annoyance. 

Through the corner of his eye he noticed the television had turned on. Must’ve sat on the remote, he thought to himself as he sat up and looked under the cushions only to find nothing but a quarter, three pennies, a dime, and a moldy cheeto. Scrunching his nose up in disgust and grabbing the 38 cents that he had found he placed the cushions back in their place. 

He turned on his lamp and continued his search only for the lamps light bulb to explode, shards of glasses flying through the paper lamp shade and nearly cutting him. Startled by the destruction he looked all around the room, his eyes landing on the Tv and to the message displayed through the static. 

juSt go bAck to the VidEo gaME ! 

The message was pretty clear of what it wanted him to do. The younger male didn’t understand why only a few letters were capitalized, and not even in a specific order or why there was two words underlined. Looking back and reading the all capitalized letters he wrote them down:

S - A - V - E    M - E 

A shiver ran down his spine at the startling code, maybe it was unintentional but something in his gut told him, it was there for a reason. He did the same with the two underlined words: 

SAVE THE GAME 

Is what the message came down to. Who was he even supposed to be saving? And why was his television telling him to save the stupid game? It didn't make sense, all of this was just making him frustrated. He shook his head and unplugged the television having enough of this shit. 

“I’m done!” He exclaimed as he moved onto his bedroom, all the lights in the house began to flicker on and off. “Oh great my life now is becoming Paranormal Activity, fun.”

With a groan he went back down the hall and to his computer, the screen glowing at him. “Now how do I even save?” He grumbled trying to find a way to save the game without losing what little progress, technically none, that he’s made so far. 

With a roll of his tired eyes, he pulled up the options and found nothing useful on saving the game. “How the fuck? What is this even? This game,” he groaned out annoyed, ready to just log off his computer and restart Taehyung’s intro scene. Exiting the options he was brought face to face to Taehyung's sad, blood-tear stained cheeks, thanks to the new camera angle. What made it even more creepy was the twisted boxy smile on the male’s face as he stared right into the camera. 

Jumping back startled, and nearly falling out of the chair, Jungkook released a slight yelp as the character began to speak to him, almost directly. 

“Aren’t you gonna save me? Or are you, too, just gonna abandon me like all the others?” 

Two options appeared before him in a dark red, dripping font:

Save ME 

OR

Abandon ME

Hesitant of what the two options meant he hovered his cursor trying to decipher what he should do, when he realized that this was the way of saving, or so he hoped. 

[brandtreein]

8 EFFECTIVE MARKETING TIPS TO SKYROCKET SALES IN 2021

How do you think marketing works? Well, my perspective on digital marketing in simple layman’s terms is the use of the internet to reach consumers. It is believed that business has only two functions – MARKETING AND INNOVATION.

Marketing Advertising Commercial Strategy Concept

1. Right Strategies, Implementation, & Success.

Planning out business goals and how to achieve them is very important for any brand, don't you think so? I believe it is important to figure out where the brand stands right now and its goal in the forthcoming years. And to achieve the above-said goals, it is necessary to have a well-planned set of strategies in a cost-effective yet impactful manner so that no stone is left unturned. To mention a few strategies:

Creative Web Design/Development: Using UI/UX interface designs and catchy graphic designs and standardized software along with developing the website further helps in generating leads.

Personalized Content: Content is king. Make sure to give out content that grabs the attention of the readers by making it more relatable and personalized to adhere to their requirements.

Discounts/Sale: Providing discounts, cashback, and season sales is something that catches the eye of every given consumer. This will ensure website traffic and to reach a wide range of consumers.

Social Media Marketing: Social media has become a rage amongst people. Marketing a certain business on social media is one of the most effective ways to reach a wider audience and helps to constantly engage with your followers/consumers in different ways.

Omnichannel Marketing: This is the practice of marketing a business across many channels including online and offline modes. It helps to provide an enhanced and customized user experience across numerous channels through any method that the customer prefers.

Once we have a plan, it's now time to implement them! Reach out to various platforms and make sure that your brand visibility is improving with every passing day. It is important to use all the technologies at hand and put your best foot forward in getting your brand on the radar. With this outline, every process can go on organically and effectively which will eventually lead you to success.

2.Content Still Matters

It is said that great content is the best sales tool in the world. Content marketing is an effective approach to marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material such as videos, blogs, website content, social media posts, etc and eventually not only promotes the brand but also intends to stimulate interest in the services it has to offer. HubSpot research suggests that businesses that blog are 13 times more likely to witness ROI than those that don't. Now, how will content help, improve brand marketing? Here are a few content marketing tips that will answer the above question:

Perfect Keyword Research: It is of utmost importance to make a list of relevant keywords that people are searching for and to make sure to use them in your content. This helps improve brand visibility and eventually to reach out to numerous customers.

Constant Content Optimization: Great headlines catch the attention of the readers and force them to read the blog. It is important to keep optimizing your content with time to make sure that your brand is hand-in-hand with the current trend.

Visual Appeal: Videos/pictures are what adds more understanding to any given concept that you are trying to explain. Add relevant yet innovative photos and videos to grab the attention of readers.

Promotion: Once we have an initial set of audience, it only makes sense to keep expanding it. Promote your blogs/website on various platforms like social media, another fellow brand, and others make sure your brand attains success in every possible way.

3.Social Media is a Game-Changer.

How many of us don't use social media? I'm sure not many of us can say "ME" to that. As of 2020, over 3.6 billion use one or the other social media platforms. With that huge number, isn't it only logical to make use of social media in the field of digital marketing as well? SMM (Social Media Marketing) is a process where the marketer uses social media networks as a tool for promoting their website thus increasing traffic. This is done because, when a website is connected to a social media network its position in the search results increases drastically. Here are a few tips:

Device a full-fledged social sharing strategy.

Use the maximum number of social media platforms possible.

Discuss the current trends and make sure to use them, thus attracting an audience on a larger scale.

Constant engagement with your followers. Run contests/games to stay connected.

Regular social media creation and optimization.

Put across simple and fundamental concepts that can be understood by anybody who reads it. Try not to complicate the content.

Analyze and improve.

4.Make Your Customer the Hero of Your Story.

What determines the success of a brand ultimately? Its customers. Every brand’s ultimate goal is to reach the maximum number of customers and doing this is not an easy task at all and involves a series of best marketing strategies that could be:

Market Research: Make sure to do a quick market survey and collect data as it is very important to understand the needs of your customers and the current trend.

Email Marketing: Emails happen to be one of the easiest means of customer communication since time immemorial. Sending out personalized emails to a set of customers makes it easy for them to stay updated about any new launches/services thereby, increases customer engagement with the brand and increase the potential number of customers from time to time.

SMM: 83% of people who use the internet, use social media as well. This is yet another platform to reach out to a wide range of customers. This has been explained above in detail under the heading, “Social media is a game-changer”.

Content Marketing and web design: It is important to have a website that can be easily accessed on all devices be it smartphones, tablets, or laptops, and also to make it visually attractive. Content is king. The more entertaining and relatable the content is; the more will be the readers who will eventually become loyal consumers. Ain't that so simple?

Ask Customer Reviews: Ask the customers how satisfied they are with the service you are providing. Asking for feedback is one of the ways where the brand understands what it needs to improve whilst making the customer feel important and that their opinion/feedback matters.

5. Page Speed Matters

According to a study, 40% of customers discard websites that take more than 3 seconds to load. So yes, I still stand by what I said, “Page speed matters”. With good page speed, comes, better conversion rates, better search engine rankings, and user experience. Let us see as to how page speed can be improved:

Google Page Speed Insights: This is a free tool, made available by Google which runs performance tests on your website and also gives insights on how to improve the same. It works for desktop and mobile versions.

Image optimization: Images hog the maximum bandwidth of a website. Thus, we can use images in jpeg, jpg, or png formats and compress them, so that they occupy less space which will eventually increase the speed of the page.

Use a CDN strategy: A CDN (Content Delivery Network) is a network spread across various locations in the world. A website with a single server is bound to have an increased loading time. Hence, by incorporating the CDN, user requirements are put across to the closest server(in accordance with their location) and as a result, website speed is increased and keeps the customer engaged.

HTTP Compression: It is mainly used for text-based data like HTML, Java, CSS, and others. These days everybody makes sure that their webs server is GZIP enabled. SO, compressing content will lead to faster loading of web pages.

Transfer the database: Moving the entire data to a separate, optimized server is one of the most effective to improve page speed.

Performance budget calculator: The importance of catchy content has been repeatedly made very clear. This tool helps you to improve your existing content on the website and to constantly optimize it.

Effective tools: There are a bunch of tools that help you to test websites and understand the flaws. To name a few: Pingdom, YSlow, and others.

6. Data Privacy

While the internet is a vast ocean of technology, it also comes with its own risks. This is when cybersecurity/data privacy comes into the picture. During consumer and company interactions, there will be a need to share some personal contact and bank information which need to be protected no matter what. Now, how can that be done? Read along.

Ask for permission: California consumer privacy act (CCPA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) act in such a way that, it gives the consumers all the control over the data/information they wish to pass on according to their own will.

Know and agree: Create a page enlisting all the security tools and policies and go further only if the customer agrees to it upon reading the security you have to offer.

Focusing the right data: Data is most important for any kind of marketing. So, it is important to collect the required data and make sure none of it goes unused. Thus, making it comfortable for the customer while fulfilling the data the website needs as well.

7. Constantly Optimize User Experience

Developing a website and getting customers is one thing, while constantly being able to optimize the user experience is another key aspect. Better user experience leads to better conversion rates and increased revenue. With rapidly increasing trends, don't you think, it is necessary to make sure that your website is not looking old? Well, here are a few tips that can help you improve your website experience:

Google is definitely the most popular and used search engine in the world. Google search rankings play a very important role for any website from any sector. Google algorithms are a set of complex systems that determines the rankings of websites in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). Google makes updates/changes thousands of times, and given the importance of it for our website, it only becomes necessary to keep ourselves updated.

Improved page speed.

Use attractive images and videos to keep the website engaging.

Keep the web pages consistent with catchy and well-designed headlines.

Based on the data fed by the user, provide personalized and reliable suggestions/services to the users.

Conduct behavioral UX data analysis and with the final results, work on improving the user/website experience

8. Always Analyze The Results.

There is always an increasing drive to provide the customers with the best experience under any given circumstances. Constant analysis of the results or outcome of the website is the only way to improve any business. Here is how it can be achieved:

Collect data on the works of the website or brand in the past week/month.

Make a statistic analysis by making a graph for better understanding.

Understand why certain aspects might have gone wrong and in the meantime also make sure to keep up with the existing highlights of the website and keep optimizing it and making it better.

Make sure to make all the necessary changes/updates required on a weekly/monthly basis and be at the top of the game and hand-in-hand with the ongoing trend.

A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer – it is what consumers tell each other it is. – Scott Cook

For more visit Brand Tree

[girlbookwrm]

AVENGERS: CIVIL WAR

THE MIGHTY PRE ENDGAME REWATCH

it took us two entire days to watch this, back in whenever we were watching this. I’ve got a Bundle of Papers here in front of me, and the CW Bundle is by far the thickest, and that’s with minimal salt content.

Speaking of Salt: The Roommate and I had to approach this as an Avengers movie. Because otherwise the salt levels in this would be toxic, possibly fatal. Even so, ppl with high cholesterol be warned

LET’S DO THIS

1991!

Winter Soldier: 

what is this

what is this please

dat beef tho

what is this op sec

honestly

NO mask

SHINY FUCKOFF ARM just HANGING OUT

CCTV???

~ooooooo he’s a ghooooooooooooost~

he’s got an extremely dedicated and very harried cleanup crew is what he’s got

OH! OLD LOGO ILU!!!

LAGOS!!

The Roommate: That’s a lot of sugar

i ain’t judging

what, you think her powers run on optimism?

is there an accent? is there not? Shroedinger’s accent.

droney the drone

sam’s lil sky roomba

i love him

guhhhh this scene every line shows character and growth and i just *clenches fist*

did

did falcon just throw steve

just yeeted him at the enemy?

god i love that

also: has steve bulked up since TWS?

that’s also on Sam, yeah?

CUT THE CHEEEEECCCCK

is this fucking NEUROTOXIN? STEVE WHERE’S UR MASK?

Steve, throwing himself into a room full of an unknown poison gas without a mask: I bet i can survive this

Bucky, in Bucharest: *breaks whatever he’s holding without knowing why*

god i love sam

“I don’t work like that no more” Means ?????????????

PARKOUR NAT

is also BRUNCH MOM NAT

“both grunting” is always one of my favorite subtitles

2 white boys fighting in the middle of the street like it’s a video game

god someone took the murder strut to heart wow that is some. that is some something that’s for sure.

give me even one (1) heterosexual explanation for "your pal your buddy your bucky"

there’s no way that bucky ever said this, right? this is just Rumlow fucking with steve, and the screenwriters fucking with us

because IN CASE YOU WERE NOT IN THIS FANDOM IN 2016, WE ALL THOUGHT CAP WOULD DIE IN THIS MOVIE

WE WERE SO SURE

wow i wonder if that will be relevant to anyone’s emotions here in the year of our lordt 2019

anyway, what bucky actually said was:

“please tell rogers... that he’s a big dumb dildo and he should wear a gas mask and also a parachute.”

listen i love this opening scene but also wanda is not at all responsible for this explosion and the fact that they act like she is undermines my ability to suspend my disbelief.

DIGITAL ENYOUTHENMENT ALERT

also, tony the fact that you are using your literal dead mom as an actual therapist is

wow

BARF feels right to me

too real, tony

it’s too real

how ARE you getting around the strings and taxes tho

Also can i say that i actually love that Pepper’s absence is this profoundly important to the story. The hole where pepper should be is a huge part of this story and i like that. i like that a lot.

WOW THAT EXTRA IS LIKE A MASHUP OF NAT AND WANDA. SHE IS THE GENERIC MARVEL WHITE LADY

more a+ visual storytelling with the elevator

I’m just so mad that they blame wanda and play that straight?

all they had to do was outright acknowledge one (1) time that the media is picking on her because she’s a woman/a foreigner

imagine that speech coming from nat instead of steve

though i do love Steve’s pep talk

again. give me one (1) heterosexual explanation

though why not have Steve say “they’re just bullies, you did the right thing” and hearken back to smolsteeb

The Roommate: Remember how i was mad at his Oscars Velvet Blazer? I am also mad at this sweater.... it looks... so soft... i don’t know if i want it on him or off him... just wanna tuch....... and wear..........?”

Vision’s Ascot is. Something else man.

The Roommate: Why is ross secretary of state?

Me: Why is Trump President

Me: I bet Ross is vegan

the roommate, who has vegan-related trauma: UUUUGGGHHHHHHHH

Nat's reaction to vigilantes: Bitch please. she is Unbothered.

you don’t have to show us footage we’ve got the ptsd nightmares

400 pages in 3 days

[tired american sighing]

we honestly can’t even criticize this plot point anymore just

[my longest and most american sigh]

CLEVELAND!!!

hail hydra continues to be the Most Terrible last words

but WHY does ross have the congressional medal of honor

do you know how HARD it is to get one of those????

yeesh

sassy black friends sassing at each other

is definitely a

thing that is happening rn

Vision: Well Actually

no one cares, vis

ok like

a kid is dead but

3.6 is an okay GPA

maybe all my friends are overachievers

maybe it’s just because most of them are women but like

it’s an okay GPA

i’d have 8000% more respect for Tony if he was more upfront like “look this is on me” especially here

are we supposed to be picking all this up as subtext, actually?

because i know that this movie ALSO had a Troubled Youth ala ant man

and i really do appreciate the Russos for relying on a smart audience but there’s a lot going on

and it’s very obvious to me that they had to shift gears 18,000 times in the script writing phase

so like, you’ve got old man vet steve

but it’s painfully obvious that he missed vietnam right?

like

it’s painfully obvious

and he’s v egotistical and self righteous too 

it IS a battle of the egos

and no one is right

except natasha

Steve: i have to go

me: mood

LONDON!!!!

oh god

oh god no

steve god no steve oh god

gfhskfdjjjksjdjjhrrrrhrhhrhfhh [wailing and rending of garments]

Re Peggy’s age:

SURPRISE IT’S ACTUALLY PLAUSIBLE

so the True Hallmark of a Cap Movie is Peggy telling steve what to do.

so weird to have that in an avengers movie

i do love this. GOOD BRO NAT CONTENT

Um. is vision a minor? is wanda?

again, nat is the only Correct one here

stay together guys

it might be

reeeeeeaaaaally important in 

*checks watch*

two years’ time.

~hug~

VIENNA!!!!!

CHAD WICK! CHAD! WICK! CHAD! WICK!

god i love the xhosa in this

There is a level of worldbuilding in this that we p much only get from the russos/markus&mcfeely. i mean -- internal consistency worldbuilding? if that makes sense? we get a lot of visual worldbuilding in black panther, but this is distinctly different and hard to articulate and it has to do with the way they approach things and how they assume audience intelligence

it just works for me

oh no chadwick boseman don’t be cry

Sharon deserves better

than being cockblocked by her own aunt

and also sam wilson (who also deserves better)

cryptid!bucky

Nat did you get that suit from jenny agutter?

LA Brunch Mom Nat

mah girl

she’s just so tired

steve (bless him) is just so exhausting

couples date sam and steve dressed to match

“at the gym”??? really? the arm is... a bit of a giveaway

i do feel bad for zemo in this one specific case

russian IS hard

how. did he get that in there?

Soft Plumboy Bucky

BEEF

Captain’s Log: Buck’s place is a shithole

Sergeant’s Log: Steve’s face is pretty

surprise bitch

“That’s Smart, Good Strategy” is an excellent phrase to use in everyday conversation in order to weed out who Knows and who Doesn’t.

What i have learned from civil war: 

Captain America is a projectile weapon

further query:

did bucky ever hurl small steve at assailants?

Bucky: *punts steve down an alley*

Steve, 90 lbs of rage at 90 mph: GET WRECKED

Bucky’s got big tommy wiseau cryptid energy here

And now there’s a cat

bucky:

I love this vampire running and also bucky’s thighs

Steve Rogers: Excuse me sir I need to commandeer this vehicle. YEET.

Bucky Barnes: Excuse me sir I need to commandeer this vehicle. YOINK.

Bucky and Steve: Wrecking your morning commute since 2014

WAR MACHINE!!!

god vis has the biggest dorkiest crush

so vis are you a child prodigy? or? what?

The Roommate, a cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure: vis have you eaten anything between CW and IW?

Me, sinnamon roll, not to be trusted: *dying* *thinking about how Vision’s got schroedinger’s dick. does it exist? does it not exist? who knows.*

Me: Y. Yes. I th. think he has. eaten something. between now and. and IW. something.

The Roommate: *betrayed look*

Me: DEEP FRIED KEBAB MAYBE? I DON’T KNOW.

The Roommate: *is so disappointed*

BERLIN!!!!!!

Bucky is. So tired. Let him rest.

fucking up the morning commute again i see

u like cats??

I love the ratio of overkill:ineffectiveness with this glass box they put him in.

why did tony  bring these fancy pens

the time spent explaining them could’ve been spent doing literally anything else

*i still don’t understand the accords*

GOD STEVE WANTS TO BE AN UNCLE SO BAD

“my fault”

there it is

“truth is i don’t want to stop”

THERE it is

“i thought the accords could split the difference”

THERE IT IS

"no, i don’t.”

THERE IT IS

“IT’S INTERNMENT.”

THERE! IT! IS!

gah.

wanda’s accent et al -- MAKE IT EXPLICIT MARVEL YOU COWARDS

no but really what are the accords

here followed a 20-30 minute convo about the accords

basically the summing up was:

Nat is 100% Right Ross is 100% Wrong Everyone Else is In A Grey Area

look this is actually a really good avengers movie

but

this is a moment when the back catalogue works against them because this conversation is so -- it implies a lot of friendly interactions between these two. they seem to have a relationship

but i keep looking at all the other movies they’ve interacted in like

BITCH WHERE? WHERE IS THE TONYSTEVE FRIENDSHIP? WHERE???

i am anticipating this will cause me A Grief later

The Roommate, looking at Steve in his Grey Shirt and Jacket: Damn, sir. Stop wearing clothes.

“BIRD COSTUME???”

“j a m e s”

big holt talking to rosa vibes there

“I don’t wanna talk about it.”

A VAST AND MIGHTY MOOD

Zemo’s plan is so ridiculous i genuinely don’t have time to get into it i still have two pages of notes to get through holy shit.

this fight scene. does things. for me.

hhhHNNNNHGH BEEFSTEAK

(oh tony left with no suit? growth dot gif)

THIGHS

T H I G H S ! ! ! !

CHADWICK!

Sam out here, serving looks, casually modeling

B I C E P S ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

TOO SEXY! *crashes helicopter*

I need twelve more scenes of steve and bucky faffing about in the water.

A more effective restraint than the custom made bucky bottle

(BRIEF 1991)

haaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAa biceps u stop that

Is Tony having a heart attack???

he has no concept of how to treat children because he never was one oh no i gave myself a sad feeling

QUEENS!!!!!!!

“I’m having a big fight in a parking lot with my superhero friends better go pick up a child as backup.” - tony stark

tony he doesn’t have a passport and if he understood what was happening he would not be on your side

Now That’s What I Call Vigilantism.

Why are you bringing a CHILD to a gun fight

Tony’s face, to me, suggests that he knows EXACTLY what he’s doing

also? it’s painfully obvious to me that these scenes were copypasted in late stage when they finally found out that yes they would have the rights to spiderman lol

for some reason they don’t feel the need to tell is that this is avengers compound in 400 point font

i’m so lost

where are we?

without the 400 point font i can only assume we are on mars

THAT’s a fine way to greet YOUR FATHER, WANDA

hawkeye is in fact the team lynchpin

is it

ugh

is it because they listen to him but he listens to natasha

ugh

i bet it is

UUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH

Vision: I have been FALLING! for THIRTY MINUTES!

“i know someone who does”

i’m confused by the cut here, because it seems to imply that Sharon, deliberately or inadvertently, rats them out to natasha?

Birds and raccoons do not get along

steve

steve no

steve

ur timing is shit steve

Scott Lang might be the best thing in this movie

well except for Dat Bone Structure

CUT THE CHEEEEEECK

*costume change in a parking lot to the yakkety sax soundtrack*

Thinking about the coming battle i am forced to concede that Iron Man Has A Point?

“do you really want to punch your way out of this?”

Steve: I ALWAYS wanna punch my way out

god scott’s such a fukkin nerd

tiny quibble but Scott “got punched by hope van dyne” lang would never say that to the black heckin widow

“gimmick”

um

people in falcon houses shouldn’t throw spider stones, samuel

wanda

those cars belong to people

oh god iron man has a point

LET’S GO LESBIANS! COME ON LESBIANS LET’S GO

*catfight sounds*

“then why did you run?”

dude you attacked me in a catsuit

Tony’s true superpower is that he knows steve, that’s how spiderbabby gets the upper hand

althought god

Tony was pre-gaslighting peter

he was pilotlighting peter

*my longest UGH yet*

“Queens?” “Brooklyn”

MAXIMUM NEW YORK ACHIEVED

ant man is the MVP

hmmmmmm “we don’t trade lives” HMMMMMMMMM

why did that truck explode

also *omg iron man has a point*

tony tedward stark how did you not know how old this child was

also peter stop pretending you don’t know what Empire Strikes Back, AT-ATs and Hoth are.

why doesn’t Vis get more flack for this

hey. hey tony. you know what sam is? A MEDIC. maybe let him LOOK AT YER FRIEND THERE instead of SHOOTING HIM IN THE FACE.

zemo’s plan is noooooonseeeeennnnnnsssse

guh these two beautiful men emoting in different directions KILL ME

this doctor is just like “yup there’s a giant purple robot here seems legit”

natasha is the only one who’s 100% right

did... did the russos kill themselves in this movie? did they cast themselves as dead extras? was this a statement of some kind?

HOW did ross get the congressional medal of honor. H O W.

“you read it”

NO ONE READ IT, IT’S 400 PAGES

tony this is Some Nonsense

ffflslkds he’s taking one of Nat’s guns KILL ME

one (1) heterosexual explanation.

rode back in a freezer truck

got pneumonia

already had pneumonia

and you blew three whole dollars on some slut

(seriously. gimme one. i’m waiting.)

srsly tho, whether you ship it or not, these two are old marrieds

the red star looks weird on his beefcake arm. did they forget to scale it up?

KITTY

listen zemo is just really turned on by cam and he didn’t mean to say that and that’s the most relateable thing he’s done so far.

It’s not just that bucky killed his mom. it’s that bucky killed his mom AND STEVE KEPT IT FROM HIM.

life alert a senior citizen has fallen

T'Challa, observing this White Nonsense™: I truly should... check myself. Before! I wreck myself.

agism is what it is

god this bit

steve dropping the shield

look at him

he is Stick A Fork In Him D O N E

Rhodey really deserves better than this? He deserves development showing the evolution of his opinion between here and IW

i wish we could get more of him grappling with this

that said

gosh wouldn’t it fucking suck if Cap and Bucky got relegated to End Credit scenes in their own got damn movie to make room for Iron Man to emote at his buddy his pal his rhodey?

*looks directly into the camera like i’m on the office.*

Anyway.

Steve rogers: getting the last word in every argument since 1918.

“from the bottom of my heart: My Bad.”

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, June 2019

Welcome to my latest summary of recent news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & ecommerce! This covers articles I came across from May 31 to June 21, although some may be older than that.

(Unfortunately, a few of this edition’s entries were lost somehow, & I could only remember one of the missing, so if you know of an article/post that should be included, please let me know, & the piece will be added here as well as to the next post.)

My busy few months are now mostly over, so I will have more time to get working on this Tumblr, new blog posts & the new forum I want to start; expect more frequent updates starting in July. 

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

Shopify is going to run fulfillment centres for its US customers within the next 2 years. “Right now Shopify will offer early access for merchants who ship between 10 and 10,000 items per day, and by the end of the year the company aims to offer two-day shipping to 99 per cent of the United States.” They announced other plans at the same time, including better shop tools. 

If you have your own website, conversion rate optimization is something you should be looking at. Why? Because “[a] simple tweak on a landing page can double or even 10x that page’s conversion rate” which can be much easier to do than doubling your traffic. [Note that this is not a short article; it’s a full guide.]

Matching searcher intent is a crucial part of great rankings. This long article tells you pretty much everything you need to know on making that happen with your content, with real examples for their site. 

Mary Meeker released her annual internet trends report; shorter summary here. “If you're looking to connect with the next generation, you should be maintaining at least some awareness of gaming culture, which is where attention is increasingly shifting.” “Some 51 percent of the world — 3.8 billion people — were internet users last year, up from 49 percent (3.6 billion) in 2017...E-commerce is now 15 percent of retail sales. Its growth has slowed — up 12.4 percent in Q1 compared with a year earlier — but still towers over growth in regular retail, which was just 2 percent in Q1...Customer acquisition costs — the marketing spending necessary to attract each new customer — is going up.

ETSY NEWS

Etsy retired several of its Support/Help email addresses, including support@etsy.com, all without any official announcement. 

You can now link photos to variations - but only with one variation, not both. 

Etsy’s annual report for 2018 is out; I didn’t see much new here, but if you catch something, please leave a comment or send me an email so I can add it to this summary. [They actually mentioned “abilities” in their list of things they accept diverse ranges of, but as usual, they only give any details about gender, race/ethnicity and sexual orientation. Disability is invisible for them.]

A new bunch of US states will have state taxes charged for online sales as of July 1. 

Ryan Scott will be Etsy’s new Chief Marketing Officer as of June 24. 

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

Google broke with tradition & decided to warn SEOs about the core search algorithm update that started rolling out on Monday June 3 and ended on the 8th. There are multiple reports of some UK news companies taking a hard hit while others picked up visibility. It’s still too early for much comprehensive analysis, but here is a summary and another more recent one. 

At the same time, Google also rolled out an update that increases site diversity in search results, often limiting each website to 2 entries in Google’s top pages. Think of it as Google's approach to “clumping”. They insist it is separate from the core algorithm update. Early analysis finds that it didn't change much for most searches. 

Websites sometimes rely too much on Google traffic, which is dangerous whenever they change something (i.e., daily). Here are 5 ways to make your site/pages more resistant to algorithm updates. 

Most decent SEO tools cost some money to get the full value, but here is a list of 55 free tools including keyword research, stats, linking, and technical tools. (Some have paid versions as well, but just ignore what you don’t need.)

SEO sometimes requires stating the obvious; check out this tweet with a graphic from an SEO conference. 

Rand Fishkin did a major review of clicks from Google search, & found that nearly 50% of US google searches result in a click (often questions such as weather, or spelling). Only 45% led to clicks on non-paid links, & non-Google companies. But “for every click on a paid result in Google, there are 11.6 clicks to organic results. SEO is far from dead.” Search Engine Land did a TL;DR (too long; didn’t read) summary here. 

Fishkin also has some good insights on making a profit through SEO. [video and full transcript] I think the point about having a strong profit margin is really important - it is going to get more expensive to sell online as time goes on. Etsy is not the only provider trying to squeeze more pennies out of its customers. (Fishkin’s whole push lately is that you must be a known brand to survive; I am reserving judgement on that for the moment.)

Most blogs haven’t done their SEO correctly, but you can fix that. [video & full transcript]

Hate it when your site/business gets mentioned online, but they don’t link to you? There are ways to get other companies to link to you. 

The latest Google mobile search redesign has folks pitching fits about how ads now look like organic search results. For your own website & other sites where it is possible, make sure you have a favicon that stands out from paid ads. [If you Google “CindyLouWho2″ on mobile, my blue fossil coral avi shows for my website & this Tumblr blog.]

Voice search isn’t taking off like people thought it would, although around 30% of Americans use virtual assistants regularly. 

Is audio SEO going to be a thing? Dr. Pete looks at Google’s decision to post podcasts in search results. 

CONTENT MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails)

Facebook announced its move into cryptocurrency with Libra, which will launch in 2020. 

Contrary to some reports, it seems that fewer people are using Facebook regularly. While time spent on FB drops, Instagram in particular is seeing more interaction. 

Getting the right image sizes and dimensions is really important for each platform; here is an infographic on all image sizes for Facebook. 

“[T]he right time for you to post on Facebook will be different than the right time for someone else to post on Facebook.” A summary of multiple studies on the topic, with tips on using your Facebook Analytics to narrow this down for your business. 

After banning mass messaging earlier this year, WhatsApp is prohibiting sending newsletters through the app as of December. 

A decent guide on using Twitter for your business. “...tweets with images get 150% more retweets”.

Thinking of running a Twitter chat? Here’s a complete guide, including Hootsuite templates. 

You can get new content ideas from Reddit. “Reddit.com saw 542 million visitors in March 2019 alone.”

Pinterest is expanding its shopping program, now called Pinterest Partners, to provide more shopping opportunities on the site. 

A study of the 500 top-followed Pinterest accounts shows that home decor is most popular among influencer topics. [infographic with text.]

Short video platform TikTok is still showing rapid growth. “Digital wellbeing is more important than it has ever been. Since tech companies started optimising for user engagement, the user is unable to escape the app. You will always feel dissatisfied when you close the app, because the notifications keep on coming and the content never seems to end. To us it seems, TikTok has taken this idea to another level and built the user experience to deliberately create addiction.“

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS)

Using Google Ads for your website? Make sure you avoid these 7 common mistakes. 

Google now allows you to target people who are “regularly in your target locations” - but it doesn’t really define how they calculate that.

Instagram Shopping is most popular with younger people (at least in the UK).

Good tips on improving your Amazon ad effectiveness, especially cost-effectiveness.   

Some tips on Microsoft Audience ads, and how to get the most out of them. It includes some good general tips, like looking at your profit margin. 

Facebook produced an infographic on how to best create FB ads, especially, for mobile. 

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING

Google has purchased analytics company Looker; Etsy uses the platform already. 

The Google Search Console is now giving users 90 days of data for some reports. 

Here’s a new WordPress plugin that tracks clicks on pdfs on your site through Google Analytics. 

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS

Paypal has developed “a customizable e-commerce platform”. 

Amazon has extended 1-day Prime delivery. Their ability to do that largely depends on how they are taking control of the shipping methods used, moving away from using other big companies. 

Amazon closed Spark, its social media competitor, and it redirects to a page of customer-curated collections. 

Some Goodwill stores are now selling thrift items on online platform OfferUp.

Opinion article: is feature-driven retail preventing people from buying?

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE

Human brains like stories, which is why you should use them in your marketing. “Stories do another thing: They trigger the release of this neurochemical called oxytocin, which is known in some circles as the love drug. About 10 years ago, all we really knew about oxytocin is that it’s released when, say, a mother is with her baby. But what we’ve discovered since then, through the work of neuroscientists like Dr. Paul Zak, is that stories trigger the release of oxytocin in much the same way.” 

Sell luxury goods? The market is changing as younger people make up a larger chunk of the core. Millennials will make up 50% of the market by 2025. The article has some interesting stats on the luxury resale market: “Overall 45% of true-luxury consumers participated in the second-hand luxury market, and more than one-fourth (26%) have bought pre-owned goods”  which is a trend some luxury vintage sellers might want to watch.

Generation Z prefers personalized content & isn’t as worried about privacy as older generations. 

US adults now spend more time on mobile devices than they do watching tv. Much of that time is spent on mobile apps instead of browsers, & audio (podcasts & music streaming, mostly) accounts for a large chunk of time spent. 

US retail sales grew by half a percent in May, less than predicted. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

As the US looks at starting an antitrust case against Google, articles are reminding the government what other countries found, and what they should be looking at now. Businesses big & small have filed complaints. 

The Google Cloud outage on June 2 that took down YouTube, Snapchat and Shopify among other sites points to the need for everyone to have a backup system. [Remember, Etsy is also moving all functions to Google’s cloud.]

Sick of writing product descriptions? Imagine if it was your full-time job, and you didn’t have any hand in making or curating the products.

[theliberaltony]

via FiveThirtyEight

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar announced her candidacy for president at a rally in Minneapolis on Sunday, becoming the fifth Democratic senator1 to launch a campaign. In contrast to some of the big names — Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren — who had been expected to run for president for years, Klobuchar is a little bit more of a homespun, independent-label candidate.

But being on an indie label has its upsides and downsides. On the one hand, there’s perceived authenticity and the ability to build momentum from modest expectations. On the other hand, there’s the question of whether your product can get into the hands of consumers without having major-label marketing muscle behind it — and, if so, whether it can expand beyond a niche audience.

So this article is meant to provide a relatively comprehensive assessment of Klobuchar’s strengths and weaknesses — rather than being either a “devil’s advocate” argument or a best-case scenario. It’s informed by conversations with Klobuchar’s campaign as well as with unaffiliated Democrats, but the opinions and analysis are my own. As you’ll see, I think Klobuchar’s upsides outweigh her downsides, but there’s plenty of material in both columns.

Four potential advantages

1. Electability. Democrats really, really want to beat President Trump. A recent Monmouth University poll found that 56 percent of Democrats “prefer someone who would be a strong candidate against Trump even if they disagree with that candidate on most issues,” compared with just 33 percent who held the opposite view.

What it means to be “electable” is somewhat in the eye of the beholder — the term sometimes seems to be a euphemism for a good-looking white guy who isn’t too liberal (hello, Beto).

But Klobuchar can make some good, data-driven arguments for her electability. One of them is simply the overall electoral importance of the Midwest — particularly the Upper Midwestern states of Minnesota (which Trump came within 1.5 percentage points of winning), Wisconsin and Michigan (which Trump won). Winning those three states plus Pennsylvania (or Ohio, or Florida, or North Carolina) would have given Hillary Clinton the presidency. And if the midterm elections were any guide, they still probably represent the path of least resistance for Democrats to retake the White House.

There’s also Klobuchar’s strong performances in Minnesota to consider. She was first elected in 2006 by a 20-point margin and then re-elected in 2012 by 35 points and in 2018 by 24 points. In each case, she performed well statewide and not just in the Twin Cities, winning 79 of 87 counties in 2006 and 85 of 87 in 2012. That declined to 51 of 87 counties in 2018, but given the massive swing toward Trump and Republicans in rural counties elsewhere in the Midwest, Klobuchar still did better than many Democrats.

Class I Democratic senators such as Klobuchar have been blessed not to face election or re-election in a “red wave” cycle — 2006, 2012 and 2018 have all been blue years. Nonetheless, Klobuchar has performed strongly relative to other Democrats in the same elections. Below, for example, is the output from a regression analysis that calculates an expected result in each 2018 Senate race based on every state’s partisan lean (how much more Republican or Democratic it is than the country as a whole2) and whether either party had an elected incumbent running. According to this analysis, you’d have expected Klobuchar — a Democratic incumbent in a blue year, but in a purple state — to win re-election by 14 percentage points. Instead, she was re-elected by 24 points, beating the model’s expectations by 10 points:

Klobuchar was one of the strongest Democrats in 2018

Margins of victory or defeat for Democratic Senate candidates vs. their forecasted margins based on incumbency and the state’s partisan lean

Margin of Victory or Defeat State Dem. Candidate Actual Expected Actual less expected West Virginia Manchin D+3.3 R+10.5 D+13.8 Vermont* Sanders D+44.4 D+31.1 D+13.3 Minnesota Klobuchar D+24.1 D+14.3 D+9.8 Texas O’Rourke R+2.6 R+12.2 D+9.6 New Mexico Heinrich D+23.6 D+18.2 D+5.4 Nevada Rosen D+5.0 R+0.3 D+5.3 Maryland Cardin D+34.5 D+29.9 D+4.7 New York Gillibrand D+34.0 D+29.4 D+4.5 Montana Tester D+3.6 R+0.8 D+4.3 Tennessee Bredesen R+10.8 R+14.7 D+3.9 Virginia Kaine D+16.0 D+12.8 D+3.2 Arizona Sinema D+2.3 R+0.4 D+2.7 Maine* King D+19.1 D+16.5 D+2.6 Minnesota special* Smith D+10.6 D+8.3 D+2.3 Hawaii Hirono D+42.3 D+40.1 D+2.2 North Dakota Heitkamp R+10.8 R+12.5 D+1.7 Pennsylvania Casey D+13.1 D+11.8 D+1.4 California* Feinstein/others D+30.2 D+29.0 D+1.3 Ohio Brown D+6.8 D+7.1 R+0.3 Connecticut Murphy D+20.2 D+20.9 R+0.7 Wisconsin Baldwin D+10.8 D+11.6 R+0.8 Delaware Carper D+22.1 D+23.0 R+0.9 Nebraska Raybould R+19.1 R+17.6 R+1.5 Wyoming Trauner R+36.9 R+35.3 R+1.5 Mississippi special* Espy R+7.3 R+5.0 R+2.3 Missouri McCaskill R+5.8 R+1.7 R+4.1 Washington Cantwell D+16.9 D+21.6 R+4.7 Indiana Donnelly R+5.9 R+0.9 R+5.0 Michigan Stabenow D+6.5 D+13.7 R+7.2 Mississippi Baria R+19.0 R+11.0 R+8.0 Florida Nelson R+0.1 D+8.6 R+8.7 Rhode Island Whitehouse D+23.1 D+32.3 R+9.2 Massachusetts Warren D+24.2 D+35.1 R+10.9 New Jersey Menendez D+11.2 D+22.8 R+11.7 Utah Wilson R+31.7 R+17.1 R+14.6

Potential presidential candidates are in bold

* In Vermont and Maine, the independent is treated as the Democrat. In California, the aggregate results for all Democratic candidates in the June 5, 2018, primary is used, since two Democrats advanced to the general election. However, in the Mississippi special election, the result of the Nov. 27 runoff is used since that race featured a Democrat against a Republican. Races with appointed incumbents — namely, the Minnesota and Mississippi special elections — are treated as open seats rather than as equivalent to races with elected incumbents.

Source: Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections

That rates as the third-strongest performance for a Democratic candidate for Senate last year, slightly behind West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Vermont’s Bernie Sanders3 and just ahead of Texas’s Beto O’Rourke. Among other actual or potential Democratic candidates who ran Senate races in 2018, New York’s Kirsten GIllibrand also performs relatively well by this metric, whereas Ohio’s Sherrod Brown gets an average rating, and Massachusetts’s Warren a poor one.

That’s not to say you should expect Klobuchar to tout her own electability on the campaign trail, which can seem uncouth. (The first rule of electability is: Don’t talk about electability.) But it’s an argument we’re liable to hear a lot from her surrogates.

2. Potential strength in Iowa, and in the debates. As compared to candidates such as Harris and O’Rourke, who might hope to blitz their way to victory on the basis of strong fundraising and early delegate accumulation in California and Texas, Klobuchar is probably playing a long game. But doing so requires hitting two important mile markers. First, success in the debates. And then a strong performance in the Iowa caucuses.

Klobuchar’s team believes she should have two advantages in the debates. First, like Harris, Klobuchar is a former prosecutor — having been county attorney in Minneapolis’s Hennepin County — a skill that should translate well into the sharp-elbowed stage of the debates. And second, she can be candid and funny, potentially allowing her to surpass expectations among voters who expect Midwestern blandness or “Minnesota nice.” It’s a credible-enough case, but Klobuchar, who starts out with name recognition well below 50 percent, will need some big moments in the debates.

Her potential to succeed in Iowa is more obvious. She will probably be the only major candidate in the race from a state that borders Iowa and one of relatively few Midwesterners in the field. And in her statewide races in Minnesota, she relied heavily on a retail approach to politics, something that should translate well to Iowa. Looking at past results from the Iowa caucuses makes it pretty clear that there’s a regional advantage in this contest, although other politicians who are not from the region but have strong retail skills (a description that might fit Booker and O’Rourke, for example) can also perform well there.

Beyond Iowa, Klobuchar’s path is less clear. In New Hampshire’s open primary, voters typically favor liberal New Englanders such as Sanders and Warren.4 And the electorates get much less white after Iowa and New Hampshire, whereas Klobuchar’s strengths with nonwhite voters are less than obvious. So she’d be hoping for a polling bounce out of Iowa, something that used to occur regularly but has been more fleeting in recent years.

3. The beer track … without the baggage? Klobuchar’s campaign is likely to emphasize her working-class Midwestern roots, her staff said; you’ll hear stuff about how her grandfather worked as an iron-ore miner, for instance. It will also pitch her to voters on candor, honesty, pragmatism, an ability to “get stuff done,” work ethic and so forth. It’s going to lean pretty heavily into her Midwesternness, in other words.

The idea is to draw a contrast — probably softly at first, and maybe more explicitly if the campaign grows more combative — between Klobuchar and more left-wing candidates from the coasts, particularly Harris, Warren, Sanders and perhaps Booker. In some ways, this will recall the old distinction between “beer-track” (“flyover-state” moderates) and “wine-track” (coastal liberals) Democrats. However, Klobuchar isn’t likely to have the beer track to herself; Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown could be playing in the same lane, and, more significantly, so could former Vice President Joe Biden. There’s also what you might call a “craft-beer track,” consistenting of candidates who are from the middle of the country but whose appeal might be stronger among college-educated voters, such as O’Rourke and (craft brewery founder!) John Hickenlooper, a former governor of Colorado.

Does that mean Klobuchar is liable to run explicitly as a moderate — campaigning, for instance, against policies such as “Medicare-for-all”? Her campaign wouldn’t quite say as much, instead describing her as a pragmatist and a realist — but that’s a fussy distinction at best.

But there is an interesting twist to Klobuchar’s triangulation: Although she has a relatively moderate voting record, it’s fairly liberal relative to Minnesota, which (despite its reputation as a bastion of liberalism) is a purple state. Of the 13 Democrats who are either already running for president or are clearly telegraphing a run and who served in Congress during President Trump’s tenure, Klobuchar has the 12th-highest Trump score, meaning she’s voted with Trump comparatively often (31.5 percent of the time, trailing only former Maryland Rep. John Delaney among the presidential contenders). But she has the 10th-lowest Trump plus-minus rating, meaning that she’s voted with Trump much less often than you’d expect from someone from a purple state or district. Only Oregon’s Jeff Merkley, and Brown and Rep. Tim Ryan from increasingly red Ohio have a lower Trump plus-minus among the potential presidential candidates. By contrast, O’Rourke, although he voted with Trump slightly less often than Klobuchar, has the highest Trump plus-minus in the field because he represents an extremely blue district in El Paso.

All of that is to say: Klobuchar may well try to finesse the distinction between being a moderate and a realist, however meaningful that distinction might or might not be to Democratic voters. And she’s likely to express support for at least some decidedly liberal goals, having signaled support for the Green New Deal, for instance.5

Klobuchar looks moderate in the Democratic primary field

Trump score, predicted Trump score and Trump plus-minus for likely and declared Democratic candidates for president who have served in Congress under Trump. Klobuchar’s voting record is moderate relative to other Demoratic candidates for president but liberal relative to a purple state.

Trump score Member Actual Predicted Trump Plus-Minus Sherrod Brown 29.5% 67.7% -38.2 Tim Ryan 20.6 49.6 -29.0 Jeff Merkley 13.5 34.9 -21.4 Amy Klobuchar 31.5 50.0 -18.5 Cory Booker 15.7 31.4 -15.7 Michael Bennet 29.2 43.9 -14.7 Kirsten Gillibrand 12.4 25.1 -12.8 Elizabeth Warren 13.5 22.8 -9.3 Bernie Sanders 14.8 23.4 -8.6 John Delaney 34.4 38.5 -4.1 Kamala Harris 18.0 21.7 -3.7 Tulsi Gabbard 22.8 20.5 +2.3 Beto O’Rourke 30.1 18.8 +11.3

Trump score indicates the share of votes for which the member voted in line with Trump’s position. The predicted score is what we expect that member’s score would be based on Trump’s 2016 margin in that member’s state or district. The Trump plus-minus is the difference between the actual and expected scores.

Klobuchar also has some other arguments to make against the rest of the beer-track candidates. Or at least, she arguably has less baggage than the rest of them. Her credentials — 20 years in public office — are sound by presidential standards (unlike O’Rourke’s). She isn’t 76 years old, as Biden is, and she doesn’t represent a state that is heavily invested in the financial industry, which is a problem for Biden and for all of the New York and New Jersey Democrats. The beer track will likely also be dominated by men — including possible candidates Biden, O’Rourke, Brown, Hickenlooper, Ryan and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock — so Klobuchar could have a lot of strength with working-class women, an overlooked and important part of the Democratic base.

Of course, it’s also possible that the beer track is a road to nowhere. Democratic delegate allocations are based on the number of Democratic votes for president in each state, which means they’re deliberately biased toward blue states. And an increasing number of Democrats view themselves as liberal rather than moderate.

4. A reasonably clear contrast to Trump. Before I started researching and reporting out this story, I thought one Klobuchar strength was that she could formulate one of the clearest contrasts to Trump. It’s almost always helpful for candidates in the primaries to draw stylistic and substantive contrasts against the other party’s president, as Trump did against Barack Obama, as Obama did against George W. Bush, and as Bill Clinton did against George H.W. Bush. My thinking was that Klobuchar’s mild-mannered Minnesota-niceness and long career as a public servant — and the fact that she’s a woman — would look to Democratic voters like the antidote to Trump’s bombast and braggadocio.

I still think that theory is mostly true and that Klobuchar is an above-average Democrat in her degree of not-Trumpness. But I want to hedge against it a little bit. The version of Klobuchar we see in debates and on the campaign trail may be scrappier, blunter, more sarcastic and more emotive than people are expecting (and reports of angry and abusive behavior toward staffers may facilitate those perceptions). Moreover, to the extent that her campaign is drawing distinctions between her beer-track persona and the wine-track elites from the coasts, she’ll in some ways be echoing arguments that Trump might make about Democrats.

Overall, this is an impressive list of strengths, even if some of them are quite hedged. They’re why Klobuchar has a considerably better chance of winning the nomination than you might guess given her relatively low profile. But she also has a couple of significant weaknesses.

Two potential problems

1. Lack of a clear path with nonwhite voters. Minnesota is not quite as white as you might think. It’s home to several immigrant groups, including some relatively smaller ones such as Somalians and Laotians. And its nonwhite population has grown significantly since 2000. Nonetheless, as of 2017, about 80 percent of Minnesota’s population was non-Hispanic white, compared with 61 percent for the U.S. as a whole. And since many of those nonwhite Minnesotans are recent immigrants, the share of whites among the electorate is even higher, at about 89 percent.

That’s not to say that white politicians can never find appeal with nonwhite voters. John Kerry did quite well with African-Americans, for instance, and O’Rourke was elected to Congress three times from one of the most Hispanic congressional districts in the country. This year’s Democratic field features several people of color, however, and Klobuchar doesn’t have any obvious strategy to appeal to black, Hispanic and Asian voters, which together will make up around 40 percent of the Democratic primary electorate. Instead, several of her likely strategic choices — running on the beer track, heavily investing in Iowa and (perhaps) New Hampshire — would emphasize trying to capture as much of the white vote as possible before turning to minorities.

Klobuchar also isn’t likely to have a lot of initial appeal to the left. She may subtly and selectively push back against some left-wing policy proposals while embracing others — or she may run more explicitly toward the center, depending on who else enters the race. (Biden’s decision about whether to run could significantly affect her calculus.) But either way, the left will have candidates such as Sanders, Warren and Brown as their first choices. That means Klobuchar doesn’t perform well according to our “five corners” heuristic, which regards black voters, Hispanics and The Left as three of the five major constituencies within the Democratic Party:

The five corners don’t capture everything. In particular, they don’t account for voters’ gender, even though around three-fifths of the Democratic electorate will be women.

But it does mean that Klobuchar’s campaign will need to proceed in stages, without necessarily having a lot of margin for error. First, she’ll have to perform well in debates and town halls to boost her name recognition. Second, she’ll need to win Iowa — or at least beat expectations there — to vault herself ahead of the other beer-track candidates. Third, she’ll need to heavily emphasize electability to win the slugfest against the wine-track candidates. Each stage holds risks for Klobuchar, and she doesn’t have a lot of shortcuts or detours at any point along the route if she gets knocked off track.

2. Staffing a campaign and building support among insiders. Articles published by HuffPost and BuzzFeed News have included allegations of abusive behavior by Klobuchar toward her staff, citing both statistics showing her high turnover and heretofore largely anonymous accounts of bad behavior from former staffers.

These rumors have been widespread for a long time. (To insert myself as a barometer here, as someone who doesn’t live in Washington and who is sort of ambivalent to political gossip, I’d heard about them several times.) In some ways, the HuffPost and BuzzFeed stories are relatively gentle in that they don’t contain that many details and are largely anonymous. Furthermore, this criticism can be gendered: A woman who exhibits the same behavior as “tough” or “demanding” male boss might be typecast as as “b—-.”

They also reek of inside-baseballness. Having a reputation as a bad boss can be problematic within your industry. But without salacious details, it’s not the sort of scandal that voters are liable to care all that much about.

At the same time, the nomination process is to some extent an inside game. If, as the HuffPost story claims, Klobuchar has trouble recruiting the layers of highly talented staffers that the other candidates have because of a reputation (well-earned or not) for being an abusive boss, that will hurt her. It will hurt her more if it signifies a general wariness about Klobuchar among Washington insiders, which could yield fewer endorsements and less willingness by “party elites” to rally around her if the field has been winnowed down to two or three candidates.

So I’ll be looking to whether Klobuchar is able to gather a few endorsements in the early stages of her campaign, especially from outside of Minnesota. There’s an extent to which a measured amount of pushback from Beltway elites could play into Klobuchar’s brand as a tough, no-BS outsider. But it’s really hard to go it completely alone in the primary, especially when your strategy involves winning over one faction of the party first (the beer track) and then building bridges to the other factions later on.

[loadseries135]

Minitube Linux

Distributing the Linux build of your app as a zip lets you provide one download and set of instructions for all of Linux. However, end user discovery and update management remain a challenge. Snaps fill this gap, letting you wrap your existing Linux build in an app store experience for end users. MiniTube Version 2.4 Updated, Install in Ubuntu/Linux Mint MiniTube is beautiful, lightweight and a native YouTube client. With MiniTube you can watch YouTube videos by typing keyword into the search-box and MiniTube will immediately loads the results. It offers two type of.

Information on all packages for project minitube. Packages for minitube. 80 package(s) known. In minitube-bin don't skip hashcheck and don't unneeded msg2 FabioLolix commented on 2020-12-09 17:50 Hello, this pkgbuild should have been called minitube-bin from the start. Minitube-bin exist and was abandoned by its maintainer, I' have adopted it and added you as co-maintainer. WordPress developer for iThemes, Linux fan, all-around nerd, and @chrisjean on Twitter. Fix: Minitube Doesn’t Play Videos in Ubuntu. I’ve been a huge fan of Minitube. I use it nearly every work day to run interesting videos to give me a nice sound backdrop to work.

Watch YouTube videos in a new way: you type a keyword, Minitube gives you an endless video stream. Minitube is not about cloning the YouTube website, it aims to create a new TV-like experience.Read more

Light on your computerBy consuming less CPU and less memory than a web browser, Minitube preserves battery life and keeps your laptop cool.

Great for kids! Very easy to use and with filters for inappropriate content.

Channel subscriptionsSubscribe to YouTube channels and be notified of new videos.No need to login with a YouTube account: more privacy!

Stop fiddling Just search for something. Minitube automatically plays videos one after another. Sit back and enjoy.

WindowsWorks on Windows 7/8/10 Also available on the Microsoft Store.

macOSWorks on 10.13 or better. Also available on the Mac App Store.

Debian & Ubuntuor build by yourself.Works on Ubuntu 20.04 (64bit) or better

Help translating Minitube to your native language! You can do it online onTransifex.

Need help? Found a bug? Have a suggestion? Head over to theForums.

Sep 11Minitube 3.6: the Javascript release

Aug 7Minitube 3.5 and Musictube 1.13

May 30Minitube 3.4

My kids just love this app! Easy to use and a great interface.. just love it!

WimDS

If you're looking for a way to check out YouTube clips outside the browser, it's a really elegant solution

Lifehacker

Makes it impossible to stop watching videos when what you should be doing is writing that program's review.

PCWorld

It's a terrific app that eliminates the need to poke around YouTube's Web site and navigate through a sea of ads, comments, and related videos you may not care about.

OStatic

Minitube allows you to search for videos in a breeze without any complications in between. Microsoft app remote desktop.

AppYourMac

It sort of subtly changes your perception of what's going on.

Linux Format

It's been a long time since I found a program that works out of the box and does what the blurb says it should. Minitube belongs on every multimedia PC.

Linux Magazine

I believe you succeeded well in your goal to make watchingvideos more like the experience of watching television, and more enjoyable.

Tim

I will be installing a copy of Minitube om my Mother's PC. I thinkMinitube would be a terrific way to introduce her to the world of Internetvideo. Friday night funkin all weeks game. She really LOVES television, so I think she will like using Minitube aswell.

Tim

My 4 years old is a big fan of Minitube ;-)

Roberto

A clean, modern interface and no requirement of third party plug-ins makes this program an invaluable tool

Tomaaato

My dad has even told me that this is without a doubt the program that he spends most of his time on (he does other things, but this is almost constantly open in another space playing some traditional Italian music or 1930s comedies).

Tomaaato

Great app! Was hesitant to buy, but it did what it said and was exactly what I was after!

James Bedford

Works very well and is genuinely useful.

Allan Campbell

At first, I was skeptical of the utility of Minitube. After installing it, and running it, I 'get' the purpose, and would gladly recommend it

Will, Stormfront Tech

Was dubious to buy .. sounded basic.. but thats the clever thing - it is! choose you search subject and off you go.. continious material on that subject - Simples! well worth it!

Murtha Piggott

Minitube features

Minitube focuses on a pleasing overall experience, not on having tons of features. Here's what Minitube can do:

Channel subscriptions without using a YouTube account

Compact mode: a small, always-on-top window

Take video snapshots at full resolution

Editable playlist: drag'n'drop and remove videos

Stop after this video: 'Last one, kids!'

Sort videos by relevance, date, view count and rating

Filter videos by publication date, video duration and video quality

Search by keyword, channel name or paste a YouTube link. Suggestions while typing.

Remembers recent keywords and channels. These can be cleared if needed.

YouTube categories: “Most Popular”, “Music”, “Games”, etc.

Related videos

Fullscreen mode: mouse cursor, toolbar and playlist autohide

Copy YouTube link to clipboard

Share on Facebook, Twitter or via email

Translated to more than 30 languages including German, French, Italian, Russian, Danish, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew and Chinese.

Thank you! Your download has begun.

Get the full version of Minitube. It comes with:

Free updates forever

Email support

Buy now or get the App Bundle for Windows

Thank you! Your download has begun.

Get the full version of Minitube. It comes with:

Minitube Linux Not Working

Free updates forever

Email support

Buy now or get the App Bundle for Mac

Support the development of Minitube!

Continuing Linux development, bug fixes and support can only happen if there is money to support those activities. Thanks.

Donate

Minitube Linux 32

I’ve been a huge fan of Minitube. I use it nearly every work day to run interesting videos to give me a nice sound backdrop to work by. Mostly, I find myself playing AMVs, but I also enjoy just typing in random stuff to see what it starts playing.

However, a few weeks ago, it just suddenly stopped working. I was sad, but there was a lot of stuff going on, so I just left it broken. Today, I found the fix.

Minitube Linux

On Minitube’s install page, Flavio mentions removing the phonon-backend-xine package as a possible solution. I tried it, and it worked. Given that I don’t know what other software may rely on this, I tried reinstalling the package, and Minitube still worked. After rebooting, I found that it no longer worked again, so it seems that the package does need to stay removed. I’ve updated the following to only show removing the package.

Here’s how you can do what I did.

To verify compatibility of WhatsApp Messenger with Samsung GT-S5300 Galaxy Pocket To find Android version: go to 'Settings' - 'About the phone' - 'Android version' 2. WhatsApp Messenger is a FREE messaging app available for Android and other smartphones. WhatsApp uses your phone's Internet connection (4G/3G/2G/EDGE or Wi-Fi, as available) to let you message and call friends and family. Switch from SMS to WhatsApp to send and receive messages, calls, photos, videos, documents, and Voice Messages. Samsung galaxy pocket whatsapp.

Hopefully, you’ll be fast on your way to enjoying a fully-functional Minitube once again. If this doesn’t fix your issue, Minitube now has a forum that could help you out.

Good luck and happy Minitubing.

Did I help you?

Minitube Linux Mint 19

Send me a tip via Paypal.

Help with this site's hosting with my Linode referral code.

[clarencenicholsonata]

8 Timeless eCommerce Business Ideas You Can Start Today

By the year 2021, worldwide retail eCommerce sales will reach $4.9 trillion. Nasdaq found that by the year 2040, as much as 95% of shopping will be facilitated by eCommerce. Think about it, eCommerce has grown into one of the most profitable online business ventures, which can make starting an eCommerce store enticing.

With over 1,000,000 eCommerce store in 175 different countries created by Shopify alone the competition in the eCommerce space is fierce. The best place to start is finding a niche that works for you and working on being a key player.

Finding a good eCommerce business idea and niche can help you to get started on the right foot. You don't want to start an eCommerce business in a niche that's too crowded or hard to break into the market. Simultaneously, if you choose an eCommerce business idea with little to no market, you'll end up selling to no one.

Instead of searching the interest for the best eCommerce business ideas, we did the work for you. We're going to show you eight amazing eCommerce business ideas you can start today!

1. Niched Beauty and Make-up Products

The beauty and make-up industry is highly competitive, but despite it, all indie beauty brands still stand out against expensive rivals with creativity that highlights product quality. Small and niched eCommerce brands have the chance to be found and heard by their newfound consumers.

Statista found that today's consumers no longer have to frequent brick-and-mortar stores for beauty and make-up advice, but instead, expand their beauty horizons from home.

Use Customer Reviews When Starting a Beauty or Makeup eCommerce Business Idea

Customer reviews are essential for any eCommerce niche, but they're far more valuable when it comes to beauty and make-up reviews than you'd think.

Since make-up or beauty provides a product that a customer will have to use or apply on their skin before knowing if the product is worth the investment.

Unlike products that you can hold or look at in-person, make-up is something that has to be applied before the product can be judged.

So when you start your eCommerce business, be sure to add customer reviews to your marketing strategy to increase your stores' customer reviews or show them off on your eCommerce site. Remember, around 80% of consumers have changed their minds about purchases based on NEGATIVE information they have found online.

2. Smart Home Products

Selling smart home gadgets can be one of the smartest yet hardest ways to make a profit, off or online.

The percentage of people with smart products in their house is growing substantially with 47% of millennials already owning some devices while 70% who already own one product are planning to buy another one.

With so many brands and new products coming into the industry, people are always looking for the next best thing to own, and unlike most industries, you don't have to sell brand new products because there is a market for refurbished or used products.

Use Optimized Product Pages for Your Smart Home Products eCommerce Business Idea

When selecting products like tech, it's important to invest in tools to optimize your product page to increase the conversion rate for your eCommerce business. As complicated as it may seem it's as simple as adding the following features:

*Adding a zoom-in feature on your product page. *Adding high-quality images and various angles of your product. *Adding detailed product descriptions such as size, color, and variations. *Size guides and virtual fitting room for products.

To help improve your eCommerce business's product page, here are some tools and tips to get started:

How to Get More Sales from your Ecommerce Product Page

6 High-Quality Product Landing Page Designs & Tools to Use

How to Create High-Converting Ecommerce Product Pages (Infographic)

3. Online Educational Courses

As recent data finds, the global e-learning market is going to reach $325 billion by 2025. Over 6 million Americans are pursuing online education. People are no longer looking for physical institutions but going straight to the source by learning from the experts themselves. Online course platforms like Udemy and Coursera have grown in online users as people seek a cheaper alternative to traditional educational methods.

Use Video to Promote Your Online Educational Course eCommerce Business Idea

When promoting your online course, video marketing seems to be one of the best methods. After all, 72% of customers would rather learn about a product or service by way of video.

You can promote or outline your content in a video and publish it on an evergreen social media platform like YouTube or IGTV. This allows you to increase your eCommerce business's brand and grab your ideal target audience's attention.

Even if your course doesn't include video, you can still highlight your course's best features or reviews with video marketing. For more on how to promote your online educational course for your eCommerce Business, check out the video below:

4. Eco-Friendly Products/Clothes

Today millennials are leading the way for more eco-friendly products and companies. So much so that sustainability is now trending. Nielsen found that 50% of consumers who desire sustainable fashion would be more likely to buy clothes from companies they know are committed to sustainability.

But it doesn't stop there around 32% of consumers would pay more for a product from a brand that they believe is committed to sustainability—proving that eco-friendly and sustainable eCommerce business ideas a hot topic amongst investors and entrepreneurs.

Use Storytelling to Push Sales for your Eco-Friendly eCommerce Business Idea

Storytelling seems like an intangible feature when it comes to marketing and sales. However, it's one of the hardest things to master, yet once a brand has, it becomes a driving factor between you and your competitors.

It helps to know what your brand story is NOT. Your brand story is NOT the facts about your company, your founding date, or a few perfunctory paragraphs on your "About Us" page.

Check out how Warby Parker uses storytelling to share how they focus on their values when creating products.

What brand storytelling is using narrative to forge a genuine connection with your audience and consumers. Today - with so many messages thrown at consumers every second, from every direction - knowing how to craft one that resonates with them is an invaluable skill.

If you're still unsure what brand storytelling is & how to do it, here are some examples of brand storytelling to help you understand.

Get the world’s easiest marketing platform and the team to do it for you!

Book a free call to learn how you can get unparalleled support 24/7 with access to designers, ads specialists, content writers, and more for your brand..

5. Fitness Programs & Products

The health and wellness industry tripled in its size since 2015 and has a global economic growth (3.6%). Fitness and health have become a permanent way of life among millennials and younger generations.

In the United States alone, digital fitness climbed to $3.46 billion in revenue in 2018. Shopify Plus reports that these figures will climb 4.3% annually to reach $4.1 billion by 2022.

Use Fitness Influencers When Starting a Fitness eCommerce Business Idea

Starting an eCommerce business in fitness is a profitable opportunity, but it's also a heavily competitive industry. The fitness industry has always been a hot topic or trending merchandise to sell to consumers. To get an edge, you'll have to tap into the market with influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing acts as a bridge between the consumer and the brand. Influencer marketing allows you to put a human face at the forefront of your eCommerce fitness brand. For example, Gymshark includes meet-and-greets with famous fitness experts and influencers to build credibility and increase online and offline purchases.

Businesses are making $5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, proving that it's a worthy investment for brands. On the other hand, Convince & Convert found out that nearly early two out of every three consumers say that they trust influencer messages about a brand more than a company's advertising about their brand.

6. Video Games & Tools

As of 2020, there are 2.7 billion gamers worldwide, plus the global gaming market could be worth $159.3 billion by the end of 2020. Video games and gear are a big deal worldwide. The best part is that there are always new video games and gear introduced every year.

Video games and gear also come with niches, and sub-categories are equipped with their ready to buy fanbase making this industry a profitable eCommerce business idea.

Offer Free Shipping to Boost When Starting a Video Game & Tools eCommerce Business Idea

According to FedEx, 73% of consumers want to see free shipping in checkout. There's something about free shipping that makes consumers quick to fill their carts and check out. Ecommerce orders can improve by as much as 90% with free shipping.

Still, need more reasons to add free shipping to your marketing strategy? Here are the Reasons Why a Free Shipping Threshold Gets You More Sales.

7. Skincare Products

Next to beauty and fitness, skincare is the next best timeless eCommerce business idea you could start today!

The cosmetic market value is estimated to reach a whopping $805.61 billion by 2023 for both large and small businesses globally.

Skincare is the second-largest branch of the beauty industry, with more than 23% of its revenue. There's so much money to be made with cosmetics because, for many people, makeup isn't just a product anymore, it's a daily essential.

Use Giveaways & Contest to Push Sales When Starting a Skincare eCommerce Business Idea

Brands like Glossier and SuperGoop have been skincare underdogs that have dominated the marketing with the help of social media marketing and giveaways.

Across all industries, eCommerce and beauty contests have the highest conversions and contest entries. In 2018, the global cosmetic market grew to an estimated 5.5% in comparison to the previous year.

Skincare and beauty contests have ten times more conversions and engagement when compared to other industries.

Need help with your next contest?

Book a free call to learn how our team of contest experts can help you create high converting social media contest today.

Summary

Once you've found your eCommerce business idea, it's time to start investing in tools that will help you to generate sales and loyal customers successfully.

With Wishpond you can turn your eCommerce website into a lead generating tool (that means attracting new customers), harness the power of email marketing, create a referral program, and so much more.

Related Articles

10 Ecommerce Marketing Experts Share Their Top Growth Strategy

10 Tactics to Grow Your Ecommerce Customer Base

6 Ecommerce Email Marketing Examples & Strategies That Improve Sales

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[cdrforea]

‘Content network effect’ makes TikTok tough to copy – smarthometec

New Post has been published on https://bestedevices.com/content-network-effect-makes-tiktok-tough-to-copy-smarthometec.html

‘Content network effect’ makes TikTok tough to copy – smarthometec

Lots of TikTok videos Don't start from scratch, not even the competition. Tick ​​tack it's all about remixes where users record a new video to recontextualize audio from someone else's clip or to ripple an existing meme or concept. This only works because TikToks had time to build a huge collection of content from which they could be inspired.

The developers will not be able to start with TikTok copycats, including Facebook Lasso and Instagram Reels testing in Brazil. Direct competitors like Triller and Dubsmash are running to build their archives. YouTube short films that The Information reports are under development today only have a chance if Google allows users to use the 5 billion videos that are already watched on YouTube every day.

This is the power of what I call the "content network effect": each content brings added value to the rest. This is TikTok.

You probably know the traditional network effect – "A phenomenon where a product or service gains value when more people use it. “It is not only the network itself that is gaining in value, but also the value that is made available to every user. Today's best social networks are shining examples. The more people there are on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, the more people you can connect and the more material their relevant algorithms can use to fill your feeds.

If you had to choose between two identical social networks, you'll likely choose that with more friends or developers already on board. Network effects increase the switching costs for switching to another network. Even if it offers better features, fewer ads or less misinformation and bullying, you are unlikely to leave a robust network behind and switch to a sparser network. This makes it difficult to disrupt scaled social networks. All top companies have been around for almost a decade or more.

With the exception of TikTok. The Chinese music / video app has managed to demonstrate a new concept of the "content network effect". In this case, every video uploaded to the app makes every future potential video more valuable. This is because the entire content of TikTok serves as remix feed for the rest. Every song, dance, joke, prank, and monologue generates resources that other creators can use. It is a bottomless source of inspiration.

Remixability, the ultimate creative tool

TikTok produces the remix culture by making it easy to "use that sound". Tap a video's audio button and it's yours. Click through and you'll see all the other videos using it. TikTok even offers an entire search engine for sorting sounds by categories such as trending, greatest hits, love, gaming and travel. Sometimes remixes are based on an idea rather than an audio. #FlipTheSwitch sees couples swap clothes instantly when the lights go out, and has collected more than 3.6 billion videos in over 500,000 remix versions of the video.

You can even duet with the original creator while sharing your and his video side by side. A solo performance becomes a refrain when more duets are connected. In the meantime, remixes of remixes of remixes offer an esoteric reward for hardcore users who recognize how a gag has developed or has turned into absurdity.

Other apps have produced video responses, hashtags, quote tweets, surveys and chain letters, as well as other ways for content to interact or iterate in the past. And there were always parodies. However, TikTok demonstrates the ability to forge a social app with a content network effect at its core.

By facilitating remixes, you can lower the bar for creating user-generated content. You don't have to be amazingly creative or original to do something fun. Each person's life experiences shape their perspective, which could enable them to interpret an idea in a new way.

What started with someone ripping audio from two people singing "Don't be suspicious" while sneaking through a graveyard on the Parks & Recs TV show resulted in people lip-syncing it as they tried Escape her child's room without waking her and left the house in clothes, stole from her sister's closet, tried to keep a llama as a pet, and photoshopped to look bigger. Unless someone has already done the audio clip work, there is nothing that can inspire and empower others to engage with it.

TikTok's archive against the world

That's why I wrote that Mark Zuckerberg misunderstood the enormous threat posed by TikTok after the CEO said to Facebook employees: "I think about TikTok as if it were Explore for Stories." Facebook and Instagram had great success cloning Snapchat stories because they only had to copy the functions. Stories are autobiographical vlogging. All you need are the creative tools that Instagram has and rebuilt Facebook and share people of whom the apps had billions.

However, TikTok is not about sharing what you're up to. Stories that usually start all over again because each user's life is different. It is micro entertainment with a content network effect. If TikTok competitors offer people the same video recording capabilities and sales potential, they still lack the archive of the source material.

Facebook's lasso looks exactly like TikTok, but has not gained momentum since it started in November 2018. Instagram Reels intelligently copies TikTok's remixing tools. However, if the Brazilian tests go well and it finally starts in English, it will start with flat feet.

On YouTube launches shorts as Alex Heath and Jessica Toonkel of The Information report that it is planned to bury it in its main app before the end of the year. That could make it impossible to compete with a dedicated app like TikTok that opens directly to your For You page. The only salvation would be if YouTube unlocked its entire database of videos for remixing.

Thanks to its position as the default location for hosting videos and its searchability experience that Facebook and Instagram lack, YouTube shorts could at least contain all the necessary ingredients. Given YouTube's uninterrupted social failures, from Google+ to YouTube stories to its dozen Deadpool messaging apps, YouTube may not have the skills to combine them.

Other social networks should consider how the concept applies to them. Could Facebook turn your friends' photos into collage material? Could you share thematic collections of your favorite posts with Instagram? The remix culture is not disappearing, nor is the value of promoting content network effects. With video consumption surpassing professional production, remixes are the way the world is entertained and how amateurs can contribute creations that are worth going viral.

[mitchbeck]

CANTLON'S CORNER: VINNI LETTIERI PLAYS BIG PIECE OF WOLF PACK PLAYOFF RUN

Vinni Lettieri BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings CROMWELL, CT - Prior to his departure for the AHL All-Star Classic in Ontario, California Vinni Lettieri was in a good spot as the final 22 games of the regular season. The last stretch commences in a home and home divisional pair of games with Springfield starting Friday at 7:15 pm at the XL Center. Lettieri returns along with teammate Joey Keane and head coach Kris Knoblauch as part of Atlantic Division winners of the 2020 AHL All-Star Classics. Lettieri popped in two goals the first came on a breakaway 2:13 into the first period for the Atlantic Division squad. The second was vintage Vinni off wing slapshot on a cross-ice feed from Providence’s Jack Studnicka 26 seconds into the action against the North Division. Then Joey Keane scored the next goal a little over two minutes later en route to a 5-2 win. He would also add an assist on the night. Now that all festivities are over Lettieri gets back to the task at hand. Practice is the key to his growth and progress. A few weeks ago in Cromwell, he and Keane spent a half hour or so taking extra shots and in one sequence hit the post three times in a row and he tossed his stick up in the air in baton tossing fashion. “That was one day because it's every day. To get better you have to do it every day. Joey and I do it a half-hour or so and it's important because it helps me to know where I am now and where I wanna go, work every day. It's always good to work with someone on those one-timers and Joey has been really good at it. Our powerplay has to improve, so we put in the extra time.” He has admitted his season was a slower start than he would have liked, but on and off-ice work has helped his game improve. “I have watched videos that have given me of Artemi Panarin (Rangers), ex-CT Whale Jonathan Marchessault (Las Vegas) and David Pasternak, (Boston the NHL’s leading goals scorer). It's learning how to hold onto the puck to make a better shot just not shooting randomly. So it's just one thing that changes everything it’s a combination of things. It's not a pattern that I see its learning each game is different. Using the coaches and all the other resources plus my teammates have helped make me a better all-around player,” remarked Lettieri. Panarin, the Rangers leading scorer and who has a high-end skill set is not a bad guy to pattern some of your game after. “Watching how he holds the puck in preparing for a shot is something, it's one of the little things of the game you learn. Pasternak’s shoots so well from any area he’s at its amazing. Marchessault, he seems to be everywhere and he is really dynamic and has great acceleration,” said Lettieri showing his keen scouting skills. Over the roller coaster past few weeks haven’t left Lettieri having seen the valley of the last two seasons. “For the better part of the year we have played the same way and stuck to our game plan and it’s a long season nothing is perfect. Yes, we could have played better in some ways, but overall I like this group and think more often than not will come out on top,” As they prepare for a weekend with Springfield a year ago same building he was adamant about making the playoffs three days the captain was traded and the team never recovered. This is obviously a very different group. “We certainly want it, but that is always important that we have to focus and continue to grow and get better and those things will take care of themselves.” AHL NEWS -Two pieces of new AHL arena news coming out of the AHL All-Star Classic. The San Jose City Council Tuesday night approved the expansion of the Solar4 American Ice Center that will become the new home of the AHL San Jose Barracuda. The arena located in central San Jose 3.6 miles about from the SAP Center aka Shark Tank where the Sharks and their AHL affiliate have shared the building for the past five years since the creation of the AHL Pacific Division. The upgrade slated to start this April that will see the complex go from four to six sheets of ice including a 4,200 seat competition arena that is to be completed by April 2022. The arena sits on a 21.2-acre site that also includes Excite Ballpark, home to the high, Class A eight-team California League San Jose Giants. The building has been the only secondary off-site training facility for the Sharks and Barracuda. The facility is also home to the collegiate varsity club hockey squad, the San Jose State Spartans (ACHA Division-2) and local high school hockey. This new facility combined with the AHL coming 32nd team, the expansion Palm Springs, CA team the affiliate for the expansion NHL Seattle team further solidifies the western growth of hockey both NHL, AHL and soon collegiately. -The West will also be solidified by the announcement from outgoing AHL President and CEO Dave Andrews that the Vegas Golden Knights are actively seeking to buy a current AHL team and move them to the Las Vegas area. The arena would be in nearby Paradise called, the Orleans Arena that was home to the ECHL Las Vegas Wranglers from 2003-20014. The building is 7,773 seats- a perfect AHL size building but would have to undergo a serious overhaul of its operating systems to be ready by the fall of 2020. Now, which team would they purchase? The most likely candidate could be Rockford whose arrangement with the Chicago Black Hawks ends after this season. In that scenario, the Golden Knights would purchase Rockford and then move the team to Las Vegas. Meanwhile, the Golden Knights have the Chicago Wolves as their farm team would vacate that arrangement. That could allow the Black Hawks to skate into an arrangement as the Wolves' new parent team. The Wolves are one of the few independently owned teams left in the league in which 19 of the 32 teams are NHL O & O (owned and operated) and is one of the best attended and promoted teams in the league. When Wolves were firstborn in the old IHL under its present owner Don Levin the two were arch enemies. 20 plus years have passed. Rocky Wirtz, not his father Bill is running the team I can see a marriage being formed with the Black Hawks. There are some other possibilities, but Andrews's comments at the State of the AHL press conference made it clear it was more of a matter of when--not if--the AHL would be in the Las Vegas area. “I think that at some point there will be an (AHL) team in Vegas, or (the Golden Knights) will own a team, but would have to happen pretty soon.”  Andrews remarked who is as cautious as NHL President Gary Bettman is regarding announcements or speculations about team transfers, relocations or disbanding. NOTES: -Wolf Pack GM and Trumbull native, Chris Drury added another piece to his executive resume as he was named to the GM post of Team USA that will play in early May at the World Championships in Zurich, Switzerland. -Now that the NHL and AHL All-Star breaks have concluded temporary roster moves for that time period have ended and movement has begun once again. Goalie Adam Huska who went 1-1 with a 1.53 GAA win and Lewis Zerter-Gossage who scored his first ECHL in his two games were returned from Portland officially Monday. Maine’s goalie Francois Brassard in a paper transaction was released from his PTO with the Wolf Pack. Conversely, officially recalled on Wednesday by the Rangers was goalie Igor Shesterkin, but I don’t think this is the last time we will see him. If Alexander Georgiev is not traded by the NHL Trade deadline (February 24th) he would likely be returned by then. The Rangers could keep him in New York till their officially eliminated from playoff contention presently the Rangers are in the seventh spot for the wild card 10 points back. Expect Shesterkin to be here when the Wolf Pack start the Calder Cup playoffs and with Igor, the Wolf Pack’s chances for a long run are significantly improved. -Other notables from the AHL All-Star Classic were two former Quinnipiac Bobcats Sam Anas (Iowa) with two goals and Brogan Rafferty (Utica) with a goal and an assist. Ex-Pack and Sound Tiger Matt Ford (Grand Rapids) scored twice. -Lias Andersson’s suspension was officially lifted and was formally reassigned to HV 71 (Sweden-SHL) for the rest of the season. -Ex-Wolf Pack Dale Weise was recalled back to Montreal from Laval, Jarred Tinordi son ex-New Haven Nighthawk Mark Tinordi was recalled by Nashville from Milwaukee, Jansen Harkins, son of former Whaler Todd Harkins was recalled to Winnipeg from Manitoba and Max Jones, son of former New Haven Nighthawk/Senators Brad Jones goes from San Diego to Anaheim. -Goalie Callum Booth (Salisbury Prep) was assigned to Atlanta (ECHL) by Charlotte. -Former UCONN Husky, Karl El-Mir was sent from Indy (ECHL) as the future consideration of a trade made last week with Greenville (ECHL). -Ex-Sound Tiger John Persson signs a deal with Brynas IF (Sweden-SHL) for the rest of the season and for 2020-21 leaving SaiPa (Finland-FEL) who were having a poor season. -Ex-Sound Tiger assistant coach Matt Bertani is an assistant coach with Team South Korea at the IIHF U-20 Division II Group B tournament being held in Gangnueng South Korea till February 3rd. -We'll be seeing a goalie named Stauber a few times over the next few years. Jaxon Stauber, son of the former Wolf Pack and Nighthawk netminder, Robb Stauber has made a commitment to Providence College (HE) next year 2020-21. The 6’3 undrafted netminder played one game with Minnesota- State Mankato Mavericks (WCHA) before suddenly returning to Sioux Falls (USHL) for this season who are the defending USHL Clark Cup champions, where he was the playoff MVP last season. Father Robb just completed his AHL honorary captain duties at the AHL All-Star Classic in Ontario, California at the Toyota Center, Sunday and Monday. -Easton Armstrong, son ex-Pack great Derek Armstrong played his first two WHL with Regina picking up a one shot on goal. Read the full article

[junker-town]

Spencer Dinwiddie’s All-Star play for the Nets without Kyrie Irving is no fluke

Spencer Dinwiddie is becoming the leading man for the Nets.

Dinwiddie is saving the Nets’ season without Kyrie, Kevin Durant, and Caris LeVert.

It was three years ago this week when the Brooklyn Nets signed Spencer Dinwiddie out of the G League. At that point, Dinwiddie’s career was on life support: he had slipped to the second round of the draft after tearing his ACL in his final year at Colorado, he was traded by the Pistons for Cameron Bairstow, he was cut by the Bulls in favor of Michael Carter-Williams and Isaiah Canaan. Anyone in the league could have signed him when Brooklyn plucked him out of Chicago’s farm team.

Three years later, Dinwiddie is cosplaying as a star in the league’s biggest market. The Nets were 4-7 when Kyrie Irving exited the lineup on Nov. 14 because of a shoulder impingement, seemingly content on riding out the season until Kevin Durant returned next year. Since then, Brooklyn is 9-3 and look like they’ve unlocked something truly special in Dinwiddie.

Dinwiddie has always had a rare knack for delivering in clutch moments since joining the Nets. He did it again versus the Nuggets on Sunday night, scoring two buckets in the final minute and helping force a stop on Will Barton to give Brooklyn the win (Dinwiddie also became the biggest meme night when he didn’t see Durant’s high-five).

Dinwiddie was coming off the bench until Irving’s injury, but now has a legitimate All-Star case. He’s averaging 20.6 points and 6.2 assists per game on the season. Those numbers don’t seem like a fluke. Brooklyn is +3.6 points with Dinwiddie on the floor, and -8.3 without him.

How is Dinwiddie doing this? Can he keep it up? This is why Dinwiddie has become one of the league’s breakout stars this season.

Dinwiddie is built for a leading role

Dinwiddie is putting up numbers that are akin to some of the best players in the world since joining the starting lineup. With Irving out, the Nets are putting the ball in Dinwiddie’s hands and letting him act as sole offensive initiator. He’s playing with the biggest usage rate of his career this season at 29.7 percent, and proving he’s one of the few players in the world capable of thriving in such a role.

At 6’5, 215 pounds, Dinnwiddie a big ball handler who can leverage his size specially in the pick-and-roll and as a pull-up shooter, two areas where he’s been lights out as of late.

Dinwiddie has hit 33 pull-up threes this season, which is the eighth most in the league so far, per NBA.com. Dinwiddie has actually shot the ball below his typical level this season, making just 31.2 percent of his threes, but the volume at which he’s shooting off the dribble forces defenses to respect the shot. His ability to consistently get off quality looks on dribble pull-ups is part of the reason he’s developed a reputation as one of the league’s sneaky good closers. Just ask the Cavs:

Spencer Dinwiddie nails the game-winner over the Cavs #WeGoHard pic.twitter.com/dseVMMvtMz

— NBA TV (@NBATV) November 26, 2019

Dinwiddie can get to the basket, too, especially when he’s coming off a screen. He’s always posted high free throw rates throughout his career, and that continues to translate even when he’s carrying a bigger usage burden. He’s currently grading out as “very good” in pick-and-roll situations, per Synergy Sports. He has his developing chemistry with Jarrett Allen to thank for much of that.

Dinwiddie has a special connection with Jarrett Allen

Allen was averaging 9.3 points per game with Irving as the starter and Dinwiddie on the bench. Since Dinwiddie has joined the starting unit, Allen is averaging 15.2 points per game. The two have a close bond off the court and it’s translating to chemistry on the court, as well.

Dinwiddie to Allen has been one of the league’s best combinations at the rim. Per PBP Stats, they’ve connected for assists 31 times, which is the No. 7 mark of any duo in the league. Allen is an excellent rim runner, and Dinwiddie has the timing and patience required to fully unlock him. When both are cooking, their connection looks effortless:

Dinwiddie to Allen for the easy oop✅ pic.twitter.com/svxaUF0Yi9

— Nick Fay (@OTG_NICK) December 8, 2019

The Dinwiddie-Allen connection is working early pic.twitter.com/J1UsAwjABD

— Nick Fay (@OTG_NICK) November 28, 2019

On the season, Allen and Dinwiddie have a +6.6 net rating when they share the court together, which is the second best mark on the team for any pairing with at least 150 minutes.

Dinwiddie is hiding in plain sight on the Nets

The Nets gave Irving a max contract to be their lead creator in the offseason. They have Durant waiting in the wings next season. They are also currently missing Caris LeVert, who hasn’t played since Nov. 10 after thumb surgery.

Will this opportunity still exist for Dinwiddie on the Nets when everyone else is back healthy? Probably not. Irving will go back to having the ball in his hands, Durant will take a huge percentage of possessions, and all of the crunch-time opportunities will go to either of the two stars.

The unspoken truth is that, right now, the Nets are a lot better as a team with Dinwiddie as the lead offensive initiator instead of Irving, who has a negative 1.4 net rating so far. The Nets need Irving because he gives them a higher ceiling, and because he recruited Durant. A smart team paying attention should try to nab Dinwiddie and give him the role he deserves.

Dinwiddie could become a free agent after next season should he opt out of his contract. Dinwiddie gave the Nets a bargain when he signed his most recent deal, but his next contract could put him in Malcolm Brogdon territory. Still only 26 years old, Dinwiddie is proving he’s at his best in a featured role that he’ll be unlikely to maintain when the Nets have everyone back. Head coach Kenny Atkinson is aware of just how good he is:

kenny atkinson says spencer dinwiddie has taken another step, and he likened coaching him to having an elite running back: “you can just pitch it to him, and he can go get a bucket ... when he gets downhill, he’s basically unstoppable.”

— James Herbert (@outsidethenba) December 8, 2019

Dinwiddie is clutch. He’s masterful in the pick-and-roll and he’s capable of taking and making the pull-up jumpers that define so many of the league’s best players. Dinwiddie might technically be a role player for Brooklyn, but he’s proving he’s so much better when he’s set up to be the star.

[kindlecomparedinfo]

Facebook Portal adds games and web browser amidst mediocre Amazon reviews

After receiving a flogging from privacy critics, Facebook is scrambling to make its smart display video chat screen Portal more attractive to buyers. Today Facebook is announcing the addition a of a web browser, plus some of Messenger’s Instant Games like Battleship, Draw Something, Sudoku, and Words With Friends. ABC News and CNN are adding content to Portal, which now also has a manual zoom mode for its auto-zooming smart camera so you can zero in on a particular thing in view. Facebook has also added new augmented reality Story Time tales, seasonal AR masks, in-call music sharing through iHeartRadio beyond Spotify and Pandora that already offer it, and nickname calling so you can say “Hey Portal, call Mom.”

But the question remains who’s buying? Facebook is already discounting the 10-inch screen Portal and 15-inch Portal+. Formerly $100 off if you buy two, Facebook is still offering $50 off just one until Christmas Eve as part of a suspiciously long Black Friday Sale. That doesn’t signal this thing is flying off the shelves. We don’t have sales figures, but Portal has a 3.4 rating on Amazon while Portal+ has a 3.6 — both trailing the 4.2 rating of Amazon’s own Echo Shows 2. Users are griping about the lack of Amazon Video support for Ring doorbells, not receiving calls, and of course the privacy implications.

Personally, I’ve found Portal+ to be competent in the five weeks since launch. The big screen is great as a smart photo frame and video calls look great. But Alexa and Facebook’s own voice assistant have a tough time dividing up functionality, and sometimes I can’t get either to play a specific song on Spotify, pause or change volume, or other activities my Google Home has no trouble with. Facebook said it was hoping to add Google Assistant to Portal but there’s no progress on that front yet.

The browser will be a welcome addition, and allow Facebook to sidestep some of the issues around its thin app platform. While it recently added a Smart TV version of YouTube, now users can access lots of services without those developers having to commit to building something for Portal given its uncertain future.

The hope seems to be that mainstream users who aren’t glued to the tech press where Facebook is constantly skewered might be drawn in by these device’s flashy screens and the admittedly impressive auto-zooming camera. But to overcome the brand tax levied by all of Facebook’s privacy scandals, Portal must be near perfect. Without the native apps for popular video providers like Netflix and Hulu, consistent voice recognition, and more unique features missing from competing smart displays, the fear of Facebook’s surveillance may be outweighing people’s love for shiny new gadgets.

  Facebook launches Portal auto-zooming video chat screens for $199/$349

So I sent my mom that newfangled Facebook Portal

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8176395 https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/14/facebook-portal-browser/ via http://www.kindlecompared.com/kindle-comparison/

[localbizlift]

Facebook Portal adds games and web browser amidst mediocre Amazon reviews

After receiving a flogging from privacy critics, Facebook is scrambling to make its smart display video chat screen Portal more attractive to buyers. Today Facebook is announcing the addition a of a web browser, plus some of Messenger’s Instant Games like Battleship, Draw Something, Sudoku, and Words With Friends. ABC News and CNN are adding content to Portal, which now also has a manual zoom mode for its auto-zooming smart camera so you can zero in on a particular thing in view. Facebook has also added new augmented reality Story Time tales, seasonal AR masks, in-call music sharing through iHeartRadio beyond Spotify and Pandora that already offer it, and nickname calling so you can say “Hey Portal, call Mom.”

But the question remains who’s buying? Facebook is already discounting the 10-inch screen Portal and 15-inch Portal+. Formerly $100 off if you buy two, Facebook is still offering $50 off just one until Christmas Eve as part of a suspiciously long Black Friday Sale. That doesn’t signal this thing is flying off the shelves. We don’t have sales figures, but Portal has a 3.4 rating on Amazon while Portal+ has a 3.6 — both trailing the 4.2 rating of Amazon’s own Echo Shows 2. Users are griping about the lack of Amazon Video support for Ring doorbells, not receiving calls, and of course the privacy implications.

Personally, I’ve found Portal+ to be competent in the five weeks since launch. The big screen is great as a smart photo frame and video calls look great. But Alexa and Facebook’s own voice assistant have a tough time dividing up functionality, and sometimes I can’t get either to play a specific song on Spotify, pause or change volume, or other activities my Google Home has no trouble with. Facebook said it was hoping to add Google Assistant to Portal but there’s no progress on that front yet.

The browser will be a welcome addition, and allow Facebook to sidestep some of the issues around its thin app platform. While it recently added a Smart TV version of YouTube, now users can access lots of services without those developers having to commit to building something for Portal given its uncertain future.

The hope seems to be that mainstream users who aren’t glued to the tech press where Facebook is constantly skewered might be drawn in by these device’s flashy screens and the admittedly impressive auto-zooming camera. But to overcome the brand tax levied by all of Facebook’s privacy scandals, Portal must be near perfect. Without the native apps for popular video providers like Netflix and Hulu, consistent voice recognition, and more unique features missing from competing smart displays, the fear of Facebook’s surveillance may be outweighing people’s love for shiny new gadgets.

  Facebook launches Portal auto-zooming video chat screens for $199/$349

So I sent my mom that newfangled Facebook Portal

[pmsocialmedia]

Facebook Portal adds games and web browser amidst mediocre Amazon reviews

After receiving a flogging from privacy critics, Facebook is scrambling to make its smart display video chat screen Portal more attractive to buyers. Today Facebook is announcing the addition a of a web browser, plus some of Messenger’s Instant Games like Battleship, Draw Something, Sudoku, and Words With Friends. ABC News and CNN are adding content to Portal, which now also has a manual zoom mode for its auto-zooming smart camera so you can zero in on a particular thing in view. Facebook has also added new augmented reality Story Time tales, seasonal AR masks, in-call music sharing through iHeartRadio beyond Spotify and Pandora that already offer it, and nickname calling so you can say “Hey Portal, call Mom.”

But the question remains who’s buying? Facebook is already discounting the 10-inch screen Portal and 15-inch Portal+. Formerly $100 off if you buy two, Facebook is still offering $50 off just one until Christmas Eve as part of a suspiciously long Black Friday Sale. That doesn’t signal this thing is flying off the shelves. We don’t have sales figures, but Portal has a 3.4 rating on Amazon while Portal+ has a 3.6 — both trailing the 4.2 rating of Amazon’s own Echo Shows 2. Users are griping about the lack of Amazon Video support for Ring doorbells, not receiving calls, and of course the privacy implications.

Personally, I’ve found Portal+ to be competent in the five weeks since launch. The big screen is great as a smart photo frame and video calls look great. But Alexa and Facebook’s own voice assistant have a tough time dividing up functionality, and sometimes I can’t get either to play a specific song on Spotify, pause or change volume, or other activities my Google Home has no trouble with. Facebook said it was hoping to add Google Assistant to Portal but there’s no progress on that front yet.

The browser will be a welcome addition, and allow Facebook to sidestep some of the issues around its thin app platform. While it recently added a Smart TV version of YouTube, now users can access lots of services without those developers having to commit to building something for Portal given its uncertain future.

The hope seems to be that mainstream users who aren’t glued to the tech press where Facebook is constantly skewered might be drawn in by these device’s flashy screens and the admittedly impressive auto-zooming camera. But to overcome the brand tax levied by all of Facebook’s privacy scandals, Portal must be near perfect. Without the native apps for popular video providers like Netflix and Hulu, consistent voice recognition, and more unique features missing from competing smart displays, the fear of Facebook’s surveillance may be outweighing people’s love for shiny new gadgets.

  Facebook launches Portal auto-zooming video chat screens for $199/$349

So I sent my mom that newfangled Facebook Portal

via Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2S2KDXq

[workfromhom]

Facebook Portal adds games and web browser amidst mediocre Amazon reviews

After receiving a flogging from privacy critics, Facebook is scrambling to make its smart display video chat screen Portal more attractive to buyers. Today Facebook is announcing the addition a of a web browser, plus some of Messenger’s Instant Games like Battleship, Draw Something, Sudoku, and Words With Friends. ABC News and CNN are adding content to Portal, which now also has a manual zoom mode for its auto-zooming smart camera so you can zero in on a particular thing in view. Facebook has also added new augmented reality Story Time tales, seasonal AR masks, in-call music sharing through iHeartRadio beyond Spotify and Pandora that already offer it, and nickname calling so you can say “Hey Portal, call Mom.”

But the question remains who’s buying? Facebook is already discounting the 10-inch screen Portal and 15-inch Portal+. Formerly $100 off if you buy two, Facebook is still offering $50 off just one until Christmas Eve as part of a suspiciously long Black Friday Sale. That doesn’t signal this thing is flying off the shelves. We don’t have sales figures, but Portal has a 3.4 rating on Amazon while Portal+ has a 3.6 — both trailing the 4.2 rating of Amazon’s own Echo Shows 2. Users are griping about the lack of Amazon Video support for Ring doorbells, not receiving calls, and of course the privacy implications.

Personally, I’ve found Portal+ to be competent in the five weeks since launch. The big screen is great as a smart photo frame and video calls look great. But Alexa and Facebook’s own voice assistant have a tough time dividing up functionality, and sometimes I can’t get either to play a specific song on Spotify, pause or change volume, or other activities my Google Home has no trouble with. Facebook said it was hoping to add Google Assistant to Portal but there’s no progress on that front yet.

The browser will be a welcome addition, and allow Facebook to sidestep some of the issues around its thin app platform. While it recently added a Smart TV version of YouTube, now users can access lots of services without those developers having to commit to building something for Portal given its uncertain future.

The hope seems to be that mainstream users who aren’t glued to the tech press where Facebook is constantly skewered might be drawn in by these device’s flashy screens and the admittedly impressive auto-zooming camera. But to overcome the brand tax levied by all of Facebook’s privacy scandals, Portal must be near perfect. Without the native apps for popular video providers like Netflix and Hulu, consistent voice recognition, and more unique features missing from competing smart displays, the fear of Facebook’s surveillance may be outweighing people’s love for shiny new gadgets.

  Facebook launches Portal auto-zooming video chat screens for $199/$349

So I sent my mom that newfangled Facebook Portal

from Facebook – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2S2KDXq via IFTTT

[trashfics]

Foxgloves ://: Chapter 1

Summary: Y/N was content living a normal life. Well, as normal as her life could be with the power to stun and cause death (in extreme conditions) with just a touch of her hand. Let’s just say gloves are a girl’s best friend, not diamonds. When the Winter Soldier surfaced, she was called in by Director Nick Fury to assist Captain America in fighting against a corrupt SHIELD. To the world, she is known as Foxgloves, the girl with poisons touch. To her team, she’s a mystery, coming out of nowhere, with her amazing combat skills and poisonous touch, to be recruited into their little group of super humans. Nobody knew of her origin, until Helmut Zemo’s plans consist of more than exposing the Winter Soldier as Howard and Martha Stark’s killer.  Warnings: Mild cursing. A/N: Hey there! This is my first work on Tumblr, so I hope you enjoy and feedback is always great! Also, I promise Bucky will be in the next chapter!

I awoke with a start, let’s just say being whisked into a meeting with Secretary of State Ross wasn’t what I expected after stepping out of my room. I made my way downstairs to the conference room, nibbling on a protein bar. I caught up with Steve and Wanda, exchanging greetings. “Do you know what this is about?” I asked in my thick, accented voice. Wanda links her arm with mine and says “No clue, I just want to go back to my room, maybe sleep for a year,” she pauses “or a hundred.” We both start laughing while we walk through the glass doors, stopping instantly as we are met with the serious faces of the rest of the team.

“Glad to see you cared to join us Y/N,” starts Sam “I’m honestly surprised to see you among the living at a shocking” he checks the clock, “12 AM.” I glare at him as I take my seat at the end of the table. “Fuck off, Sam, you’re making me sound like an actual sloth.” I snap back. “Wait, you aren’t actually a sloth?” he gasps, “What about a bear? I think you should be getting ready for hibernation.” Sam smiles smugly, amused with my lack of patience without my morning coffee. “Says the guy who ca- “I am cut off by Tony standing up and looking pointedly at the two of us. “Will you two please stop arguing like children and be serious for once.” I give him a once over, noting his tense posture and the stern voice. Sam and I look at each other and nod. Tony sighs, “Okay, excellent. Mr. Secretary please begin.” The pepper haired man at the head of the table nods. “5 years ago, I had a heart attack. I dropped right in the middle of my batting swing. Turned out, it was the best round of my life because after 13 hours of surgery and a triple bypass…” I tune him out, not wanting to hear about the haughty man’s dumb golf accident, being more interested in the pitcher of water in front of me.

“New York.” A clip from the Battle of New York begins playing, gaining my attention. “Washington DC. Sokovia. Lagos.” The most recent of the clips causes Wanda to look away, I shoot her a reassuring smile. I know she blames herself for the building collapsing, it’s not her fault she was never taught how to fully control her powers up until now. “Okay, that’s enough.” Halts Steve. Ross nods at his assistant and says, “For the past 4 years, you operated with unlimited power and no supervision. That's an arrangement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate. But I think we have a solution.” He slides over a thick book to Wanda and begins walking around the table. “The Sokovia Accords. Approved by 117 countries. It states, that the Avengers shall no longer be a private organization. Instead, they'll operate under the supervision of a United Nations Panel, only when and if that Panel deems it necessary.” He stops next to Steve as he begins, staring at the table “The Avengers were formed to make the world a safer place. I feel we’ve done that.” A moment of silence passes before Secretary Ross asks “Tell me Captain, do you know where Thor and Banner are right now?” I glance over at Tony, who looks like he’s trying to shove his fist into his mouth and disappear into his chair at the same time. “If I misplaced a couple of 30 megaton nukes you can bet there’d be consequences.” He walks back to the head of the table while saying “Compromise. Reassurance. That’s how the world works. Believe me, this is the middle ground.” Rhodey breaks his silence by saying “So, there are contingencies.” “Three days from now, the UN meets in Vienna to ratify the Accords.” Steve glances back at Tony, while Tony looks at the ground. ‘Stark what did you do?’ was my only thought. Secretary Ross tells us to “talk it over” and starts to leaves. I stop him, asking “And if we come to a decision you don’t like?” He looks pointedly at me, while I glare up at him. “Then you retire.” With that, he leaves, leaving the rest of us to think over the news.

Tony gets up first and leaves the room. Shortly after, the rest of us follow him up into the living area. I excuse myself and go to my room, changing into something that isn’t my pajamas. I slip on some denim shorts and a casual white tee with a faux leather jacket on top. I slip my gloves back on and make my way to the elevators, tying my sneakers on the way down. As soon as the doors open I hear, “So let’s say we agree to this thing. How long is it gonna be before they LoJack us like a bunch of common criminals?” I step out and remark under my breath “I sure love debate team.” Natasha looks over, acknowledging my presence. Scanning the room, I see Steve reading the at least 2-inch-thick book, Wanda and Vison on the couch next to him, Tony lounging on the one near the kitchenette with his hand over his face, Natasha next to him, and Sam and Rhodey standing behind Steve, bickering about signing the Accords or not. “117 countries want to sign this.” Begins the older of the two men, “117, Sam, and you’re just like, ‘No, that’s cool. We got it- “Sam cuts him off. “How long are you gonna play both side?” Vison intervenes, thankfully. “I have an equation.” Everyone turns to the purple man, waiting for him to explain. “Oh, this will clear it up.” remarks Sam. “In the eight years since Mr.Stark announced himself as Iron Man the number of known enhances persons has grown exponentially.” He begins, “During the same period the number of potentially world ending events has risen at a commensurate rate.” Steve’s voice asks, “Are you saying it’s our fault?” Vison looks over at him and replies, “I’m saying there may be a causality.” He pauses, thinking over his next words. “Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict breeds catastrophe. Oversight. Oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand.” “Boom.” Comments Rhodey, looking over at Sam.

Natasha pipes up, “Tony,” he looks at her” “you are being uncharacteristically non-hyperverbal.” “It’s because he’s already made up his mind.” I say, causing Tony to look over at me. “Boy, you know me so well.” He says, getting up. “Actually, I’m nursing an electromagnetic headache. That’s what’s going on, Y/N. It’s just pain. It’s discomfort.” He grabs a coffee mug, frowning at the sink, “Who’s putting coffee grounds in the disposal?” he turns around with the French press, “Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?” He stops, pulling out his phone and casting the photo of a teenage boy in a park. Sighing, he says “Oh, that’s Charles Spencer, by the way. He’s a great kid. Computer engineering degree, 3.6 GPA, had a floor-level gig at Intel planned for the fall. But first, he wanted to put a few miles on his soul before he parked it behind a desk. See the world. Maybe be of service. Charlie didn’t want to go to Vegas or Fort Lauderdale, which is what I would do. He didn’t go to Paris or Amsterdam, which sounds fun. He decided to spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor.” ‘Wow,’ I think, looking down at the floor and playing with the hem of my glove, ‘I don’t like where this is going’. “Guess where. Sokovia.” spits Tony causing Wanda and Vison to look down. I make my way over and sit next to the brunette, slinging my arm around her waist, pulling her into my side. Wanda is like the little sister I never had, but always wanted. I’d never let anything happen to her. “He wanted to make a difference, I suppose. We won’t know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass.” He takes a sip from his blue mug, “There’s no decision-making process here. We need to be put in check. Whatever form that takes, I’m game. If we can’t accept limitations, if we’re boundary-less, we’re no better than the bad guys.”

I begin to tune him out, focusing on everyone else in the room. Steve says something, but I don’t hear. After a few more exchanges between Steve, Tony, and Rhodey, the billionaire walks over to Steve. “When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands, I shut it down and stopped manufacturing.” Steve turns towards him, obviously annoyed. “Tony, you chose to do that. If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose.” He turns to the rest of us, “What if this panel sends us somewhere we don’t think we should go?” Natasha looks lost in thought, probably torn. I can see the benefits of signing but the cons outweigh it, in my opinion. “What if there is somewhere we need to go and they don’t let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own.” Tony’s raspy voice says, “If we don’t do this now, it’s gonna be done to us later. That’s the fact. That won’t be pretty.” Wanda lifts her head, “You’re saying they’ll come for me.” The animatronic voice of Vison reassures her. “Maybe Tony’s right.” everyone in the room turns to the red-head, “If we have one hand on the wheel, we can still steer. If we take it off-“ “Aren’t you the same woman who told the government to kiss her ass a few years ago?” Sam stares at Natasha incredulously. “I’m just reading the terrain.” She replies, hesitantly. “We have made some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back.” Of course, Tony’s cocky attitude breaks through and I ignore him. Steve’s phones buzzes and he leaves. I trail after, concerned. ‘He never gives up a fight this easily” I think as I follow him down the stairs. I don’t say anything, I can tell he doesn’t want to talk about it.

I lean against him, giving some comfort, and pull his phone out. Unlocking it, I pull up the latest text that reads “She’s gone. In her sleep.”