By Connor Hurson, Carousel30
Google continued to improve its Search app, with the release of a restaurant reservation feature. Integrating the renowned conversational search feature (or voice command search) with OpenTable, users can now reserve a table at a restaurant simply by asking. The feature is more complex than it seems – it also stores historical data to inform its searches. So if you search for restaurants “near my hotel”, it know which hotel from the confirmation in your Gmail. Nifty huh? Read more on TechCrunch.
Snapchat ads are imminent, and despite CEO Evan Spiegal admitting that the new ads won’t be targeted in any way, advertisers are clamoring to get one board. Why, because 50 percent of Snapchat users are below 25 – representing a market that has been incredibly challenging to reach. Read more about how the instant messaging app will incorporate ads on Mashable.
How many #ALSIceBucketChallenge hashtags do you think were posted but no donation went through to match? Yeah, that was our answer too…a lot. A DC based startup called GoodWorld is looking to lower the barriers to online donation and make it possible for users to donate to their favorite charity with the use of a hashtag. GoodWorld CEO Dale Pfeifer started her company on the idea that there are too many steps to take, too many forms to fill out to donate online, and it’s for that reason that millions of dollars go un-donated every year. See what GoodWill is up to and read more over on The Washington Post.
If you’re anything like me, the majority of the devices you spend your time staring at each day have a little Apple logo somewhere on them. What’s the one thing that doesn’t? My TV. The idea of Apple getting into the business of making televisions has been swatted around for years, but according to billion dollar hedge fund manager, Carl Icahn, the time is now. Icahn wrote an open letter to Apple CEO, Tim Cook urging him to explore the option of an Apple television and argued that by his (modest) projections, Apple could stand to sell over 35 million TV’s in the first 2 years of its existence. I’d certainly be interested in checking it out, but if it’s priced anything like their power cords, I don’t know if I’ll be breaking the bank for an Apple television anytime soon. Decide for yourself at AdAge.
When is the sports-media bubble going to burst? Well, certainly not in the year 2014. The NBA signed a deal worth $24 billion dollars to guarantee Time Warner and Disney exclusive programming rights to the NBA’s regular and post-season games from the 2015 season through the 2025 season. The deal, announced earlier this week, speaks volumes to the growing value of live-programming. But the biggest news in this ground-breaking deal? The announcement that out-of-market games will now be streamed online without the need to show proof of a cable/satellite subscription. In the past, there were networks and media outlets that might let you watch a game online but the user was required to show proof that they were in fact a cable/satellite subscriber. That’s all going to change with the new deal announced earlier this week. To read more on how digital rights and broadcasting is going to change, head over to The New York Times.
This post originally appeared on the Carousel30 blog.
0 Comments