Author: Josh Wolford

It’s official. After rumors swirled last week, Yahoo and Tumblr have announced an agreement that will see Yahoo acquire the popular blogging platform for approximately $1.1 billion (all cash). For comparison, that’s just a little more than Facebook wound up paying for Instagram last summer.

In a blog post, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer promises that Yahoo “won’t screw it up.” Yahoo plans to run Tumblr independently, and Tumblr founder David Karp will reamin in his role as CEO. Mayer says that Yahoo will be helping Tumblr to “get even better, faster.”

Karp is even more adamant that Tumblr will stay the same:

“Before touching on how awesome this is, let me try to allay any concerns: We’re not turning purple. Our headquarters isn’t moving. Our team isn’t changing. Our roadmap isn’t changing. And our mission – to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve – certainly isn’t changing.” he says.

As for why? Here’s what Mayer had to say about how the two companies will work together:

“In terms of working together, Tumblr can deploy Yahoo!’s personalization technology and search infrastructure to help its users discover creators, bloggers, and content they’ll love. In turn, Tumblr brings 50 billion blog posts (and 75 million more arriving each day) to Yahoo!’s media network and search experiences. The two companies will also work together to create advertising opportunities that are seamless and enhance user experience.”

She goes on:

“Both Tumblr and Yahoo! share a vision to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas by focusing on users, design – and building experiences that delight and inspire the world every day.”

Here’s how Mayer made the announcement (with a gif!):

“As always, everything that Tumblr is, we owe to this unbelievable community. We won’t let you down. F*ck yeah,” says Karp.

An Australian politician fell victim to a photo prank on Facebook that resulted in “liking” a picture of a 16-year-old boy’s testicles. Peter Collier has since apologized, claiming that the photo looked innocent enough to him when he liked it in late 2011.

What happened to Collier could happen to all of us. You see a nice picture on Facebook of a group of people and you think “oh, that’s lovely. I like that!” and so you like it. But lurking in the shadows are exposed testicles.

“Sneaky nuts” is a prank that involves sneakily showing one’s balls in a photograph, you know, by putting them through the zipper or something at the last minute. It’s kind of like a photobomb, but with your balls. Yeah, it’s not the internet’s best moment for sure.

Collier, a Liberal member of the Western Australian Legislative Council who currently serves Minister for Energy; Training and Workforce Development, says that he was simply tricked by a sneaky photo.

Hence the “sneaky nuts” part:

“At first glance it appeared to be a harmless picture. It was a silly mistake on my part. I only became aware of the actual content of the photo when shown by a journalist…This obviously highlights the pitfalls of social media. I apologise if I caused any offense,” said Collier in a statement.

The apology wasn’t enough for Labor Party MP sue Ellery, who has called for an investigation.

“This is a man who is a senior minister in charge of the professional standards of dealing with young people and young people’s use of social media,” she said.

It looks like politics are the same no matter where you go.

According to CNBC, Yahoo is set to host an event in New York City on Monday, and it’s important enough that CEO Marissa Mayer will be speaking at it.

According to the report, the event will be “product-related.” Of course, that’s a rather unspecific description, and could mean a variety of things.

Yahoo to hold a product-related news event in New York City on Monday; CEO Marissa Mayer to speak at event. $YHOO

— CNBC (@CNBC) May 17, 2013

This announcement does come on the heels of reports that Yahoo was in “serious” talks to buy or invest in Tumblr. That report indicated that Marissa Mayer has been in close talks with Tumblr CEO David Karp, but that Facebook may also be poised to throw their hat in the ring. any acquisition of Tumblr would be an expensive one – valuations put the company at upwards of $1 billion.

It may seem unlikely that Yahoo would announce an acquisition at an event like this, but it’s not completely out of the question. It seems a bit early for a Yahoo-Tumblr product, but who knows. It’s been a while since Yahoo scheduled anything like this, so we’ll be very interested to hear what they announce next week.

[CNBC via The Next Web]

Two months ago, NASA observed the largest explosion on the Moon that they’ve ever seen. And today, they’re talking about it and have released a cool video that shows the event as it took place.

The explosion was caused by a meteorite, 0.3 to 0.4 meters wide, weighing in at about 40 kilograms. When it hit the moon, it was travelling at 56,000 miles per hour. According to NASA, it exploded with the force of 5 tons of TNT.

“On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium,” says Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. “It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we’ve ever seen before.”

The impact was so bright, in fact, that anyone looking would have seen it without the help of a telescope.

“It jumped right out at me, it was so bright,” says Marshall Space Flight Center analyst Ron Suggs, who was the first to see the impact.

This type of lunar strike is common, but NASA has yet to see one this large in the nearly 8 years its been monitoring the moon for such impacts. Here’s why:

Unlike Earth, which has an atmosphere to protect it, the Moon is airless and exposed. “Lunar meteors” crash into the ground with fair frequency. Since the monitoring program began in 2005, NASA’s lunar impact team has detected more than 300 strikes, most orders of magnitude fainter than the March 17th event. Statistically speaking, more than half of all lunar meteors come from known meteoroid streams such as the Perseids and Leonids. The rest are sporadic meteors–random bits of comet and asteroid debris of unknown parentage.

Oh, by the way, the “explosion” is special thanks to the lack of oxygen in the Moon’s atmosphere.

“The Moon has no oxygen atmosphere, so how can something explode? Lunar meteors don’t require oxygen or combustion to make themselves visible. They hit the ground with so much kinetic energy that even a pebble can make a crater several feet wide. The flash of light comes not from combustion but rather from the thermal glow of molten rock and hot vapors at the impact site,” says NASA.

[NASA via Wired]

It appears that the fans have spoken – Amazon Studio’s Zombieland series will not be receiving a full run.

The news was tweeted out by series writer/producer Rhett Reese, who went on to say that viewers “hated it out of existence.” Reese also worked on the film of the same name that inspired the Amazon series.

Our Zombieland series will not be moving forward on Amazon.Sad for everyone involved.

— Rhett Reese (@RhettReese) May 17, 2013

I’ll never understand the vehement hate the pilot received from die-hard Zombieland fans.You guys successfully hated it out of existence.

— Rhett Reese (@RhettReese) May 17, 2013

Anyway, we did our best, and we’re very proud of our team.

— Rhett Reese (@RhettReese) May 17, 2013

Zombieland was part of big push from Amazon into the original content game, spearheaded by their Amazon Studios division. Back in April, Amazon released 14 pilots (both comedy and kids shows) and asked fans to submit their feedback. Amazon said that fan feedback would determine which pilots were picked up for full series runs, but didn’t go into any more specifics.

The other shows include Alpha House, Betas, Browsers, Dark Minions, Onion News Empire, Supanatural, Those Who Can’t, Annebots, Creative Galaxy, Positively Ozitively, Sara Solves It, Teeny Tiny Dogs, and Tumbleaf.

The Zombieland pilot, which has been available for all Amazon user to stream for just under a month, currently sits with a 3.5 star rating out of 5 with 5,500 reviews. Did you watch the Zombieland pilot? What did you think?

One of the, if not the greatest, thing about streaming services that carry multiple seasons of TV shows is that it’s all there, ready to be marathonned. You give me 10 hours, a pizza, and a 12 pack and I can get through an entire season of a show. Ain’t no thang.

But you might run into problems when you’re watching a series with your significant other, and your schedules don’t quite match up. Wife has to work late? Well, you could always watch a few episodes without her. She wouldn’t mind, right? Wrong. It’s ‘Netflix adultery’ and it’s a serious crime. This new Netflix ad tackles the temptation to “watch ahead.”

Netflix’s new ad comes along at a perfect time, when the temptation to blow through episodes behind your partner’s back is about to get even stronger…

Ah, yes – the periodic table. Foe to all high schoolers who suck at chemistry. It’s important information, though, and it helps to know even a little bit about the elements that make up our great, big, beautiful world.

Thankfully, AsapSCIENCE is here to help with a catchy tune the highlights all the elements. I’m not sure that this is as helpful as the U.S. state song, alphabet song, or Spanish prepositions song (there are simply too many elements!), but damnit, it’s fun.

Google has just announced that it’s deals platform, Google Offers, is about to get some enhanced visibility inside Google+.

Starting today, with a initial test run of a handful of brands, Google+ users will be able to see, save and share Offers from their stream.

“Millions of people follow brands they love on Google+ to keep tabs on them, get the latest news on products, join in on the conversation or simply to be entertained. Many people also engage with businesses to get great deals and discounts. Starting today, we’re making it easier to discover, save and share offers right from Google+.” says Google’s Dennis Troper.

The small group of brands that are part of this include ZAGAT, Hello Kitty, Art.com, NOOK, and Adafruit Industries. They will now be able to share offers with those who have them in circles. With one click, you’ll be able to save these offers straight from the post in your stream. After that, simply redeem using the Google Offers app of via email confirmation.

Since his departure from the daily deals company, former Groupon CEO Andrew Mason says he’s been traveling, reading, and losing some weight. Oh, and also recording a 7-track album of “motivational business music.”

It’s called Hardly Workin’, and he says that it should be available on iTunes in the next few weeks.

I’ll let Mason explain his new venture:

I managed over 12,000 people at Groupon, most under the age of 25. One thing that surprised me was that many would arrive at orientation with minimal understanding of basic business wisdom. “Haven’t you read any business books? Good to Great? Winning? The One Minute Manager?” I’d ask. “Business books? Not really our thing,” was the typical response. I came to realize that there was a real need to present business wisdom in a format that is more accessible to the younger generation.

It was with this in mind that I spent a week in LA earlier this month recording Hardly Workin’, a seven song album of motivational business music targeted at people newly entering the workforce. These songs will help young people understand some of the ideas that I’ve found to be a key part of becoming a productive and effective employee. I’m really happy with the results and look forward to sharing them as soon as I figure out how to load music onto iTunes, hopefully in the next few weeks.

Mason also announced that he and his wife will be moving to San Francisco, and he’ll also be working at Y Combinator advising startups one day a week. We can’t wait for that album to drop, though. Can’t. Wait.

If you’ve spent some time on YouTube recently, you may have noticed that not every channel you land on looks the same. Some channels sport a new look that features a large header photo, social links, and a new design that reorganizes videos by category.

This new design is called the YouTube One Channel, and YouTube has had it in beta for some time now. In that time, over 100 million channels have opted-in to the new look. But for all of you holdouts, your days with the old channel format are numbered. YouTube has just announced that all channels with be automatically and permanently moved to the new One Channel design by June 5th.

“Channels that have already made the switch are experiencing several benefits. Their branding shines through in more places because Channel Art is visible on iOS apps, Android apps and TV. For the channels that have opted in, we’ve seen 20% more page views on their channels because clicks from the YouTube guide go directly to their channel pages instead of to their activity feeds,” says YouTube

Here’s what the new channels look like:

Compare that to the old channels, which will no longer exist come June 5th:

Of course, if you’re a channel owner and you’re just now hearing about this – you can choose to opt-in early here.

And speaking of YouTube and channels, the company just expanded live streaming to any and all channels with 1000+ subscribers.

According to a report from Peter Kafka and Kara Swisher at All Things D, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has her sights on wildly popular blogging platform Tumblr.

Quoting “sources close to the situation,” Yahoo may be looking to invest in, partner with, or even outright buy Tumblr. According to sources, talks have been “serious,” but as you know serious talks does not a deal make. Mayer, who has been watching Tumblr since her days at Google, reportedly started up talks with Tumblr execs, including CEO David Karp, soon after taking the CEO job at Yahoo.

One thing is for certain about a Tumblr acquisition – it wouldn’t be cheap. As Tumblr continues to grow (they just hit 100 million blogs a little over a month ago), the platform will only attract more attention. Estimates value Tumblr at $800 million at least, with some suggesting that it could be a $1 billion company.

On the surface, it’s clear to see how a Yahoo and Tumblr deal could benefit both parties. Since Mayer took over Yahoo, the company has been going through a shift – mainly in an attempt to regain some relevance that it has lost over the past few years. Tumblr is one of the hottest things on the internet, so that can’t hurt. Plus, Tumblr would benefit from even more exposure. If there’s one thing that Yahoo does have a ton of clout left in it’s the Yahoo homepage. Yesterday, Mayer announced a partnership with Twitter to bring real-time tweets to the Yahoo newsfeed. Tumblr could benefit from this sort of increased promotion.

Since Mayer became CEO, Yahoo has been busy making small acquisitions – Summly, Astrid, Milewise and GoPollGo. But a Tumblr buy would be a huge deal. We’ll be anxious to see how this one develops.

UPDATE: According to GigaOm, Facebook may be circling, looking to snatch Tumblr out of Yahoo’s hands.

Facebook is doing more and more these days to get pages to promote their content, and it seems that they company has now expanded that push to notifications.

We noticed a new type of notification this morning, one that comes from Facebook and informs you that a certain post on a page on which you’re an admin is “performing better than 90% of other posts on the Page.” It then suggests that you “advertise it to get even better results.”

Various WebProNews writers received this same notification this morning (we’re all admins on the WPN Facebook page). Clicking on the notification takes us to the “Advertise on Facebook” page and gets us started on setting up a promoted post with said article.

Here’s what it looks like in the notifications:

I’ve reached out to Facebook for comment on the test, and will update this article accordingly.

This isn’t the first attempt that Facebook has made in recent memory to get page owners to promote more of their posts. Last month, Facebook made a few subtle changes to Pages, including the addition of a new analytics box inside the admin panel. Facebook also softened the language of page promotion, changing the “promote” post button to one that says “boost” post.

If you’re browsing Pinterest and you see a specific pin that you know your friend would like, you’ve always been able to send that pin to them. The process was annoying, however, and involved email.

Today, Pinterest alleviates this annoyance with the new send button. You can now send pins directly to your friends and family on both mobile and the web, as long as you both follow each other on the network.

“Just tap Send from either web or mobile to send a pin. You can send pins to fellow pinners (if you both follow each other), Facebook friends, or email contacts. We’ll show you the most recent people you’ve sent pins to for easy access,” says Pinterest. “You can even include a message to give it a more personal touch!”

When you send a pin to another user, they’ll be notified. If they make an action on that pin, including commenting, liking, or repinning, you’ll see that in your notifications as well. It’s a nice little fix to a previously irksome issue.

According to Pinterest, users should start to see the new send option rollout over the next few weeks.

Speaking of notifications, Pinterest finally added them to the mobile experience (both the iOS and Android apps). That update, which launched earlier this week, also brought mentions and improved search to both apps.

You have always been able to tag users in Instagram posts, but two weeks ago Instagram announced that soon, you would be able to tag people in the photo itself.

The feature, called “Photos of You,” was given a two-week long soft launch period in which users could opt-in if they so chose. Today it has been turned on for everyone.

“We wanted to take a moment to remind you that – if you haven’t turned it on already—your Photos of You section on Instagram will become visible today to those who can currently see your profile. Remember, you can easily adjust your settings so nothing appears on your profile until you approve it,” says Instagram.

Instagram said that “many” users have already opted to turn the feature on, during the two-week soft launch.

All of the photos that you’re tagged in will now appear in a special new profile section, aptly titled “Photos of You.” As Instagram says, you’ll have full privacy control over this. You can adjust your settings to make sure Instagram asks you to approve any photo before it appears in the section.

Besides the creation of the new Photos of You section, this new feature clears up an irksome problem with Instagram tagging. Before, there was really no way of telling whether a photo’s @ mention was there to direct users to it, or if it meant that the user was actually present in the photo.

Yesterday, at the Google I/O conference, Google unveiled their long-rumored subscription music streaming service and opened it up to the public with a free 30-day trial. The service, called Google Play Music All Access, is poised to challenge the likes of Spotify, Rdio, and Pandora for your music streaming dollars.

You can check out my (admittedly long-winded) hands-on walkthrough complete with initial thoughts here, you know, if you want to learn more about it.

Today, Google has released their first ever promotion for the new product. It channels Dracula, who just needs to make a night-themed playlist he can dance to. And then share it on Google+, of course. You can check it out below:

You can start your free trial today. Eventually, the service with cost $9.99 a month., but if you sign up before June 30th you can knock two bucks off that monthly price. There is no ad-supported free option for GPMAA.

Kevin Williamson is a theater critic and a writer for the National Review. This does not make him a hero. What does make him a hero is that he took action on an impulse that plenty of us have battled from time to time: physically separating the loud, obnoxious, moviegoer who won’t turn off their damn phone from said phone.

In Williamson’s case, we’re talking theatergoers here. But the principle remains the same: When you’re at a play, turn off your phone you self-absorbed butthole. I promise you that nothing you’re doing is that important. Promise.

As he tells it, the night began with a couple of annoying women who were “talking, using their phones, and making a general nuisance of themselves.” The audience was watching a performance of Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, and two women with “too much makeup and too-high heels, and insufficient attention span for following a two-hour musical” were preventing everyone from enjoying the show. Or at least preventing Williamson, as he was seated right next to them.

Williamson claims his date spoke to theater management during intermission, whose assurances that the situation would be taken care of wound up being hollow.

I’ll let him take it from there:

The lady seated to my immediate right (very close quarters on bench seating) was fairly insistent about using her phone. I asked her to turn it off. She answered: “So don’t look.” I asked her whether I had missed something during the very pointed announcements to please turn off your phones, perhaps a special exemption granted for her. She suggested that I should mind my own business.

So I minded my own business by utilizing my famously feline agility to deftly snatch the phone out of her hand and toss it across the room, where it would do no more damage. She slapped me and stormed away to seek managerial succor. Eventually, I was visited by a black-suited agent of order, who asked whether he might have a word.

Williamson tells Gothamist that some rude Googling on the device is what eventually prompted him to remove it from her possession. He was eventually kicked out and says that “there is talk of criminal charges.”

Whatever happens, we salute you. No, I’m not going to suggest that every annoying movie or theater attendee who refuses to follow simple rules and courtesies should be separated from their iPhones – but if I happened to be one of the crowdmembers enjoying Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 that fateful night, well, let’s just say the play (which he says was quite good) wouldn’t have been the only thing to receive a standing O.

Of course, as of now, this is a one-sided story.

Attention Yahoo users: you’re about to see a big change to the homepage newsfeed – tweets.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced the new partnership today in a post on the Yahoo blog. “Tweets have become an important information source for many of our users, so we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Twitter to bring Tweets directly into the Yahoo! newsfeed,” saus Mayer.

Look above. Notice anything different about the Yahoo newsfeed? I know, it looks the same – but look closer. Direct your attention to the third item on the main feed. Yes, there it is – at tweet from ABC World News, complete with a timestamp, link, and a follow button.

“As users explore our nearly endless stream of content, we will seamlessly include relevant and personalized Tweets alongside stories from Yahoo! and our other sources. With this greater breadth of compelling content, we’re excited to give our users even more opportunities to learn and connect. Users now also have an easy way to discover relevant and interesting people and publishers to follow on Twitter, personalized to their interests and preferences,” says Mayer.

Relevant and personalized – so that seems to indicate that users that are signed-in to Twitter will enjoy a more robust experience with the new integration. The types of tweets that will fill Yahoo’s newsfeed will come from all types of newsworthy areas including sports, entertainment, music, and more.

Mayer says that the Twitter integration will rollout to U.S. desktop and mobile users in the next few days. No mention on the terms of the deal, however.

Speaking of partnerships between Twitter and search companies (I know, but Yahoo is still primarily a search company), Google and Twitter had a famous falling out back in the summer of 2011. Thanks to an inability to reach an agreement Google’s realtime search, which leveraged tweets, got the ax. Google talked about it’s imminent return shortly after the failed deal, but nearly two years later Twitter and Google are still on the outs.

This may be the most intense police pursuit you’ve ever seen. Traffic Officer Mark James of the Portland Police Bureau caught a car doing 52 in a 35, endangering the lives of every motorist on the road.

Hot on the trail and catching up to the speeder, James hit a roadblock. Inncent lives were at stake. Of course, officers are sworn to protect and serve – even if those that need protection are on the featherier side of things.

The violator got away. Damnit, foiled by ducks again.

[via reddit]

Good news for Amazon Prime Instant Video customers today, as Amazon has just announced an expanded licensing agreement with NBCUniversal that will bring a handful of NBC, USA, and SyFy shows to the streaming video service.

Starting today, subscribers will get access to prior seasons of NBC’s Grimm, Hannibal, and Smash, USA’s Suits and Covert Affairs, and SyFy’s Defiance, Alphas, Eureka, and Warehouse 13.

“We listen carefully to our customers to find out which TV shows and movies they find the most entertaining,” said Brad Beale, Director of Digital Video Content Acquisition for Amazon. “Our expanded agreement with NBCUniversal gives Prime members access to even more exclusive content that they can stream instantly, at no additional cost. Compelling shows like Covert Affairs, Defiance, Grimm, Hannibal and Suits are big wins for our customers and we look forward to adding more titles soon.”

The deal also bring a couple of kids shows to Kindle FreeTime Unlimited – Curious George and The Land Before Time.

Earlier this year, Amazon Prime added Food Network and Travel Channel shows, as well as FX’s hit series Justified and PBS’ Downton Abbey (which they nabbed exclusive rights to, snatching it away from Netflix and Hulu). Last month, Amazon released a series of pilots produced by Amazon Studios. Viewer feedback will determine which of the 14 shows are given a full run.