Here are today’s Likes and Fails, with a look at the newest privacy notice on Facebook hoax and the fact that you can now change YouTube videos into GIF from within the site! Well, on select videos anyway.
Likes
YouTube have finally done it! Created a useful tool to create GIFs from within the actual YouTube site. No Third Parties here. The GIF making tool is currently very limited to certain channels as a test but you can have a look at it on PBS’s Idea Channel here. You can find the create-a-gif tool simply by visiting a video’s page and hitting the share button below the video and there will be a GIF option along with the usual, share, embed and email.
The tool itself is satisfyingly simple, there is what looks like a visual timeline of the video where you can move slidey parameters to crop the length of the GIF that you want. There’s even the option to ad meme style text to the GIFs, and then all you need to do is click create GIF and there you have it.
I can’t wait until this is rolled out across all accounts because I’m going to make so many Parks and Recreation reaction GIFs. Seriously, so many.
Fails
Yes, yet ANOTHER, Facebook privacy notice hoax has been floating around the site. With gullible users copy and pasting some complete drivel about their privacy on the site, as if writing it out would stop the mighty corporation from using your stuff. Apparently the ‘legal notice’ enforces and threeatens things like this: “The content of my profile contains private information. The violation of my privacy is punishable by law (UCC 1-308 1-308 1-103 and the Rome Statute).”
And this: “Those who read this text can do a copy/paste on their Facebook wall. This will allow them to place themselves under the protection of copyright. By this statement, I tell Facebook that it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, broadcast, or take any other action against me on the basis of this profile and or its content. The actions mentioned above also apply to employees, students, agents and or other personnel under the direction of Facebook.”
Yuh-huh because that intern making coffee at Facebook really wants to steal a picture of you drunkenly sticking your tongue out at the camera, or 20 pictures of your dumb kid making vaguely different expressions.
Along with these inane posts filling up our Facebook feeds, which in fact lead me to a Facebook friend clear out, there were the other friends who posted the sarcastic micky taking post about the privacy post, which started to get just as annoying in all honesty. How about we all deal with the fact that we decide to put personal aspects of our life online and that we probably have little control over who might use your stuff.