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Instagram have some awesome new updates which make the platform even more kick ass than before. You can now share posts that you see on Instagram as messages! Just tap the arrow under the photo to send it via an Instagram Direct message. You can carry on the conversation by sending text, photos and videos and add other people to the message to create a group conversation. these group conversations can now be named too to keep all your convos organised. These updates come soon after Instagram changed their editing tools to allow rectangular images with borders to fit in to the square feed. Without having to use a third party app!

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Taylor Swift has been criticised by Social media users and other critics for her most recent music video and how it appears to have racist overtones. The music video shows a Hollywood movie being shot in an undisclosed African location with Taylor as the lead actress. The video has been accused of portraying an “African colonial fantasy” due to it’s almost entirely white cast. Lauren Duca, from the Huffington Post, said: “Instead of the cultural appropriation that has become almost status quo in today’s pop music, Swift has opted for the bolder option of actually just embodying the political exploitation of a region and its people.” Some pretty damning words. It does seem odd that Taylor would travel to Africa and not ensure a realistic portrayal of Africa by hiring black actors for her video. Taylor has batted away the criticism by announcing that all proceeds from the video will be donated to African Parks Foundation of America. She so far has not spoke out about the criticism and others on Twitter have been quick to leap to her defence.

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Kristen Bell, actress and all around lovely person has now given us another reason to think she’s one of the loveliest people on the planet. She heard about a little girl called Avery who is suffering with an inoperable brain tumour and decided to do something wonderful for her. Kristen is famous for voicing Anna from the all time biggest Disney film, Frozen, and 6 year old Avery is a big fan of said film. Kristen sent a recorded message to the little girl in character as Princess Anna praising her for how good and brave she’d been. She also said that her sister, Queen Elsa, had decided to crown her an honorary princess of Arendelle, which is where Anna and Elsa live and rule. To make the message extra personal she mentioned Avery’s favourite toy, Hoppy Jumpy, her bunny. Her reaction to the call is completely adorable and hopefully brightened her day. It’s always great when celebrities take the time to give back to those who need it.

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People can be so mean. Especially on Social Media. A woman has been forced to defend herself online after cruel commenters bashed her weight loss journey. Some were saying they didn’t believe that she’d actually lost that amount of weight and that she was lying about it in her photographs. Many said it was definitely not her because she didn’t have any stretch marks or excess skin from her weight loss. Definite fail.

So obviously, she proved that it was her by posting a photograph of her excess stomach skin which she had been ashamed of until that point. Many were appreciative of her sharing the picture saying that it was very honest and open of her and that it was helping them on their own weight loss journeys.

The woman has since been surprised that her story has gone viral, but glad that her bravery in showing her skin has affected people in a way she had never imagined. As Taylor Swift says, Haters gonna hate, hate, hate.

Here are today’s Likes and Fails, and today we have a video special. Ooooh! The first video takes a look at dating on Tinder for the over 80s and the second is a funny fail video of a man ashamed he’s going to watch Fifty Shades of Grey.

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Tinder is so hot right now. Seriously. I can’t go a day without seeing some sort of article about it online, or some male work-mates showing me something on it. I guess the women are more quiet about their tinder escapades. I actually even saw an article today saying that Tinder had reached a peak usage on Valentine’s Day this year. So this video comes bang at the right time, the video is about a Grandfather on Tinder. Yes, it veils itself as a funny experiment of how women would react if they turned up to a tinder date and found out their date was 89 years old. Really it seems like the 21 year old who made the video was using his grandfather as a conversation starter,  but still it’s blummin’ enjoyable.

One woman is slightly obsessed with ‘pegging’ I will warn you, but the rest of the dates are delightfully awkward and willing to talk to Joe before his grandson swoops in to lay on the charm. Enjoy this video below.

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The second video of today is a funny news clip where it appears that a man is embarrassed to be walking into a screening of Fifty Shades of Grey by himself. I mean, Maybe he’d just nipped out to the loo and was coming back in to meet his date, but he definitely did not want to be caught on the camera that had been set up in the screen for quick vox pops of cinemagoers on their way in to the screen. The comedy back away from the camera he does is great and the slow resigned walk back in when he realises there’s really no other way past is great. The awkward smile planted on his face the whole time. I mean it’s a fail for this man, but a win for everyone on the internet.

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Today our like is a simple one. This funny spoof video which is an ‘honest trailer’ for Boyhood. This parody has come out just in time for the Oscars where Boyhood is expected to scoop the Best Picture prize. Usually honest trailers have a sarcastic voiceover, but in this one they use the song from Boyhood and create lyrics over the top of it. Very funny. Worth a watch.

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Samsung TVs have been freaking out their users (in Australia) recently and for more than one reason. The main reason is that they have been putting advertisements over movies and other content that users have been watching on them, that is not live TV. This is weird. People using the app Plex, a server for your own files and content, have found themselves watching a movie only to be interrupted by an advert for Pepsi. The company says that this was an error which occurred in the latest software update sent to TVs, but still it’s pretty unnerving that they can just put ads wherever they please on your TV, whilst your watching your own downloaded content! They are currently investigating the situation and hopefully can make users feel less concerned with the answers they find.

The other issue people are having is that someone realised the other day that Samsung could record the noises from your living room and sharing it with third parties. People got up in arms about the section of the user agreement they didn’t read and said that Samsung was spying on them. Samsung had put this clearly in their user agreement and if you read it properly it says that it will record noises only when you use the voice feature on your TV. So it records when you try and find a TV programme or a TV channel with your remote. As soon as the icon is off of your screen it stops recording. I think people are taking this a little far. Just don’t use the voice feature if you’re that worried.

Facebook have released their latest quarterly statement and damn, is it impressive! With 1.39 billion active users (up 13% on last year) the social media giant is carving the way for even bigger profits than ever before. In the last quarter alone Facebook reported a profit of $701 million, which is a 34% increase on this time last year.

As I’m sure you know, Facebook makes most of its money from the use of advertising, making it an expensive social network for businesses. Their advertising revenue increased by a massive 53% to $3.59 billion, with almost 70% of that coming from mobile clicks.

Mark Zuckerberg declared, “We got a lot done in 2014″ (no shit, Sherlock!) with their total profits for the year reaching $2.9 billion, an increase of almost double that of 2013.

While Facebook have been busy earning money they certainly haven’t cut down on spending. Per each dollar of revenue made, profits have actually decreased from 44% to 29% thanks to Facebook investing heavily into marketing and research and development. Research and development costs have tripled to $1.1 billion just in this quarter, with a focus on Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus Rift, in-house messaging and video.

With a huge amount of users logging on via mobile devices, Facebook has focused primarily in providing relevant content for individuals. Be this in advertising or organic content, the usability and integration of this content on mobile platforms has been paramount to Facebook’s success. Clearly looking at the results, what they’ve been doing is working and a huge part of that has been video.

Last summer, Facebook reported that video was some of its most engaging content, with users viewing three billion videos daily. With that in mind, videos directly uploaded to the site get more priority over content such as pictures and status updates. As a business, we can see ourselves how much better video content is performing as opposed to traditional content. The reach is greater and it’s an easier way for people to digest information. Directly uploading video is important to Facebook because it keeps users on their site much longer, however, allowing the likes of YouTube links to be watched within the platform is also beneficial but certainly less so. Direct uploads tend to load faster and users are more likely to watch paid video content when it’s hosted within Facebook.

While a lot of videos that may be popping up on your news feed daily come from the likes of The Lad Bible, Facebook reported that, per person, video posts have risen by 75% in the last year. Whatever the content, making it in video form is especially important for business and that is very well demonstrated, again, by The Lad Bible – a business made almost entirely from recycled content.

Facebook’s algorithm can easily be amended in order to prioritise video by simply recognising the format, however it has no way to understand what the video is showing, therefore whatever your content, it’s definitely worth investing to make it in video form. If you do still want to pay for Facebook advertising, be aware that too much text in your videos will be rejected in the same way as images.

So to summarise, Facebook continues to invest heavily in targeted content with a strong emphasis on video. If you can afford to create video content that proves to be engaging, your business could flourish on Facebook. It doesn’t even need to be of particularly high quality, if you can make relatable or funny video content, it will automatically be given more gravity on news feeds and from there hopefully much higher user engagement.

TGIF! The first week of the year is done and it’s time for the weekend. But, before you go there’s just time to read another edition of Likes and Fails!

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Facebook, Google, Apple and other online giants have taken to their respective websites and shared their messages and symbols of solidarity in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks along with continuing acts of violence in and around Paris.

Mark Zuckerberg posted on his personal page a message of support along with a personal story where he claims he had been threatened much like the Charlie Hebdo illustrators and creators. He says that he would not let the threats get in the way of freedom of speech. You can see this post below.

On Apple’s French website they have put a black ‘Je Suis Charlie’ banner at the bottom of the page. Google has added tribute in a similar way by hosting a black banner on their home page. On top of this Google is donating £195,000 to support the magazine, with the digital press fund, following the attack.

The Guardian says “Media companies have also come together to support Charlie Hebdo, including the Guardian Media Group which has donated £100,000. It is expected Le Monde, France Télévisions and Radio France will do similar.”

Thoughts are with those in France at this time and the world’s show of solidarity hopefully shows the individuals involved that these acts of senseless violence will not be tolerated.

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Hey it’s Friday I’m going to try and help you be cheerful in the wake of the horrible news in France. This prank video, is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while and the prank is no way offensive to anyone and all the participants seem to take it in good stride. I hope you enjoy it.

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.

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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.

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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.

Good day! It’s Likes and Fails time, with the newest Rag Time Gals video and news about the prolific Orange Wednesdays.

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The ragtime gals are back! Everyone rejoice!

Jimmy Fallon has done it again. He’s roped in another celeb to take part in a barber shop sing a long with the Rag Time Gals, and this time it’s Steve Carell. The song this time is Sexual Healing, originally sung by Marvin Gaye. All you really need to do here is watch it. Enjoy!

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Orange Wednesday’s are to be a thing of the past. In February the ever popular deal of Orange Wednesdays, which helps us bypass the very high rising rates of the cinema. The deal has been running for years now where users of the mobile network could text the word film, to 241, and receive a code which allows you to get two cinema tickets for the price of two. The joy of all the young and awkward teenagers going on their first dates on a Wednesday to the local multiplex is now going to be a thing of the past. Though I’m sure a fair few of you aren’t upset about that.

The company, now owned by EE, has made the decision to cut the promotion after over a decade of free tickets. They say that the orange Wednesday usage has declined and that users’ viewing habits have changed. Some people are suitably outraged at the decision to cut the promotion because of how extortionate the prices are at the cinema these days. But alas it is true, more and more people are choosing to watch films at home via streaming services such as Netflix and on mobile devices.

Let’s hope their next big promotion is as popular as this one, otherwise EE could be losing some custom to rival networks.

Zoella has quit YouTube! Oh no! What will we all do?! Oh only for a few days? Phew! I was so worried. And she didn’t write her own book? Blasphemy! How a non-story has annoyed everyone. Also we look at a funny Twitter trend to post song lyrics and Facebook names. All explained below in today’s Likes and Fails.

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I shouldn’t like this but I do. Somewhat of a craze has taken over Twitter, in posting pictures of Facebook profiles, where the profiles have unusual names, as substitutes for song lyrics. You’ll see what I mean from the images. A lot of people are beginning to find the theme annoying however and have muted them from their timeline, but me personally? I’m pretty sure these could entertain me for at least a whole afternoon.

It all began with a post of a Shakin’ Stevens Christmas song, the title read, ‘Snow is falling’ and was accompanied by these three images:

Whcihc if you know the Christmas song is pretty much a continuation of the lyrics. Since this tweet got 11,000 retweets there have been countless copy cats. With some making the accounts themselves, just so they can make up the lyrics. Which is a little pathetic if you ask me, but still, anything for a laugh.

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer…

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YouTube ‘star’ Zoella, has decided to take a break from the internet after news broke that she didn’t write her best-selling book, Girl Online, and that in fact she had Ghost Writers work on it, which to me was not a surprise. Who actually thought a vlogger on YouTube was going to write an entire novel herself, or at all? Well the backlash has been huge, with the media making it into more of a story than it should have been. Possibly because of the books’ staggering sales of 78,000 in a week!

The ‘star’ who uploads regular YouTube videos and gives make-up tips and updates about her life to her YouTube fans, has written on Twitter that she is taking a break from the internet with her boyfriend, who is a YouTube star in his own right. Zoella has said before now that she suffers from anxiety and panic attacks so it’s understandable that she wants to take to time off.

Basically it’s all a non story, because Zoella has along the way said she’s had help with her book, maybe not to the extent of someone writing the entire thing, but still. I think we learnt here that the media likes to blow things out of proportion and that Zoella’s representation really wants her to get in the news. The End.

OPA GANGNAM STYLE! No you haven’t transported back in time two years, in fact Gangnam style is back in the news because it has broken YouTube, well it broke it’s view counter anyway! Also in the news is the new James Bond film announcement. See the reactions here.

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This morning the new James Bond film was officially announced and the title of the film was disclosed as Spectre. The news was shown as a live stream on YouTube and there was a lot of Live Tweeting to keep up with the news. Not only was the title announced but so was the crew and the new cast. Obviously straight away #Spectre began trending and the mentions of #Bond24 soared too. People seemed especially excited about the news that Christoph Waltz ould be featured in the film as the villain, and there was also the surprising addition of David Bautista. Members of a particular online fandom were especially excited when it was announced that Andrew Scott would be a new member of the Bond gang. He’s most well known for his incredible turn as Moriarty in BBC’s Sherlock.

So with a top trending topic and a subject of cultural interest, there are Twitter creations and jokes abound. Here are a few of my favourites.

So the new #JamesBond movie is called #SPECTRE the even bigger announcement is that Norbert is the new #007 !! pic.twitter.com/yV8w09JLFh

— Minions (@minionsknowbest) December 4, 2014

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Psy’s Gangnam Style has broken the internet. The challenge that Kim Kardashian set out to do the other week has in fact been broken by everyone’s favourite Korean pop song, Gangnam Style. The video which broke records when it hit 1 billion views has now broken YouTube because the view count reached a number higher than the 32-bit integer. YouTube explained:

“We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer (2,147,483,647 views), but that was before we met Psy, ‘Gangnam Style’ has been viewed so many times we had to upgrade to a 64-bit integer(9,223,372,036,854,775,808).”

You can see the broken view counter in the GIF above! With the new 64 bit integer it looks like it could be quite a few years before another video hits that amount a views again. One estimate reportedly puts it at 4 billion years.