Tag: it’s
Get this 3D printer that any kid will love while it’s 25% off
For Gen Z, TikTok is more than entertainment. It’s a search engine.
Zach Carter, a 24-year-old brand strategist from Los Angeles, curates his searches to which social platform he’s on. “I’ll go to TikTok for fashion, food, or culture because I know the user base of the app provides that content, whereas on Twitter I’ll search for the news.” Carter isn’t the only one: Increasingly, young people are using social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram to search for things to do and places to try, even seeking out news and important information, rather than consulting traditional discovery tools like Google Search and Google Maps.
According to TechCrunch, Google’s Prabhakar Raghavan, a senior vice president in charge of Google Search, said, “In our studies, something like almost 40 percent of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram.” He’s referring to a survey of U.S. users, ages 18 to 24.
As someone within that age group, the statistic doesn’t surprise me. Growing up with access to the internet, I’ve learned to customize my experience on the internet. I know where to go for what, and when searching for something hyper-specific sometimes Google Search isn’t always my best friend. But I was curious how other people within Google’s age range searched, so I spoke with 30 of my peers about their online search habits.
A UK survey found that TikTok is the fastest growing source of news among young adults ages 16 to 24. This obviously raises alarm because of the rampant misinformation on the platform, but TikTok isn’t only being used as a news source.
Amanda Cash, a 22-year-old law school student, searches TikTok for recipe ideas and travel recommendations. Meanwhile, 24-year-old Teresa in Southern California seeks out instructional how-to videos that are “shorter and more to the point” then what she’d typically find on YouTube.
I found that people are using TikTok similarly to how they use Pinterest. In February of this year TikTok launched a new feature called Collections, essentially copying Pinterest’s defining feature. Collections allows TikTok users to organize their favorited videos into folders. Instagram implemented a similar feature in 2019. The Collections feature allows users to save recommendations and organize them into useful categories, making it easier for users to quickly return to ideas and recommendations.
Credit: Screenshot: TikTok
“I’ll search ‘thrifting in Paris’ or ‘restaurants in Lisbon’ and save the things that look good to a little folder to refer back to. I also have a little recipe folder. [I am a] big fan of the folder feature,” explained Cash.
It’s not just that people are searching for suggestions on TikTok. They’re also relying on their individual algorithms to feed them geo-specific recommendations. If you find something you want to try, you can save it to a folder and return to your favorites when you need inspiration for where to go or what to cook.
In talking to my peers, three things came up in nearly every conversation about what people turn to social media for: recipes, restaurants, and travel recommendations.
People are sick of the Google recipe algorithm that prioritizes obscure search engine optimized blogs. It’s been a running joke on the internet that in order to read a recipe you have to get through the blogger’s entire life story, but this is actually deterring the young people I talked to from searching for recipes on Google. Because a TikTok has to quickly grab your attention, recipe videos on the platform are to the point, putting the focus on the food, not the creator.
Emily Mariko, one of the most popular food creators on TikTok, doesn’t talk to her 11.5 million followers in her videos, rather she lets the food speak for itself. She draws the viewer in with her straightforward visual recipes and tidy plating, showing how enticing video recipes can be without someone telling you every single step. It’s a huge draw for 23-year-old Kyra Papazian. “I mainly use TikTok and Instagram to look up recipes as opposed to searching that on Google,” she told Mashable. “It can be a specific search like ‘banana bread’ or [a] general search like, ‘dinner ideas.’ It’s so much easier than searching a recipe on Google and scrolling through a long article.”
Credit: TikTok / emilymariko
Natalie Gomas, a 23-year-old student from Boston, uses TikTok for recipes and workout ideas. “The way recipes are done on webpages annoys me a lot. You have to scroll through so much stuff to get to the actual recipes,” she told Mashable. Similarly, the workouts she finds on the app “aren’t too complicated” to try at home. “The workouts on TikTok are workouts I’d actually want to do.”
In a TikTok, you can immediately see what a restaurant looks like and see the person recommending it. It allows for maximum vibe reconnaissance. Additionally, if someone made a TikTok on it, and it came up on your FYP, chances are it’s something you’ll actually enjoy and the information is up to date. Since the pandemic began it’s hard to know what information on Google Search is current. Several times I’ve found a restaurant through Google Search only to later discover that it’s since gone out of business.
Ella Boyce, a 23 year-old who has spent the past year traveling in South America and Europe, relies on TikTok and Instagram for travel recommendations. “A lot of blogs aren’t designed for phones, so it’s hard to read, and there’s no centralized fount to crowd source info; it’s all random decentralized blogs from Google,” Boyce explained to Mashable. “It’s harder to tell someone’s credibility from an article than from a video because you can see the person.”
So the next time you’re looking for travel inspiration or a place to grab a slice of pizza, you might find what you’re searching for on TikTok.
This boombox speaker could DJ your whole party, and it’s 40% off
TL;DR: As of July 31, you can get the Altec Rockbox XL Speaker for just $119.99 instead of $199.99 — that’s a 40% discount.
Music may be the life of the party, but isn’t the real hero the speaker? The Altec Rockbox XL Speaker is a party waiting to happen with its heavy sound, super-long battery life, and waterproof design, and it’s only $119.99 (Reg. $199) for a limited time.
If you’re shopping for a powerful portable speaker, you’ve probably run into JBL boombox speakers. You probably also noticed they’re $500. The Altec Rockbox is a more affordable alternative that packs just as much power.
Heading to the pool? Take the music with you. This speaker is IP67 waterproof and floats. Need some aesthetic lighting to raise the vibes? Turn on the five built-in LEDs that dance, blink, and flicker to the beat of your music.
You can even pair multiple devices using multi-speaker pairing mode. It’s a lot like having a DJ you can carry around, only this DJ has a 12-hour battery life and a wireless range of 100 feet. Pair your phone via Bluetooth or the NFC connection point and start playing some tunes. If you get a call, you can even answer or ignore it from the speaker controls.
This is one of those deals that might seem a little too good to be true, but this Altec Rockbox XL is coming in cheaper because it’s Factory Remanufactured. All that means is that the box had been opened before it was sold. Whether it was even removed from the box is unclear and likely unimportant because it was tested and checked to make sure it works exactly as it should.
You may not need to drop $500 on a speaker when you can get one that’s just as good for a fraction of the price. For a limited time, get the Altec Rockbox XL Speaker on sale for $119.99 (Reg. $199).
Prices subject to change.
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MultiVersus lacks that Nintendo polish, but it’s still a slick Smash Bros-like in open beta
Having given the MultiVersus closed beta a whirl around a month ago, I thought it was a free-to-play Smash Bros-like that came out swinging. And now I’ve returned to the open beta phase of the multiverse where Bugs Bunny and Taz The Tazmanian Devil are joined by… Lebron James?! Honestly, my thoughts remain largely unchanged – which is a good thing! It’s a fun free-to-play fighter that iterates on the Smash formula but can’t quite emulate its predecessor’s polish.
Ukraine High Ranking Officer Shares Thoughts On Crypto Assets, Says It’s Important
There’s a reason why bus seats always have garish patterns, and it’s absolutely disgusting
UNLESS you’re lucky enough to have your own chauffeur the likelihood is that you have travelled by bus before.
And unless you were engrossed in a particularly good book it is hard to avoid the garish patterns that cover the seats on almost every bus.
Ever wondered why the patterns on the bus seats are so garish? Well there’s a very good reason[/caption]
While the design choice may seem a little… er, dated, there is apparently a very good reason for the busy print.
According to LadBible the bus seats are designed using “complex mind-reading algorithms” that cause our brains to become distracted by the busy patterns.
What are they distracting you from? Well the answer is quite simple (and gross.)
The patterns are designed to be this busy so that passengers don’t notice just how mucky the seats really are.
on Transport
With hundreds of passengers riding the bus each day, stains and spills are inevitable but far less visible on a fabric that isn’t plain.
But that isn’t the only reason.
You may have noticed that bus seats have a rather odd, almost carpet-like texture and this serves a purpose too.
Harriet Wallace-Jones, co-founder of Wallace Sewell – the design studio that designs fabrics for Transport for London, says that wool is “naturally flame retardant, and moquette is a pile fabric which has more durability than a flat woven cloth.
Most read in Fabulous
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“The fabric is usually a mix of cut and uncut pile, which also makes it more durable.”
So there you have it – might be worth washing your hands next time you get off the bus.
I’m furious being slapped with a £60 fine for parking for EIGHT MINUTES… it’s disgusting
A FURIOUS motorist has been left ‘disgusted’ after being fined £60 for parking for just 8 minutes.
He says that the fine is around half of his daily pay.
Ian, 63, described the decision to fine him as “disgusting”[/caption]
Ian Dykes, 63, says he was fined for staying in the East Street Car Park in Nottingham for under 10 minutes.
What makes things worse is that, according to Ian, he only stayed in the space for as long as he did because he was trying to pay to park there.
He says he made four attempts to pay which were rejected when he tried to enter his registration number.
Unable to park, Ian, who works for tech company Dell, drove to a nearby multi-story car park and paid for his space there, before setting off to repair a machine at a nearby cinema.
A week later, he says he was hit by a fine out of the blue.
“I work for Dell as an engineer and I was heading for the NG1 to park. There’s a cinema by the multi-story car park and I had to go and do a job there to fix a machine.
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“There was a car park just close by and I used the number to ring to pay for the parking. So I rang it and put my registration number in, then they asked for it again so I put it in again – it asked my about four times for the number.
“It wouldn’t accept payment so within the eight minutes I was there I thought it’s pointless leaving it here, I’ll go and park at the multi-story car park, which I did.
“And then a week later I got a fine for £60 fine for trying to pay for parking!”
Ian says that he appealed the fine and showed the parking company the ticket from the multi-story with the 8 minute time difference on it but his protest was rejected.
The company insisted that he pay the fine, he says.
He described the decision as “disgusting.”
“That £60 comes out of my daily pay so that’s like half my pay for the day. They said that the machine was working fine and it just wasn’t, it was just looping all the time.
“It was just a nightmare.”
Ian insists that he is not the only one to suffer parking problems.
“Everywhere you go in NG1 there’s a problem with the parking – it’s a nightmare trying to get close to the businesses where you’re called to work.
Most read in The Sun
“If someone was to come into the city to do some shopping in the city centre, it’s a nightmare to park.”
Euro Car Parks have been approached for comment.
It’s Hard to Tell When the Crypto Bubble Will Burst, or If There Is One – The New York Times
AdvertisementSupported byCrypto prices are highly volatile, as this week’s sell-off showed. But die-hard enthusiasts believe prices will keep soaring in a world where traditional notions of value don’t apply.Send any friend a storyAs a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.The price of many cryptocurrencies can…