News:
UK lifts lockdown (sort of): In his traditional haphazard fashion and with signature raffish evasiveness, Boris Johnson this week eased the government mandated guidelines on single-exercise, meeting non-household friends, and returning to work if absolutely required. With pictures emerging the following morning of the crowded London buses of old, it was a controversial decision that no doubt favours those of us fortunate enough not to be duty-bound to return to work. Which begs the question: in a pandemic, is ‘Wellness’ just being well-off? Having “supplanted itself as the self-elevating isolation pursuit to become the centre of our unfillable wants,” it appears so. Link
Gates of Heaven: Anti-lockdown protests across the globe this week took a sinister twist as small bursts of outrage emerged from factions unhappy with Bill Gates’ search for a Covid vaccine. The delusional anti-vaxxers in Central London counted amongst their number Piers Corbyn, brother of former Labour Party leader Jeremy, who claimed the virus was linked to 5G technology. Meanwhile, an Economist op-ed this week featured Gates himself on how best to prepare for future pandemics. Link
Facebook buys Giphy: Mark Zuckerburg increased his stranglehold on public communication data this week as Facebook acquired Giphy for a cool $400m. Founded in 2013 as a GIF search engine, it has morphed into the “chief purveyor of an international language for the post-literate media era.” As the owner of the dominant communication channels for 3 billion people around the globe, it’s no surprise that Facebook want to add another one to their armoury. This interview with early Giphy investor John Borthwick spills some details on why it made sense and how it came together in a couple of weeks over video.
Short Listen:
Keith Rabois, former PayPal, LinkedIn & Square executive, on This Week In Startups: “At PayPal, we had two hundred fifty-four people in the Bay Area and then another set in Nebraska, of those 254, only three had any degree of financial services background; … same rough ratio at Square.” Link
Long Read:
Why do all Websites Look the Same? In a world embracing minimalism and sans-serif logos, I’ve noticed that websites are beginning to look pretty much identical. Few words, large images with superimposed text, hamburger menus and white backgrounds. So prevalent is this in fact, that PhD students at the University of Indiana have noticed an influx of “minimalism response posts” as they compile a history of the worldwide web. With over a billion websites active, noticing or measuring a trend is somewhat difficult, but what they find is pretty interesting. Link
Interesting Things:
The Art of the Cold Email: Spoiler: Keep It Brief. Link
Amazons Empire is Vulnerable to ‘Rebel Incursions’: Amazon Prime customers are beginning to notice shipping delays and product shortages, and are going elsewhere as a result. Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke (whose competitor Shop launched last month) said his company’s goal is to “arm the rebels” against the Amazon empire. Although having been successful through the pandemic, the internet behemoth’s growth has faced severe logistical issues to meet demand, including the hire of an additional 175,000 workers already. Link
Spotify Social: This week the music streaming platform launched a “Shared Queue” feature, allowing two or more of its Premium users in the same space to share control over the music being played. Augmenting its Collaborative playlists, the service is currently being positioned as a way for families and housemates to stay entertained. No more hogging the AUX then. Link
Get Me Out: As economic conditions for global airlines continue to capitulate, EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou raised eyebrows this week, offering a £5m bounty for anyone that would provide information that would help them get out of a £4.5bn Airbus order made in 2019. Honestly, hilarious. Link