Lauren Orsini says, “The animated GIF is almost 30 years old, but it remains a staple of Internet humor. At long last, YouTube is testing a feature that may allow people to quickly and easily convert snippets of online videos into looping, six-second animated GIFs. YouTube hasn’t officially announced this feature, butAndy Baio (@waxpancake on Twitter) spotted the option Thursday. When you click the “Share” option on a video, you will now have a “GIF” option after “Share,” “Embed,” and “Email.” YouTube appears to be testing GIF making only on specific channels, like... [...]

Kevin Ohanne Sian says, “I stand in a convincing reproduction of someone’s home. It’s not quite as real as a photo, but it is filled with the minutiae of home decor. I explore it from several angles, drinking in the details. But it isn’t a game. It is the 3D real estate software from a company called Floored. Floored is the brainchild of entrepreneur David Eisenberg. He founded the company in 2011, indirectly because of Microsoft and the Xbox 360. “I was interested in the community of people who were hacking the Microsoft Kinect, which was a low-cost 3D sensor,”... [...]

Lauren Orsini says, “Nine short months after the image-sharing site hit the 200 million user milestone, Instagram reports it now has 300 million users. “Over the past four years, what began as two friends with a dream has grown into a global community that shares more than 70 million photos and videos each day,” the social network’s blog post said. The latest numbers have prompted TechCrunch blogger Josh Constine to note that Instagram has now surpassed Twitter by user count, though keep in mind that Twitter has 284 million active users, while Instagram did not say which percentage of... [...]

Matt Asay says, “It’s about time Google remembered its roots. For years Google has largely ignored the mobile Web, preferring to focus on native Android app experiences, even as Apple (yes, Apple) has invested heavily in improving HTML5 performance on iOS. So much so, in fact, that with Apple’s inclusion of WKWebView (a Web browser engine) in iOS 8, app developers will discover dramatic performance improvements in their mobile Web apps. So long as they’re running on Apple, not Android”. What Google Has In Store For The Mobile Web ReadWrite  [...]

Adriana Lee says, “Amazon’s already sooo over Black Friday. The online retail giant pushes forward with new offers starting Saturday, ahead of Cyber Monday, with new deals launching every 10 minutes. For the first time, it’s also sending mobile-exclusive lightning deals through its app, so users can snag a sweet discount on the go. Amazon says thousands of deals will be ready per day. Among the ranks, we spotted a few gadgets, appliances, media and other tech temptations getting ready for release across multiple categories”. Amazon Gears Up For Cyber Monday ReadWrite  [...]

Richard Procter says, “Consumers may trample over each other to get cheaper TVs and laptops this season, but Twitter’s advertising partners may have found the best Black Friday deal of all—the ability to tweet you promotions. Just in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the microblogging network announced “Twitter Offers” on Tuesday. The service lets retailers tweet deals directly to customers, and users can easily grab one of these promotions within the tweet itself”. Twitter Lets Retailers Tweet You Deals—Just In Time For Black Friday ReadWrite  [...]

Nicole Nguyen says, “Nothing is truly permanent—especially on the Internet—so Google is working towards allowing users access to e-mails anytime, even long after the company’s online services are gone. Google offers a one-click export system to download a copy of your data from Gmail and Google Calendar. Previously, users had to turn to not-always-effective third party backup or extraction services. Now, Gmailers can download their entire archive of mail or select labels as an MBOX file. MBOX is a common format for storing email messages, with all of the user’s email threads... [...]

Lauren Orsini says, “Twitter announced Thursday that users can now share public tweets inside direct messages. If that announcement struck you as a headscratcher—couldn’t you do that before?—you’re not wrong. You’ve long been able to include links to a tweet’s detail page in a private message on Twitter. But especially on mobile devices, that’s been a cumbersome, multistep process. Twitter now makes it a feature that’s easily available by pressing down on a tweet for a longer period, which could encourage more people to have private conversations about... [...]

Lauren Orsini says, “If your office blocks Internet access to Facebook, odds are it doesn’t block LinkedIn, too. Facebook thinks that’s no fair. Now, the social network is building “Facebook at Work,” a version of its site for the workplace. According to the Financial Times, the site will look like Facebook proper, but allow employees to keep their work life separate. Users will be able to chat with coworkers, collaborate on projects, and build catalogues of colleague’s contacts, with each of these services directly competing with Microsoft’s Yammer, Google’s Drive, and... [...]

Matt Asay says, “Last year, VMware president Carl Eschenbach told a group of business partners, “I find it really hard to believe that we cannot collectively beat a company that sells books.” He was, of course, referring to Amazon. And as it turns out, they can’t. Indeed, that bookseller seems hell-bent on destroying the business of every other 20th century software company. So far, it looks like Amazon will succeed. So much so, in fact, that at AWS re:Invent this week, Amazon Web Services (AWS) chief Andy Jassy declared that AWS could become Amazon’s “biggest... [...]