Social audio application Clubhouse has been beta-testing Houses—which it calls “a new way to host meaningful conversations”—and the beta will gradually begin rolling out to more users starting Thursday.

Clubhouse said in a blog post Thursday that Houses let users create a group of community members, fans or friends through invites, and members of Houses can host conversations and come together on a regular basis.

There is also a text chat component to keep people who miss conversations in the loop.

More users will begin seeing a Houses tab in their main menu, and those who do not yet have access can apply here.

Users who have the feature can tap the Houses icon on the navigation bar and tap the plus sign to create a new house.

The next steps are choosing a name for the House (which can be changed later), deciding when the House will meet and inviting its founding members. The founder can also decide if members can invite other people, or if they want to oversee all membership.

Clubhouse wrote in its blog post, “With the season just around the corner, we know many of you have your holiday playlist carefully curated and are planning all kinds of get-togethers with friends and loved ones. But with the shift to remote living, you might find that it’s a lot harder to make the usual in-person plans. Maybe your best friend who always brings the punch is now living out her nomad fantasies in a camper van; or your neighbor who puts up their lights way too early has moved to be closer to family. We’ve been feeling the same way, too. Which is why for the past few months, we’ve been building and testing Houses, a new way to host meaningful conversations with your friends and communities.”

Reddit is gearing up for its first ever CES activation with plans to release new research at CES 2023 in Las Vegas Jan. 5 through 8.

CES attendees can expect the following at Reddit’s Future Tellers installation, which will be located in the Alsace Ballroom of the Wynn Hotel from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT Thursday, Jan. 5, and Friday, Jan. 6:

• The Reddit Community Crystal Ball: A digital art installation that, with the push of a button, showcases ideas and predictions around the future of sectors such as gaming, tech and transportation from Reddit’s leading communities on those topics.
• Read Your Communi-Tea Leaves: A tea bar that showcases key vertical-focused conversations and threads on Reddit—from media and entertainment to Web3—that are driving opinions and culture, demonstrating the origins of these trends within Reddit communities and helping marketers predict what’s coming next.
• Prediction Challenge: Guests can try their hand at telling the future themselves and see how their predictions stack up against those of the Reddit community.

Reddit said in a blog post Thursday, “Want to know the next ‘big thing’ in tech innovation? Or keep a finger on the pulse of tomorrow’s trends? Look no further than Reddit, a digital crystal ball full of the communities and conversations that are shaping the future. It may be hard to believe it, but our r/bitcoin community was established in 2010 and, to put that into context, that’s the same year the first iPad was released. What’s more, r/electricvehicles started in 2009 and r/smarthome in 2013, many years before either of the technologies became mainstream, so there’s no denying that Reddit users have long pointed us to what’s coming next.”

Nearly one-half of Redditors identify as tech enthusiasts, and 45% consider themselves early adopters, and Reddit said its research shows that Redditors believe the future is closer than it seems, and that divisive concepts and innovations such as biometrics-driven technology, drones and the metaverse are here to stay.

Redditors also see great promise in the future’s ability to optimize people’s lives through developments such as DNA-personalized vitamins, sleep tracking and smart glasses and toothbrushes.

Reddit director of global insights Rob Gaige wrote in the blog post, “Reddit is a place where people come to form and inform opinions. There’s a level of richness to the conversations taking place that tell us so much about the world around us and how people are thinking and feeling—Reddit communities provide an unofficial (and free) market research group on any given topic. However, not everyone knows how to navigate this information, and with this research, we aim to help brands understand how their audiences are showing up today in order to better plan for tomorrow.”

The Mind Reader Super Bowl ad from Amazon took home the crown as YouTube’s top ad for 2022.

Google creative director Maria Perazzo said in a blog post Thursday, “Creative is more important than ever and becoming much more relevant to performance advertising. On YouTube, brands are crafting content that viewers don’t want to stop watching—layered with practical and beautifully visualized product details and differentiators. Taking the concept of ‘brandformance’ to a new level—an updated strategy well suited for the non-linear media world, where optimization is about adding function to great storytelling to drive action, without killing the creative.”

YouTube shared three trends it mined from its list of the top 10 ads of the year on its platform:

• Being human is cool. So is a little bit of self-awareness: On YouTube, humor and relatable imperfection can show that a brand gets its audience, and that’s reflected in how products and services are advertised. Amazon’s Mind Reader ad featuring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost showcases the greatness of mundane couplehood through self-aware humor.
• (Convergence of) form and function, and the funnel: We see with ads like Apple’s that wonderful storytelling drives interest and engagement—but this is smartly paired with practical and well-illustrated product details and differentiators, combining trademarks of awareness branding with those of consideration and action.
• Breaking down barriers and driving hopefulness through music: Use of music is not novel, and neither is the idea of big brands partnering with music icons, but what seems to be a sticking point and will continue to surface is a focus on breaking down social barriers, unifying around ecological themes impacting the world and a sustainable united future. Whether connecting the literal goal of the century to the World Cup, BTS evoking excitement and nostalgia to promote travel or Chevrolet’s partnership with Zé Felipe shining a light on agribusiness, well-orchestrated use of music can charge creativity emotionally and do something more.

YouTube’s top 10 ads of 2022 were:

1. Amazon, Amazon’s Big Game Commercial: Mind Reader (U.S.)
2. Telecom Egypt, WE 2022 Ramadan Campaign (Egypt)
3. Clash of Clans, Welcome to CLAN CAPITAL! Clash of Clans New Update! (U.S.)
4. Apple, The new MacBook Air | Supercharged by M2 | Apple (U.S.)
5. Hyundai Worldwide, Goal of the Century x BTS | Yet To Come (Hyundai Ver.) Official Music Video (U.S.)
6. Imagine Your Korea, Feel the Rhythm of Korea with BTS – BUSAN BLUES (South Korea)
7. HBO Max, Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts | Official Trailer | HBO Max (U.S.)
8. Netflix, All of Us Are Dead | Official Trailer | Netflix (U.S.)
9. Chevrolet Brazil, Zé & Zê – Feita Pra Mim (Videoclipe Oficial) (Brazil)
10. Squarespace, Sally’s Seashells (Extended) | Big Game Commercial 2022 (U.S.)

YouTube also debuted its #2022InShort campaign Thursday, an influencer campaign highlighting seven content themes from the year with interactive elements that let viewers play along. The seven trends are:

• Trick Shots: Videos of the most incredible trick shots, often with elaborate, seemingly impossible setups. Dude Perfect has paved the way for trick shots, setting YouTube records since 2009, and, following in their footsteps, a new generation of Shorts creators are leaning in.
• Cute Pets: In 2022, one in three global Generation Zs say they’ve used YouTube to find content for their pets to watch. And the popularity of this content has carried over onto Shorts, with many pet owners, both with existing channels and new ones, showcasing their furry friends in short videos.
• Weirdly Mesmerizing (My Face is Plastic ASMR): Yes, mesmerizing videos have been on YouTube for years, but their popularity in short form video shows how audiences are seeking out quicker moments of relaxation/soothing content. In 2022, we’re also seeing newer versions emerge that use technology (video effects) to give a fresh perspective.
• Watch Me Work: This year on Shorts, we’ve seen a growing interest in videos showing the process of creation, from songs, to the launch of small businesses, to people doing their everyday jobs, and a big interest in making food overall.
• Visual Twists (Horror Beauty Look Reveals): Visual twists and reveals (before/after) have always been big in internet culture, and that process only speeds up with the rise of short-form video content (Real or Cake, How It’s going etc.). There are many ways we can showcase this trend on YouTube, but horror beauty feels particularly endemic to YouTube due to our strong catalog of both horror and beauty content; with this trend forming a new remix of both genres in 2022.
• Race to the End: The channel How Ridiculous and its balloon-pop-racing videos—released over the past year—have already become the most popular videos on the channel. Even ESPN‘s Sports Nation picked up one of its balloon-popping Shorts, giving credibility to the trend and showing how “amateur sports” started on YouTube have a home in a professional ecosystem.
• Memes (Corn Kid): The internet revolves around memes. And the meme of the year is Corn Kid, which feels like the anthem of 2022. While Corn Kid was seemingly everywhere across the internet in 2022, its origins started on YouTube—and we have a lot of short content about it. The original interview came from YouTube channel Recess Therapy and then got songified by longtime YouTube natives The Gregory Brothers. (The Gregory Brothers also recently songified another big short-form video song, “Chrissy Wake Up.”)

Experiential ads on YouTube—as well as Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter—will feature interactive components including:

• Plunger Challenge: Inspired by Chris Ivan’s popular video, users can test their plunger skills in an interactive game.
• Toothpaste Challenge: In this game of accuracy, players can unlock a box from MrBeast, a big lump with knobs (corn) and other rewards stemming from this year’s top Shorts memes and creators.
• Real or Cake Quiz: Natalie Sideserf’s Real or Cake series exploded on YouTube Shorts this year, so the platform is letting people test their “Real or Cake” skills from a series of iconic YouTube images from 2022
• Snap Lens: For those who watched Brodie That Dude or scary clown makeup tutorials in 2022, these lenses let them get completely immersed in visuals.

Creators were asked to highlight their favorite clips from 2022 and, once the #2022InShort campaign goes live, viewers can use the sound to create their own #2022InShort.

YouTube senior director, brand and media Sara Pollack said in the blog post, “Creative content exploded on YouTube Shorts in 2022. From epic trick shots and cute pets to weirdly mesmerizing ASMR, we wanted to design a marketing campaign that celebrates the fun side of the year. YouTube Shorts are being watched by 1.5 billion logged-in users every month, many of whom are Gen-Z subscribers, and racking up more than 30 billion views per day. Our new campaign, #2022InShort, is an opportunity for fans to relive some of the most popular themes of 2022—in short. For even more fun, people can explore our annual top 10 lists to take a deeper dive into the most popular videos, creators and artists from the year.”

YouTube’s top Shorts of the year were:

1. Shangerdanger Diver Cracks Egg at 45 ft Deep #Shorts
2. Hingaflips Sarah Trust Challenges
3. Brodie That Dood Come with me to shave my fluffy dog! #doggrooming #grooming #goldendoodle
4. Chris Ivan Dave and Busters Bet Me 1000 Tickets I Couldn’t Do THIS…
5. Jay & Sharon That GAP Between Your Car Seat and Center Console
6. Adrian Bliss Welcome to the stomach #shorts
7. Zack D. Films This Magic Trick EXPLAINED ???? (America’s Got Talent)
8. ILYA BORZOV Social experiment | What would you do?
9. PaulVuTV Wife surprises husband at his office with pregnancy reveal! ????❤️ #Shorts
10. NichLmao If you catch it… YOU KEEP IT w/ MY GF (Funny) #shorts

The top 10 videos of the year were:

1. Technoblade, so long nerds
2. Guardian News Watch, the uncensored moment Will Smith smacks Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars, drops F-bomb
3. Dream, hi, I’m Dream.
4. NFL, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar & 50 Cent FULL Pepsi SB LVI Halftime Show
5. MrBeast, I Built Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory!
6. Mark Rober, Pranks Destroy Scam Callers- GlitterBomb Payback
7. Jaiden Animations, Being Not Straight
8. Kane Pixels, The Backrooms (Found Footage)
9. The Try Guys, what happened.
10. First We Feast, Millie Bobby Brown Needs a Milkshake While Eating Spicy Wings | Hot Ones

The Google-owned video platform’s top songs of 2022 were:

1. Encanto Cast, We Don’t Talk About Bruno
2. Kodak Black, Super Gremlin
3. Jessica Darrow, Surface Pressure
4. Bad Bunny, Tití Me Preguntó
5. Future, Wait for U ft. Drake, Tems
6. Bad Bunny, Chencho Corleone, Me Porto Bonito
7. Karol G, Becky G, Mamiii
8. Imagine Dragons x JID, Enemy
9. Karol G, PROVENZA
10. Lil Baby, In A Minute

2022’s top creators were:

1. MrBeast
2. NichLmao
3. Airrack
4. Ryan Trahan
5. Isaiah Photo
6. Brent Rivera
7. Dan Rhodes
8. Luke Davidson
9. CoryxKenshin
10. Ian Boggs

The year’s breakout creators were:

1. NichLmao
2. Airrack
3. Jooj Natu ENG
4. Shangerdanger
5. David The Baker
6. Kat
7. Dayta
8. Devin Caherly Shorts
9. MDMotivator
10. Charles Brockman III (TheOnlyCB3)

Pinterest Creator Rewards: Born October 20, 2021; died Nov. 30, 2022.

The platform said in a note atop its Creator Rewards page, “The Creator Rewards program will end Nov. 30. To all the creators who participated, thank you for your partnership. We’re committed to exploring more ways to help you find success on Pinterest, and we’re looking forward to finding more opportunities to work together in 2023.”

The company said it will pay a one-time bonus to creators who participated in at least one reward goal for August, September or October, but it did not specify the amount.

Pinterest introduced Creator Rewards at its second annual Creators Festival last October, saying at the time that it would invest $20 million into the program to pay and support creators and set a series of engagement-based goals, inspired by trending topics or new Idea Pin features, with creators meeting those goals eligible for rewards.

The Pinterest Creator Fund remains active.

Pinterest wrote, “After launching several new features in 2022, we made the difficult decision to discontinue the Creator Rewards program in order to focus on other creator programs and features. While we’ve seen a lot of early success with this program, we’ve taken some time to reevaluate the best ways we can enable more creators to find success on Pinterest.”

Images are coming to comments on Reddit, but not all over Reddit.

The platform said in a blog post Wednesday that subreddits that are safe for work can activate the feature through their moderation tools, adding that more than 1,500 subreddits have done so, thus far.

An image icon will appear in the bottom panel of the comment section in subreddits with the feature turned on, and users can tap the icon to access their camera roll or desktop files, edit the image (mobile only) and upload it.

Only one piece of media per comment will be supported, and “not safe for work” images will automatically be removed.

Moderators of safe for work communities can activate the feature by going to their mod tools and selecting Community Settings, Posts and Comments, and then toggling on Media in Comments.

Reddit teamed up with Giphy in July to add GIFs directly into comments on subreddits.

The company wrote in a blog post, “Ever wanted to share a candid cat pic in the latest r/cats thread? Perhaps, help out a fellow r/crochet hobbyist? Or maybe even fulfill a father’s dream of being hugged by sasquatch in r/photoshoprequest? If so, this feature is for you.”

Twitter issued its first official communication since Elon Musk’s takeover of the company in late October that didn’t come from the Twitter account of “Chief Twit.”

When Musk issued his ultimatum to employees Nov. 15, forcing them to choose between committing to “long hours at high intensity” or leaving the company, he referred to Twitter 2.0, and the company officially introduced Twitter 2.0 in a blog post Wednesday, reiterating things Musk has said since assuming control and short on any new details.

Twitter wrote, “Twitter’s mission is to promote and protect the public conversation—to be the town square of the internet. We have always understood that to reach this goal, we must give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information, instantly without barriers. Today, we are a new company embarking on a new chapter, but our steadfast commitment to this mission has not changed. In fact, we are better positioned to realize our ambitions than ever before.”

The company discussed its new approach of public testing of new features and updates in order to gather user feedback in real-time.

On the much-discussed topic of content moderation (or lack thereof), Twitter said none of its policies has changed, and it will rely more on de-amplification of content violating those policies, calling it “freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.”

The company said its trust and safety team “remains strong and well-resourced,” with automated detection playing a significant role, and content moderators will have access to the guidance they need “when urgent events manifest on the platform.”

Twitter added that its “team of experts” will monitor new methods of disruption and identify and defuse threats, adding that impressions on violative content are down over the past month despite growth in overall usage.

The company concluded, “Finally, as we embark on this new journey, we will make mistakes, we will learn and we will also get things right. Throughout, we’ll communicate openly with our users and customers to get and share your feedback as we build. We remain committed to providing a safe, inclusive, entertaining and informative experience for everyone. We will continue to be transparent as we move through this transition period. And we will listen to you, the people who make Twitter what it is: the town square of the internet.”

Twitter detailed updates to the algorithm powering crowdsourced fact-checking initiative Community Notes, which was known as Birdwatch in the pre-Elon Musk days.

Community Notes may take on more importance at the platform, as Twitter’s content moderation teams were gutted as part of mass layoffs early this month, followed by a purging of several contractor positions in the middle of the month.

Twitter said in a series of tweets from the Community Notes account, “One of contributors’ top frustrations is seeing and rating low-quality notes. We just rolled out an algorithm update that identifies more low-quality notes, saving contributors time and improving the average quality of notes (and note writers).”

The company explained that while contributors were able to write notes proposing that context be added to a tweet or explaining why a tweet wasn’t misleading and didn’t need the addition of context, the latter type of note generated “noisy” rating data, so Twitter paused scoring those notes.

Its new algorithm update resumed scoring those notes with the aim of identifying more low-quality notes, taking away the ability to write notes from people consistently contributing low-quality notes and improving contributor helpfulness scores with more data.

In response to a question about how the algorithm determined low-quality notes that brought up the potential for censorship, Twitter vice president of product Keith Coleman replied in a tweet, “That is an important question. In the case of Community Notes, ‘low-quality’ equals notes that are found not helpful by a wide range of people, including people who typically disagree with each other. This prevents one-sided outcomes.”

Twitter introduced the Birdwatch program in January 2021, inviting contributors to flag potentially misleading information in tweets and write notes providing context.

In September, the social network detailed a new onboarding process that assigned new contributors who meet its eligibility criteria—a verified phone number from a trusted carrier based in the U.S., as well as a minimum of six months on Twitter, with no recent violations—with an initial Rating Impact score of zero, which they could increase by consistently rating other contributors’ notes and reliably identifying those that are helpful and not helpful.

They could begin writing notes once their Rating Impact score reached five, and Twitter explained that they could continue to boost that score by writing and rating notes, but consistently writing notes that other contributors rated as not helpful would lower their score and potentially cause their ability to write notes to be temporarily locked.

Twitter had roughly 15,000 Birdwatch contributors at the time, and it said it would begin adding about another 1,000 per week

In October, shortly before Musk’s takeover of the company, Twitter said users in the U.S. would begin seeing some tweets accompanied by notes containing relevant information about that tweet that was rated as “Helpful” by Birdwatch contributors, adding that most of those notes would provide additional sources for people who want to dive deeper into the subject matter.

The company said at the time that users would be able to rate the notes they see in order to help Twitter understand whether or not they are helpful.

Post-it Notes? Those are so last week. WhatsApp began rolling out its Message Yourself feature Monday, enabling users to send messages to their own accounts on the Meta-owned messaging application.

WhatsApp had been testing the feature, which users can take advantage of to send themselves things like notes, reminders and shopping lists.

The feature is rolling out globally on Android and iOS, and users with access will see their name at the top of the contacts list in the app.

The chat containing messages users send to themselves can also be pinned to the top of their conversation list for easy access.