Welcome to the Tech Meme Right Home for Thursday, August 8th, 2024. I'm Brian McCullough today.

Tic-Tac launches Spotlight. Meta's Budget kills a VR studio. Why did everybody think Logitech was going to create

a mouse you had to pay a subscription to use? And did you know how big anime is? I apparently

did not. Here's what you missed today in the world of

tech. Like AirBnB and B yesterday, I'm also constantly interested in how Tic-Toc is looking to

expand their thing beyond, you know, 15 second video clips.

This morning, they're launching Tik-Tock Spotlight

in-app hubs for movies and TV shows

that add links to applicable videos with information as to where to watch. This was all apparently tested on the release

of the most recent Dune movie apparently, quoting The Verge. The links will show up in the

bottom left corner of a creator's video and users can tap in to view a landing page with the cast list, links to official accounts, related content, and information about where to watch the title.

You might have already spotted this feature on

Tik-Tock as the platform partnered with Warner Brothers Discovery to promote

Dune Part 2 with a dedicated hub on the app. James Stafford,

Tik-Tok's Global Head of Publishing, says not every video featuring a particular

TV show or movie is eligible to get an anchor link to a hub.

We rely on both technology and human review to decide which videos qualify for an anchor link, Stafford

said.

We're looking at things like hashtags, keywords, audio, visual matching technology from clips

of TV shows and more.

Tik-Toc also considers a video's views, the Creator's follower count, and whether the Creator has violated any of its policies.

Meanwhile, the entertainment companies that own the content can access an analytics dashboard to track trends within their fandoms.

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