Weird Wide Web: the week in online oddities

WELCOME TO THE Weird Wide Web – where we take a look at some of the internet’s best offerings in social media, tech, science and weird news.

Year on Twitter

It’s been quite a year and, unbelievably, it’s nearly over.

Twitter has this handy guide to the last 12 months, breaking down the golden tweets (take a bow, Mr Obama), trends (Game of Thrones, how we love you) and high-profile new voices (coo-ee Ewan McGregor).

How families interact on Facebook

Last week Facebook released the results of a study into how families interact on the site – and the results are a little bit lovely. Basically, parents are very proud of their children – who are grateful to their parents, with lots of words of thanks, praise and love being batted about.

As for how familial relationships are formed on Facebook, the study shows most are initiated by the child when they were aged between 13-17, with more than 65 per cent of friendships between 13-year-olds and their parents are initiated by the child. Unsurprisingly, the older the child is, the less likely she is to send a friend request.

Image: Facebook

New look YouTube

You may have noticed that YouTube looks different now - with the video at the top of the page, the subscribe button, social actions and video information all combined directly below the player, and playlists to the right of the video.

But everything is fine. Do not fear change. Do not freak out.

Alternatively, if you do fear change and have freaked out, you can give your feedback at a Google+ Hangout on Air and a Reddit IAmA in the coming weeks. Check here for details or, if you upload videos, on the YouTube creator blog.

Image: Google

The NYT gets Pinterested

Yes, we know ‘Pinterested’ is not a real word. Even so, it describes the Compendium service by the New York Times pretty well – which invites readers to use articles, imagery, videos, and quotations to tell your own stories using New York Times content.

Get started here…

Image: New York Times

Twitter v Instagram

Last week, Instagram removed the ability for users to preview photos on the service itself – forcing them to instead use its app or website to view pictures.

So, Twitter did this…

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Main Image: winui via Shutterstock