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Instagram Gets Serious About Messaging

The photo-sharing service’s under-the-radar Instagram Direct feature is about to get a big boost in visibility and features.

Instagram is best known, of course, as a service that lets more than 300 million people a month share photos and videos with the world. Rather quietly, it’s also racked up 85 million users a month who use it to exchange private messages with friends.

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Amazon Now Lets You Download Shows To Watch On The Road

The e-commerce giant wants to lure away Netflix and Hulu customers by allowing you to watch Game of Thrones on an airplane.

One major downside to subscription streaming platforms like Netflix is that you can’t continue your binge-watching streak while flying certain airlines or riding the subway underground. Amazon just solved that problem by introducing offline viewing—and in doing so, took a giant step forward in its ongoing war with Netflix and Hulu.

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Wikipedia Banned Hundreds Of Users Who Edited Content For Undisclosed Pay

Nearly 400 editors in the site’s volunteer community worked with companies to promote their clients through Wikipedia entries.

Bad news for publicists seeking to tweak Wikipedia entries to make their clients look better: The user-generated encyclopedia has blocked nearly 400 accounts for “black hat” editing. In other words, those Wikipedia editors agreed to undisclosed paid advocacy, altering the content of Wikipedia articles to paint businesses and individuals in a positive light in exchange for money.

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Uber Is Now Facing A Much Bigger Lawsuit

A U.S. judge has granted Uber drivers class-action status in a suit that claims they were misclassified as independent contractors.

Uber makes software—it’s a technology company. Any threat to this model threatens to turn Uber into a transportation company, which is a much less lucrative venture.

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How To Feel Good About Global Poverty

Tell yourself it’s easy to fix—and that you’re not responsible for it.

Hope sells. Not quite as well as sex, but certainly better than despair. Politicians know this, marketers know this, and the politicians and marketers in the organizations concerned with global poverty know this.

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Are Coffee-Based Beauty Products A Cellulite Miracle Cure Or Social Media-Fueled Bunk?

A look at the science of coffee in skincare.

Many people around the world can’t start their day without coffee in their system. But in some places, coffee is migrating from mugs to medicine cabinets. While coffee beans are most commonly consumed in beverage form, there’s been a recent uptick in people slathering coffee grounds on their face and body as part of their beauty regimen.

On Etsy, there’s a whole cottage industry devoted to coffee-based skincare. Dark circles under your eyes? There’s coffee under-eye cream for that. Cellulite got you down? There’s a plethora of coffee body scrubs that vow to get rid of unsightly bumps. Dry patches on your skin? There are coffee-infused body creams that promise to tighten skin while hydrating it.

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Decluttering Your Life Is Not Just A Trend—It’s Big Business

In a world obsessed with tidying, professional organizers like Marie Kondo are a rising commercial force.

In a restaurant where the ceiling is a work of art and the books on the shelf are arranged by color, eBay is holding a promotional event for its new service, eBay Valet. On the tables—around which sit guests from magazines like InStyle and Redbook—are tiny, beautifully illustrated booklets of flashcards featuring organizing guru Marie Kondo’s tips for tidying kids’ stuff, “exclusive to eBay.”

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