Googling The Future

Where digital meets travel + lifestyle … A collection of can’t-miss news from this week. Sign up to get the TURNER Weekly Download in your inbox every Friday.

TurboVote + Instagram

With a big midterm election right around the corner, Instagram is doing its part to make sure everyone votes. The platform has partnered with TurboVote in a program that will provide everyone over 18 years of age with up-to-date information on how to register, how to update their registration, how to look up their state’s voting rules and more. “From the first swipe up in Stories, getting the information you need to register to vote takes only a few minutes,” Instagram said in a blog post. Also: there will be a custom “I voted” sticker in the Insta camera. The sticker will link to  Get to the Polls to help voters find their polling location on Election Day.

Travel Feed

TripAdvisor has been an essential online resource for travelers for decades now. But it may start looking very different soon. Travel + Leisure reports: “Travelers headed to  TripAdvisor's website could soon feel like they’re scrolling through yet another social media feed. The online review platform  announced Monday it will soon offer users a travel feed with recommendations from family and friends, publishers, and influencers.” What do you think? Should TripAdvisor be getting more social? Tweet us @turnerpr.

Googling The Future

TripAdvisor isn’t the only platform that may start looking more like a social media feed. Google is making moves to change up its classic format, reports Mashable. “At an event marking the 20th anniversary of search, Google revealed a  suite of updates that are meant to fundamentally change the way we search, and how search results look and feel. You'll still see lists of links but, increasingly you'll also see features typically thought of as being squarely in the territory of social media companies: news feeds, vertical video, photo-centric content, and, yes, Stories.” The future is … now?

Pin & Shop

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. Pinterest is an e-commerce powerhouse, with more than 250 million monthly active users. What's more, 93 percent of those pinners say they use the platform to plan purchases. The Pinterest Shop the Look Pins has been around for a while now. But it was only available to large businesses. Until now. Starting this month, reports Marketing Land, “all SMBs and influencers can manually tag items with Shop the Look Pins via a self-serve tool available to business accounts.”

Weekly Moment of Zen

Behold, the inflatable Han-Solo-frozen-in-Carbonite Halloween costume.