Happy Zoomsgiving

Just because you're sitting in front of a screen instead of a table full of friends and relatives does not mean you can't eat and drink to excess. 

Happy weirdest Thanksgiving of your life so far...JL

Cat Zakrzewski reports in the Washington Post:

Zoom will be more essential than turkeys at some Thanksgivings this year. Zoom is going to waive its 40-minute limit on free accounts' calls on Thanksgiving Day to facilitate gatherings. A grid of videoconferencing boxes be supplanting the traditional table in many households, and marketing emails are replacing Black Friday doorbusters. “We operate our own global (co-located) data centers around the globe, providing significant control and flexibility when it comes to routing both audio and video traffic. In addition we work with public cloud providers to help with increased demand.”

Zoom will be more essential than turkeys at some Thanksgivings this year.

Tech companies will play a pivotal role in the holidays for many families, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends against traveling or gathering due to climbing coronavirus cases. That means a grid of videoconferencing boxes be supplanting the traditional table in many households, and marketing emails are replacing Black Friday doorbusters.

The virtual gatherings and rise in online shopping expected this week is a sign of how even more powerful tech has become during 2020. 

This time last year, it would have been hard for many of us to imagine holiday celebrations happening digitally. Holidays were typically a time reserved for logging off and getting real facetime with loved ones. 

But the coronavirus has forced an unprecedented shift in how people socialize and celebrate that could have long-lasting impacts well after the pandemic ends. And it's made us ever more reliant on a handful of companies who are powering that revolution.  

Families are getting creative with planning virtual celebrations — especially if they're Zoom fatigued from work and school. They're finding ways to watch holiday movies together from across the country using Chrome extensions, or they're meeting online in video games like Animal Crossing. 

Lisa Long, who is immunosuppressed and can't get together with her nieces and nephews, told MIT Technology Review that her family is planning to get together in Bloxburg, a simulation game on the popular video game platform Roblox. Her daughters and cousins have been building a “house” where they can have their holiday celebration. 

“We’re going to try to get together to make turkeys and set big tables,” she tells MIT Technology Review's Tanya Basu and Abby Ohlheiser. “We’re going to try to get as many family members as possible to role-play and have the meal together.”

But the holidays are also expected to push Silicon Valley's limits. 

Work meetings and classroom life have adjusted to Zoom. But the holidays are likely to highlight the areas where the tech industry's offerings are still falling short, as it can be difficult to recreate the magic of an in person get-together with a shaky WiFi signal, or that one uncle who always forgets he's on mute. 

And the challenges for Silicon Valley won't end when the leftover turkey is packed away. Online sales in November and December are expected to surge 33 percent year over year to a record $189 billion, according to estimates from Adobe Analytics. And increasing shutdowns and rising cases could force more people to do more personal shopping online again as well, potentially overwhelming e-commerce providers and shipping networks. 

Here's how tech companies say they're preparing for a busy holiday week:

• Zoom is going to waive its 40-minute limit on free accounts' calls on Thanksgiving Day to facilitate gatherings. “We operate our own global (co-located) data centers around the globe, providing significant control and flexibility when it comes to routing both audio and video traffic,” Zoom spokeswoman Colleen Rodriguez said in a statement. “In addition we work with public cloud providers to help with increased demand.”
• Facebook continues to offer Messenger Rooms, which allow groups of friends and family to video chat. It also launched a ‘Watch Together’ feature earlier this fall that allows people to jointly watch television shows such a “Community” from different locations. The company also is running a campaign to encourage charitable giving, especially as Turkey Trots and other seasonal charitable events go virtual.
• Google is offering unlimited video conferencing calls with up to 100 people for up to 24 hours through March 31 for all free accounts. The service offers virtual backgrounds, which people can use to make their backdrop more festive for the holidays. It also offers gaming features for trivia. Google also offers live captions for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
• Amazon is planning for its busiest holiday shopping season ever, and the company told investors to expect record-breaking revenue and costs. “We’re seeing more customers than ever shopping early for their holiday gifts, which is just one of the signs that this is going to be an unprecedented holiday season,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement last month. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.) The company has been aggressively hiring to respond to this anticipated surge in demand, adding more than 100,000 full and part-time jobs across its operations network in September. On top of that, the company has added 100,000 new seasonal jobs to address the holiday rush.