Award-winning comedy series Hacks premieres on HBO GO

Filipinos can enjoy all ten episodes of the Emmy-winning comedy series Hacks, which explores a dark mentorship that forms between Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), a legendary Las Vegas comedian, and an entitled, outcast 25-year-old (Hannah Einbinder), will debut on Monday, October 11 exclusively on HBO GO.

Hacks follows the story of legendary comedian, Deborah Vance as she struggles to maintain her popularity and relevance in a world of new acts and stars. She teams up with comedy writer Ava who can’t find work after being canceled over an insensitive tweet. The pair learn to work together, despite generational differences, with Ava helping to make Deborah and her act more relevant and appealing.

Hacks won three awards —  Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series (Jean Smart), Outstanding Directing For a Comedy Series (Lucia Aniello), and Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series, at the 73rd Emmy Awards which took place in Los Angeles on September 19.

In addition to Smart and Einbinder, Hacks stars series regular Carl Clemons-Hopkins and recurring guest stars Kaitlin Olson, Christopher McDonald, Paul W. Downs, Mark Indelicato, Poppy Liu, Johnny Sibilly, Meg Stalter and Rose Abdoo.

The series is created and showrun by Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky.

It is executive produced by Downs and Aniello via their Paulilu banner, Statsky via First Thought Productions, as well as Emmy winners Michael Schur via Fremulon, David Miner for 3 Arts Entertainment and Morgan Sackett.

Stream all ten episodes of Hacks on HBO GO. Download the app at the App Store or Play Store on your device. You can also access HBO GO via Cignal, Globe and Skycable or at hbogoasia.ph.

HBO GO can be accessed via Android TV, Apple TV, LG TV and Samsung Smart TV — and comes with AirPlay and Google Cast functionality.

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TikTok as a preferred search engine? Reports say so

01/18/2024

It’s not every day we hear  Sundar Pichai acknowledge a rival but Google’s head honcho wasn’t afraid to admit that TikTok was a rival that came out of nowhere.

So how does a short-form content-sharing platform become a rival to the world’s largest search engine?

Well, a recent study by Adobe sheds light on this phenomenon, revealing intriguing insights into why TikTok is gaining traction as a preferred search engine, what users are searching for, and who is turning to TikTok over Google.

The findings aren’t that surprising, to be honest. The report details that TikTok has become hub for the daily simple searches.

In a study that involved 808 consumers and 250 business owners of different ages, 1 in 10 expressed TikTok as a preference over Google for searching.

Since its exponential rise in the last few years, TikTok has gone beyond the dance and prank videos to provide more informative and educational content. (Though dance videos will probably live forever). The study also showed that TikTok resonated more with younger generations and search inquiries range from recipes, music, DIYs, to everyday life tips.

In detail, about 49% of millennials and 29% of Gen Xers have accepted TikTok as an alternative to Google but only a mere 14% of Baby Boomers understand and use the app.

So, what makes TikTok tick a preferred search engine?

The survey spills the tea — 44% rave about the ease of digesting short-form videos, 34% love a good story or are there for entertainment, and 31% crave that personalized, more humanized touch in communicating info. And unsurprisingly, tutorials take a big part of the cake with 62% of the group consuming them.

Image from MediaPost

Caution should still be practiced, however, as TikTok provides user-generated content that works on a popularity algorithm, unlike Google which still values factors like page authority. While popular, TikTok obviously falls short in providing authoritative content, even though it excels in sharing expertise and experiences in the real world.

For business owners, TikTok serves as a strategic platform to meet search intent. Over half of them (54%) use TikTok to promote their businesses, with video tutorials outperforming traditional search engine results pages.

However, while TikTok influencers play a role in promotions, only 33% have successfully converted engagement into sales. Business owners allocate an average of 15% of their marketing budget to TikTok content creation.

So, is TikTok the next-gen search engine?

It’s definitely rewriting some of the rules but the fact remains that it’s effective with the new generation of content guzzlers. While it may not replace Google entirely, TikTok’s unique format and content diversity make it a compelling choice for those looking beyond traditional search engines.

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