Seen at HarvardX

1. We’re all producing more video, but who’s watching? Unlike written content, where a strong open may draw a reader in, there is a divide between those who press play on a video, and those who don’t. This post suggests that video consumption may not be evenly distributed across your audience — and you may have a very specific segment that forms your core video-watching audience .
2. Anyone still wondering how much people would actually buy via mobile should read these reports [click the + signs at the bottom to see earlier reports]. On Cyber Monday, mobile shopping accounted for 42.1% of traffic, and 22% of sales. Within mobile, purchasers still prefer tablet over smartphone, a preference that may change as more adopt phablet devices.
3. Benedict Evans poses thought-provoking new questions in mobile. Now that Apple and Google have won the platform war, what are the new issues around interaction models and wearables? And how will the industry change as mobile scales to 4B smartphones worldwide.
4. How do Chinese mobile app user interfaces differ from those created for Western consumers? WeChat product manager Dan Grover wrote a fascinating post with everything from the rise of chat as universal UI to the the use of cutesy mascots.
5. What does the way you move your mouse reveal about you? Google announced that it has found a way to use that movement to surmise if you are human. Now you can click a checkbox confirming “I am not a robot” instead of deciphering squiggly text. Those annoyed by Captcha will rejoice, but others may raise concerns about privacy.

Weekend fun: Be sure not to miss the parodies of the new Star Wars trailer. I’ll be watching these trailers with a few boxes of Girl Scouts’ Thin Mints, obtained via the magic of the internet.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.