1. Amazon celebrated Alexa reaching 10,000 skills with a new musical game called Beat the Intro. The fast rise of Alexa skills invokes the inevitable comparison to Apple’s app store, and with it the associated growing pains of discovery.
2. Is that really Michael Flynn on Twitter? Before you retweet or reply, take these steps to determine if a Twitter account is legit.
3. How do leaders make the most of customer insights gathered online? This article on the digital marketing value loop offers a pithy typology of social listening, digital insights, and digital foresight as three stages of maturity, and describes how effective digital transformation helps a brand evolve alongside its customers.
4. With the launch of Instagram galleries, you can finally post ten pictures of your cocktail/sunset/painted toenails at once. But is the gradual evolution from a clean, photography app to a full service lifestyle platform — stories! video! messaging! — taking away the simplicity that made Instagram so special?
5. The goal of Slack is to remove the tyranny of the productivity-sucking inbox, but not replace it with GIF-filled distractions. Here are five Slack hacks to keep you productive.

Weekend fun: The privacy concerns of voice-activated devices are mounting, and nowhere more than this creepy, spying German doll. Speaking of creepy, museums are using the hashtag #museum101 to tag the creepiest objects in their collections. You were warned.

Consumed: A pretty great Kit Kat dessert at Tiny’s and the Bar Upstairs.

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