YouTube will now count a view as soon as a video starts playing

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories this afternoon

View this email online in your browser  August 17, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 YouTube will now count a view as soon as a video starts playing: The change comes a year after YouTube applied the same approach to counting views on Shorts videos. Read More Feedly attributes weeklong slowdown to bug, not its AI pivot: Feedly says a bug is behind the performance issues that have made its web app nearly "unusable" for some users, while complaints about its mobile apps and customer support are adding to frustrations. Read More Reddit begins testing a new audio and video experience, similar to popular TikTok videos: Reddit is beginning to test video and audio versions of popular posts, allowing users to watch or listen to Reddit stories instead of just reading them. Read More Afternoon Must-Reads ‘Unprecedented’ number of Apple users received recent spyware alert, say investigators: Cybersecurity experts who investigate spyware attacks say the number of people who received a recent threat notification from Apple is unusually high. Read More WordPress.com targets the next generation of web creators with a free student plan: WordPress.com Education lets teachers offer their students free domains, plug-in support, and professional website-building tools. Read More AI automation startup Relay shuts down, staff joins Google's Chrome team: "We have some really ambitious plans to help you work with AI in Chrome to get things done, and I’ll have more to share soon," Jacob Bank, Relay founder and CEO, said. Read More Wispr raises $280M at $2B valuation as it looks beyond dictation: The funds will allow Wispr to increase its footprint as it ventures into new areas, such as meetings, with its newly released note-taker tool. Read More Amazon, which started off selling books, is destroying rare texts to train AI: Rare books are incredibly valuable for training LLMs, since these models have already trained on whatever's available online. Read More Last but Not Least Uber adds Zipline drones to its Eats delivery network: Uber is also making investing in Zipline a part of the tie-up. Read More Check out some of our other newsletters: StrictlyVC TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Want to adjust your daily newsletter schedule? You can do it right here Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Unsubscribe Member Center Privacy Policy Copyright © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC 501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107

WordPress.com targets the next generation of web creators with a free student plan

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories to start your morning

View this email online in your browser  August 17, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 WordPress.com targets the next generation of web creators with a free student plan: WordPress.com Education lets teachers offer their students free domains, plugin support and professional website-building tools. Read More Stripe will reportedly acquire AI gateway startup OpenRouter for $7B+: OpenRouter's CEO recently described the startup as Stripe for AI. Read More Wispr raises $280M at $2B valuation as it looks beyond dictation: Wispr’s total funding is now over $361 million. Read More A message from Alumni Ventures Invest in High-Potential Startups Like These Alumni Ventures is giving readers early access to high-potential startup opportunities across today’s most active sectors, co-invested alongside name-brand VC firms like Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Bessemer, & Y Combinator. You Get: Curated deal flow of high-potential startups, Investing alongside name-brand vc firms, No cost to see deals, No obligation to invest. See Current Deals Morning Must-Reads Anthropic CEO says AI backlash is ‘fundamentally a crisis of trust’: Dario Amodei is pushing back against the idea that he's been painting an overly pessimistic picture of AI. Read More Why people aren't buying Mark Zuckerberg’s AI future: On the latest episode of Equity podcast, we discuss why not everyone is buying Zuckerberg’s vision. Read More Uber adds Zipline drones to its Eats delivery network: Uber is also making investing in Zipline as part of the tie-up. Read More Anthropic shares more details about how Claude’s new watermarks will work: How will the watermarking actually work? Can it be hidden with editing? And how does this affect code? Read More TechCrunch Mobility: The shifting flight path of electric air taxis: Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Read More Last but Not Least Woman claims her stepfather used Grok to transform childhood photo into explicit imagery: The woman claimed that AI tools are "taking everyday life and turning it into child sexual abuse." Read More Check out some of our other newsletters: StrictlyVC TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Want to adjust your daily newsletter schedule? You can do it right here Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Unsubscribe Member Center Privacy Policy Copyright © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC 501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107