ResearchBuzz

Did you catch all of yesterday’s St. Patrick’s logos? Here’s a roundup.

PC World speculates on which Google services will be next to go. Someone please explain to me why Google killed Reader before Orkut. Meanwhile, CNN looks at other beloved products that died an early death. Are you SERIOUSLY comparing Google Reader to Guitar Hero?

And of course the lovely Phil Bradley is always on the case with 33 more Google Reader alternatives. By the way, who else is talking about the demise of Reader? Oh, THE ECONOMIST.

More Google reader stuff: a new mailing list devoted to RSS sync is now available. This is for the more techie people. More techie stuff: look at all the hassle the poor Newsblur developer has had to deal with over the last several days. I am crazy impressed with how he, a one-man-operation, has handled it.

Google Operating System has some hints about a potential new service called Google Keep. The comments are about what you’d expect right now… the first thing I thought was “What, and kill Evernote?”

A new Turkish music archive is now available and – it’s in ten languages, including English. “[Ibrahim] Şahin said that the archive would be followed from all around the world, adding: ‘One of the most important parts of this work is that we continue this activity in 10 languages. It will be online in Turkish and English, and we will [post information] about music events on the website. The reason why we also made it in English is that some parts of these notes have been interpreted as chants and aria music in churches. People of Armenian origin will be able to reach their own music thanks to this structure. We have received good reactions from these people and it makes us very happy.’” I browsed the archive a bit and not every last thing is in English, but enough so you can follow along. The videos were real slow-loaders, though.

Interesting: How Twitter has made me a new teacher.

This news got buried: Formspring is shutting down.

Genealogists! Can’t make it to RootsTech? Some of it will be streaming online. Good morning, Internet…

More Google Reader ruminating: should Yahoo revamp its RSS feed reader? (which I had totally forgotten about?) Also: Using IFTTT instead of Google Reader. Which would be fine except I would have to SET UP THREE HUNDRED AND FORTY TWO RECIPES. No thanks. (And that’s just my Web based reader. I use two desktop RSS readers. Yes I am pathetic; how kind of you to ask.) Meanwhile, Digg is making its own reader.

Creative Commons has announced a “School of Open” with courses focusing on things like copyright, Wikipedia, and using CC licenses.

Is the Register of Copyright going to call for reduction in copyright term? Holy bean dip. Life plus fifty.

Dropbox has acquired Mailbox.

An interesting study breaking down Twitter’s cliques and communities.

MakeUseOf has some creative uses for Dropbox (or whatever cloud storage you happen to prefer.)

Lifehacker breaks down permissions requirements for Chrome extensions. Good morning, Internet, and happy St. Paddy’s Day…

It’s gotten rather drowned out in the roar of disapproval over Google Reader’s fate, but Google is actually shutting down several products.

Meanwhile, Mashable has a bunch of alternatives to Google Reader. I’m trying Newsblur. Phil Bradley also has a list of alternatives.

Speaking of running away from Google’s free services which may be axed at any minute, TechCrunch has an article about an alerts service called Mention, which describes itself as “Google Alerts on Steroids.” Checking it out.

HootSuite has launched a developer program.

Like Instagram? Check out 10 Instagram Companion Apps for power users.

The USDA’s “Food Desert Locator” is now the “Food Access Research Atlas” and as you might expect has gotten a revamp: “The new name better reflects what this tool shows us. Now, the Food Access Research Atlas has updated estimates of food desert census tracts using 2010 census data, and offers several additional distance measures to visualize access to supermarkets. For example, in the original measure, a household was considered to be facing an access challenge if it was more than 1 mile from a supermarket in urban areas of the country or more than 10 miles from a supermarket in rural areas. With the updated Atlas, users can also map low-income and low-access areas using distances of one-half mile and 20 miles.”

Is Facebook going to add hashtags to its Graph Search?

A new California bill would allow students to take open online courses for credit: “In short, the bill will allow CA students, enrolled in CA public colleges and universities, to take online courses from a pool of 50 high enrollment, introductory courses, offered by 3rd parties, in which CA students cannot currently gain access from their public CA university or community college.” Good morning, Internet…

I am ridiculously upset about Google shutting down Google Reader. I’m trying to write an article about it, but right now there’s too much foam coming out of the keyboard and not enough measured thoughtfulness. I use Google Reader every day and that is not an exaggeration. I was working on an article called “How Google Reader Helps Me Use Facebook Without Punching My Screen in Frustration.” But Google Reader is not social and not sexy enough so out the door it goes. Between this and the issues noted with Google Alerts, I’m becoming very wary of Google in general and painfully aware of how Google can come in, launch a tool in a space, destroy all the competition (finding a good alert service is an exercise in frustration) and then exit the space or fail to support the tool.

Twitter now supports line breaks. And I’m left wondering: do we really need to break up 140 characters of text? Apparently so…

From Copyblogger: 12 Ways to Connect, Create, and Collaborate using Google Hangouts.

Thanks to whoever mentioned this on Twitter — sourcing is one thing Undrip is not good at, but anyway: Ampergram — spell stuff using Instagram photos.

Need printable graph paper templates? Check out http://paperkit.net/ (Thanks Smashing Magazine!)

If you’re getting annoyed that Java is hogging all the security vulnerability news, feel better: Flash is having issues.

Google is threatening (I mean warning) that the next-generation Penguin update is going to be really big. Oh goody.

Still trying to get it: The Heavyweight Guide to Getting Started on Pinterest.

More Pinterest: it has started an analytics platform.

Is YouTube going to get a rival? GOOD! Also, good morning, Internet…

Mashable has an article on Click With Me Now, a new no-download screen-sharing service.

Congratulations to Bitly on… 100 billion clicks?

The Economist has an interesting article on Wikipedia articles by language. Read the comments too.

Wow, Google Glass hasn’t even been released yet and it’s already been banned from a bar.

PC Magazine had a browser smackdown — featuring not only IE, Chrome, and Firefox, but also Maxthon and Opera.

Lifehacker has a quick video on how to temporarily get rid of Facebook Graph search if you don’t like it.

The Federal Trade Commission has issued new guidelines for disclosures in online ads.

The state of Iowa has a new Hunting Atlas to provide hunters information on the state’s 600,000 acres of hunting land.

Genealogy Insider has a roundup of Irish genealogy Web sites.

Dropbox has given its desktop client a big update.

How would you like to log in to a Web site with a ring? No word if you have to recite the Green Lantern Oath of Jack T. Chance. Yowza. Good morning, Internet…

Many American readers! Did you spring forward this weekend?

Big digitizing project — the Vatican will need 2.8 petabytes of space for its plan to digitize the Vatican Apostolic Library.

Google is making its Public Alerts available in Japan.

More Google: Google Alerts continues to not work. Unfortunately, Google Alerts crushed so much of the competition there aren’t many alternatives available.

Even more Google: Street View in Europe has expanded.

More Google Street View (domestic this time) — is Google about to settle an investigation into its collection of personal data during Street View mapping?

Cool! National Geographic has joined Tumblr, and is posting rarely-seen images from its archives.

VERY interesting: decoding medical prescriptions with Wolfram|Alpha. Good morning, Internet…