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Google Reader (ARRRRRGH!), Yahoo, Oral Histories, Oregon, More: Miss You Monday Buzz, July 1, 2013

(Hey guys! I’m still drowning but I woke up an hour early and I couldn’t resist the chance to take a thwack at my ridiculously-overloaded e-mail and my two RSS readers. I remain livid about the demise of Google Reader but you know, NewsBlur is pretty darn good! Anyway, I love you, be good, and I’ll try to be back later this week.)

Speaking of Google Reader, if you procrastinated and haven’t grabbed your stuff yet, you might find that Google Takeout doesn’t offer enough of a data export. There are some Python scripts available to give you a more complete takeout.

Yahoo has announced another list of projects to be torched – including AltaVista. That little pang I felt was either heartburn or nostalgia.

Meanwhile, back in the 21st century, Rutgers has received a Google Grant to develop personalized data search systems. “The system designed by Marian and Nguyen would not only comb social media threads on Facebook, FourSquare, Twitter and Instagram but could also search weather reports and calendars. So if you were searching for something you did when it was snowing, the data can be retrieved. The app could also scan credit card purchases to help you remember the name of a restaurant you visited a year ago.”

The University of Kentucky has developed a program called the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer. “The synchronizer allows interviews to be tagged with keywords that take listeners to those portions of the interview. A written synopsis or transcription of the interview also is provided beneath the audio or video footage.” And even better: “The Nunn Center is preparing the system for free open-source distribution, meaning it will be available for other archivists to put their interviews online. Boyd hopes to see that happen in a year or so.”

A new digital archive of newspapers from The Dalles (Oregon) is now available. The newspapers go back to 1864.

I love the idea of public access TV making their programs video on demand. “People can get access to this program by visiting MATV.org, and clicking the Video On Demand tab. The locally produced programs are in its playlist, which can also be searched by name.” And it’s not all city council meetings either: “MATV can also track which programs are being watched on-demand. By the end of May, one of the most popular programs was a documentary about Walter “Killer” Kowalski, a famous wrestler from Malden.”

More fun visualizations: geotagged tweets as topographical maps. Good morning, Internet…

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