morningbuzz

Kansas, Pinterest, Google, More: Tuesday Morning Buzz, March 17th, 2015

NEW RESOURCES

Now available: an online archive of New Zealand nursing archive oral histories.

The National Museum of African Art has launched its first online exhibition. “The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art is launching the online exhibition ‘Sailors and Daughters: Early Photography and the Indian Ocean World.’ The event is part of the museum’s multiyear series of programming, Connecting the Gems of the Indian Ocean: From Oman to East Africa, made possible by a $1.8 million gift by the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. The online exhibition brings together early photographs, albums and related media from the region to a digital audience; photography was part of the flow of people, ideas and technologies crossing the western Indian Ocean at the turn of the last century.”

USEFUL STUFF

Interesting: an online database of disappeared Kansas communities. There are 143 profiled towns in the database – but the estimated count of disappeared Kansas towns is 9,000.

From Mashable: 5 IFTTT recipes to share Instagram photos like a boss.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Library of Congress is updating its recommended format specifications. “The Library of Congress has committed to a sustained investment in the Recommended Format Specifications, which means an annual review and revision process. And to accomplish this, it is actively soliciting feedback and comments from any and all who can help us make them better and more useful, for ourselves and to all of our stakeholders and colleagues in the creative world. This feedback is requested by March 31st, after which date our teams of experts will take the input we have received from others and the results of our own investigations to spend the next three months developing a revised version of the Recommended Format Specifications for the coming year. The greater the input, the better the product, so please do not hesitate to contact us here to share your thoughts and ideas about the Recommended Format Specifications.”

Google Flights are now showing which flights have Wi-Fi. “Routehappy is a service that lets you find the “happiest” flights — meaning those with the most amenities and the roomiest seats. Its data is already integrated with Google Flights — once you’ve selected a flight, you’ll see how much legroom you’ll get and whether it offers in-seat power or Wi-Fi.”

Google is Getting rid of its original Google Webmaster Tools API. April 20 is the shutdown date.

YouTube is now accepting 360-degree video uploads. You’ve got to prep your video with a Python script, though. Wow. Feelin’ 1999!

Google Street View, now for Japanese Bullet Trains.

Pinterest is now worth $11 billion dollars, and to be honest that scares the bean dip out of me. Pinterest is a great idea and a good site, though one I don’t “get” as much as I do other sites. But it’s gone from a $2.5 billion valuation to $11 billion in just over two years. Doesn’t that bother anyone else? I was here in 1999 and after, when the bubble burst. This just doesn’t feel good.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

A bug in Google Apps’ domain registrations has caused a big privacy breach. “Google leaked the complete hidden whois data attached to more than 282,000 domains registered through the company’s Google Apps for Work service, a breach that could bite good and bad guys alike.”

Twitter has updated its policies to explicitly ban revenge porn. “The changes appear in the private information section of Twitter’s rules and the abusive behavior policy page — both of which now expressly prohibit users from posting ‘intimate photos and videos that were taken or distributed without the subject’s consent.'” Good morning, Internet…

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