NEW RESOURCES

Greyhound announced real-time bus tracking today (PRESS RELEASE). “Customers can access BusTracker by visiting Greyhound.com and searching by schedule number, departure city or arrival city for updates. Automatically updating every one to four minutes, BusTracker pulls data from three tracking systems installed on all of Greyhound’s buses to provide the latest schedule status for customers. For those using a smartphone, BusTracker will be available at the end of June on both Apple and Android devices.”

Twitter has launched a new account to live-tweet events. “Dubbed Twitter Stage, the account shared memorable moments from the awards ceremony for Broadway theater, including a close-up of Bryan Cranston and updates on award winners like Helen Mirren, who received the first Tony of the evening.”

The University of Kentucky Libraries has digitized the records of the Benham Coal Company. “The Benham Coal Company records are 151 cubic feet and include 302 boxes dating from 1911-1973, with a focus primarily on the early years of Benham Coal through the 1940s. Included in the collection are office files, employee benefits association records, files on accidents and safety, and photographs.”

YouTube is launching a new gaming app and Web site. Look out, Twitch. “YouTube says its new app will include videos on about more than 25,000 games, including classic titles like ‘Asteroids’ and ‘Zelda’ that have their own pages. For example, a user can view a video that shows how to navigate a certain level, or watch a live stream of other people playing the game.”

Periodical The Scottish Farmer is creating a digital archive. There is a photo archive mentioned in the article but it’s giving me a 404 error.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Twitter is now letting users share block lists. “You can now export and share your block lists with people in your community facing similar issues or import another user’s list into your own account and block multiple accounts all at once, instead of blocking them individually. We also hope these advanced blocking tools will prove useful to the developer community to further improve users’ experience.” Nice feature.

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

A Canadian Appeals Court has ruled that Google must remove links globally. “A Canadian company named Equustek Solutions won a trademark infringement case against another company called Datalink Technologies Gateways. Equustek then wanted Google to remove links to Datalink. Google did so, but only for those using the Google Canada site. Back to court. Last June, a Canadian judge in British Columbia ordered that Google remove Datalink from its search results. All of them, worldwide. Google appealed; now it has lost that appeal.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Russia is getting its own “right to be forgotten”. “According to Politico, the law will work a lot like the European one, with one caveat: unlike in Europe, where the public interest is a legitimate reason for a search engine to decline a request to remove a link, the public interest exception does not apply in Russia.”

Reuters is going to start to offer free content to Web publishers.

RESEARCH AND OPINION

From the New Indian Express: using Twitter to help treat sleep disorders. “Taken together, the data suggest that Twitter users suffering from a sleep disorder are less active on Twitter on average but tweet more during traditional sleeping hours. The increase in negative sentiment in their tweets suggests that sleep-disordered users could be at an increased risk for psychosocial issues.”

Social media might be useful in helping people quit smoking. “The Break It Off (BIO) campaign compared stopping smoking to getting out of a toxic relationship with a terrible boyfriend or girlfriend, and allowed participants to share their progress on Facebook. Researchers compared the effectiveness of the BIO campaign with anti-smoking telephone helplines. They conducted a trial involving 238 participants aged 19 to 29 who used one of the two methods to stop smoking. After three months, 32% of BIO participants and 14% of the Smokers’ Helpline users had quit the habit for 30 days.” More research needs to be done. Good afternoon, Internet…

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