NEW RESOURCES

Now available: The World Bank Group Archives. “In April 2015, as part of its commitment to transparency and openness, the World Bank Group launched its Archives Holdings website. This is a state-of-the-art platform, which maximizes the public’s online access to a vast amount of original primary source material in the custody of the Archives.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Yahoo is getting into weather alerts. “Today we’re introducing new weather alerts around the world – you’ll never be stuck outside, unprepared again. Yahoo Weather, our beautiful and intuitive weather app, will alert you 15 minutes before rain or snow is expected, so you can grab your jacket, rain boots or umbrella!”

Google Translate, now on Android Wear watches. “Translate is built into the latest Android Wear software update, so you can have bilingual conversations even if you don’t have Google Translate on your phone, or if you’re away from your phone but connected via Wi-Fi. And it’s easy to use – just speak into your watch to see your conversation translated into any of 44 languages. Flip your wrist to show the translation to a friend. When they respond in their own language, flip your wrist back, and you’ll see in your language what they’ve just said.” My my my, I believe we have full jetpack.

Dropbox is now saving and syncing URLs. “The cloud service now saves URLs you drag and drop into the desktop app or the website itself — once they’re synced, just click ’em when you need ’em. You can keep all the URLs you need for a project or a research paper in one folder, for instance, so you can access them on any computer.”

Google has announced an update to the Flu Trends site. “Instead of maintaining our own website going forward, we’re now going to empower institutions who specialize in infectious disease research to use the data to build their own models. Starting this season, we’ll provide Flu and Dengue signal data directly to partners including Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health (to update their dashboard), Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Influenza Division. We will also continue to make historical Flu and Dengue estimate data available for anyone to see and analyze.”

Google Photos is letting you throwback every day. “Google wants to help you take a stroll down memory lane. The company is today introducing a feature that allows you to resurface photos and videos from the current calendar date in previous years. The feature is thankfully opt-in, so you won’t have to be reminded of your embarrassing behavior at parties or that old terrible haircut. ”

USEFUL STUFF

Need some help with Google, but you want to use Twitter? There’s a hashtag for that. “Need help with Google search? Maybe with Gmail? Google Photos? Or any Google product? Now you can just head over to Twitter and ask your question and add on #gHelp to the question. Someone from the Google Top Contributor team should find it and respond.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Danny Sullivan’s got a wish list for Instagram. “This year marked a return for me to Instagram, where my account had largely been dormant. I’ve greatly enjoyed my time on the service, but I find several things maddening. Here’s what I see wrong with Instagram, despite its great success.”

Happens to the best of us: Google lost some data in a lightning strike. “Google says data has been wiped from discs at one of its data centres in Belgium – after it was struck by lightning four times. Some people have permanently lost access to their files as a result. A number of disks damaged following the lightning strikes did, however, later became accessible.”

Is Facebook testing new profile pages for mobile users? “The Facebook app on your phone may soon look a lot different. It seems the company is A/B testing a new profile layout, incorporating some visual changes.”

SEO Roundtable found Google Answers getting a bit up itself.

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Self-driving cars, SHMELF-DRIVING CARS. It’s all about the self-driving golf carts. “Auro’s current prototypes are golf carts modified with laser scanners, radar, cameras, GPS, computers, and other components needed to steer themselves. One is already being tested on the grounds of Santa Clara University. [Nalin] Gupta says he has signed agreements to begin similar tests at other universities, as well as a retirement community and a resort in the Bay Area later in the year.” Good morning, Internet…

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