NEW RESOURCES

Now available: a digital archive on transgender issues. “The DTA is designed to increase the accessibility of transgender history by providing an online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world….The collection is built by more than 20 different archives and organizations from around the world. Eight are universities including, Harvard University’s Schlesinger Library, Cornell University, Duke University, the University of Victoria, and the University of Michigan.”

The Pullman Porter Museum has created an online registry of African-American railroad laborers. “Once the registry launches, visitors to the museum’s website will be able to type a person’s last name into a search query to view entries from thousands of submissions spanning from California to Georgia.” The registry will launch this week. Please note the story I’m linking to is behind the Chicago Tribune paywall. If you have a subscription, there you go. If you don’t, you can get to the Pullman Porter Museum at http://www.pullmanportermuseum.com/.

The National Park Service is joining the Google Cultural Institute. “Visitors to the National Park Service ‘channel’ will be able to view more than 3,800 works of art, artifacts and records, as well as a Centennial Virtual Exhibit, which features a significant museum object from over 350 national park sites. Users can also build their own collections to share or take virtual, panoramic tours of eminent Americans’ homes.”

EBSCO has created an online archive of Architectural Digest Magazine (PRESS RELEASE). “The Architectural Digest Magazine Archive™ includes cover-to-cover access to issues of the iconic and influential design magazine from the 1920s to 2011. Each issue in the Architectural Digest Magazine Archive is presented in its entirety, including the front and back covers and its high-quality photo spreads. All articles and advertisements have been indexed with subject terms to allow users to find relevant results quickly, as well as research and analyze trends in topics and advertising materials.”

TWEAKS & UPDATES

Google is now warning users about unencrypted email. “Gmail on the web will alert users when they are sending email to a recipient whose account is not encrypted with a little open lock in the top-right corner. That same lock will appear if you receive an email from an account that is not encrypted.”

The Lost Communities of Kansas archive, which I mentioned almost a year ago, looks like it’s gotten some updates. Lost Communities is a Web site chronicling towns in Kansas that used to exist but now do not.

Google is ditching Flash as an ad format. yay! “On June 30, 2016, Google will no longer accept new Flash ads. Older Flash ads can continue to run until January 2, 2017. After that date, Google Display Network and DoubleClick Digital Marketing will be fully HTML5.”

USEFUL STUFF

Want to save your iPhone’s battery life? Uninstall the Facebook app! “Using an iPhone 6S Plus for a week without the main Facebook app installed, I recorded the battery life at 10.30pm each day for a week comparing it to a daily average taken from a week with the app…. On average I had 15% more battery left by 10.30pm each day.” The article appears to indicate that the same is true for Android. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the Facebook app, but to access Facebook I use an app called Friendly I like it a lot. This is not a paid endorsement; they don’t know me from Adam’s off-ox.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Looks like Google’s auto auto project is getting even bigger. “Thirty-six jobs related to the Google X car project were listed including engineers working on motion control, displays, robotics and sensors as well as managers charged with operations, materials and marketing. Google, which declined to comment, has denied in the past that it had any interest in making cars.”

Speaking of vehicles, Google recently got a patent related to delivery from self-driving trucks. “Google’s patent outlines what it calls an ‘autonomous delivery platform’ for delivery trucks. The trucks would be fitted with a series of lockers that could potentially be unlocked with a PIN code sent to the person waiting for the delivery before the truck arrives at their location.”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

Microsoft has officially stopped supporting older versions of Internet Explorer. “All Windows users still running IE7 or IE8, and those running IE9 on any other edition of Windows but Vista, as well as those using IE10 on anything but Windows Server 2012, did not receive the patches Microsoft distributed Tuesday to systems equipped with the newer IE11 or Edge browsers.”

RESEARCH AND OPINION

Bloomberg: How Google Searches Pretty Much Nailed the New Hampshire Primary. “Searches of presidential candidates conducted by Google users in New Hampshire on Feb. 9 corresponded closely with the voting results of the state’s primary. The top-searched Democratic candidate was Bernie Sanders, who won with 60 percent of the vote in New Hampshire, according to the Associated Press. He got 72 percent of the searches, according to Google, while Hillary Clinton got 28 percent of the queries and 38 percent of the vote.” Good morning, Internet…

I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!