TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Here’s hoping they don’t find any: Election Monitors to Use Social Media as a Way to Find Voting Problems. “More than 150 people are expected to crowd into the student newsroom at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in New York’s Times Square. Professional journalists and students will join data experts from Google and other companies for pizza, coffee, and snacks, and to sift through a deluge of data on that day’s voting. It will be the hub of a group called Electionland, led by the nonprofit news site ProPublica, Google News Lab, CUNY, and others. They hope Electionland will leverage social media and other data sources to surface and flag suspicious voting situations.”

Facebook is testing a new feature that would let Pages post job openings. “Today TechCrunch spotted a Jobs tab on its Page, and now Facebook confirms it’s experimenting with a slew of recruiting features. A Facebook spokesperson tells me, ‘Based on behavior we’ve seen on Facebook, where many small businesses post about their job openings on their Page, we’re running a test for Page admins to create job postings and receive applications from candidates.'”

The iOS apps for GMail and Google Calendar have gotten a big upgrade. “When you get the next Gmail iOS app update, you’ll notice some exciting changes: The biggest overhaul of the app in nearly four years. It’s the Gmail you know and love, with a fresh new look, sleeker transitions and some highly-requested features. It’s a lot faster, too.”

Dang, more SketchUp news – SketchUp goes VR! “Google acquired popular 3D modelling tool SketchUp back in 2006, before selling it to Trimble in 2012. Today, Trimble and Microsoft announced the launch of SketchUp Viewer, bringing holographic mixed reality tools to professionals in the architecture, engineering, construction and operations (AECO) industries, through Microsoft’s HoloLens headset.”

YouTube now supports HDR videos. “HDR offers improved picture quality with higher contrast, which means you’ll see more vibrant colors as well as make out more of the image in darker, shadowy scenes. However, not many consumers will be immediately available to enjoy the new HDR videos, as the technology is still rolling out to the mass market.”

Instead of killing off Vine, might Twitter sell it instead? “If you’ve been mourning the imminent death of Vine, you might want to hold your horses – a report by TechCrunch suggests multiple bidders have approached Twitter about acquiring the app’s assets.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Forbes: Harvard Looks At Your LinkedIn Profile: Using Social Media To Get Into College. “When it comes to social media, college applicants are often told, ‘Clean up your Facebook! Watch the Tweets!’ But as social media becomes an increasingly permanent part of everyone’s life, several new startups are exploring ways to help students and applicants use social media to positively showcase their qualities and experiences for future schools and employers.”

RESEARCH AND OPINION

Great editorial/thought piece/thing: Twitter Could Have Been A Protocol. “I’m not here to point out all the mistakes the management team has or has not made – these are not easy decisions to make and no one likes a Monday morning quarterback. But around 2010, when I was working on Pinyadda, I believed that Twitter was going to become something very different from what it looks like today. I thought it had a chance to become a protocol, of sorts. While that belief was clearly incorrect, it’s interesting to think about now.”

But please don’t try to talk me into liking Miracle Whip because it ain’t happening – Social media causes some users to rethink their views on an issue. “Overall, 20% of social media users say they’ve modified their stance on a social or political issue because of material they saw on social media, and 17% say social media has helped to change their views about a specific political candidate.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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