My American readers, I hope you get out and vote today. There’s been a lot of junk talked about each candidate and about the supporters of each candidate. And I want to tell you: I do not think less of you no matter who you vote for. I will not judge you, I will not disparage you, I will not call you names because you made an assessment and exercised your rights as a citizen. I love you and I wish you peace. I think we could all use a little.

NEW RESOURCES

Talkwalker, a Web monitoring service, has released a new search engine for trends (PRESS RELEASE). “talkwalkerNow is the fastest, simplest way to uncover trends within any topic, in any region. The platform crunches data across social networks, news sites, blogs, forums and more, over a total of 150 million websites and analyzes them instantly to help brands, agencies and publishers create viral content before their competitors.” I wasn’t able to find pricing on the Web site, but this is not a free service.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Google will start displaying election results as soon as the polls close. “Google has been highly involved with connecting U.S. voters to timely information throughout this election cycle, by offering everything from voter registration assistance to polling place information in its search result pages. Today, the company announced plans to display the results of the U.S. election directly in search, in over 30 languages, as soon as the polls close.”

You want your election night filled with plenty of live video? Facebook’s got you covered. “Facebook said on Monday it would partner with 50 broadcast stations, print and online publications for an Election Day live video blitz, as the social media company aims to build on the momentum of its popular Facebook Live video streaming service.”

Now available on Google Street View: the Elbphilharmonie. “With the help of Google Street View you can virtually walk from the main entrance over an 82 meter long, slightly arched escalator called the Tube which leads to the large panoramic window with harbor view. From there, you can take a second short escalator and a staircase to the Plaza and continue your way to the Grand Hall, the heart of the Elbphilharmonie. The large concert hall, which can accommodate as many as 2,100 visitors, is built according to the vineyard principle–which means the stage is in the middle and is surrounded by terraced audience seats. Above the stage you can see the great sound reflector hovering.”

Google has closed Google Showtimes. “Google Showtimes was discontinued on November 1, 2016. You can now discover showtimes on the search results page by searching for the name of the movie you want to see or try searching for the word ‘movies’ to discover what’s in theaters.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: A Free Open Source Alternative to Microsoft Visio. (This article actually has SEVERAL free open source alternatives to Visio.)

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Great stuff from Quartz: The crowdsourcing movement to improve African maps. “In map after map after map, many African countries appear as a void, marked with a color that signifies not a percentage or a policy but merely offers an explanation: ‘no data available.’ Where numbers or cartography has left African countries behind, developers are stepping in with open-source tools that allow anyone from academics to your everyday smartphone user to improve maps of the continent.”

New York Times: Why Facebook Showed You That Ad for the Candidate You Hate. “You may be a reliable Democratic voter in a solid-blue city. Maybe you have a graduate degree; maybe you’re a member of an ethnic or religious minority; maybe you are a woman. Any of these would make you a likely Hillary Clinton supporter. So why did you just see an ad for Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign on Facebook?”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

Carnegie Mellon: CyLab researchers create network traffic visualization tool to help thwart cyber attacks. “[Yang] Cai and his colleague Sebastian Peryt have created a tool that allows one to visualize network traffic to more easily identify key changes and patterns. The researchers have used this tool to inspect network traffic during DDoS attacks and map out the structure of malware distribution networks.”

India has been hit by a series of attacks which have lead to data leaks. “Indian embassy websites in seven different countries have been hacked, and attackers have leaked personal data, including full name, residential address, email address, passport number and phone number, of Indian citizens living abroad.”

International Tax Review: “Google Tax Law” in Russia. “Before the amendment there was a tax benefit for foreign IT companies – no VAT imposed on electronic services – which was unavailable to Russian companies. In order to protect Russian providers and boost competition between foreign and domestic providers the Russian Parliament has adopted the so-called ‘Google tax law’.”

RESEARCH AND OPINION

From First Monday: The winners take it all: A comparative study of Twitter campaigns under pressure. “This paper presents a comparative study on two Twitter campaigns that came under pressure when recipients started to engage in the campaigns in unexpected ways. Despite two organizations employing different engagement strategies with users, both campaigns played out in somewhat similar ways. Users with an abundance of retweets tend to be male, holding privileged positions in society, with large networks of followers.” What’s the opposite of a trigger warning – a trigger reassurance? I wish to give a trigger reassurance that these campaigns concern politics in Norway and not the US. Good morning, Internet…

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