NEW RESOURCES

The FBI has launched a new “wanted” app. “The app allows the public to view, search, sort, filter, and bookmark the full range of information issued by the FBI. That includes pictures and descriptions of wanted fugitives, missing persons, crime suspects, deceased victims, and others the Bureau is seeking to locate or identify. The app is free and works on Apple and Android devices, including smartphones, iPads, and iPods. Depending on your device, it can be downloaded from the Apple App store or Google Play.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Wow! The city of Louisville, Kentucky is now on IFTTT. From the app page at IFTTT: “Manage your connection with Louisville, Ky using Smart Louisville Applets that empower your daily data-driven life. An official digital service by Louisville Metro Government.”

USEFUL STUFF

Hongkiat: 30 Chrome Extensions for Better Productivity in 2017. “There are a number of productivity apps for mobiles and a lot of productivity tools for PCs. But did you know that there are some really amazing Chrome extensions that can take your productivity to the next level, and help you get things done faster while keeping your sanity.”

MakeUseOf: 10 Must-Have Thunderbird Addons (+ 25 More). Man, I miss Eudora. “Thunderbird is not dead! Never mind the confusion surrounding the progress of Thunderbird’s development. If you have installed this much-loved email client on your desktop, you’ll want to know which add-ons will help you make the most of it. Right on cue, we have brought you our list of ten must-have Thunderbird add-ons, and a 25-strong list of other add-ons worth testing.”

Lifehacker: NooBoss Restricts Chrome Extensions to Select Sites and Monitors Them for Updates. “Chrome: If you use a lot of Chrome extensions, then you know Chrome’s built-in extensions manager doesn’t give you much control. NooBoss is an extension manager that allows you to control which sites extensions work on, monitor when they update, and more.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

From the Google Blog: CrossCheck: Partnering with First Draft and newsrooms in the leadup to French elections. “At today’s News Impact Summit in Paris, in partnership with First Draft, the Google News Lab is proud to support the launch of CrossCheck, a coalition news verification project. With a goal of helping the French electorate make sense of what and who to trust in their social media feeds, web searches and general online news consumption in the coming months, we’re working with 17 newsrooms and counting, and technology partners including Facebook’s CrowdTangle and others .”

Reader Paul Pival read about TheHerdLocker on ResearchBuzz back in October, and offers his own experience. Now I HAVE to find some time to try this.

TechCrunch: Super Bowl posts on social media are up from last year, but didn’t top 2015’s record numbers. “Super Bowl LI may have made history as the first Big Game to go into overtime, but that may not have translated into record ratings, or, as it turns out, record social media engagement, either. According to Facebook, 64 million people posted 240 million interactions its social network last night, an increase over last year’s 60 million users and 200 million posts during what was, then, an arguably less intense game. But that’s still down from 2015’s record-breaking 65 million people and 265 million engagements.”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

Hacker News: Windows SMB Zero-Day Exploit Released in the Wild after Microsoft delayed the Patch. “Last weekend a security researcher publically disclosed a zero-day vulnerability in Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Server editions after Microsoft failed to patch it in the past three months. The zero-day memory corruption flaw resides in the implementation of the SMB (server message block) network file sharing protocol that could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to crash systems with denial of service attack, which would then open them to more possible attacks.”

Motherboard: Hacker Steals 700,000 Accounts from Police Forum. The story has been updated since being published on Friday, and it’s not clear if this was a hack, an old hack, a data leak, or something else. Because it is a very large breach, and because it does involve breaching the privacy and security of law enforcement personnel, I am linking to it here. “Update: After the publication of this story, another source provided Motherboard with the full PoliceOne database. In all, it contains 715,588 entries. However, the source said that this data has already been publicly distributed for some time, and that Bekrut did not hack the site. Bekrut did not respond for Motherboard’s request for comment.”

Montreal Gazette: It’s okay to use Google Street View to bolster your traffic court case. “Can Google Street View technology help you fight a traffic ticket? A recent judgment by Quebec Superior Court confirms that the virtual navigation tool can be used before the courts. A ruling handed down by Judge Guy Cournoyer examined the admissibility of the free navigation tool, which had been used in a lower court to determine whether speed limit signs were present in a case where a speeding ticket was being challenged.”

RESEARCH AND OPINION

From Emirates 24/7: Around 39% of Arab World’s population use social media, youth continue to dominate. “Facebook – the most popular social media platform in the region – has around 156 million users this year in the Arab World, as compared to 115 million in 2016 with Qatar and the UAE have by far the highest penetration rates of Facebook accounts with almost 95 percent in each country, according to the 7th Arab Social Media Report released on Sunday by Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government (MBRSG), a research and teaching institution specialising in public policy in the Arab world.” Lots of interesting stats in this article. Good morning, Internet…

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