NEW RESOURCES

Did you know there’s an online museum devoted to antique eyeglasses? “Over the years, the site has become an online museum and encyclopedia on visual aid. It features thousands of images of spectacles that date as far back as the 13th century. [Dr. David] Fleishman also posts related news, art, and history regularly.”

Thanks to Esther S., who is always on the case, for this pointer to a new collection of kosher recipes (PRESS RELEASE). “Kosher.com simplifies your search for just the right kosher recipe – be it gluten-free, Syrian-style or low calorie, you’ll find thousands upon thousands of kosher recipes under one umbrella site. They’ve been collected, archived and digitized from your favorite cookbooks, magazines, kosher chefs and more, some that were printed long-ago to current favorites, plus original recipes exclusive to kosher.com.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Bloomberg Quint: YouTube Hate Videos Snare Ikea Ads as Google Crisis Spreads. “Major advertisers across Europe and Asia are still appearing alongside extremist YouTube videos days after technology giant Google said it was taking steps to protect its clients from inadvertently supporting hate.”

CNET: No network? No problem for Google Docs on Firefox. “If you use Google’s G Suite apps and Mozilla’s Firefox browser, good news: The two are going to get along much better.”

If ResearchBuzz starts looking a lot different, it’s because WordPress is making premium themes free to users paying for a premium subscription. “With over 200 premium themes on WordPress.com — and new themes added regularly — that’s more than $16,000 worth of premium themes.”

The Next Web: Instagram’s new policy to blur ‘sensitive’ photos is bound to get messy. “Instagram has long struggled with moderating its posts (most often around whether or not female nipples are allowed). Now the company is offering up a partial solution: it will soon begin blurring ‘sensitive’ posts, which you will need to manually reveal.” I actually think this is a pretty good idea; the content stays up and can be viewed, but doesn’t intrude if it really is offensive or problematic (Instagram does not have the best track record in identifying actual offensive content.)

TechCrunch: Facebook introduces a new ad format — product-focused ‘collection’. “Facebook is introducing a new ad format that should help retailers showcase their products. The last big addition to Facebook’s ad lineup came last year, with the launch of Canvas, a fast-loading, rich media ad. Like Canvas, a collection is created specifically for mobile, and seems designed to win users over in the Facebook app — before directing them to the advertiser’s mobile website.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

I’m looking forward to the time when we’re talking about Google Maps and its problems as much as we talk about Google Adwords and ITS problems. From News AU: Relying on Google Maps got this woman stranded in the Grand Canyon for five days. “One woman in the US has spent five days lost and stranded in a remote part of the Grand Canyon after Google Maps took her down a wrong turn. Amber Vanhecke, 24, was so lost in the national park that she thought she would die and even recorded farewell messages on her phone.” The story about this on ABC News refers to Amber’s “GPS” and not Google Maps, so I was wondering, but Amber herself on her GoFundMe page for her medical expenses and car damage says it was Google Maps.

Mashable: Google Home goes on a defensive rant if you ask it about the CIA. “Following the Wikileaks March 7 Vault 7 data dump, which allegedly details a host of CIA hacking tools, people have started looking at their internet-connected devices with just a tad bit more skepticism….With that in mind, people have taken to asking their digital assistants about the CIA. The results, well, are a bit baffling.” Maybe not baffling, but certainly amusing.

RESEARCH & OPINION

MIT Technology Review: Customer Service Chatbots Are About to Become Frighteningly Realistic. “Would your banking experience be more satisfying if you could gaze into the eyes of the bank’s customer service chatbot and know it sees you frowning at your overdraft fees? Professor and entrepreneur Mark Sagar thinks so.”

From Dave Winer at Scripting News: If I were in charge of Medium. “Here are the stories on Medium’s new business model announced yesterday. Now here are my two cents… What would I do if I were the owner of Medium and were free to be creative with new business models?” Good afternoon, Internet…

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