NEW RESOURCES

The Daily Star (Bangladesh): Apparel mapping project launched. “A four-year project to create a publicly available, online map providing a detailed industry-wise database of all apparel factories in Bangladesh was launched by Brac University’s Centre for Entrepreneurship Development yesterday. ‘Digital RMG Factory Mapping in Bangladesh’ (DRFM-B) will collect credible, comprehensive and accurate data on factories across Bangladesh and disclose factory names, locations, number of workers, product type, export country, certifications and brand customers.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Ubergizmo: Google Is Looking For Google+ Beta Testers. “Google+ is an example where seeing the rise of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, it felt like Google wanted in as well and thus Google+ was born. However fast forward to today and the platform isn’t really where we’re sure Google had envisioned, but it doesn’t mean that they’ll stop trying. In fact Google has recently started to ask the public if they might be interested in being a Google+ beta tester.” Marsha B., I hope you’re reading this!

Bloomberg: Soundcloud Is Near Deal to Sell Stakes to Private Equity. “SoundCloud Ltd. is close to a deal to sell stakes in the company to a pair of private equity firms, according to people familiar with the matter, an investment that will help the beleaguered music-streaming service keep operating for the foreseeable future.”

Neowin: Verified businesses accounts could be coming to WhatsApp. “Over the weekend, it appears that an update to WhatsApp beta for Windows Phone was released, bringing the app up to version 2.17.234. In terms of newly incorporated functionality, nothing has appeared to have changed aside from the inability to use the check mark emoji within your display name. While this, in itself, seems rather insignificant, reports have surfaced with regards to this forthcoming limitation.”

USEFUL STUFF

Digital Inspiration: Master YouTube Video Search with Simple Commands . “YouTube is the second largest search engine on the Internet after Google. This guide discusses advanced search operators that you can use with your YouTube search queries for more accurate video searches.” Amit’s been busy lately!

MakeUseOf: Share PDF Versions of Google Drive Files Without Converting by Hand. “You can do a lot with PDF documents on Google Drive, like converting any Google Drive document to a PDF. But did you know that you can also directly share PDF versions of your files? There is no need to convert each document to a PDF by hand every time.” I love a good URL hack.

Hongkiat: Pull Twitter Analytics From Any Account with Burrrd. “There’s so much you can learn by studying someone’s Twitter account. Who they follow, who follows them, how often they tweet, plus lots of data on the type of content they share. The free web app, Burrrd pulls all this data for you with neat tables & charts for easy browsing. Just enter the Twitter handle of any account and go to town.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Reuters: Exclusive: Russia used Facebook to try to spy on Macron campaign – sources. “Russian intelligence agents attempted to spy on President Emmanuel Macron’s election campaign earlier this year by creating phony Facebook personas, according to a U.S. Congressman and two other people briefed on the effort.”

TechCrunch: Authory wants to help journalists raise their voices. “Journalists wanting a neat way to back up and showcase their writing should take a look at Authory: a new service that promises to save your work from tumbling into a digital abyss — i.e. being buried 10,000 leagues down, folded under the ceaseless deluge of new data, where few eyeballs stray.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Washington Post: Google’s new program to track shoppers sparks a federal privacy complaint. “A prominent privacy rights watchdog is asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate a new Google advertising program that ties consumers’ online behavior to their purchases in brick-and-mortar stores. The legal complaint from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, to be filed with the FTC on Monday, alleges that Google is newly gaining access to a trove of highly sensitive information — the credit and debit card purchase records of the majority of U.S. consumers — without revealing how they got the information or giving consumers meaningful ways to opt out. ”

Engadget: YouTube recommendations inadvertently serve up illegal livestreams . “While livestreaming is often associated with Facebook and Twitter these days, YouTube has been offering the feature for more than five years now. Still, it’s only recently that the video giant has taken the phenomenon seriously — it’s finally letting some users broadcast from their phones, and it’s now easier to discover them via recommendations. Ironically, however, YouTube’s own recommendation system helped me discover a huge flaw in livestreaming: flagrant copyright infringement. Indeed, it turns out that YouTube is infested with rogue streams of copyrighted content, and I wouldn’t have discovered it if YouTube itself hadn’t recommend them to me.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Verge: Alphabet could soon be competing with Tesla in renewable energy storage. “Alphabet’s secretive research lab X is developing a new way to store renewable energy that otherwise might be wasted — by using salt and antifreeze, reports Bloomberg. Researchers are developing a system that can be located anywhere, has the potential to last longer than lithium-ion batteries, and competes on price with new hydroelectric plants and other energy storage methods.” Good morning, Internet…

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