NEW RESOURCES

Google Blog: Space out with planets in Google Maps. “Twenty years ago, the spacecraft Cassini launched from Cape Canaveral on a journey to uncover the secrets of Saturn and its many moons. During its mission, Cassini recorded and sent nearly half a million pictures back to Earth, allowing scientists to reconstruct these distant worlds in unprecedented detail. Now you can visit these places—along with many other planets and moons—in Google Maps right from your computer. For extra fun, try zooming out from the Earth until you’re in space!”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BetaNews: Facebook taps into teen market with acquisition of anonymous feedback app tbh. “Facebook’s desperation to appeal to the teenage market is well known, and its latest attempt to tap into it sees the social network acquiring tbh. The anonymous feedback app has proved to be a huge hit on iOS since its launch in August. An Android version is still in the pipeline.”

CNET: Yes, Google Photos can tell your pets apart. “Last week, Google Photos gave me a ‘Meow Movie,’ a video slideshow stuffed with pictures of my two sibling black cats. What it didn’t include were photos of other people’s cats, of which I have many. On Monday, Google confirmed it can not only identify cats and dogs in your photo archive, it can also tell the difference between individual animals.”

USEFUL STUFF

ZDNet: Here’s every patch for KRACK Wi-Fi vulnerability available right now . “In total, ten CVE numbers have been preserved to describe the vulnerability and its impact, and according to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the main affected vendors are Aruba, Cisco, Espressif Systems, Fortinet, the FreeBSD Project, HostAP, Intel, Juniper Networks, Microchip Technology, Red Hat, Samsung, various units of Toshiba and Ubiquiti Networks. Who’s on top of the game?”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

University of Wyoming: UW Geological Museum Receives Grant to Digitize Wyoming’s Rare Fossil Mammal Collection. “The University of Wyoming Geological Museum has only one-half of 1 percent of its fossils on display to the public. The other 99.5 percent are stored away, and very few, save some visiting researchers, rarely see these hidden treasures in any form. Thanks to a $100,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the museum will be able to make more of its rare fossil mammal collection available to researchers, schools and the public through digitization of roughly 5,000 items.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Microsoft responded quietly after detecting secret database hack in 2013. “Microsoft Corp’s secret internal database for tracking bugs in its own software was broken into by a highly sophisticated hacking group more than four years ago, according to five former employees, in only the second known breach of such a corporate database.”

Ars Technica: Supreme Court refuses to hear case questioning Google’s trademark. “The Supreme Court declined Monday to review a petition asserting that the term ‘google’ has become too generic and therefore unqualified for trademark protection. Without comment, the justices set aside a legal challenge claiming that Google had fallen victim to “genericide” and should no longer be trademarked.”

The Register: Dying! Yahoo! loses! fight! to! lock! dead! man’s! dead! account! . “Yahoo! may be compelled to hand over the contents of a dead man’s email account to his surviving family, Massachusetts’s top court has ruled. On Monday, the US state’s supreme struck down an earlier ruling in the Purple Palace’s favor in a case regarding the estate of John Ajemian, who was killed at the age of 43 in a bike accident in 2006.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

EurekAlert: Social media accounts promote skeletal images of women. “Skeletal images of bodies featuring protruding bones and pencil-thin limbs are being shared and promoted on social media, new research shows. A study by the University of Exeter shows how Twitter and Instagram accounts are celebrating extreme thinness, with users invited to say they ‘like’ images.”

Tubefilter: YouTube Influencers Are Changing Marketing Across More Industries Than You’d Think. “Everyone knows YouTube influencers are flexing the power of their actionable audiences in a number of markets. A new report from Carat Global chief strategy officer, Sanjay Nazerali, YouTube, and Nielsen, however, reveals that these influencers have an even wider (wait for it….) influence than you’d think. Nazerali’s study found 86% of the 200 most watched beauty videos on YouTube come from creators (and not brands). But that finding isn’t necessarily representative of influencers’ far-reaching appeal. A finding that is details how YouTube influencers up consumers’ purchase intent in a number of product categories beyond beauty, including snacks, toys, cars, and even alcohol. Though YouTube influencers themselves (and especially their audiences) skew younger, many of them are successfully marketing adult products.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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