NEW RESOURCES

Bangkok Post: Thai culture goes digital. “Visiting historical museums and official cultural websites in Thailand was boring in the past, but not anymore. In accordance with the government’s Thailand 4.0 policy, the Ministry of Culture has upgraded art and cultural learning sources, with Culture Minister Veera Rojpojchanarat announcing the change last month. To ensure better access and understanding of national cultural heritage, the Fine Arts Department has applied and developed information technology systems in six aspects.”

Library of Congress: Veterans History Project Launches Web Feature Recognizing Medal of Honor Recipients . “The Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project (VHP) today launched its latest ‘Experiencing War”’ website feature, titled ‘Stories Above and Beyond: The Medal of Honor,’ which offers access to nearly 150 digitized collections of Medal of Honor recipients. The veterans’ service spans World War II to the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each collection uniquely illustrates the evident courage and intrepidity of these veterans.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Land: Google promises to improve accuracy of tweets shown in search results. “After news about the Texas church shooter came out, many searchers went to Google to learn more about the shooter. What they found when searching the shooter’s name in Google Sunday night, and for a period of time afterward, was highlighted tweets from Google’s Twitter partnership that showed misinformation. Last night, Google issued a statement promising to improve the accuracy of the tweets shown in that search feature, just like they did for the top news stories some time ago.”

BetaNews: Opera 49 adds editable elements to its screen capture tool, rolls out VR headset support. “Opera Software has unveiled Opera 49, the latest version of its Chromium-powered browser for Windows, Mac and Linux. Opera 49’s headline new feature is a major update to its new snapshot tool, with editing features, a selfie mode and support for emoji. Elsewhere, the VR headset support previewed in the Developer release has also been included, along with a new ‘easy setup’ button offering convenient access to key settings.”

The Drum: Google introduces waiting time for restaurants on Google Search. “Google has rolled out waiting time on Google Search (coming soon to Maps) globally which shows the user estimated wait at their restaurants of choice.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

CBC: Federal government blocking social media users, quietly deleting posts. “Canadian government departments have quietly blocked nearly 22,000 Facebook and Twitter users, with Global Affairs Canada accounting for nearly 20,000 of the blocked accounts, CBC News has learned. Moreover, nearly 1,500 posts — a combination of official messages and comments from readers — have been deleted from various government social media accounts since January 2016.”

INC: Why Do Facebook Hoaxes Often Ask You To Copy, Paste, And Modify, Rather Than To Share?. “Over the past few weeks several people have asked me why some Facebook scams and hoaxes – fake news, spurious offers, etc. – specifically tell people not to re-share them, but rather, to copy and paste their contents into new posts, sometimes with a request to add personal comments to the new posts: I believe that there are at least four reasons for this…” Interesting.

Ubergizmo: Google Will Have Their Own Booth At CES 2018. “CES itself is pretty exciting as companies usually take this opportunity to unveil brand new products and innovations, but if you’re a fan of Google, 2018’s CES could be particularly exciting because it looks like Google will be having their own booth at the event. This is according to a report from Chrome Unboxed who noticed Google’s booth at the event’s map.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Local 10: Venezuelan government censors social media with new law. “Socialist legislators passed a new law Wednesday making journalists’ stories that incite ‘hate and intolerance’ illegal. Those in violation could face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years or hefty fines. Venezuelan’s socialist legislative super body, or constituent assembly, passed the new legislation to censor private media outlets and social media users who reported on protests against President Nicolas Maduro and his administration — amid shortages of food and medications. ”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Florida: UF studies explore how public health professionals use Twitter for professional development, public education. “Public health practitioners are actively using Twitter as a platform for networking and development, allowing them to overcome some barriers to professional growth, such as reduced staffing, according to research by a University of Florida team. Public health professionals are also frequently using personal Twitter accounts to disseminate health information to the public.” Good morning, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!