NEW RESOURCES

The National Fairgrounds and Circus Archive has digitized its image collection and put it online (this link is to a Facebook post.) There are over 76,000 images available and cover everything from buildings and sideshow people to animals and rides. The images start in the 19th century, looks like, and keep going. I want to find time to browse this.

IP Australia: TM-link: the new database linking international trade mark data. “In partnership with Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Melbourne, IP Australia has developed a single, internationally-linked trade mark database called TM-link. TM-link is a world-first platform that links trade mark applications across countries and helps businesses search for trade marks across multiple jurisdictions.” It’s not completely global yet – data still being added – but it’s available now. You have to e-mail (!) for access.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Twitter confirms it’s testing a tweetstorm feature. “Twitter confirms it’s testing a feature that allows users to more easily create ‘tweetstorms’ – those series of connected tweets that have grown to be a popular workaround for Twitter’s character count limitations. The feature, which was recently spotted in the wild, offers a new interface for composing tweets, where individual tweetstorm entries can be written one-by-one then published to Twitter in a staggered fashion with a press of a ‘Tweet All’ button.” Interesting screenshots.

The Linux Mint 18.3 beta is now available. “If you are a fan of Linux Mint, you will surely be excited by version 18.3. The BETA features a redone software manager, refreshed backup tool, and an improved login screen. The operating system is still based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, which is wise for stability. It uses kernel 4.10 which isn’t bleeding edge, but is fine. For desktop environments, Mate is at 1.18, while Cinnamon sits at 3.6.”

AdWeek: Creators on Facebook Get Their Own Stand-Alone App and Website. “The Facebook Creator app enables users to create original video, add exclusive features to their Facebook Live offerings and connect with their communities on the social network, and product manager Chris Hatfield detailed some of the app’s features in a blog post…”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

FiveThirtyEight: The FBI’s Explanation For Why It Released Less Crime Data Doesn’t Add Up. “Late last month, FiveThirtyEight published an article that noted that the FBI’s most recent accounting of crime data in the United States was missing almost 70 percent of the data tables that had been included in past editions. The FBI has since disputed that the removal of those tables was out of the ordinary. But closer scrutiny doesn’t seem to bear this claim out.”

AllAfrica: Nigeria: Govt Will Not Restrict Access to Social Media – Minister. “The Minister of Communications Adebayo Shittu has said the Federal Government or any of its agencies will not restrict access of Nigerians to social media. But the minister quickly added that the social media space must be regulated to guard against abuse and hate speech.”

Axios: Twitter to revoke “verified” status from accounts violating rules. “After pausing new account verifications last week, Twitter said on Wednesday that it will begin to review verified accounts and revoke the status from those whose conduct on the services doesn’t follow the company’s guidelines.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Retraction Watch: The “phantom reference:” How a made-up article got almost 400 citations. “Pieter Kroonenberg, an emeritus professor of statistics at Leiden University in The Netherlands, was puzzled when he tried to locate a paper about academic writing and discovered the article didn’t exist. In fact, the journal—Journal of Science Communications—also didn’t exist. Perhaps Kroonenberg’s most bizarre discovery was that this made-up paper, ‘The art of writing a scientific article,’ had somehow been cited almost 400 times, according to Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science.”

HubSpot: Only 7% of People Actually Trust Google’s Featured Snippets. “When you look up the word ‘snippet’ in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition you’ll find is, ‘a small part, piece, or thing; especially: a brief quotable passage.’ So, what does that mean in the context of marketing?… It’s that last context that we’re here to discuss today — specifically, the featured snippet, and what people think of. What is it, and can it be trusted?” Good afternoon, Internet…

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