NEW RESOURCES

Digital NC: Smithfield Herald Now Digitized Online. “138 issues of the Smithfield Herald have been newly added to DigitalNC, courtesy of our partner, the Johnston County Heritage Center. These are the first issues of the Smithfield Herald digitized on DigitalNC, covering January 1917 to April 1918. Established in 1882, the Herald was at one point the oldest operating newspaper in Johnston County. ”

Courtesy of Patron and all-around good egg Glenn M, from Priceonomics: Introducing Onomics: Create and Embed Data Tables. “We currently create most of our charts using Excel, but the formatting for tables is inconsistent and a lot of information is lost when you use an image of a chart and instead of an embedded version. In the past we’ve tried custom D3 tables (absolutely beautiful, but hard to maintain over time and require programming knowledge to create) and Google Spreadsheets (not suited to pretty tables or adding your logo). Why is it so hard to make a nice looking data table So, today we launch Onomics, our tool for creating and embedding data tables based on the D3 data visualization library. You can give it a try here and play around with sample data.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

VentureBeat: Google Drive now lets you comment and collaborate on Microsoft Office files, PDFs, and images. “Yesterday, Microsoft announced plans to attract new OneDrive customers through a special ‘free-switch’ offer aimed at rival cloud storage services from the likes of Google. Today, Google revealed it was turbo-charging Google Drive to include a bunch of new features designed to appease Microsoft Office users across the spectrum.”

Search Engine Journal: Google Launches 2018 Winter Olympics Features Across Search Results. “Google has officially launched its 2018 Winter Olympics-themed features across the web, which includes includes Search, YouTube, Assistant, and more.”

Google Blog: Introducing the new Google Play Music. “Whether reminding you to leave to catch your flight, helping you find pictures of your daughter’s recital, or suggesting the right Smart Reply, Google builds tools that help you make the world of information more accessible and useful. And at Google Play Music, we strive for the same. Building on our commitment to help you find the right music for any moment, today we’re introducing the new Google Play Music — a fresh take on our music streaming service that is smarter, easier to use, and much more assistive.”

USEFUL STUFF

Engadget: How to watch the 2018 Winter Olympics. “With the opening ceremonies completed and the torch lit, the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea are officially underway and will run through February 25th. Viewers have plenty of options to stream events this time around — and while you can watch almost everything on NBC with your cable subscription, there are several internet TV providers that include some or all of the network’s coverage through their own service subscriptions.”

Social Media Examiner: 7 Twitter Hashtag Research Tools for Marketers. “Do you use hashtags for marketing campaigns on Twitter? Looking for hashtag tools to help improve your use of hashtags? In this article, you’ll find seven hashtag tools for researching and reporting on Twitter hashtags.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Gadgeteer: ScanMyPhotos photo scanning service review. “When we wanted to save a moment in time before the days of smartphones, we captured a picture with an actual camera. Inside the camera was a roll of film which had to be dropped off at a drug store or camera store to be developed. A few days later you’d stop at the store and pick up the processed pictures. If you’re old enough, you probably have a few boxes of photos from days gone by collecting dust on a shelf. How can you ‘backup’ those images or share them on social media without manually scanning each individual photo? ScanMyPhotos is a service that will take care of the work of scanning your photos. Let’s take a look.”

Business Insider: Small brands and influencers are worried that Instagram is choking off their traffic — just like Facebook did with publishers. “Instagram has helped foster a unique crop of social media-savvy brands and stars, ranging from the cosmetics company Anastasia Beverly Hills to food influencer brunchboys. But some of those Instagram-born creators are starting to lose faith in the platform. Ever since Facebook announced its massive News Feed shake-up last month, many publishers and social-media-dependent brands have been in panic mode, believing that the days of quickly building audiences on the social network organically (i.e. without paying for them) — are numbered.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Thanks to Jonathan B for throwing this my way, from The Conversation: Estate planning for your digital assets. “The law is very clear about handling paper documents and other physical property when someone dies. But as a law professor at Drake Law School who has been studying property transfers for years, I’ve seen that laws, regulations and court rulings are only recently trying to figure out how to handle the ever-changing realm of digital technology. So far, in most cases the information is controlled by the companies that store it – regardless of what users want or direct to happen after their death.”

CBR: Internet gang indicted over $530m cybercrime campaign. “A gang of 36 members have been accused of being part of a $530 million cybercrime operation and indicted by the US; members have been located in countries including the UK. Spread far and wide, other members have been tracked down across seven countries including the U.S. and the UK, with France, Italy, Kosovo, Serbia and even Australia also on the list.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Campus Technology: McGill U Researcher: Smartphone Addiction Is Normal Need to Connect on Overdrive. “We stare at our phones all the time not because the devices themselves are addictive, but because we’re driven to socialize, according to a recent literature review by researchers at McGill University.” Good morning, Internet…

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