NEW RESOURCES

New-to-me, from Calvin College: Hymn Database Captures Attention Of Millenials. “With more than 1.3 million hymns, 6,000 hymnals, and 700,000 users a month, Hymnary.org has grown from a small online collection of just 30 hymnals into the most expansive online hymn database in the world.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Economic Times (India): CCI dismisses complaints against Google; chairperson gives dissent note. “Anti-trust regulator CCI today rejected allegations of unfair business practices made against Google with respect to its advertising platform, saying the internet major’s actions did not infringe provisions of the competition law.”

PC World: Chrome gobbles much more RAM due to Google’s ‘Site Isolation’ protection for Spectre CPU flaws. “The critical Meltdown and Spectre bugs baked deep into modern computer processors will have ramifications on the entire industry for years to come, and Chrome just became collateral damage. Google 67 enabled ‘Site Isolation’ Spectre protection for most users, and the browser now uses 10 to 13 percent more RAM due to how the fix behaves.”

TechCrunch: Microsoft Teams gets a free version. “Microsoft opened up the news floodgates this morning, in the kick off to its annual Inspire event in Vegas. One of the more compelling announcements of the bunch is the addition of a free version of Teams.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: How to Maximize Battery Life and Minimize Data Usage When Traveling. “It’s summertime and wanderlust is coming for us all. It’s important that you get out there and see the world, but it’s equally important that your phone is as ready for your travels as you are. After you’ve thrown a dart on the map and purchased your plane ticket, try these tips to make sure you’re not burning through your smartphone’s battery—or data plan—while away.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Mashable: Google search data shows just how horrible the year 2017 really was. “2017 was a very bad year, and Google’s here to remind us of that. The tech giant released a list and ‘Year in Search 2017’ video detailing all of 2017’s highest-trending searches, which, as you may have guessed are all fairly grim.”

CNBC: Facebook recently closed a loophole that allowed third parties to discover the names of people in private, ‘closed’ Facebook groups. “Facebook recently closed a privacy loophole that allowed third parties to discover the names of people in private, ‘closed’ Facebook groups. A Chrome extension that was made specifically for marketers to harvest this information en masse was also shut down prior to Facebook’s move, after the social media network issued a cease-and-desist letter to the application’s makers earlier this year, according to a spokesperson.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Next Web: Hackers attack Utah’s online voter database more than a billion times a day. “In the wake of former presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s decision to run for Senate in Utah, the state’s online voter registration database has suffered more than one billion hacking attempts per day.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

BuzzFeed: Facebook Proves It Isn’t Ready To Handle Fake News. “On Wednesday afternoon, Facebook invited a handful of journalists to its New York offices for shrimp cocktail, a short presentation, and a question-and-answer session with its head of News Feed. The company screened its expensive 12-minute short film on fake news, which was directed by Academy Award–winning documentarian Morgan Neville and then opened up the floor for reporters to ask questions. The goal: to convince reporters that Facebook has finally found purchase in its long fight against misinformation. It didn’t go as planned.”

The Register: AI threatens yet more jobs – now, lab rats: Animal testing could be on the way out, thanks to machine learning. “Machine learning algorithms can help scientists predict chemical toxicity to a similar degree of accuracy as animal testing, according to a paper published this week in Toxicological Sciences. A whopping €3bn (over $3.5bn) is spent every year to study how the negative impacts of chemicals on animals like rats, rabbits or monkeys.”

Search Engine Journal: MIT Research: How to Get More Twitter Followers. “MIT researchers recently published a paper demonstrating how to gain more followers for free on Twitter. They tested thousands of interactions and scenarios to find the right formula. Key insights include how to increase conversion rates by up to 30%.” Good morning, Internet…

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