TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BetaNews: All core GitHub features are now free. “When Microsoft acquired GitHub two years ago, it was clear that some things would change along the line. Microsoft lifted the private repository creation limit one year ago and worked for the last 18 months on making core GitHub features available for free for everyone, according to a new announcement.”

Google Blog: Now that we’re at home, bring the great artists to you. “Google Arts & Culture puts the stories and knowledge of over 2,000 cultural institutions from 80 countries in your home. It immerses you in a world of culture through augmented reality, virtual reality, Street View and AI. New tools recently added to the Google Arts & Culture app allow you to bring the world’s culture into your home, whether you’d like to hang a virtual Van Gogh in your kitchen or experience a classical concert in Beijing’s Forbidden City on your couch.”

TechCrunch: Google Play adds a ‘Teacher Approved’ section to its app store. “Google today is making it easier for families to find quality educational apps with the addition of a new ‘Teacher Approved’ section to Google Play. All apps found in this section are vetted by a panel of reviewers, including more than 200 teachers across the U.S., and meet Google’s existing requirements for its “Designed for Families” program.”

USEFUL STUFF

Social Media Examiner: How to Use the LinkedIn Featured Section on Your Profile. “Are you doing all you can on your profile? Wondering how to use the LinkedIn Featured section to your advantage In this article, you’ll learn how to use the Featured section for LinkedIn profiles to showcase your most notable and up-to-date work samples and media mentions.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Haaretz: Israel to Play Key Role in Giant Google Fiber Optic Cable Project . “Israel will soon have a critical place on Google’s expanding global fiber optic network. The U.S. technology giant is planning a cable called Blue-Raman (the latter half named after the Indian Nobel Prize laureate Venkata Raman) that will run between India and Italy through Israel.”

Reuters: Google to slow hiring for rest of 2020, CEO tells staff . “Alphabet Inc’s Google will slow hiring for the rest of the year, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai told the company’s staff in a memo on [April 15].”

Jewish News: Torah and TikTok: Not your dad’s bar mitzvah. “While their parents may have relied on tape recorders and CDs for their own b’nei mitzvah preparations, students today learning to chant Torah can turn to YouTube. ‘There are lots of cantors who have produced high-quality recordings on YouTube,’ said Ben Rotenberg, education director at Germantown Jewish Centre in Pennsylvania. ‘It’s easy to find a voice that you can match and feel comfortable with.’ The video sharing website is just one of many technologies being incorporated into b’nei mitzvah preparations.”

Brisbane Times: Podcast mystery: the hit song that Google couldn’t find. “In February, a 38-year-old filmmaker named Tyler Gillett was coming home from a party in Los Angeles with his wife when he started singing a song he remembered from high school in the ’90s. His wife had never heard of it. Gillett couldn’t believe it because he used to hear it on mainstream pop radio. He got out his phone to find it, but couldn’t remember the name of the song or the name of the band, so he started typing lyrics he remembered into Google. Nothing. He tried all night. Nothing. He sang what he remembered to friends in the coming days. Still nothing. The earworm seemed to have disappeared through a wormhole.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

ZDNet: Exclusive: Google removes 49 Chrome extensions caught stealing crypto-wallet keys. “Google has removed 49 Chrome extensions from the Web Store that posed as legitimate cryptocurrency wallet apps but contained malicious code that stole crypto-wallet private keys, mnemonic phrases, and other raw secrets.”

The Verge: Photographer can’t sue a website for embedding her Instagram post, says court. “A court ruled yesterday that Mashable can embed a professional photographer’s photo without breaking copyright law, thanks to Instagram’s terms of service. The New York district court determined that Stephanie Sinclair offered a ‘valid sublicense’ to use the photograph when she posted it publicly on Instagram.”

BetaNews: ‘Fraud guides’ account for almost half of material for sale on dark web markets. “Digital risk protection company Terbium Labs has released a trend report on the stolen and fraudulent data of three of the largest multi-good dark web marketplaces, which finds that fraud guides account for 49 percent of the data being sold. Personal data lags some way behind at at 15.6 percent, followed by non-financial accounts and credentials (12.2 percent), financial accounts and credentials (8.2 percent), fraud tools and templates (eight percent) and payment cards (seven percent).”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Analytics India: A New AI Tool Removes Caste-Based Abuse From Social Media Platforms. “n the wake of increasing cyberbullying to fake news, Social Media Matters has partnered with Spectrum Labs to launch a Behaviour Identification Model in order to detect caste discrimination within online communities. According to the company, the social media platforms of users usually contain a spectrum of information ranging from personal to mundane to sharing political opinions and building communities. And that’s why the online communities have become a fertile ground for groups based on ethnicity or castes. Social Media Matters, that’s why designed this model — The Behaviour Identification model in order to detect the same.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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