TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Wired: What You Should Know About the Google Play Store Changes. “GOOGLE IS INTRODUCING a major shift in the way that apps work on Android—and while the changes might not be too noticeable to consumers, it’s important to be aware of what’s happening and why, if you’re a user of Google’s mobile operating system.”

Gizmodo: Google Is Signing Out Free Hangouts Users on Mobile, Gets Closer to Finally Killing the Thing . “It’s been nearly an entire year since we started talking about how Google Hangouts was officially set to disappear. Since then, it seems like we’ve been repeating the same thing every few months, only for Hangouts to stubbornly persist living. If apps could talk, Hangouts would probably declare, ‘what is dead may never die.’ However, Google on Friday took one more slow step toward shutting off the lights at Hangouts for good.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Mashable: TikTok beauty filters can be super realistic—unless you’re a person of color . “When I first came across the Glow Look filter on TikTok, I dragged my self-absorbed ass into the video maker to try it on. I was expecting to be wowed by my own hotness, just like all the other girls on my For You Page. Instead, I tapped the filter on, and immediately guffawed. It looked ridiculous, to say the least. The enlarged, bright blue eyes, flushed cheeks, and noticeably thinner nose looked extremely out of place on my Vietnamese face.”

PC Magazine: Virtual Clothing: A Waste of Money or a Way to Save the Planet in Style?. “A Gucci bag going for several thousand dollars is not news. But a Gucci bag that you can only wear in the metaverse going for more than its IRL counterpart is certainly eye-catching.”

Stylist: Archaeology is trending on TikTok – here’s how to make it your new hobby . “From verified accounts that share videos about new finds and favourite artefacts, to videos of people metal detecting and a plethora of hilarious archaeology-themed memes, it seems plenty of students, academics and eager hobbyists are finding that #archaeologytiktok is a great space to share their enthusiasm for digging up old stuff and working out what it can tell us about the history of humankind.” An interesting, informative article saddled with an absolutely wretched headline.

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Actively exploited bug bypasses authentication on millions of routers. “Threat actors actively exploit a critical authentication bypass vulnerability impacting home routers with Arcadyan firmware to take them over and deploy Mirai botnet malicious payloads. The vulnerability tracked as CVE-2021-20090 is a critical path traversal vulnerability (rated 9.9/10) in the web interfaces of routers with Arcadyan firmware that could allow unauthenticated remote attackers to bypass authentication.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Fast Company: This is where hateful trolls go after they are banned from mainstream social media. “Ever wonder what happens to Twitter or Facebook users after they’re thrown out for hate speech? A team of researchers from Germany, the U.K., and the United States found out. Their research process was creative: They gathered 29 million posts from Gab, a right-wing platform known for its neo-Nazis, conspiracy theorists, and anti-Semitism, and then backtracked to find users’ other profiles on Twitter or Reddit, some of which had been suspended.”

Times of Israel: New Google project in Israel aims to use AI to help detect colon cancer. “Google’s Verily Life Sciences has said it will open a research and development center in Israel that will focus on applying artificial intelligence technology to biomedical problems. The R&D center will move forward with research conducted by Google Health and the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Verily said on Thursday.”

dot LA: Venture Cash Is Pouring Into AI that Can Diagnose Diseases. Doctors Aren’t Sure They Can Trust It.. “Beyond its most promising attributes, AI-driven technology could also dramatically decrease wait times at hospitals and doctors’ offices by automating some of the most tedious work, allowing doctors to see and treat more patients. But critics of the unregulated technology say results can be inconsistent.”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

Digital Trends: Frantic Fanfic is a party game about writing terrible fan faction Typo in headline. “…at its most basic, Frantic Fanfic allows a group of friends to each write down character names that will then be shuffled around, names will be chosen by the group, and then each player will be prompted to write a different section of several fan fictions using the chosen characters under a time limit. Once every section of each fan fiction has been written, the group will then be prompted to read each out loud.” Good evening, 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!