NEW RESOURCES

Jing Culture & Commerce: The Academy Museum Steps Up Its Digital Offerings Across Web And Mobile. “The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures may be a newcomer to the museum space, but already, it’s mapped out an expansive online strategy. This week, the Los Angeles institution, with the backing of Bloomberg Philanthropies, unveiled a number of digital platforms spanning web and mobile with the aim of enhancing both onsite and offsite visitor experiences.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

I have mentioned this story before but I’m going to take the rare step of mentioning it again because this is a great explainer of what Google is accused of doing with its advertising auction. Wired: Google’s Alleged Scheme to Corner the Online Ad Market. “IN 2010, A Google product manager named Scott Spencer gave an interview explaining Google’s use of ‘second-price’ auctions to place ads across the web. In a second-price auction, the highest bidder wins, but only has to pay whatever the second highest bid was. Economists love this setup—the guy who theorized it won a Nobel Prize—because it encourages participants to bid whatever the item is truly worth to them without worrying about overpaying. As Spencer explained, ‘it minimizes the need to “game” the system.’ But what if Google was the one gaming the system?”

9to5 Google: Legacy Google Voice, including answerable ‘Carrier Call Forwarding,’ shutting down next month. “A little over three and a half years after Voice was massively redesigned, Google started telling original users that the legacy web version would stop receiving updates and encouraged them to migrate over. Legacy Google Voice is now set to be ‘phased out’ from next month.”

USEFUL STUFF

Wired: How to Reboot Your Gadgets and How Often to Do It . “GADGETS ARE GREAT, which is why our homes are full of them. But sometimes things go wrong, and wasting time by troubleshooting is nobody’s idea of fun. But turning things off and on again—the common refrain of the IT department—can alleviate a host of problems. If you automate or schedule regular reboots, you can even prevent issues from ever arising, and give your gadgets the best chance of running smoothly.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Billboard: Issa Rae’s Raedio Label Teams With Google for Emerging Artists Program . “The Raedio Creator Program Supported by Google will select two female artists and two composers to receive funding and resources to create and retain full ownership of their music. The funding from Google will cover recording fees, producer costs and marketing expenses for the female artists to put out a three-to-five song EP. The Raedio record label branch will supervise and distribute the projects, which will be available on all digital service providers (DSPs).”

SECURITY & LEGAL

ABC 13: Astroworld Fest: FBI portal goes online for photo or video uploads of the Houston concert disaster. “On Friday, more than two months after the deadly concert surge at NRG Park, the Houston Police Department announced the establishment of a public-facing FBI website, urging those who have any photos or video taken at the concert venue back on Nov. 5, 2021, to upload them to the portal.”

TechCrunch: In bad news for US cloud services, Austrian website’s use of Google Analytics found to breach GDPR. “A decision by Austria’s data protection watchdog upholding a complaint against a website related to its use of Google Analytics does not bode well for use of US cloud services in Europe. The decision raises a big red flag over routine use of tools that require transferring Europeans’ personal data to the US for processing — with the watchdog finding that IP address and identifiers in cookie data are the personal data of site visitors, meaning these transfers fall under the purview of EU data protection law.”

Politico: Zuckerberg and Google CEO approved deal to carve up ad market, states allege in court. “Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google chief executive Sundar Pichai personally approved a secret deal that gave the social network a leg up in the search giant’s online advertising auctions, attorneys for Texas and other states alleged in newly unsealed court filings.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Daily Nous: News About Two Open-Access Philosophy Journals. “One philosophy journal has shed its corporate publisher to protect its current open-access status, while another has initiated a funding plan that offers departments of philosophy institutional memberships.”

TechCrunch: Google’s loss to Sonos settles it: Big Tech has an IP piracy problem. “Big Tech thus takes what it wants. It then uses scorched-earth litigation tactics to beat up on complaining IP owners. It drags out litigation over many years and imposes massive litigation costs on IP owners seeking justice. Many IP owners don’t even file a lawsuit. They know it is ruinous and self-defeating to try to protect what is rightfully theirs. Simply put, Big Tech benefits from stealing IP. The legal costs and potential damages, if ever issued after years of litigation, are paltry by comparison.” Good evening, Internet…

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