NEW RESOURCES

The Past: Iron Age coin database launched online. “Academic researchers and those involved in finds identification will be pleased to learn that the Celtic Coin Index (CCI) – the world’s largest dataset of Iron Age coins in Britain – is now available as an online resource via the Celtic Coin Index Digital (CCID).”

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: Cancer FactFinder website launched to provide fact-based, reliable information about causes of cancer. “A team led by the Zhu Family Center for Global Cancer Prevention at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Center for Cancer Equity and Engagement at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center has launched Cancer FactFinder (https://cancerfactfinder.org/), a new website that provides accurate and reliable information about what does and does not cause cancer.”

UK Government: New product recalls and alerts site. “The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has launched a new product safety alerts, reports and recalls site to help the British public, businesses and consumer groups identify unsafe products.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Lifehacker: This Bot Can Tell You How Good You Really Are at Wordle. “If you’ve played Wordle recently, you can visit the tool in the same browser and it’ll know how you made your guesses—but you can also upload a screenshot of a Wordle you have played in the past. I’m going to introduce you to the bot with some older screenshots, but then we’ll dive into strategy for today’s puzzle, number 293, so either stop reading or go solve it now if you don’t want to see spoilers.”

Android Police: Google Fi cuts prices and bumps data for Unlimited plans. “Just about a year ago, Google Fi introduced a new pricing tier. While this new Simply Unlimited plan looked like a straightforward way to package unlimited calls, texts, and data, we noted that it wasn’t actually much of a bargain compared to plans from other carriers. But we might want to start rethinking that, as Google has just announced reduced pricing for its Simply Unlimited and Unlimited Plus plans, along with some extra benefits for each.”

TechCrunch: Twitter launches improved alt text accessibility features globally. “For a while now, Twitter has made it easy to add alt text to image uploads, allowing tweeters to provide a description of an image to aid people who use screen readers or speech-to-text programs. But until now, you haven’t been able to see what images do or do not have alt text if you weren’t using a screen reader yourself — so, for example, if you wanted to make sure that the content that you retweet was accessible to followers who might be Blind or have limited vision, you’d just have to retweet and hope for the best. After a successful test last month, Twitter is rolling out two additions to its alt text feature.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

CBS News: China discreetly paid for U.S. social media influencers to tout Beijing Winter Olympics. “The social media posts fanned across a variety of popular Instagram and TikTok accounts that have a combined following of 5 million people who follow their videos, photos and content about travel destinations, sports, fashion and women’s issues. The Chinese Consulate in New York paid $300,000 to New Jersey-based firm Vippi Media to recruit the influencers. The posts were not properly labeled as ads in the way that TikTok and Instagram requires.”

BBC: Gen Z calling for more honesty on social media, experts say. “Could social media be forced to clean up its act? Experts say young people, the drivers and target audience for sites like Instagram, are impatient to see greater authenticity online because of their growing awareness of how it can negatively affect their mental health.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: U.S. Judge in Google Case Not Convinced Company’s Conduct Will Get Sanction . “The U.S. federal judge hearing the government’s antitrust case against Alphabet’s Google said on Friday he was not convinced that he had the authority to sanction the company for overzealous use of attorney-client privilege if it occurred before the Justice Department’s lawsuit was filed.”

Miami Herald: Hackers stole 20 million credit card records from Chili’s, Chipotle and others, feds say. “A hacking group targeted businesses across all 50 states and stole more than 20 million debit and credit card records from customers, federal officials said. Denys Iarmak, 32, from Ukraine, is the third member in the group’s scheme to face prison time, the United States Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Washington said in an April 7 news release.”

WIRED: The Senate Bill That Has Big Tech Scared. “IF YOU WANT to know how worried an industry is about a piece of pending legislation, a decent metric is how apocalyptic its predictions are about what the bill would do. By that standard, Big Tech is deeply troubled by the American Innovation and Choice Online Act.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Verge: Google is using AI to update business hours that are out of date on Google Maps. “Google has shared how it’s using artificial intelligence, including its restaurant-calling Duplex tech, to try and keep business hours up to date on Google Maps. The company says that if it is confident enough in the AI’s prediction of what a business’s hours should be, it will update the information in Maps.” Good morning, 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!