Business Insider: A creator with 4.7 million Facebook followers says her reach has been ‘decimated’ on the platform, and she fears Instagram is next. “While on YouTube [Jessica] Nigri has 1.2 million subscribers (far less than Facebook), it has been the more reliable platform. She said she has moved away from Facebook over the last year, as she and other top cosplayers have seen decreased reach, with external links they post not getting the numbers they used to. This echoes the broad changes observed by online publishers, which saw Google overtake Facebook as the largest source of referral traffic last summer. When Facebook put an emphasis on video last year, Nigri said that worked for awhile to boost reach, then began to fall off.”
Monthly Archives: January 2018
Search Engine Journal: 14 of the Best Places You Can Learn Photoshop for Free
Search Engine Journal: 14 of the Best Places You Can Learn Photoshop for Free. “Simply loading up the software and trying to figure things out on your own doesn’t work as well when you want to learn Photoshop as it does for other pieces of software. While you could try and read the manuals (which may be more effective at putting you to sleep than anything else), a more visual and interactive learning approach is almost always the better option. Luckily, a high-quality learning experience may be just a few clicks away. Here are 14 places that will let you learn Photoshop for free, giving you all of the information you could want for the most reasonable price in the world.” Wish he’d done a bit more with the annotation, but lots of resources here.
Wired: The EPA Website Is ‘still Updating’ Climate Change Info
Wired: The EPA Website Is ‘still Updating’ Climate Change Info. “In the year he’s been in office, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt has personally directed his webmasters to remove climate-related content on the website, scrubbing material that doesn’t fit his pro-business goals of rolling back regulations and casting doubt on the science of global warming and climate change. Under Pruitt’s orders, EPA managers removed pages on climate change science and information about the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era effort to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel burning plants.”
Search Engine Journal: Fact Checking Google’s Reintroduction to Featured Snippets
Search Engine Journal: Fact Checking Google’s Reintroduction to Featured Snippets. “Danny Sullivan, Google’s Public Liaison for Search, published an article titled, A Reintroduction to Google’s Featured Snippets. He shared the basics about what featured snippets are, when they show up and how they are currently still evolving. But he also left out some telling details. This article reviews what he said then fills in the gaps on what he left out.”
Oxford Mail: Oxford Brookes archive open to the public highlights science luminaries
Oxford Mail: Oxford Brookes archive open to the public highlights science luminaries. “A DIGITAL archive featuring interviews with leading figures in the medical and clinical science world – including Nobel Prize winners – has been launched in Oxford. Oxford Brookes University has opened its newly digitised Medical Sciences Video Archives, its collection of over 130 interviews recorded between 1985 and 2002.”
New York Times: Twitter Followers Vanish Amid Inquiries Into Fake Accounts
New York Times: Twitter Followers Vanish Amid Inquiries Into Fake Accounts. “More than a million followers have disappeared from the accounts of dozens of prominent Twitter users in recent days as the company faces growing criticism over the proliferation of fake accounts and scrutiny from federal and state inquiries into the shadowy firms that sell fake followers.”
Tubefilter: A Month After Launch, Bloomberg’s 24-Hour, Twitter-Based News Feed Gets One Million Views Per Day
Tubefilter: A Month After Launch, Bloomberg’s 24-Hour, Twitter-Based News Feed Gets One Million Views Per Day. “Before launching TicToc in December 2017, Bloomberg spent several months hyping up its foray into 24-hour news, which it planned to live stream via Twitter. About a month into that venture’s life, it appears to be off to a good start. According to a report from DigiDay, TicToc is currently averaging about one million views per day, which makes it a strong performer among the spate of Twitter-based news programs that have popped up over the past year.”
Quartz: The family of a man whose killing was posted on Facebook is suing the company
Quartz: The family of a man whose killing was posted on Facebook is suing the company. “The family of Robert Godwin Sr., a 74-year-old man whose 2017 murder was posted on Facebook by the man who killed him, is suing the company in a wrongful death lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that Facebook was negligent, having knowledge about the shooter Steve Stephen’s intentions, and failing to alert law enforcement. It says the company had ‘more than sufficient’ time to prevent Godwin’s death.”
The best free backup software and services: Reviews and buying advice for protecting your data (PC World)
PC World: The best free backup software and services: Reviews and buying advice for protecting your data. “True backup means retaining data indefinitely no matter what’s happening with the data elsewhere. Read on for our top picks in free online backup and free backup software, and of course the reasons why we picked them. You can get the skinny on paid backup software and online backup services by clicking those links.”
The Star (Malaysia): Over four in ten of world’s population use social media
The Star (Malaysia): Over four in ten of world’s population use social media. “Our planet currently has over four billion Internet users, three-quarters of whom are active on social media, according to the new Digital in 2018 report published by creative agency We Are Social and social media management platform Hootsuite. In January 2018, there were 4.021 billion Internet users across the globe, more than half (53%) of the world’s population. In the space of one year, Internet user numbers have grown by around 250 million (+7%). Growth in Africa was a spectacular 20%.”
Mashable: Google can now predict flight delays
Mashable: Google can now predict flight delays . “The only thing worse than missing your flight is arriving on time just to realize the flight’s been delayed for a couple of hours, and there’s nothing you can do besides sip expensive airport coffee and worry about missing a meeting and/or a connecting flight. Google’s excellent Flights service has a new feature that should help remedy this.”
MakeUseOf: 5 No-Signup Free Online Video Editors That Make You Anonymous
MakeUseOf: 5 No-Signup Free Online Video Editors That Make You Anonymous . “You shoot videos regularly, but you don’t always need to edit those videos. On the off chance that you want to edit, why install an app or go through the rigamarole of signing up for a site? You can get many everyday jobs done with no-signup web apps. That also gives you an armor of anonymity.” I prefer to think of it as “the armor of not needing to dig out a password when you just need to do a quick edit,” but okay.
Tubefilter: TBS Launches Web Series Based On An Instagram Account
Tubefilter: TBS Launches Web Series Based On An Instagram Account. “Turner-owned cable channel TBS has recently adopted a forward-thinking approach to content, and as part of that effort, it has launched a new series based off an Instagram account. Mo Welch is the primary creative force behind Blair, a series of short vignettes centered around the life of a modern misanthrope.”
MakeUseOf: The 7 Best RSS Readers in the Windows Store
MakeUseOf: The 7 Best RSS Readers in the Windows Store. “RSS feeds remain one of the best ways to receive news headlines and exciting articles from your favorite sites. It’s especially true when you’re working on a desktop computer. Yes, you will find plenty of RSS readers for Android and iOS, but the 20-year-old technology really comes into its own when you’re using a full-screen app on a large monitor.”
Make Tech Easier: Top 10 Internet Scams You Should Know and Avoid in 2018
Make Tech Easier: Top 10 Internet Scams You Should Know and Avoid in 2018. “You must have heard about internet scams or could have even fallen victim once before. You’re not alone. Losses from online frauds are 19 times more than offline scams. The trend is growing and means we must be careful about how we use the internet. Let’s explore ten notorious internet scams you might encounter and how to avoid them.” A decent roundup without the hyperbole.