Google has announced it’s closing its social network Google+ to consumers to remain open to enterprise users. The transformation will take place in 10 months, giving users time to make a copy of their messages. The news was provided along with the revelation of a security problem that left the data of many users visible to anyone who could exploit it.
An article published in the journal “Computers & Geosciences” describes a research into the possibilities of combining artificial intelligence, Twitter and what is called citizen science to create early warning systems for flood-prone communities. A team of researchers from the British University of Dundee led by Roger Wang worked to create solutions that can detect as quickly as possible the first signs of danger to activate countermeasures.
Microsoft and the social network LinkedIn announced they reached an agreement under which Microsoft will acquire LinkedIn at a price of $196 per share in cash for a total of $26.2 billion. The agreement provides that LinkedIn will retain its autonomy as a brand and as a company and Jeff Weiner will remain its CEO. The acquisition should be completed by the end of 2016.
Bradley Horowitz, the Google executive who’s been in charge of Google+ and some newly separate services such as Photos for some months, announced a split between Google+ and YouTube. For a long time it was necessary to create a profile on the social network to gain access to other Google services and this went against many users’ wishes. Eventually, the company decided to change things by eliminating this need with the result that YouTube will be a well-separated service but this news will require a bit of time.
As of August 1, Google+ Photos will be gradually eliminated. The social network users can instead use Google Photos, the new independent photo management application. This change is part of the reorganization of the Google+ platform already announced in March 2015 and in this case is aimed at promoting Photos as a standalone service.
