afternoonbuzz

Computer History Museum, Assam Languages, Organic Search Traffic, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, January 23, 2026

NEW RESOURCES

Computer History Museum: Computer History Museum Launches Digital Portal to Its Vast Collection. “The Computer History Museum (CHM), a leader in decoding technology—its computing past, digital present, and future impact on humanity—announced the launch of OpenCHM, a new digital portal providing global access to its unparalleled collection.”

DY365: Race against time: Digital effort saves Khamyang Language; spoken by just one surviving person . “AASU and the Nanda Talukdar Foundation have taken a significant step in preserving Assam’s linguistic heritage by digitally archiving three endangered languages: Khamyang, Tai Phake, and Singpho.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Land: Organic search traffic is down 2.5% YoY, new data shows. “Organic search traffic is down just 2.5% year over year — nowhere near the 25% to 60% drops often cited in industry commentary. That’s one big takeaway from a new large-scale analysis by Graphite using Similarweb data from more than 40,000 of the largest U.S. websites.”

USEFUL STUFF

freeCodeCamp: How to Turn Your Favorite Tech Blogs into a Personal Podcast. “I took a few tech blogs I already enjoy reading, picked the best articles, converted them to audio using my own voice, and turned the result into a private podcast. Now I can stay up to date while walking, running, or driving. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to build a simplified version of that pipeline step by step.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Lifehacker: Why Everyone Should Still Use an RSS Reader in 2026. “It’s now the norm to check social media or the front pages of many different sites to see what’s new. But I think RSS still has a place in your life: Especially for those who don’t want to miss anything or have algorithms choosing what they read, it remains one of the best ways to navigate the internet.” Agreed! I have a whole website full of free tools for finding and creating RSS feeds: https://rssgizmos.com/. Try Kebberfegg for making keyword-based feeds.

Mother Jones: Grok’s Leering Pictures Are the Newest Version of an Old Problem . “And now, of course, there’s Grok, the generative AI tool created by Elon Musk’s X, which has been embroiled in a scandal over users using its new graphics-editing feature to create gross images of women—and, crucially, to put those manipulated images on Twitter, where other people can see them, because attempted public humiliation is the goal.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

TorrentFreak: Unsealed: Spotify Lawsuit Triggered Anna’s Archive Domain Name Suspensions. “Spotify and several major record labels, including UMG, Sony, and Warner, have taken legal action against the unknown operators of Anna’s Archive. The action follows the shadow library’s announcement that it would release hundreds of terabytes of scraped Spotify data. Unsealed documents reveal that the court already issued a broad preliminary injunction, ordering hosting companies, Cloudflare, and domain name services, to take action.”

The National (Middle East): Parents in the UAE now have a legal obligation to monitor children’s digital usage, experts say . “The federal decree law establishes a national Child Digital Safety Council, to be governed by the Ministry of Family, and applies to internet service providers and digital platforms, whether operating within or targeting users in the UAE. It also applies to anyone responsible for the care of children, including parents, redefining obligations regarding digital safety.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Space Daily: Century-old solar records refine future cycle forecasts. “An international team of astronomers has developed a new way to extract solar polar magnetic information from more than a century of historical observations, improving prospects for predicting future solar cycle activity.”

Macquarie University: Turning over a new leaf: Macquarie’s rare plant collection goes digital . “A new Atlas of Living Australia grant will help digitise 16,000 plant specimens at Macquarie University, filling critical gaps in national biodiversity data and making rare species records accessible to researchers worldwide.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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