Adriana Lee says, “Google Wave and Google Reader will soon have some company: Turns out, Google Helpouts is not long for this world. The company will shutter the online expert help service on April 20. Helpouts seems to be slowly dissolving. TechCrunch noticed the disappearance of its iPhone app today, following the previous removal of its Android app. The website still works for now, but will go offline in the next couple of months. In the world of Google services, Helpouts—which uses Google Hangouts to offer live video help from experts on various topics—was just a toddler, havinglaunched... [...]

Adriana Lee says, “Google has now made it easier for armchair physicians to find things to freak out about. The tech giant just announced the inclusion of medical information to its Knowledge Graph searches, allowing anyone to contradict their doctors right in their offices. Essentially, it amounts to Google’s own souped-up version of WebMD, but with a simpler interface and more direct access. (Of course, it could spell doom for the actual WebMD website, which is still alive and kicking, at least for now.)”. Google Now Gives Hypochrondriacs What They Want ReadWrite  [...]

Adriana Lee says, “Net neutrality—the principle that no Internet provider can pick and choose which traffic to carry—took a beating just over a year ago when Verizon successfully sued to overturn the FCC’s “Open Internet” rules. Now the FCC is ready to strike back with a vengeance. In a Wired op-ed, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler outlined his plan to enforce net neutrality by relying on some of the agency’s oldest and most robust authority—Title II of the Telecommunications Act— to categorize Internet service providers as “common carriers” akin to your... [...]

Lauren Orsini says, “Suppose the only way to get to this article—yes, the one you’re reading—was to first visit readwrite.com and then trust that you could locate it using the site’s navigation tools. Odds are good that you’d be somewhere else right now. Instead, you probably followed a link shared on Twitter, passed along in email or even displayed here on ReadWrite. That “deep link” made it possible for you to zip right to this page, the same way you can visit just about anywhere on the Web with a single click. Deep links make the Web what it is; they’re... [...]

Lauren Orsini says, “Twitter direct messages just got more talkative. Now you can have a private conversation with a group, the social network announced Tuesday. Until now, Twitter’s direct messaging feature has been reserved for conversations between no more than two participants. Now, you can create groups of up to 20 Twitter users at the same time, and they do not have to be following one another to join. Group direct messages will support “text, photos, links, emoji and Tweets,” according to Twitter. The feature is expected to roll out over the next couple of days to all users. As Twitter... [...]

Helen A. S. Popkin says, “Once upon a time, when life was simpler, LinkedIn was the social network where you looked for jobs, while Facebook was the one where you wasted time while you were at your job. And it was a good idea not to let your boss know you were hanging out on either one. Times have changed, as evidenced by new workplace communication tools recently announced by both social networks: Facebook At Work and  InMail private communication for coworkers, the first of several tools expected from LinkedIn. Neither come as a surprise, as rumors about both services have been circulating... [...]

Adriana Lee says, “So long, Windows 7. After six years, Microsoft has started phasing out this version of its desktop operating system. Independent security analyst Graham Cluley points out that “mainstream support” for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 has just ended, according to thisMicrosoft webpage. However, if you bought a PC with this version last October, when the last Windows 7 consumer computers shipped, don’t despair: At least extended support will continue for another five years”. It’s The Beginning Of The End For Windows 7 ReadWrite  [...]

Matt Asay says, “”The Web Is Broken!” has become a familiar theme, with apps generally called out as the bogeyman. We’re in love with the convenience of apps, spending dramatically more time with apps than our web browser on phones. This won’t be without consequence. As the Wall Street Journal’s Christopher Mims argues, “Underneath all that convenience is something sinister: the end of the very openness that allowed Internet companies to grow into some of the most powerful or important companies of the 21st century.” But the Web was broken long before... [...]

Lauren Orsini says, “Twitter will be launching a native video feature in just a few weeks, sources close to the company have revealed toRecode. The feature, which will reportedly allow users to record, edit, and post video without leaving the Twitter app, will be similar to—but separate from—its Vine app. The goal is apparently to provide more ways for people to create video on Twitter, and more engagement as a result. Twitter first hinted at coming out with a video app in November last year, announcing several different new features including “While You Were Away,” its first non-chronological... [...]

Lauren Orsini says, “Video posts per person have increased 75% globally, 94% in the United States since the last year, Facebook reports. In a Thursday post on itss media blog, the social network revealed that Facebook has averaged more than 1 billion video views every day since June 2014, and in the United States, 50% of returning visitors watch at least one video daily. It’s a spike that has at least one analytics company proclaiming that Facebook is now bigger for video than YouTube, at least when it comes to official accounts. According to Socialbakers, brands posted 20,000 more videos... [...]