a resource for builders of the web
  • Related Citation Links in Search Results June 17, 2024
    The four PubMed comment correction types​​ labeled in search results now also include a link to the related citation in the summary display: Update in, Retraction in, Retracted and republished in, Corrected and republished in.​​
  • Wildcard Search Improvements June 3, 2024
    ​PubMed search syntax now supports expanded use of the asterisk (*) wildcard character. Previously, a wildcard could only be used for truncation at the end of a term or phrase to search for alternate endings. With this update, wildcards can be used in the middle of a term or phrase, and multiple wildcards can be […]
  • Usability improvement: Links now underlined on mouseover February 12, 2024
    Links on PubMed are now underlined on mouseover. This update is based on recommendations from the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS)​.
  • PubMed 2024 Baseline Released and DTD updated December 20, 2023
    The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has released the 2024 production year PubMed Baseline files and the first set of 2024 PubMed Update files have been posted. Regular daily updates have resumed.The updated 2024 PubMed DTD is available here​.
  • GR Field Renamed From "Grant Number" to "Grants and Funding" September 21, 2023
    ​The GR field in PubMed has been renamed from "Grant Number" to "Grants and Funding" and a new section about grants and funding has been added to the PubMed User Guide. These updates to the field name and supporting documentation are being made to increase the overall transparency of funding information in PubMed. These updates […]
  • Proximity Searching Now Available for Affiliation Search Field August 16, 2023
    ​Proximity searching is now available in PubMed for the Affiliation field in addition to the Title and Title/Abstract fields. Proximity searching in PubMed was introduced in November 2022; for more information and FAQs, see: PubMed Update: Proximity Search Now Available in PubMed​.
  • "Sort by" Moved Out of Display Options for Quick Access July 27, 2023
    ​The "Sort by" drop-down menu used to change the sort order of PubMed search results has been moved out of the "Display options" button and now appears as a standalone feature at the top of the search results page, making it easier and faster to change the sort order of your search results.​
  • Lengthy author lists truncated in search results March 29, 2023
    ​PubMed has been updated to streamline the display of lengthy author lists in search results. When viewing search results in the Summary display format, author lists are now truncated after 1,200 characters followed by an ellipsis (…) and a link to "See abstract for full author list". In practice, this change applies to citations with […]
  • Journal Filter Category Renamed January 5, 2023
    The JOURNAL filter category has been renamed to OTHER. This filter category contains the MEDLINE filter and a new “Exclude preprints” filter. You can add these filters to your filter sidebar using the “Additional filters” button.
  • MESH Update December 8, 2022
    ​PubMed MEDLINE indexed citations and the MeSH database have been updated with 2023 MeSH vocabulary.

Free video/audio conversion (transcoding)



If you support web technology you are inevitably going to be asked to support video or at least offer some sort of video solution.  For many of us this can be a pocket where providing a good solution can be a challenge.   Understanding myriad formats for video and audio.  Providing support for delivering video to customers who may have slow connections or may have outdated devices can be a huge challenge.  If it’s the public web space then maybe the answer can be easy, you point them to YouTube, but there are limitations and one of the biggest is delivering video content that isn’t for the public.  Regardless, one of the tools you should have in your arsenal (especially for those who have a high volume of video coming in from various sources) is FFMPEG, this open source video/audio transcoder is flexible, highly customizable , powerful, fast, and offers loads of options.  It also is a command-line/shell solution so it offers plenty of options for automating conversion in batch file, shell scripts, or your favorite programming language.  You can also find loads of examples and gobs of documentation on the internet for ffmpeg which extends well beyond ffmpeg.org.  FFMPEG is to video/audio as Apache is to web servers.

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