search engines
Latest
WhatsApp was exposing users' phone numbers in Google search
WhatsApp claims it fixed an issue that was showing users’ phone numbers in Google search results.
Android users in Europe will get to pick their default search provider
Following an antitrust ruling by the European Union, Google is explaining its plans to offer a choice of search providers to Android users. From next year, a new choice screen will be displayed on all Android devices shipped in Europe. This will, eventually, let users select the default search engine, and browser, for their hardware. Google, however, has found a way to spin this into a money-making opportunity.
Google adds DuckDuckGo as a search engine option in Chrome
Hidden in the most recent version of Chrome is the ability to change its default search engine to a more privacy-friendly option. With the release of Chrome 73, Google has quietly introduced DuckDuckGo as a preferred search option in more than 60 markets including the United States and the United Kingdom.
Apple picks Bing over Google to power Spotlight search on OS X Yosemite and iOS 8
While Google is the 800-pound gorilla when it comes to search, Apple is becoming increasingly flirtatious with Microsoft's Bing. While it wasn't necessarily clear during Monday's keynote, Microsoft has since confirmed that Bing will be the default search engine in Spotlight for both OS X Yosemite and iOS 8. Google certainly can't be too thrilled with this as the bulk of its revenue is tied to search-based advertising, a fact certainly not lost on Apple. In a statement provided to Search Engine Land on the matter, Microsoft said: Last year Bing became the default web search for Siri, and will now also be the default web search provider in the redesigned Spotlight search feature for the next generation of iOS and OS X. We're excited about extending the Bing platform to help iOS and Mac customers find what they need to get things done. And while Google will remain the default search engine in Safari, Apple is adding the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo search engine as an option for the first time.
Why Apple likely won't make Yahoo the default search engine on iOS
Kara Swisher of Re/code yesterday published a story claiming that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is working hard to hopefully convince Apple that it should replace Google as the default search engine in iOS with, wait for it... Yahoo. A number of Yahoo insiders I have talked to said her plan to pitch Apple on the idea as its marquee mobile search partner is far along. The company has prepared detailed decks, including images of what such a search product would look like, and hopes to present them to Apple execs. That has not happened as yet officially and no deal is imminent - it's just the big honking goal of the new Yahoo effort, said sources. Still, several said Mayer has already buttonholed a few Apple executives on the topic, including its powerful SVP of design, Jony Ive, who knows the former Google exec well. Now Kara Swisher certainly has a reputable track record when it comes Yahoo-related scoops, and while Marissa Mayer may in fact have grand hopes to make Yahoo a much more integral part of the iOS experience, one shouldn't expect Apple to be swayed by Yahoo's slide decks, no matter how detailed or intriguing they might be. As for why, Danny Sullivan over at Search Engine Land recently posted an extremely informative article articulating the myriad of roadblocks which make a Yahoo/Apple deal extremely unlikely. For starters, Sullivan writes that Yahoo by itself doesn't boast any unique search technologies that would enable it to ably replace Google without end users noticing a difference in search results. Indeed, Yahoo search is currently powered by Microsoft Bing. In the years since Yahoo last did search, the amount of information to comb through on the web has increased - meaning much more noise to draw signal from. Meanwhile, potential employees serious about web search have long ago decamped to Google and Bing. Both those companies have huge teams involved in running mature search operations. Despite some Yahoo hires, there's been no signs the company is drawing anywhere near the staffing that Google or Bing has. So what about Bing itself? Of course, if Apple goes that route, why not work with Microsoft directly instead of providing users with Bing results dressed up in Yahoo clothing? But over and above that, there's no getting around the fact that Google search remains an unrivaled service. To that end, Sullivan recalls the backlash Apple -- as a company that espouses a first-rate user experience -- received following the less than stellar rollouts of Siri and Apple Maps. Why would Apple, the reasoning goes, make such a drastic and potentially detrimental move as it pertains to mobile search? Sure, opting for Yahoo would undoubtedly upset Google, but one would hope that Apple's unyielding goal to provide a top-notch user experience would trump the company's current misgivings about Google in particular and Android in general. As a final point, and this can't be stressed enough, search done well is hard, hard work. This quote from Quora founder Adam D'Angelo is worth noting: Because search is so profitable, Google and Microsoft have invested huge amounts of money on developing the best possible search engine. They have hired tons of smart people and directed them at the problem, they put a million computers on the task, and they created all kinds of special-cased services (maps, news search, image search, Google Scholar, etc.) The space has gotten so competitive as a result of the profitability that search engines pay computer manufacturers dollars per computer for them to set the default search engine for every new computer they ship. Likewise, there are deals with all the browser makers. With no evidence that Yahoo has been engaging in search algorithm technologies, it just doesn't seem to jibe that Apple would abandon Google for anything other than Bing. There's much more to digest on this topic in Sullivan's full article. It's well worth checking out.
Phlo for Mac is a quick and useful search utility
If you are like me, you do a lot of searching every day. Not just Google, but IMDb for movie info, Amazon, TED talks and even TUAW. To help out people like you and me, Cynapse Software has introduced a nifty utility called Phlo. It provides a pop-up search field that be assigned to a global hotkey and always ready to go. If you're looking to go beyond Google, there are dozens of combinations, and you can have multiple search engines selected. There's an extensive list of search portals buillt in, but you can add your own by simply providing a URL. In the open Phlo window, you can start to type the name of a search engine and it will pop up for one-time access. You never have to use your mouse, and multiple sites can be chosen with shift + return or shift + click if you want to use your mouse. Out of the box, Phlo is configured to pop up with option + spacebar, but you can define any key or combination. Apple Spotlight uses Command + Spacebar. The ESC key closes Phlo. After you've used Phlo for awhile, it becomes second nature. I found it to be a timesaver, because your searches begin with just a tap on the keyboard, and I find myself doing more searches because it is so easy to get them started. The only change I would make in this app is an ability to create groups of search engines for specific tasks, and have Phlo remember those groups. %Gallery-184786% Phlo is US$3.99 at the Apple app store, and requires OS X 10.8 or later and a 64-bit processor. I like Phlo, and have incorporated it into my daily routine.
Google Knowledge Graph explains related content, finds the six degrees with less Bacon
We had a bit of a laugh with Google's Kevin Bacon calculator. Not everyone needs to tie their searches to the star of Footloose, though, which is partly why Google is pushing out an update to its Knowledge Graph that explains how searches turn up related items. The effort is starting with actors, celebrities and their links to any movies and TV shows they've starred in. Looking for Orson Welles and mousing over Rita Hayworth's portrait reminds us that the two luminaries were married for years, for example. We won't know when the more intelligent searches will expand, but at least we won't be quite so confused if the animated Transformers movie appears next to Citizen Kane.
Google offers historical exhibitions, wields its search powers to tell untold stories (video)
Google has been taking advantage of its sheer domination of search to act as a custodian for human culture, whether it's famous artwork or wonders of the world. The most direct example of this archival impulse may have arrived today through the launch of historical exhibitions at the (virtual-only) Google Cultural Institute. Starting with 42 exhibitions, the project delves into major historical events with both a guided, mixed-media tour as well as the kind of free-form exploration you'd expect from Google, such as hunting down a specific person, place or time range. The focus helps Google tell both textbook-level history as well as private stories. Though small at present, the collection is taking further submissions that could lead to a much broader internet resource for learning -- an expansion that we can't help but embrace.
Apple's app search engine goes dark, Chomp joins Ping in obsolescence
Ping wasn't the only Apple service to go offline at the tail end of September. Chomp, an app search engine purchased by Cook and Co. earlier this year, also closed up shop. In the spring, the service discontinued support for Android apps, and now its entire website and iOS application have been shuttered. Folks who still have the app installed are greeted with the bad news upon launching it: "Chomp has been discontinued as of September 30. Thanks for being a loyal user." If you're mourning the loss, we hear Yahoo would be delighted to make your acquaintance.
Yahoo starts selling half of its Alibaba stake as promised, sends $3.65 billion to giddy shareholders
Anyone who's been holding on to Yahoo shares through thick and thin is about to reap the rewards of that patience. As the company promised, it's starting to sell back half its stake in Alibaba, closing the first stage of the deal with the equivalent of $7.6 billion in pure revenue. The struggling search and content firm 'only' pockets a net $4.3 billion after taxes and other overhead costs, but it won't even see that much in its bank account: it's purposefully sending $3.65 billion of that money to shareholders, both to inspire new confidence and (unofficially) to head off activist investors like Dan Loeb that might otherwise want a coup d'état. If share owners plan on using the second stage of the sale to fund a vacation to Maui, though, they'll need to wait. Yahoo's deal prevents it from selling half of its remaining 23 percent stake unless Alibaba files for an initial public offering, and there's no guarantee that investors will see another dime of the proceeds.
EU competition head gives Google a 'matter of weeks' to offer an antitrust fix
The European Union has been taking a leisurely pace investigating Google over possible antitrust abuses, but it's now accelerating to a full-on sprint. European Commission competition head Joaquin Almunia has given Google just a "matter of weeks" to propose how it would patch things up and soften fears that it was unfairly pushing its own web services over others. If Google makes the Commission happy, Almunia says, the whole investigation might wrap up and avoid fines. Google hasn't responded yet, but we wouldn't guarantee that it makes a deal: its execs have usually argued that there's nothing keeping users from going to another search site, and the company has been eager to emphasize that competition still exists. That said, Google only has to see what happened to Microsoft to know how expensive an EU antitrust fight can be.
Bing gets big remake with Snapshot, social sidebar, dig at Google (video)
Microsoft's determination to ratchet up the search engine wars just got clearer with a major rethink of Bing that includes a few potshots at Google. While the search results themselves are still prominent, there's now a Snapshot area in the middle that aggregates the common tasks linked to your search, such as booking a hotel room. Bing hasn't avoided the siren's call of putting social networking into search results, putting in both search hits as well as the option of asking friends, but has tucked the results into a social sidebar at the far right. Not surprisingly, Microsoft has already declared it a far better alternative to Google+ in-line results, which it sees "cluttering your results with social updates." You'll currently have to use a desktop web browser to see all the new Bingness, although Microsoft is promising a mobile-friendly update within weeks.
German government proposes to charge search engines for excerpting news sites
A German government committee is proposing changes that could force search engines operating in the country to pay for using news excerpts. The plans involve setting up a department to charge royalties from sites that aggregate news feeds, and covers them for 12-months from date of publish. This isn't the first country to attempt to protect publishers' material, with the Newspaper Licensing Agency in the UK also performing a similar role. Before you hide your news blog from German eyes, the ruling will only affect commercial outfits.Germany's publishing executives have been pushing for such a move since a case in Belgium that saw Google News forced to stop excerpting articles. Unsurprisingly there is strong support from the industry, with 149 execs from the country already having petitioned the government with a "Hamburg Declaration on Intellectual Property Rights" proposal in 2009, and both the German Federation of Newspaper Publishers and Association of German Magazine Publishers also campaigning for change. Now that the committee has laid down clear plans, it remains to be seen if or how they will be implemented, but with the nation's track record for pulling no punches where technology is concerned, search engines might have to prepare for a rapid change in policy.
Google pads IP portfolio, purchases Cuil's pending search-related patent applications
Google's been buying a fair amount of IP over the past several months from IBM, and now the Big G has acquired seven new patent applications from the now-defunct search engine, Cuil. Back in 2008, Cuil aimed to take Google's crown as the king of search, but was shut down 2010 because it often failed to provide relevant results (despite its massive site index). Good thing the patent apps Google's gotten are for different methods of displaying search results, as opposed to, you know, finding them. The full list of assignments can be found at the source below, so head on down to get your fill of patent claims and black and white drawings.
Microsoft tops Yahoo in US search results for first time, according to ComScore
It very nearly caught up to Yahoo in the last round of ComScore figures, and Microsoft has now finally done it -- it can officially claim to be the number two search engine in the US. According to the research firm, Microsoft's Bing search engine and other websites fielded a total of 2.75 billion search requests in December of 2011, compared to 2.65 billion search requests handled by Yahoo -- translating to a market share of 15.1 percent and 14.5 percent, respectively. As you'd expect, that still leaves Microsoft far behind Google, which processed a whopping 12 billion search requests during the month, representing a still-dominant market share of 65.9 percent. Hit the source link below for all the numbers.
Google brings search to Your World, complete with results close to your heart
As Google presses forward with its social network initiative, it only makes sense that the company famed for comprehensive search results would naturally bring Google+ along for the ride. That day is now upon us, as the juggernaut from Mountain View has officially unveiled Your World -- an addition to its search results that prioritizes content generated by you and those in your circles. Now, the company hopes it'll be much easier to find relevant photos, blog posts and contacts from the Google search bar, which includes content both public and private. In effort to keep security in check, all searches will be performed by default over SSL. Additionally, skeptics may opt-out of Your World at any time. For those looking for the best of both worlds, a toggle at the top-right of the page allows users to choose on-the-fly whether to include personalized results. It all looks quite slick -- in fact, we wouldn't be too surprised if another social networking company just threw up a little.
Siri may pose 'competitive threat' to Google, Eric Schmidt tells Senate subcommittee
Back in September, Google chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt sat down before a Senate antitrust subcommittee to discuss his company's competitive practices. As you would expect from anyone in his situation, Schmidt spent much of his time defending Mountain View's position atop the search industry, and cited several competitors as evidence of its fair play. The exec's list of "threats" featured some of the usual suspects, including Bing, Yahoo and Amazon, as well as Siri. "Even in the few weeks since the hearing, Apple has launched an entirely new approach to search technology with Siri, its voice-activated search and task-completion service built into the iPhone 4S," he wrote, pointing to a handful of publications that characterized Apple's voice assistant as a "Google Killer" and Cupertino's "entry point" into the search market. "Apple's Siri is a significant development -- a voice-activated means of accessing answers through iPhones that demonstrates the innovations in search," Schmidt explained. "Google has many strong competitors and we sometimes fail to anticipate the competitive threat posed by new methods of accessing information." Granted, it's not terribly surprising to hear Google talk up its competition -- especially before a panel of politicians devoted to rooting out anti-competitive practices. Yet Schmidt's comments do mark a noticeable shift from the stance he assumed last year, when he denied that Apple and Facebook posed a "competitive threat" to Google's search operations. As he admitted, "My statement was clearly wrong." Check out the full hearing at the source link below.
Google acquires Zagat: good news for foodies, bad news for Yelp?
Long before Yelp, there was Zagat -- a point-based restaurant rating guide, compiled from the best (or worst, depending) crowdsourced reviews. Today, Google has acquired the brand and plans to integrate Zagat's now expanded shopping, eating, drinking and hotel tips into both search and maps. For gastronomes, travelers and locals, that means crowdsourced tips for superb noms and activity recommendations from around the world. Sounds great, guys, as long as your new found friendship helps us find the best bacon-flavored ice cream cone, we're all for it.
Bing's 'friend effect' search tool uses Facebook 'Like' button to affect your results
If you'll recall, Google has been pushing social integration into its search algorithm quite aggressively for the past few months; lest we forget the versatile +1 button. Not to be out done by Team Google's spider-crawling and link-snatching ways, Microsoft has announced full-on Facebook integration for Bing. They're referring to it as, the "Friend Effect." So, what's the difference? While Google's approach aggregates its standard search results with shared content from the social networks you've manually linked to your account, Bing's approach relies upon the ol' Facebook "Like" button. Basically, Microsoft found that most people usually want opinions from friends and family before they make a decision on something. So by including friends' and families' Facebook-based Likes in the search results the company lets you know their input without ever having to ask. At the same time, Microsoft has added a universal like button to the Bing Toolbar that you can use to mark your approval on anything you find on the web, which in turn, can help out your friends' searches in a socially, antisocial kind of way. Bing uses "Collective IQ" of the internet hive-mind to optimize search results should your friends lack opinions about your interests. Bing's Friend Effect search integration is pretty interesting stuff, and it could definitely offer a compelling alternative to Google's social search approach if your Facebook "friends" can truly be classified as such. Check out the videos after the break if you want more detail, and be sure to let us know what team you're on in the comments below.
Sony provides PSN update, confirms a 'compromise of personal information' (updated)
It's looking like things are just as bad as we feared and that "external intrusion" got a little deeper than we might have liked. In an update on its PlayStation.Blog, Sony just confirmed that the ongoing PSN outage was caused by "malicious actions," which we already knew, but continues by indicating that there has also been "a compromise of personal information." Exactly what that means Sony isn't saying, and it stops short of saying that credit card data for PSN and Qriocity users has been exposed, but the company does say "your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained." Yes, it may have been obtained -- even Sony isn't sure. There's no further ETA for when PSN may be back up online or when you might be able to finally sample Portal 2's delicious online co-op mode, but at least you can still watch Netflix. Update: Our friends at Joystiq are reporting that Connecticut Senator Blumenthal is rip roarin' mad about the situation, "demanding answers" from SCEA president Jack Tretton. Right now, we're more curious what Kevin Butler has to say about things. Update 2: Sony UK is shedding more light on just what data has been exposed, and frankly we were happier when it was dark. By the sound of things, everything Sony had about you has been accessed. There's a full list after the break, so only click on through if you dare. Update 3: Sony's just posted a clarification regarding the delay of their response: in a nutshell, PSN was shut down after the intrusion on April 19th, and the company needed to work with outside experts to "understand the scope of the breach" before posting the full lowdown earlier today. For those interested, Sony has a lengthy FAQ page regarding this incident. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
