Items tagged with Search
Google is working hard to improve natural language understanding and one of the key areas that is being used to improve that understanding is the development of word vectors. A word vector allows machine learning algorithms to understand the relationship between words based on actual language usage. This has led to Semantic Experiences such as Talk to Books that Google unveiled this week. The tech is similar to what Google uses in Smart Reply for Gmail. Talk to Books is a new way to explore books that starts at a sentence level. This allows you to enter a sentence or ask a question and...
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If you're a devout Google Images user, you may have already noticed a subtle, but very obvious change made over the past day. It used to be that when you found an image you liked, you could click on it, and then use the "View Image" option to see only that image. If you wanted to see the rest of the website, you had to use another option, "Visit Site". In a stealth update, Google decided to remove the View Image option, which means that if you find an image you like, you will have to visit the website and find the image yourself. This could be seen as a way to promote more traffic to websites that...
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Google has announced a significant change in how it handles digital publications that show stories and news items on Google Search results and on Google News. Google had a policy in place in the past called First Click Free that required websites listed in Google News or in Google's search results to offer a minimum of three free articles per day to readers. After those three free stories daily were consumed by the reader, they could be shown a paywall to try and convert the reader to a subscriber. Online news fans aren't known to be the sort who pay for news that is perceived as being a free service....
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When the European Union comes at technology firms for perceived antitrust violations, it comes at them hard. Such is the case yet again, this time with the European Commission issuing a record-breaking fine of €2.42 billion (around $2.7 billion in U.S. currency) to Google for running afoul of antitrust law. The fine is more than double the previous largest penalty issued for an antitrust violation. Following a seven-year investigation, the EU determined that Google abused its dominant market position to promote its own comparison shopping results while actively suppressing the competition. Should...
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Google wants to help put you to work. Through changes Google has made to its advanced search engine, you can now look for job openings simply by searching for them and receive more detailed results than before. The new ability is part of the "Google for Jobs" initiative that was announced at Google I/O earlier this year, whereby Google committed to working with both job seekers and employers to bring suitable candidates together. The ability to search for jobs is now available in English on desktop and mobile. How it works is you can search for "jobs near me," "teaching jobs," or plug in some other...
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Google has started experimenting with a mobile-first approach to indexing webpages. The reason for change is because these days "most people" who search for something on Google are doing so on their mobile device. As things exist, Google's ranking system still looks at a desktop version of a page's content to evaluate its relevance to the user even though the mobile may see something different. "This can cause issues when the mobile page has less content than the desktop page because our algorithms are not evaluating the actual page that is seen by a mobile searcher," Google explains. "To make...
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We’ve stated on many occasions that Windows 10 is an excellent operating system, albeit one with a few rough edges that could be smoothed-out. However, Microsoft has angered some users over the past year or so, in its willingness to dance right up to the line of what customers feel is acceptable practice for promoting adoption of its new OS. Further, some feel the company crossed that line with respect to user data collection and privacy concerns. It looks as though Microsoft stands to garner more criticism if its recent patent filing comes to life in a production software product. The title...
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One of the most obvious facts on Earth is that Google loves search. It's for good reason: it's how the company began, and it's what's needed to fuel its products outside of search. There's a reason most of the world's population goes to Google over other providers for search: the big G is really good at it. Well, what about searching for information that's not in a singular place; or, information you need but you can't remember where you stored it? Take for example a scenario where a friend gave you an address, but you can't remember whether it was sent to you through Gmail, Hangouts, or something...
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If Google had been hoping that the European Union would back off on its pursuit of proving that it's anti-competitive, it appears that the company hasn't been hoping hard enough. Today, the EU shot another set of charges at Google for anti-competitive practices, this time squarely targeting its AdSense for Search platform. Previous antitrust charges against Google have involved Android, search, and shopping, with this third set expanding on the latter two. Anyone who's ever browsed the internet will have likely passed by an AdSense advertisement, as they're simply everywhere. We reinforce Google...
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We've all seen shady pitches to sell software and services that purport to fix our PCs, restore system performance, recover lost passwords, and so forth. The problem is many of them are outright scams. Rather than try to wade through them all and let only the good ones through, Microsoft has decided to ban all online technical support services from advertising on Bing. Microsoft's concern is over the "serious quality issues that can impact user safety," which is a polite way of calling scam services out on their shenanigans. There is no magic software elixir to turn a dilapidated PC into a smoking...
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“I see a blue link and I want to paint it black.” Taking a cue from The Rolling Stones, it looks as though Google is looking to possibly change things up on its iconic search page by painting its search links black. While this might not initially seem like a big deal to switch from blue to black links in Google’s search results, users that have been thrust into the limited A/B testing are already revolting. Up until this week, users saw link names in blue and the actual URL right below in green. But with the link names now black, users are complaining that the change is actually a step backwards...
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Google today announced that it's adding live TV listings to search. That means when you perform search for a TV show, such as Lucifer or Billions (both highly recommended, by the way), you'll not only see apps and sites where you can catch the latest episode, but also see which channel(s) you can tune to in the evening for a live viewing. Of course, this can be a little tricky with there being so many different cable and satellite TV providers. To make sure the information it's providing to you is relevant, Google will let you select your specific provider for personalized results. You'll also...
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The threat has been looming for a while, and now it's official. The EU has fired off its second set of antitrust charges at Google. Both antitrust accusations happened in under two years, and revolve around how Google handles its Android OS and the power it wields over OEMs. Part of this accusation implies that Google has required Google Search to be default on Android, and has even offered financial incentives to have it act as the exclusive provider. The issue here is obvious: by wiping out the potential for competition to mosey on in, you've created a monopoly. European Antitrust Commissioner...
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After falling short of financial expectations in the third quarter of 2015, Yahoo is hoping that Google can be the catalyst in its ongoing turnaround effort. As such, Yahoo is turning to the Mountain View giant to provide a bit of search and advertising as the company narrows its focus on its core business. More on the deal in a moment, but first, let's have a look at some numbers. Yahoo reported $1.2 billion in revenue for the quarter, up from $1.15 billion in the same quarter a year ago. However, net income was only $76 million, or 8 cents a share, way down from $6.77 billion, or $6.70 a share,...
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