Articles about Google

Google has released Backup and Sync from Google 3.35 for Windows and Mac. The tool replaces its Drive and Photos desktop apps (both discontinued), and provides a one-stop desktop tool for backing up and syncing files to Google Drive and Photos.

The new tool also introduces a new backup function, which allows users to back up selected folders on their computers without having to tie them into their Google Drive folder.

Continue reading →

It used to be very easy to find pirated movies, music and software using Google Search, but the company has taken steps over the past few years to downgrade sites offering easy access to such material. You can still find that content of course, it’s just a lot harder than it used to be.

But despite this crackdown, Google has just introduced a new feature that makes it much easier to find the best Torrent sites.

Continue reading →

Google introduced Allo on Android and iOS last September and, for those who prefer to chat with their friends from the comfort of their favorite browser, the search giant will soon release a web version of the messaging service as well.

This will allow Allo to better compete against established messaging services like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, which have long been available on all the major mobile platforms and the web.

Continue reading →

Two of the biggest names in tech have finally added their names to a growing list of participants in a protest next week against the FCC's plans to tear up net neutrality rules.

Google and Facebook have confirmed they will take part in the July 12 protest which is known variously as the "Day of Action," the "Battle for the Net" and -- rather more wordily -- the "Internet-wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality." Precisely what form the companies' participation will take remains to be seen, but the involvement of two such big names will send a clear message to the FCC.

Continue reading →

Google is making an important change to Google Maps that will help to make life a little easier for wheelchair users and people with other accessibility needs. Last year the company added accessibility information to locations on Maps, but now it is taking things a step further.

Recognizing that it will take a long time to wait for individual establishments to supply information about whether they have wheelchair access -- and even longer for Google to manually check things -- the power of crowdsourcing is being embraced. It's now easier than ever to add accessibility information about places to Google Maps.

Continue reading →

The stock prices for many major US technology companies nose-dived last night following a computer glitch. The problem also sent shares in Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft to the same price after the pre-Independence Day early closure of the stock market.

With all four companies seemingly having a stock price of $123.47, Microsoft's market value appeared to increase by nearly 80 percent, while that of Google and Amazon were both slashed by more the 85 percent. Nasdaq stresses that actual stock prices were not affected, and no trading completed with incorrect pricing.

Continue reading →

Those people who have started using mobile voice search in the last six months are the most frequent voice adopters, according to news coming out of Google UK.

More than four in ten (42 percent) are using it daily, compared to those that started using it more than four years ago, where it’s frequently used by a quarter. According to the report, the adoption curve is "getting to a point where brands and agencies need to start taking it seriously."

Continue reading →

A partnership between London's Royal Free hospital and DeepMind resulted in a breach of the Data Protection Act, an investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has concluded.

The personal data of more than 1.6 million patients was transferred to the Google subsidiary as part of the creation of Streams, an app to diagnose and detect acute kidney injury. The ICO found that patients were not properly informed about how their data would be used, and highlighted a "number of shortcomings" in the way data was handled.

Continue reading →

It may be a while since you took a look at Google News, but there's never been a better time to revisit the site. Google has just launched a major overhaul of the site, focusing on not just changing the look, but also improving navigation and giving more balanced coverage to stories.

The news aggregation site has been due something of an overhaul for some time, and the update cleans out the clutter, introduces a card layout, and places increased importance on balanced portrayal of topics and fact-checking.

Continue reading →

Today the European Union gave Apple a great gift to celebrate iPhone's 10th anniversary (on June 29th): The ridiculous, record $2.7 billion fine, and associated sanctions, against Google that once again demonstrates the EU's small-minded oversight that wrongly regulates evolving technologies in a big world. The adverse antitrust ruling finds that the online titan favored its own online shopping services (and paying customers) over rivals.

In February 2010, with the EU Competition Commission's preliminary investigation starting, I rightly called "Google a dangerous monopoly". Seven years later, the competitive landscape has dramatically changed, and rapidly evolves. The Commission's action is too much, too late, and in the short-term can only benefit rivals like Apple that will dominate online activities and commerce as what we knew as traditional web search becomes something else.

Continue reading →

Save emails to PDF is a Chrome extension which enables saving any Gmail email to PDF in a couple of clicks.

Download options include saving individual emails to separate PDFs, merging all selected PDFs into one PDF, or saving conversations to CSV or Excel, apparently (the Excel option just saved to PDF for us).

Continue reading →

Google has been fined a record €2.42 billion ($2.7bn/£2.1bn) by the European Commission after a seven year investigation sparked by Microsoft and other firms, found that the company had unfairly promoted Google Shopping above other similar shopping comparison services on its search site.

The ruling also states that Google has 90 days to cease its anti-competitive practices or it could occur further penalties, and they could really rack up.

Continue reading →

Ask Microsoft which browser offers the best battery life on Windows 10 and it will not hesitate to tell you that Microsoft Edge is the best. And it has the test results to prove it: on a Surface Book, for instance, Microsoft Edge lasts a couple of hours longer than Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, which is remarkable.

But, and there is a but, an independent test disputes Microsoft's claim. YouTuber Linus Tech Tips has pitted Microsoft Edge against Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera and discovered that it does not deliver as strong a performance as Microsoft claims.

Continue reading →

Somewhat controversially, Google has always scanned messages in Gmail in order to be able to present users with relevant, personalized adverts based on the email content. That’s something that has always worried people who are concerned with what personal information the company might be gleaning from their inboxes.

In a surprise announcement, the search giant today declares its intention to end the long-standing policy.

Continue reading →

Google has updated its search policies without any sort of fanfare. The search engine now "may remove" -- in addition to existing categories of information -- "confidential, personal medical records of private people" from search results.

That such information was not already obscured from search results may well come as something of a surprise to many people. The change -- first reported by Bloomberg -- has been confirmed by Google, although the company has not issued any form of announcement about it.

Continue reading →