Articles about Search

Google's fifth "Transparency Report" shows that the emperors of the world wear no clothes. The search and information giant started releasing the data two years ago, offering a small peek into the bombardment of user information requests that world governments make -- everything from non-copyrighted YouTube video take-downs, to search result link removals, to, most alarmingly, private citizen emails and information.

But what is most alarming about these requests? Many are not even for serious matters of national security. Most are down right requests to silence, censor, track, and or monitor dissident internal political groups and political opponents. In some, it is the outright censorship of non-violent organizations, ideas, or even the requested silence of whistle-blowers pointing out corruption. Google's own policy analyst, Dorothy Chou, sees a disturbing trending rise, particularly from "Western democracies not typically associated with censorship".

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For as long as Microsoft has offered a search engine, CEO Steve Ballmer or one of his minions has talked about the goal of providing answers to real questions rather than forcing people to use keywords. The success of social search service Quora or Yahoo Answers shows how much people simply want to ask. Bing and Google handle questions much better today than ever, but often the answers come unqualified and without the depth or authority of, say, a peer-reviewed encyclopedia. Apple tries with Siri on iPhone, with Wolfram Alpha behind it. But we all know that, for now, Siri sucks.

Today, Microsoft seized the answer search initiative, by incorporating Encyclopedia Britannica into Bing results. Sure Google places Wikipedia front and center, but Britannica is an undisputed, reliable authority -- well for anyone old enough to have owned a set of the books. Ask a question. "The answer provides a quick overview of the subject, a thumbnail image, and useful facts and figures making it easier than ever to get trusted content in search", Franco Salvetti, Bing principal development lead, explains. "We also pull in direct links to other trusted sources".

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Google is the go-to search engine for most people, so the existence of a dedicated mobile app should come as no surprise. There has been a tool available for iOS for some time but the release of Google Search 2.0 sees the introduction of a completely redesigned app that not only boasts a new interface and new features, at least if you have an iPhone, but also easier access to other Google searches such as Gmail, Docs and Calendar.

As before, it is possible to conduct searches by typing, using your voice or taking a photo with your camera and using Google Goggles. There have been improvements made to the speed of autocomplete suggestions  so you should find that results are available faster than ever and you can take advantage of a preview pane that slides in from the side to view individual page results. Switching between search results and pages takes nothing more than a swipe, and this gesture can also be used to switch search modes, such as moving between a standard search and an image search.

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Perhaps the question should be: Who doesn't? Google search is a powerful tool for finding content of any kind, including copyrighted material posted without permission. Today Google sets the record straight, by releasing the URLs copyright holders request removed from search: 1,246,713 over the last month. These came from more than 1,000 copyright holders directed at about 24,000 domains.

Apparently more details about other copyright areas will come later. For now, search is priority, with Google planning to update requests daily. The report available on Wednesday offers data through yesterday.

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Microsoft on Monday opened its experimental social search service called So.cl, which lets users socially broadcast their search queries and attached results. Socl is the product of Microsoft's Fuse labs, and has been open to limited user groups at the University of Washington, Syracuse University, and New York University, for the last five months.

Unlike the recent revamp of Bing, which integrates a user's social graph into their search base, Socl is something entirely different. The new service combines the "social broadcasting" aspect of Twitter and applies it to search queries and research.

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Amazon set its sights on Google Thursday by introducing CloudSearch, a feature that allows customers of its Amazon Web Services offering to implement search capabilities to their websites. The technology behind CloudSearch is the same that Amazon uses on its retail site.

Access is billed based on the number of running search instances, anywhere from 12 cents to 98 cents per hour, with a 98 cent per gigabyte charge for the storage of search data. Running continuously, the search functionality could cost as little as $90 per month, and in some cases a cheaper alternative to Google's Site Search offering.

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Just as Facebook forces users to adopt a more cluttered, confusing appearance, Google+ simplifies and provides social networkers more control over the layout. Much as I've tried to use Facebook more, because that's where my family hangs out, Google+ is inescapable. It's a gravity well too strong to resist. For 170 million, the number of users Google revealed today, Plus perhaps is irresistible, too. That's a lot of people for a service less than a year old.

Google+ is more than a social network. It is the future of Google. Like it or not, the company has embarked on a strategy around social search, and Plus is a pillar. Competing against Facebook clearly is one of Google's goals. But there also is realistic appraisal that social is the web's future -- and why shouldn't it be with gregarious humans? Additionally, Google+ is the sun around which the company's other products will revolve -- even search -- defining a digital lifestyle empowering connections, communications and commerce.

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Last week, Microsoft quietly released a public beta of Bing Desktop, a toolbar that brings Bing searches to your desktop (as long as it’s Windows 7, at least -- the program isn’t available for earlier versions of Windows).

And if that’s not quite enough to interest you, then the program can also double as a wallpaper changer, with its option to download and use the daily Bing image.

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When will someone stand up to the bully in the room? He roves around in intimidating manner boasting how kind he is. Hey, he can make friends without being evil. But bully is anything but good. That's how I feel about Google this fine Spring day.

Yesterday, "Google Play", the renamed Android Market, popped up on the black bar adorning my Google search page, with a beaconing red -- or is it orange -- "New". The service is now front and center with other Google services hawked from search, spotlighting an ongoing trend of aggressive integration that has rapidly accelerated under Larry Page's leadership. Microsoft spent nearly a decade under house arrest for doing less.

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Is Microsoft's Bing having a meltdown? One of my colleagues just alerted me to troubles accessing Bing Maps. He gets an error message, as do two other BetaNews staffers. We're located in different parts of the country using various cable or DSL services. This is not a localized problem.

The outage appears to be broader than Bing Maps. I also can't get to Bing News, while someone else couldn't get Search, which works for me. Colleague Tim Conneally pinged Bing Maps while I wrote the first paragraph and got repeated timeouts. Are you having Bing troubles today?

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One of England's most celebrated authors was born 200 years ago today. Google is commemorating Charles Dickens with a little (Oliver) Twist. There's a doodle, as would be expected, but behind it links to free ebooks from the search and information giant's own bookstore. Eh, what's up with that? Is it favoritism?

That's a question I've heard often asked recently about Google, as the amount of cross-product, cross-service integration increases. The practice jumped quite dramatically after Larry Page returned as Google CEO in April 2011, and it's not abating. Favoritism should be a concern, given that impartiality -- and with it trust -- is crucial to Google's core product (search) and profit center (search ads and keywords). What the Dickens is going on here?

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For you Sherlock Holmes types out there, how would you like a case to crack?

As a software developer I have my own website, and l regularly track my web traffic. I check my web site stats daily. I do analysis of that data to glean everything I possibly can about those who visit my site. So to my surprise, one day recently while checking my web stats I was shocked to see the day's traffic shoot through the roof!

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Google shares took a beating overnight, following fourth-quarter's earnings report. The information and search giant was down 7.7 percent in pre-market trading -- $49.25 to $590.32. Still, that's an improvement. Yesterday, Google closed at $639.57, and shares fell more than 10 percent during after-market trading. Google opened at $590.90 this morning and fell to $588.03 within the first 30 minutes of trading -- that's $51.54 off yesterday's close. By 10:17 am ET, Google shares closed on their pre-market decrease -- 7.78 percent, or down $49.77 per share.

Google's problem is one more of expectation than performance. Wall Street expected strong ad revenues for the holiday quarter, particularly with increase in online sales and therefore supporting search-related advertising. But ad prices fell instead, overshadowing other metrics. While paid clicks rose 34 percent, the amount paid for them fell by 8 percent, contributing to Google missing Wall Street consensus -- that despite solid revenue and earnings growth.

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The chorus of opposition to Google's recent search changes grows louder, with Electronic Privacy Information Center urging the Federal Trade Commission to launch an investigation into whether or not Google is violating users' privacy with the new feature.

Google settled with the FTC in March over its failed Buzz service, submitting to privacy audits for a period of 20 years as a result. EPIC is specifically concerned with personal data, photos, posts, and contact details being included in search results.

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I told you so. In summer 2009, I asserted that the Microsoft-Yahoo search deal was "Google's Christmas-in-July present". Reasoning: By Yahoo outsourcing search to Microsoft, Bing would cannibalize share from its partner rather than lead to the combined entity gaining against Google. Last month, Bing US search share nudged ahead of Yahoo, according to comScore. It's a setback for Microsoft.

Google remains the big winner in the search share wars with Microsoft. In June 2009, the month before the announced search outsourcing deal, Google share was 65 percent. Yahoo and Microsoft were 19.6 percent and 8.4 percent, respectively, or 28 percent combined. In December 2011, Google search share was 65.9 percent, Microsoft 15.1 percent and Yahoo 14.5 percent -- for combined 29.6 percent. That's lower than November when Microsoft-Yahoo share was 30.1 percent. The point: Little has changed since the search deal was announced, except that Microsoft has cannibalized share from Yahoo.

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