Deja Vu! Google's antitrust offenses are like Microsoft's (and the defense, too)
Once again, as it has done in the past, Google makes the classic monopolist defense for its competitive—or anticompetitive, depending on perspective—behavior with respect to Android. Today, the European Union's Competition Commission formerly charged Alphabet and its major subsidiary, which has 12 weeks to provide satisfactory legal response before the Commission issues corrective sanctions.
Simply stated, the EC finds that the company abused its dominant position, in part by contracts compelling Android licensees to preload Google apps and related services, including search. Microsoft ran into similar bundling headaches starting in the late 1990s with respect to Windows. Responding today, Kent Walker, Google general counsel, claims that licensees and consumers can choose to install third-party apps. Microsoft made like-claims during its antitrust defense here and in Europe; they fell flat.
Apple could add paid search in App Store
In 2008 Apple debuted its App Store to help its users discover, purchase and download new apps for their iOS devices.
While the store has seen many tweaks and upgrades over the years it has yet to have a complete overhaul. Now the company has formed a secret team to explore changes to the store, including a paid search model that could cause quite the stir amongst app developers and the way iPhone and iPad users discover new apps.
Microsoft improves Windows Store's app visibility
Finding apps that are published in Windows Store should not be a problem, but this is exactly what some developers have been complaining about. It seems that when conducting a search there are titles that do not show up in the results, even though the query matches their name. As a developer put, it is a "disaster".
This is a problem not only for the developers who have worked hard to make apps for Windows Store, but also for Microsoft and its users. After all, what the search feature turns out reflects the quality of the app store. This issue may now be gone, as the software giant says that app visibility has finally been improved.
Google is enabling Android app installs from search results
Google may be simplifying the way Android users install apps on their devices. Some users have reportedly been able to install new apps directly from Google search results on their smartphones and tablets.
Typically a user is redirected from the Google Search app to the Google Play store when they are searching for new apps using the search engine. However, after a recent update to the app, an install button appears along with user ratings and information about the app that allows apps to be installed directly from search.
Will your NCAA basketball team reach March Madness? Ask Microsoft's Bing Predicts
Whether or not you attended or graduated from college, if you are a fan of basketball, you can totally enjoy March Madness. If you aren't familiar, this is a nickname for the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. Sixty eight teams will participate, but only one will be left standing at the end. Not only is it fun from a sports perspective, but for bracket competition and gambling purposes too.
While 68 teams sounds like a lot, there are far more colleges that won't even qualify for the tournament. My alma mater, Stony Brook University, has never qualified, but came close last year. Today, Microsoft announces a new website powered by Bing Predicts, which can predict the likelihood of a team participating in March Madness. Will your team make it?
Roku announces its top searches of 2015
Set-top boxes have become increasingly popular, with Amazon, Apple and Roku all on the market and doing well. One of the great things about these devices is the ability to easily search for whatever content you want, so what did people look for in 2015?
Well, the big one is, of course, movies and Back to the Future manages to edge The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part one. Others that made the cut into the top ten include Frozen, Jurassic Park and Gone Girl.
Google unveils the hottest search topics for Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is rolling around in the US, kicking off the holiday season. Of course this also means shopping, but at the moment minds are mostly geared towards food. To perhaps nobody's surprise cooking is a hot topic, after all it's what the holiday is all about -- well that and football.
Google has released the top search topics leading up to the big day. At the top of the list is, of course, turkey, the bird that was, at one time, nominated for the national bird though it lost out to the bald eagle.
Choosing an enterprise search tool
Having the right enterprise search tool is essential if you want to get the most use of your content and databases. However, many companies have no idea what they should be looking for with these tools.
In this article, we'll be covering some of the most important capabilities that the software you choose should contain. We'll also be covering what each of these capabilities does and why it is important.
Pinterest's crazy new search tool helps out when words fail you
For years now we have been using words to perform searches -- but words have their limitations. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and this is something that Pinterest has taken to heart with its latest search tool.
There are times when words fail us all. You might know exactly what it is you want to say, but you have no idea how to say it. To help on such occasions, Pinterest today unveils a "crazy-fun new visual search tool" that lets you select an object in an image to search for other pictures of it. Confused?
How bad is iOS 9 ad blocking for Internet advertising?
On Sept. 16, 2015, Apple released iOS 9, which enables users of iPad and iPhone to disable ads. The company claims the capability improves the overall user experience. As someone covering the tech industry for more than two decades, I perceive it as something else, too: Competitive assault against Google and means of pushing publishers to iOS 9's new News app. There is nothing friendly about Apple's maneuver. It is aggressive and tactical. But does it really matter?
Stated simply: More than 90 percent of Google revenue comes from contextual and search-related advertising. Apple derives about the same figure from selling devices and supporting services. At the same time, mobile is the future of Internet advertising and the battleground where the two meet. The entities' respective mobile platforms, Android and iOS, long ago put the tech titans on a collision course. Conceptually, what Apple can't gain from iPad and iPhone sales, it can take by shaking pillars supporting its rival's business.
Windows 10 is not Bing's savior
You would think that, as Windows 10's adoption takes off, Bing's market share would follow suit. The search engine is an integral part of the new operating system, being used, for instance, in Cortana and the new default browser, Microsoft Edge. Yet, since Windows 10's debut on July 29, Bing is no more popular than before.
According to a new report by comScore, Bing's US market share has seen only a modest increase on a sequential basis, rising to 20.6 percent in August 2015 from 20.4 percent the month before. The volume of queries increased by just one percent in that time-frame.
How to disable OK Google voice search on Android
Google voice search is a powerful feature of the Android-powered smartphone. By simply talking to your phone, you can do internet searches, call contacts, take photos, set an alarm, create a calendar event, make a note, the list goes on.
However, not everyone wants to use the voice-controlled feature for various reasons. Some don’t like the idea of their smartphone listening to them, while others don’t speak English that well and don’t see the benefits of keeping the feature turned on.
Boost your trivia knowledge with Google's 'fun fact' Easter egg
Google has lots of tricks up its sleeve -- it's much more than just a search engine -- and now there's something new to try out. Hot on the heels of the unveiling of its new logo, the company has quietly launched a new "fun fact" feature for its search tool.
The next time you have a few minutes to kill, or you just like the idea of learning something new, type "fun fact" into the search box. Google will furnish you with a random fact -- from the price of a lifetime airline pass, to where golf was first played in the US. The only danger is that it could quickly turn into a real productivity vacuum!
Google will relegate mobile sites that serve large ads
Google has announced that it will downgrade websites that use interstitial advertisements in its mobile search results.
Although desktop searches will not be affected, Google’s new initiative is a response to claims that mobile users are often being subjected to an unsatisfying search experience.
Alphabet's ABC is Google's XYZ
I predict that the innovation of the year will go, not to a tech product, but to Google's creation of a new company: Alphabet. The search and information giant that disrupts so many other companies on and off the Internet essentially disrupts itself. By doing so—divesting the core, established business from future research and inventions—cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin unshackle weights dragging growth.
To recap: Page announced the dramatic change after the market closed yesterday. Google becomes secondary to Alphabet, which will hold a collection of related entities. Page hands over Google chief executive reigns to Sundar Pichai, while becoming CEO of the new entity. Brin is president. Can we call him letterhead instead of figurehead? :)
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