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Category Archives: Search Engines

Updates to Google Maps and Search make it easier to plan your next outing

The Verge: “Google is introducing a handful of updates that aim to take some of the stress out of planning trips and outings, from new translation features and AI-powered trip itineraries in Search to curated recommendations in Maps. Starting this week in over 40 cities across the US and Canada, Google Maps will now show users lists of recommendations for places to eat and visit. Google’s algorithmically generated recommendations include a weekly updated “Trending” list of places that have seen a recent spike in popularity, a “Top” list of historically popular locations, and a “Gems” list of places that are, well, hidden gems worth visiting. The app will also surface recommendation lists from Lonely Planet, The New York Times, The Infatuation, and OpenTable.”

The Essential Guide To Using Images Legally Online

Search Engine Journal: “…Images are an essential component of online content – and it’s obvious why. Images aren’t just pretty—they’re powerful marketing tools that help you stand out. They pique your audience’s attention, enhance your messaging, and significantly enhance the appeal and effectiveness of your content. Whether you’re creating a social media post, a webpage,… Continue Reading

How to make your AI-generated content sound more human

Search Engine Land – Leverage AI like ChatGPT to generate more human-sounding long-form content. “Refine prompts with details to produce engaging articles. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT can create content, but it doesn’t always sound natural. The content can come across as dull or robotic without the right guidance. Fortunately, there are techniques you can… Continue Reading

Here’s why AI search engines really can’t kill Google

The Verge: “AI is coming for the search business. Or so we’re told. As Google seems to keep getting worse, and tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot seem to keep getting better, we appear to be barreling toward a new way to find and consume information online. Companies like Perplexity and You.com are… Continue Reading

Airlines are not making flights more expensive by tracking your search habits

Gizmodo: “Why So Many People Think They Can Get Cheaper Flights Using Incognito Mode…Economists from Berkeley, Yale, and the University of Chicago recently studied the pricing algorithms of an unnamed large US airline. The study found that the overall bookings for any given flight will affect the price, but your personal interest has no impact… Continue Reading

Financial Times tests an AI chatbot trained on decades of its own articles

The Verge: “Subscribers can use Ask FT to answer questions about recent events or broader topics covered by the Financial Times. The Financial Times has a new generative AI chatbot called Ask FT that can answer questions its subscribers ask. Similar to generalized AI bots (like ChatGPT, Copilot, or Gemini), users can expect a curated… Continue Reading

TikTokSpreads Misinformation 20 Percent of the Time and Is Banned in China

NewsGuard Reality Check: “The debate in Washington about what to do about TikTok is not about hypothetical harms. NewsGuard research over the years has shone a harsh light on TikTok as a misinformation superspreader. In one report, NewsGuard analysts mimicked how TikTok users interact with the video platform by analyzing 540 TikTok results based on… Continue Reading

VLOGGER: Multimodal Diffusion for Embodied Avatar Synthesis

Google: “We propose VLOGGER, a method for text and audio-driven talking human video generation from a single input image of a person, which builds on the success of recent generative diffusion models. Our method consists of 1) a stochastic human-to-3d-motion diffusion model, and 2) a novel diffusion based architecture that augments text-to-image models with both… Continue Reading

Browse safely with real-time protection on Chrome

Google Blog: “Cybersecurity attacks are constantly evolving, and sometimes the difference between successfully detecting a threat or not is a matter of minutes. To keep up with the increasing pace of hackers, we’re bringing real-time, privacy-preserving URL protection to Google Safe Browsing for anyone using Chrome on desktop or iOS. Plus we’re introducing new password… Continue Reading