404 – “Google search really has been taken over by low-quality SEO spam, according to a new, year-long study by German researchers. The researchers, from Leipzig University, Bauhaus-University Weimar, and the Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence, set out to answer the question “Is Google Getting Worse?” by studying search results for 7,392… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Search Engines
What Happened to My Search Engine?
Ted Gioia – Or why tech upgrades are now mostly downgrades: “…Here are the things missing from the original search engines. They didn’t practice 24/7 surveillance of users. They didn’t sell user’s private information. They didn’t fill up search results with garbage in order to collect placement fees. They didn’t manipulate users—prodding them to use… Continue Reading
The Sad Truth of the FTC’s ‘Historic’ Privacy Win
Wired: “The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reached a settlement last week with an American data broker known to sell location data gathered from hundreds of phone apps to the US government, among others. According to the agency, the company ignored in some cases the requests of consumers not to do so, and more broadly… Continue Reading
Google quietly updates Chrome’s incognito warning in wake of tracking lawsuit
The Verge: “Weeks after agreeing to settle a lawsuit that accused Google of illegally tracking browsing activity even after users activated Chrome’s incognito mode, the company has quietly updated how the browser describes its private browsing feature. The updated text, spotted by MSPowerUser, can be found in the latest Canary build of Google Chrome, version… Continue Reading
Using the Wayback Machine and Google Analytics to Uncover Disinformation Networks
Bellingcat: “Google Analytics is a popular service for tracking and analysing traffic to a website. Through a short code placed in the source of a website, a user can monitor the performance of all their online properties. These tracking codes can also clearly indicate when multiple websites are run by a single user or entity… Continue Reading
Confirm the authenticity of digital content across FOX media outlets
Via Fox Corp. – “Conveniently search, verify, and share your findings. Please note that the VERIFY TOOL currently supports verification of content from limited publications. Verifying Image Files: Upload the image file you want to verify. The supported file formats are .jpeg, .png, .avif, and .webp. The VERIFY TOOL will search our database for a… Continue Reading
The Perfect Webpage
The Verge – How the internet reshaped itself around Google’s search algorithms — and into a world where websites look the same….Google controls around 90 percent of the search market, by some measures, so it’s too valuable a referral source to just leave up to luck. Search engine optimization — or SEO, the practice of… Continue Reading
WikiTwister
“WikiTwister is a set of tools for browsing and extracting information from Wikipedia. The set is divided into two types: category tools and page tools. Category Tools Category Cheat Sheet — Sort the pages in a Wikipedia category by recent popularity (instead of alphabetically) and view the top 20 most popular. Wiki Category Chronology —… Continue Reading
Meet ‘Link History,’ Facebook’s New Way to Track the Websites You Visit
Gizmodo: “Facebook recently rolled out a new “Link History” setting that creates a special repository of all the links you click on in the Facebook mobile app. Users can opt-out, but Link History is turned on by default, and the data is used for targeted ads. As lawmakers introduce tech regulations and Apple and Google… Continue Reading
Massive Spikes In Antisemitic Google Searches Across the Globe
Mid East Journal, December 27, 2023: Quantifying the rise in global antisemitism by evaluating the increase in antisemitic Google search queries since the events of October 7. Google searches drive more than 50% of web traffic, with estimates putting the number of searches per day at more than eight billion. The search terms people use… Continue Reading
Non-Sketchy News Search
“Find News Sources on Wikipedia and Search Them Via Google With Non-Sketchy News Search. When you search Google News, you’re trusting that all the sources included in your results are legitimate. Often that’s the case, but there are a lot of bad actors trying to poison Google’s search results with disinformation, propaganda sites, and other… Continue Reading
Is your search experience leaving you a little unsatisfied?
“Give these Search Tweaks a try. This site has sixteen tools for enhancing Google search in four categories — Query Builders, News-Related Search, Time-Related Search, and Search Utilities. Some tools, like Back that Ask Up, make existing Google features easier to use. Others, like Marion’s Monocle, add search functionality. Hold your mouse over each menu… Continue Reading
