Ars Technica: “The European Commission will require 19 large online platforms and search engines to comply with new online content regulations starting on August 25, European officials said. The EC specified which companies must comply with the rules for the first time, announcing today that it “adopted the first designation decisions under the Digital Services… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Search Engines
Why you shouldn’t tell AI chatbots your health concerns
Wshington Post: “Search bots have answers — but can you trust them with your questions? Since OpenAI, Microsoft and Google introduced AI chatbots, millions of people have experimented with a new way to search the internet: Engaging in a conversational back-and-forth with a model that regurgitates learnings from across the web. Given our tendency to… Continue Reading
Brave Search doesn’t use Bing’s index anymore
Tech Crunch: “Brave just announced that it is now exclusively using its own index for its search engine. In other words, it doesn’t rely on third-party solutions like Bing anymore. When the company launched Brave Search in 2021, it mentioned that it relied on other providers for nearly 13% of its queries. A year later,… Continue Reading
The Municipal Drinking Water Database
Hughes S, Kirchhoff CJ, Conedera K, Friedman M (2023) The Municipal Drinking Water Database. PLOS Water 2(4): e0000081. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000081 “Drinking water services in the U.S. are critical for public health and economic development but face technical, political, and administrative challenges. Understanding the root cause of these challenges and how to overcome them is hindered by… Continue Reading
DOE Launches New Consumer Energy Savings Hub
“The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today launched the Energy Savings Hub — an online one-stop shop for American families and consumers to access the savings tools that President Biden’s Investing in America agenda has made available to drastically cut energy costs. The new website—Energy.gov/Save—puts President Biden’s clean energy tax credits and forthcoming rebates right at… Continue Reading
Google is making it much easier to search for tools in Docs, Sheets, and Slides
The Verge: “Google is adding a new feature to some of its Workspace apps that will help users quickly locate commonly used tools without needing to sift through various menus and toolbars. The “enhanced tool finder” is starting to roll out across Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides today, appearing as a search bar — identified… Continue Reading
Opera’s One Browser Is Modular, Multithreaded, AI-Friendly
PC Mag: “Opera released an early access developer build of its new, modular Opera One web browser today. Opera One (Opens in a new window) will replace the flagship Opera desktop browser at some point later this year on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It follows a “Modular Design philosophy(Opens in a new window)” and uses… Continue Reading
A Refuge From Internet Algorithms Is Hiding in Plain Sight
The Atlantic: “Unlike TikTok and Instagram, the photos and reviews on Google Maps haven’t been packaged for your taste or mine…Google Maps’ main purpose is to enable people to get directions and look up businesses. But along the way, it has become a social space too. Sort of. To fill out the world map it… Continue Reading
Privacy Guides – Search Engines
Recommended Search Engines: “Use a search engine that doesn’t build an advertising profile based on your searches. The recommendations here are based on the merits of each service’s privacy policy. There is no guarantee that these privacy policies are honored. Consider using a VPN or Tor if your threat model requires hiding your IP address… Continue Reading
StreetPass – Find your people on Mastodon
“StreetPass is a browser extension that helps you find your people on Mastodon. Here’s how it works: Mastodon users verify themselves by adding a custom link to their personal site. StreetPass lets you know when you’ve found one of these links, and adds them to your StreetPass list. Browse the web as usual. StreetPass will… Continue Reading
AI Incident Database
AID: “Intelligent systems are currently prone to unforeseen and often dangerous failures when they are deployed to the real world. Much like the transportation sector before it (e.g., FAA and FARS) and more recently computer systems, intelligent systems require a repository of problems experienced in the real world so that future researchers and developers may… Continue Reading
ChatGPT Gets Its ‘Wolfram Superpowers
Stephen Wolfram (March 2023), “ChatGPT Gets Its ‘Wolfram Superpowers’: Early in January I wrote about the possibility of connecting ChatGPT to Wolfram|Alpha. And today—just two and a half months later—I’m excited to announce that it’s happened! Thanks to some heroic software engineering by our team and by OpenAI, ChatGPT can now call on Wolfram|Alpha—and Wolfram… Continue Reading
