“FediScope lets you find fediverse accounts for people in a field using Wikidata. You can then compile a custom CSV and import it into Mastodon. It was made by @[email protected] (code | toggle dark mode). Privacy: This tool directly interacts with Wikidata from your browser and does not log your queries. Wikidata creates records for… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Search Engines
What is an IP address and how can you change it with a VPN?
ZDNET: “Your IP address can be a gold mine for invasive advertisers, as well as thieves, hackers, and other bad actors. We’ll explain why it’s so sought after, and how you can protect your IP address by using a VPN…Why would I want to hide my IP address? The short answer is to protect your… Continue Reading
Cyber Criminals Impersonating Brands Using Search Engine Advertisement Services to Defraud Users
FBI Alert: “The FBI is warning the public that cyber criminals are using search engine advertisement services to impersonate brands and direct users to malicious sites that host ransomware and steal login credentials and other financial information. Methodology – Cyber criminals purchase advertisements that appear within internet search results using a domain that is similar… Continue Reading
Gone But Not Forgotten (Yet): The Tech That Died in 2022
PC Mag: “This year saw the usual introduction of next-gen smartphones, laptops, operating systems, and smart home devices, with a few unique offerings thrown in there, too. But for all the innovative tech that made headlines or passed through our labs in 2022, there were just as many products and services that powered down for… Continue Reading
A New Chat Bot Is a ‘Code Red’ for Google’s Search Business
The New York Times: “A new wave of chat bots like ChatGPT use artificial intelligence that could reinvent or even replace the traditional internet search engine. Over the past three decades, a handful of products like Netscape’s web browser, Google’s search engine and Apple’s iPhone have truly upended the tech industry and made what came… Continue Reading
Fake job postings are stealing applicants’ money and identities
Washington Post: “…Job sites such as ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn and Indeed say they try to weed out fake job listings and employers, though scammers are getting more sophisticated. These websites also offer tools to flag suspicious content in case a scam gets past their screening. Still, many job seekers are airing their horror stories across social… Continue Reading
All-knowing machines are a fantasy Beware the human-sounding ChatGPT
iai news: “The idea of an all-knowing computer program comes from science fiction and should stay there. Despite the seductive fluency of ChatGPT and other language models, they remain unsuitable as sources of knowledge. We must fight against the instinct to trust a human-sounding machine, argue Emily M. Bender & Chirag Shah. Decades of science… Continue Reading
How to Use Chrome’s @ Shortcut to Find Things in Your Browser
MakeUseOf: “If you’re a Chrome user who often has plenty of open tabs and bookmarks saved, then you’ll know how frustrating it is to lose these pages in your browser. Nobody wants to spend time looking for lost pages! While Chrome already has a tab search feature, there’s an even more effective way to find… Continue Reading
Introducing the Google Search Status Dashboard
Google Search Central: “As we head into 2023, we want to introduce another tool for the public to understand the most current status of systems which impact Search—crawling, indexing, and serving. While system disruptions are extremely rare, we want to be transparent when they do happen. In the past, we’ve worked with our Site Reliability… Continue Reading
Technology Can You Have Your Cookies and Eat (or Delete) Them, Too?
ABA: “Until recently, a “cookie” was just a popular baked treat commonly consumed with milk. Since the dawn of the internet, however, the term has taken on a different meaning, namely that of a small text file that is automatically stored on a user’s web browser when viewing a particular website. Although initially intended as… Continue Reading
Here’s When You Should Use Tor Instead of a VPN
How-To-Geek: “If you’ve been looking into the different ways to browse anonymously, two terms will come up regularly: VPNs and Tor. However, when you compare these two, you’ll quickly see that they have very different use cases. To figure out when you should use Tor rather than a VPN, let’s first go over how they… Continue Reading
Enable This Setting to Stop Chrome From Hogging So Much Memory
Lifehacker: “Chrome is a popular browser for a reason: It’s fast, powerful, and compatible with popular apps, services, and extensions. All that power, though, comes from somewhere, and ends up putting a strain on your RAM. Chrome is a memory hog. Fortunately, there’s now an easy solution to the problem…” Continue Reading
