engadget: “You know that highlighted piece of text at the very top of a Google search results page when you look up a piece of information? That’s called a “featured snippet,” and it’s meant to provide you with a quick answer to your query. Now, Google is making sure that the information it highlights is… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Search Engines
Meta injecting code into websites to track its users, research says
UK Guardian – “Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has been rewriting websites its users visit, letting the company follow them across the web after they click links in its apps, according to new research from an ex-Google engineer. The two apps have been taking advantage of the fact that users who click on… Continue Reading
Google Will Start Letting You Know When You Can’t Just Google It
BuzzFeedNews: “If Google isn’t confident about the overall quality of search results when you search for something, it will now let you know at the top of the results page. “This doesn’t mean that no helpful information is available, or that a particular result is low-quality,” Pandu Nayak, Google’s vice president of search, said in… Continue Reading
DuckDuckGo browser now blocks all third-party Microsoft trackers
Bleeping Computer: “DuckDuckGo announced today that they will now be blocking all third-party Microsoft tracking scripts in their privacy browser after failing to block them in the past. This change comes after the company faced massive blowback in May for not blocking some third-party Microsoft trackers in the DuckDuckGo browser due to a syndicated search content… Continue Reading
Brave vs. Tor: Which Browser Offers More Security and Privacy?
MakeUseOf: “There are dozens of web browsers out there, some more popular than others, but only a select few can actually be considered both safe and private. Brave and the Tor Browser are certainly among them, and though they are similar in some respects, they are two very different pieces of software. So, how exactly… Continue Reading
How we’re improving search results when you use quotes
Google Blog: “…Now we’re making quoted searches better. The snippets we display for search results (meaning the text you see describing web content) will be formed around where a quoted word or phrase occurs in a web document. That means you can more easily identify where to find them after you click the link and… Continue Reading
Open-source flight trackers have been repeatedly used to break news over the last few weeks
Vice: “More than 700,000 people were tracking the flight path of the U.S. military plane believed to be carrying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this morning. She touched down in Taiwan at 10:50 pm local time, making Pelosi the first high-ranking American official to visit the self-governing island in 25 years, amid threats of a military… Continue Reading
Time to update: Latest Google Chrome browser fixes 27 security flaw
ZDNet – “Google has released Chrome 104 stable with fixes for seven ‘high’ and 15 ‘medium’ severity flaws. Google has released Chrome version 104 for Windows, Mac and Linux, with fixes for 27 security bugs reported by third parties. None of the flaws are listed as being actively exploited, but the release notes for Chrome… Continue Reading
Websites use URLs to track you. Here’s how to stop them.
Popular Science: “As you might well know, websites can track you in various ways. It’s the reason why a single search for furniture can lead to months and months of online ads for chairs, tables, and shelving units. What you might not know is that third parties can track you using the address or URL… Continue Reading
Gmail’s new search tweaks will make sure you’re emailing the right person
The Verge: “Google’s improving Gmail’s search results, which should make it easier to find a specific contact. In a blog post, Google explains it’s rolling out “intent matching for names and email addresses,” as well as new “personalized suggestions” in Gmail. With intent matching, a machine learning tool Google uses to help you find topics… Continue Reading
The Default Tech Settings You Should Turn Off Right Away
The New York Times – “These controls, which are buried inside products from Apple, Google, Meta and others, make us share more data than we need to…Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft generally want us to leave some default settings on, purportedly to train their algorithms and catch bugs, which then make their products easier… Continue Reading
Misinformation is eroding the public’s confidence in democracy
Brookings – Misinformation is eroding the public’s confidence in democracy: “Democracy in the United States is in serious trouble. A review of some recent public opinion research shows just how much. For example, an NPR survey conducted earlier this year found that 64% of the American population believes that U.S. democracy is in crisis and… Continue Reading
