Call it “privacy 2.0.” Last year Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg famously (and incorrectly) said that privacy is no longer a social norm. However one has only to witness the uproar this week over Facebook Messenger and the exposure of phone contacts to see that privacy isn’t dead. In Europe — Spain in particular — privacy […]
On Friday Google confirmed that the FTC had launched a broad — really broad — investigation into its search and ads businesses seeking to determine whether the company was doing anything anti-competitive in the market. The news was immediately welcomed by some Google critics and competitors who believe the company is systematically abusing its power […]
The question of Google’s right to refer traffic to its own sites is once again in the center of policy debate. The European Commission is looking at this issue as part of its larger anti-trust investigation against Google. It’s also a question at the heart of the federal regulatory review of the ITA acquisition. Preferential […]
Last weekend, rather than read stories about the US diplomatic cables that Wikileaks has released, I decided to read them directly myself. In doing so, I better understood why no one — certainly not the US State Department — is going to shove those cables back into the darkness. Finding Wikileaks My first step was […]
The New York Times is the number one newspaper web site. Analysts reckon it ranks first in reach among US opinion leaders. When the New York Times editorial staff tweaks its supersecret algorithm behind what to cover and exactly how to cover a story — as it does hundreds of times a day — it […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Takes On Travel Sites, Courts FTC Action With ITA Acquisition Google has signed an agreement to acquire travel reservations software company ITA. The purchase price is reportedly about $700 million. […]
In a kind of parallel but interesting variation on the complaints filed in Europe against Google, now being investigated by the European Commission in a preliminary anti-trust inquiry, one of the European complainants Foundem has filed a brief with the US FCC concerning net neutrality. The complaints in Europe, broadly speaking, argue that Google has […]
There is a much longer post to be written on Google’s privacy policies and its history of combatting or complying with government requests for information and those of third parties using the courts to get access to user data. But I’ll take two recent items to illustrate the complexity and potential contradictions here. Google was […]
Citing the Mumbai terrorists’ statement that they used Google Maps as a planning tool, a California legislator (from El Cajon) has introduced a bill which would “not allow online mapping tools from companies like Google Inc. to provide aerial or satellite images of schools, places of worship, government buildings and medical facilities unless they have […]
CNET reports on a conviction based in part on search query logs from Google that was upheld on appeal: A physical search of Justin’s computer revealed that a few months before the murder, he had searched for terms including “trauma, cases, gunshot, right chest” and “Florida & divorce.” Prosecutors had also discovered that the defendant […]
When it comes to search privacy, one of the biggest worries in my book has been the US government’s ability under the Patriot Act to make secret requests for information that no one can know about. Last year this was ruled unconstitutional by one judge. Today, news is out about the Internet Archive winning against […]
Porn studio wants Google, Yahoo to protect kids from adult video from the AFP reports Steven Hirsch, the co-founder of Vivid Entertainment, a pornography company, wants Google and Yahoo to do more in protecting children from accessing pornographic content. Steven Hirsch said: None of the search engines and portals, but particularly Yahoo and Google, has […]
The Google Public Policy blog announced new policies for how you can use AdWords in the political debate space. Google AdWords requires politicians to comply with the editorial guidelines that (1) you can campaign for any political view, (2) you can ask for donations if you are a non-tax-deductible organization, and (3) you cannot mislead […]
Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are all doing business in China. There’s been bad PR and even congressional hearings for Yahoo about its cooperation with the Chinese government in the country’s effort to censor the Internet and crack down on dissent. Turkey and Thailand have blocked YouTube, and so on. Now this article from Forbes describes […]
Eric Goldman’s Technology & Marketing Law Blog features an interesting debate and discussion about whether algorithmic search results should be subject to regulation. On one side is Goldman, who says “no.” On the other are law professors Frank Pasquale and Oren Bracha who argue “yes” in a recent paper entitled “Federal Search Commission: Access, Fairness […]
PageRank. If you do SEO or are involved with Google or search, you’ll come across this topic at some point. You’ll also likely be confused by what exactly PageRank means. To solve that, here’s a guide to PageRank, designed for searchers and site owners alike. Google’s Definition: PageRank As Votes Let’s start with what Google says. […]
Building Contractor Sues Google for Indexing Consumer Complaint from Wired highlights yet another case where a someone wants to sue Google over how they are listed. Cases like these have lost in the past, but people keep trying. In this case, New Jersey building contractor RSA Homes is upset that a search for "RSA Homes" […]
Eric Goldberg summarizes a court decision in Langdon v. Google (PDF) showing a court deciding how search engines do not have to display all ads. Langdon took Google to court to force Google to display ads that “attacked people.” Reportedly, Langdon is a complainer or griper and he wanted to use search ads to air […]
Consumer watchdog Public Citizen has filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of Michael Morgan, a Florida realtor sued by homebuilder Lennar for using its corporate name in the URL of a web site critical of Lennar, and for buying sponsored search ads using the trademarked name to promote the site. According to […]