Google, which has explained that implementing the EU’s new Right To Be Forgotten mandate has been difficult, has opened up a new form allowing the general public to offer it advice. Google’s new form invites Google users to submit their thoughts and feedback on the Court of Justice of the European Union mandate for the Right To […]
Lots of people are afraid unnecessarily of behavioural advertising. All it means is that if you have been to a site or bought something, a cookie is dropped on your computer and ad servers read those cookies and try to serve you an ad that is most appropriate to you. The data is anonymised and […]
Google began removing listings in response to the EU’s new Right To Be Forgotten mandate last week. As promised, Google is also disclosing to searchers when such removals have happened. However, it is also confusingly reporting that removals may have happened even when they have not. Welcome to Google’s new blanket notice that all name-based […]
Larry Page offered his thoughts on the European court’s “Right To Be Forgotten” ruling during an interview at Google’s I/O conference this week with New York Times reporter Farhad Manjoo. Page claimed it would have been better if there had been more discussion around the matter. “We could have arrived at a more practical place […]
Many searchers and Google users are asking, will the Right To Be Forgotten form be a feature and option coming to the U.S. on Google.com. The answer is no! A few weeks ago, Google told us the removals will only be available in the European Union, that is until the U.S. government and court finds […]
As of the end of last week there were roughly 12,000 requests that had been officially submitted to Google under Europe’s judicially created “right to be forgotten” (RTBF) rule. Google launched an online form last week to field the requests. According to the Wall Street Journal the 12,000 have now turned into 41,000. That’s roughly […]
The cat and mouse game between China, Google and the internet continues. Today and tomorrow are the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Fearing another anti-government uprising, every year at this time China cracks down on its citizens’ ability to access information about the event online. However this year, China is going to greater […]
DuckDuckGo, the spunky little search engine that hangs its hat on user privacy, has relaunched today with a new look and feel, not to mention a number of new features like maps and local search, image search and more. Put it all together, and DuckDuckGo is starting to look less and less “spunky,” and more […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Study: Gender Bias In Digital Marketing Is Real WordStream, the paid search platform, published an eye-opening study this week on gender bias in the online marketing industry. Using its internal data, […]
DuckDuckGo. the search engine known for protecting the privacy of its users, announced a new “reimagined and redesigned” beta site today. According to the announcement, the new site will deliver smarter answers and have a more refined look. DuckDuckGo has also added new features, including an image search, auto-suggest and places. The new site is […]
Yahoo yesterday announced that it will no longer adhere to Do Not Track browser signals, further compromising the effectiveness of the setting in the online ecosystem. “As of today, web browser Do Not Track settings will no longer be enabled on Yahoo. As the first major tech company to implement Do Not Track, we’ve been […]
There are reports we are receiving from a few sources, including AJ Ghergich who posted it on his blog, that Google will soon stop passing keyword data to analytics software, even for AdWords advertisers. We expected changes to not provided in the near future, and based on these reports, the likelihood of advertisers being stripped […]
When Google moved to secure search in October 2011, it was a blow to publishers, who began losing data about the search terms used to reach their sites. It also opened Google up to claims of hypocrisy, in that advertisers continued to receive the terms. Now, Google says it’s reexamining the issue and seeking a […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Matt Cutts: “Stick A Fork In It, Guest Blogging Is Done” Google and Matt Cutts, in particular, has made a number of statements about guest blogging over the past year as […]
Bing now appears to be supporting secure search through the https://www.bing.com address. Previously, trying to use this address generated an error. If you conduct a search on Bing, while on the HTTPS URL, it will remain HTTPS and keep your searches secure. This is a new feature Bing quietly started supporting over the weekend. Cyrus Shepard […]
A Virginia state court of appeal has ruled that Yelp must disclose the real identities of seven individuals who posted anonymous, critical reviews of an Alexandria, Virginia carpet cleaning business, Hadeed Carpet. Yelp and free speech advocacy groups have decried the decision. Hadeed said that he didn’t believe that any of the reviews came from actual […]
The Guardian reported yesterday DuckDuckGo, the search engine that keeps user searches private, is now up to four million queries per day, with over a billion queries performed on the anonymous search engine during 2013. Prior to the PRISM scandal that revealed the NSA was regularly tracking searches on major search engines, DuckDuckGo averaged approximately […]
Google announced today it has released its eighth Transparency Report since 2010 when the search engine began providing data on government requests to remove content. According to the latest Transparency Report covering the first half of 2013, Google saw a “significant” increase in the number of requests from Turkey and Russia, with Russia’s requests to […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: How Will Google Hummingbird Impact Links? Here Are 6 Ways So you have a question you would like answered, and that question is: “How Will Google Hummingbird Impact Links?” It’s still […]
Online security software provider Disconnect launched their latest search tool, Disconnect Search this week. According to the announcement, Disconnect Search allows users to perform private searches on sites like Google, Yahoo and Bing via their address bar or omnibox, “without having to change their behavior.” Disconnect says their new tool routes search queries through the […]
To mark Google’s 15th birthday, the PEW Research Center released a survey conducted between April and May of this year to evaluate the number of people who Google themselves. According to the report, 56 percent of Internet users have used Google or another search engine to search on their own name, a 22 percent increase […]
In the past month, Google quietly made a change aimed at encrypting all search activity — except for clicks on ads. Google says this has been done to provide “extra protection” for searchers, and the company may be aiming to block NSA spying activity. Possibly, it’s a move to increase ad sales. Or both. Welcome […]
How do you convince a bunch of publishers to buy ads on your service? If you’re Google, how about withholding data from those publishers about how people are finding their sites, as a way to drive them into your ad system? I don’t think Google planned for this to happen. But that’s the end result, […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: AdWords Debuts Offline Conversion Tracking For Full Sales Cycle Optimization Running lead generation campaigns on Google AdWords? Measuring success and optimizing campaigns for actual sealed-deal conversions, not just lead in-take, just […]
Despite the fact that search history can be so revealing about people’s desires and interests, a new survey of US internet users finds that concern over search privacy — while significant — still ranks far behind other online privacy issues. The survey by the Pew Research Center covered 1,000 adults in the US, was conducted […]
Last month, Google agreed to pay $8.5 million into a settlement fund over a class-action lawsuit by two searchers who accused the company of transmitting their personal information to third parties without their consent or knowledge that the information was being shared. The final court approval of the proposed settlement was scheduled for today, but […]
Behold a brilliant display of Google AdWords advertising policy violations: This ad was spotted by Luke Alley from Avalaunch Media. As it turns out, Alley unearthed a deep pit teeming with ad violations. Search for “facebook support” on Google, and you’ll quickly see the ads are crawling with AdWords policy violations. The ad above features “Symbols, numbers, and letters […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: New Research Says Search Engines Have Little To Do With Promoting Pirated Content A new research paper authored by Matt Schruers and published by the Computer & Communications Industry Association argues […]
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 Agrees To Settle Lawsuit Over Passing Search Queries To Third Parties Google has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit that stems from two searchers accusing the company of sharing their […]
Google has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit that stems from two searchers accusing the company of sharing their search queries with third parties without user content or knowledge. As part of the settlement, Google has agreed to pay $8.5 million into a settlement fund, with that money going to seven groups/organizations on the condition […]
Look out, Google! Duck Duck Go is on the rise, posting a 50% traffic increase in just eight days. Is this proof people want a “private” search engine, in the wake of allegations the PRISM program allows the US government to read search data with unfettered access? Nope. Google has little to worry about. People don’t […]
Another week, another traffic record in the alternative search engine space. DuckDuckGo (DDG) tweeted this morning about its latest milestone: more than three million direct searches in a single day. As the company’s traffic page shows, it happened on Monday when DDG had 3,095,907 “direct searches.” Those are searches done by human visitors to duckduckgo.com. […]
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’s Matt Cutts: Stock Images Do Not Impact Search Engine Rankings Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, said in a recent video that using stock images from a stock image […]
Alternative search engines are having a good week, likely thanks to public awareness and concern over data and privacy issues being raised by the PRISM scandal. StartPage and Ixquick, two small search engines from the same company, announced this week that they surpassed three million daily searches for the first time. More specifically, they hit […]
DuckDuckGo, the upstart search engine that hangs it hat on protecting its users’ privacy, hit a new milestone on Monday: its first day with two million direct searches. According to the company’s traffic page, DuckDuckGo saw 2,211,203 direct searches on Monday — up about 400,000 over Sunday’s searches. The phrase “direct searches” refers to humans […]
In a surprising turn of events, Germany’s top civil court overturned two lower court rulings on a case involving Google’s autocomplete function. According to the ruling, it is Google’s responsibility to block libelous words that appear next to a name via the autocomplete function if Google has been alerted to the defamatory words. The plaintiff […]
A fine of 145,000 EUR (roughly $189,000) is trivial for Google. But that’s close to the maximum fine allowed by German law ($150,000 EUR). The fine is being imposed on Google for violations of German privacy and data protection laws stemming from the so-called “WiSpy” episode in 2008 – 2009 in which Google collected private […]
AFP reports a Japan court has ruled Google to alter the search suggestions and fined Google 300,000 yen ($3,100). The Tokyo District Court ruled that Google has to change the auto-completions for a search on a particular man’s name – the name was undisclosed – because Google provided suggestions that the man committed criminal acts. […]
If you search for anything at Google UK or on any of the 27 localized versions of Google in the European Union, Google will now prompt you with a notification that they are using cookies to provide search results to you. In fact, Google says that by using Google search you are agreeing to allow […]
As reported last week, Google has formally settled the so-called “WiSpy” case with 30 US state Attorneys General for $7 million. The agreement also contains some other non-monetary provisions that are, frankly, more meaningful. The investigation began in 2010 concerning unauthorized collection of private emails and other “payload” data by Google Street View vehicles. The […]