Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Maps Adds Variety Of Hi-Res Image Improvements Bing Maps has announced a series of updates to its high-resolution imagery, including expanded coverage, better mapping of ocean floors, cloud filtering and […]
Although slightly different than the Spanish case discussed yesterday, the “right to be forgotten” has reared its head again — this time in the UK.” UK Attorney General Dominic Grieve has threatened legal action against anyone posting pictures of convicted killer Jon Venables online. TechDirt offers a short summary of the underlying facts of the […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Gmail Search Field Trial Adds Calendar Results To Google Search Google keeps increasing the amount of information it will show from your Gmail account within your Google searches, if you’re part […]
Last Friday, Lars Rasmussen, Facebook’s Director of Engineering, did an AMA (ask me anything) on Reddit to discuss the ins-and-outs of Graph Search. Lars answered 20 questions from fellow Redditors shedding some light on the history, importance and technology behind Graph Search. According to Lars, the initial Graph Search was internally launched in Summer of […]
That didn’t take long, did it? Tom Scott, one of the current users of Facebook Graph Search, has started a Tumblr blog to document its potential privacy train wrecks. “I just got Graph Search and it’s actually so creepy that I’ve started this Tumblr to document it,” Scott wrote on Facebook yesterday. His blog offers […]
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 Maps Is Back On The iPhone: Native iOS App Released Google has released its long-awaited map app for the iPhone. And it delivers all the expected features: voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation, […]
Internet users have historically been very wary of online advertising, so we’ve come up with this simple “Fair for Everyone” sample advertising policy which we hope will help calm people’s nerves, and also set everything on a more reasonable playing field with users. Feel free to put this disclaimer on your site alongside your T&Cs […]
DuckDuckGo’s ongoing mission to challenge Google (and other search engines, but mainly Google) on privacy issues has taken another turn with the recent launch of a video that accuses Google of putting searchers in a “bubble” of personalized results. The video hits on a few of DuckDuckGo’s consistent talking points in its ongoing battle to […]
There’s a cat and mouse game going on between developers, publishers and mobile users. The former group is often trying to “connect the dots” and gather as much data and information on user behavior and, in some cases, individual activity as possible. By contrast, mobile phone owners (especially smartphone owners) are often trying to thwart […]
At the beginning of the year I wrote about PolitickerUSA, a free tool that allows users to quickly and easily read tweets from members of congress and other political leaders. Today, I want to point out another free service named Politwoops that launched at the end of May. Here, users can access and read tweets […]
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 Releases Penguin Update 1.1 No matter that it’s late Friday night on the start of a three-day holiday weekend in the U.S., Google has just pushed out the first update […]
Here’s a shocker*: Microsoft’s Streetside service has hit a bumpy road in Germany. The company says it’s shut down Streetside imagery in Germany after complaints about the way the company was handling blurring requests. Microsoft spokesperson Thomas Baumgartner tells PCWorld that he’s not sure if or when Streetside will be reinstated in Germany. A Microsoft […]
The popular Firefox browser is on track to use a secure method of searching Google by default, a change that will help prevent potential “eavesdropping” of what people are searching for. It will also further reduce the ability for publishers to know how people find their sites in Google — except for Google advertisers. A […]
Last week the Pew Internet Project released findings of a survey on search, personalization and targeted advertising. In a nutshell, survey respondents had a very positive view of search and the quality of search results. Yet the majority gave an unequivocal thumbs down to search personalization (and behavioral targeting). This isn’t necessarily a contradiction or paradox […]
Google has announced that by default, it will begin encrypting search beyond Google.com in the coming weeks. Since the reason Google uses secure search is primarily to enable its “Search Plus Your World” personalized results, this means SPYW is likely to expand beyond the US. It also means that search marketers can expect the percentage […]
Google is enabling people to gain access to PC search histories on their mobile browsers (Android, iPhone). Conduct a (local) search on the PC and later get the information on your smartphone — if you’re logged in and have Web History enabled. Google says this makes it convenient for people to search for local places […]
With several governments and regulatory bodies around the world saying that Google’s new privacy policy may violate their domestic rules (Europe, Japan), it goes into effect today. Advocacy group EPIC has been trying to block it saying that the consolidated privacy policy violates Google’s earlier settlement with the FTC in the Buzz case/investigation. However that […]
Danny Sullivan, Chris Sherman and Google SVP of Advertising Susan Wojcicki are now seated for her on-stage keynote interview this morning at SMX West. It’s a capacity crowd as Chris Sherman introduces Wojcicki as “one of the 50 most influential business executives” (Forbes). He also characterizes her as someone “you may not have heard of at […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Is SEO Killing America? Last week at the Tools of Change conference, Clay Johnson, author of the new book The Information Diet gave a keynote talk titled “Is SEO Killing America“. […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Linked Pages: Better People Search Results Microsoft Bing announced a new feature named Linked Pages. The purpose is to make the search results for you and your friends more personalized […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Scroogle’s Gone? Here’s Who Still Offers Private Searching You’ve probably read the news already that Scroogle is gone forever. It launched back in 2003 and was popular among searchers who wanted […]
You’ve probably read the news already that Scroogle is gone forever. It launched back in 2003 and was popular among searchers who wanted to get Google search results in a private setting. Now that it’s gone, where can searchers go for a more private search experience than Google and Bing offer by default? Here’s a […]
A week ago, we reported that Scroogle was being blocked by Google and searches on the privacy search engine were no longer working. Since then, the site continued not to work and now it is completely offline. The owner, Daniel Brandt, said he took it down “forever.” He blames both Google and DDOS attack by […]
Call it “Cookiegate” — or “Safarigate” perhaps. Late last night we got the Wall Street Journal’s piece: “Google’s iPhone Tracking: Web Giant, Others Bypassed Apple Browser Settings for Guarding Privacy.” Danny covered the article and its claims extensively at Marketing Land. This morning there’s an expanding debate about whether the WSJ mischaracterized Google’s behavior unfairly […]
If you try to conduct a search at Scroogle, the portal that lets you search Google in private, Scroogle will tell you that Google is blocking them. I just tested it and Scroogle returns an error message that reads, “so sorry… Google is temporarily blocking this Scroogle server.” This happened back in May 2010 as […]
Google is quietly taking requests from web users who want to get paid to surf the web using the Chrome browser while sharing data with Google. The program is called Screenwise and, though we’re not aware of any official announcement, Google has a signup page at www.google.com/landing/screenwisepanel. The page explains that Google wants to create […]
People are generally vaguely aware that debates have been taking place in Europe over new legislation which principally affects the use of “Cookies”. European legislation is inevitably more complex than elsewhere because of the way it is drafted by the European Commission and then individually interpreted, translated and re-drafted by each country. Today, I’m focusing […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: 5 Common Tracking Problems: How To Troubleshoot & Fix Them I spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly what is wrong with some clients’ analytics installs. Unlike types […]
FairSearch.org, a consortium of companies that originally came together to oppose the Google acquisition of ITA and includes Tavelocity, Microsoft and TripAdvisor among others, has added several new members to its ranks and launched an anti-Google print-ad campaign. Entitled “Good to Know,” the ads seek to expose “truths” about Google and its alleged conflicts of […]
DuckDuckGo, the upstart search engine that’s challenged its bigger competitors on privacy issues, has had a couple straight days of record-setting traffic. But the numbers show just how much the major search engines dominate the search space. First, let’s recognize how cool it is that DuckDuckGo actually has a public web page that shows the […]
Google’s search results are undergoing their most radical transformation ever, as a new “Search Plus Your World” format begins rolling out today. It finds both content that’s been shared with you privately along with matches from the public web, all mixed into a single set of listings. The change is live now, though not everyone will […]
Discussion: Will Retargeting & Remarketing Become Too Creepy? Presentations from SMX East – NYC, NY, September 2011 Retargeting allows marketers to more precisely craft, optimize and fine-tune search marketing campaigns by observing user behavior and serving ads that closely match intent. But there’s a growing backlash from privacy advocates to severely limit or even ban […]
Which Way Google? Presentations from SMX East – NYC, NY, September 2011 Google’s going through an extraordinary time. It faces anti-trust investigations in the US and the EU. Competitors worry more and more about it, as the company seems to continually expand into new areas, such as social. Some consumer groups worry about privacy issues […]
Facebook and the US Federal Trade Commission announced their formal privacy settlement today. Facebook and the federal agency each put their spin on it, with Facebook saying it was very similar to “agreements” previously reached with Google and Twitter: Recently, the US Federal Trade Commission established agreements with Google and Twitter that are helping to […]
A new directive by the European Commission may stop advertisers from leveraging users’s information when advertising on Facebook. The Telgraph reports that the EC is looking into the way that Facebook “eavesdrops” on users and how personal data is made available for ad targeting. This new legislation will be introduced in January and will be applicable […]
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 Leads In Search Engines’ Efforts To Woo TV Viewers Google’s “Dear Sophie” TV spot for Chrome, in which a father creates a Gmail account for his newborn daughter and sends […]
According to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal the world’s largest social network is nearing a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that will subject the company to 20 years of “privacy audits.” A nearly identical punishment was imposed earlier this year on Google over “deceptive privacy practices in Google’s rollout […]
Asked to reflect on the cultural differences between Google and Facebook, current Facebook COO and former Googler Sheryl Sandberg told Charlie Rose that “Google is fundamentally about algorithms and machine learning . . . We start from a totally different place. We start from an individual: Who are you? What do you want to do? What do […]
Yesterday Euclid Elements, a relatively new firm founded by some of the people behind the product that became Google Analytics, announced a $5.8 million first round of funding. The company is seeking to enable retailers and business owners with physical locations to measure things like foot traffic by time of day, average customer time in […]
Google’s new encrypted search for logged in users now appears to be blocking a much higher percentage of search terms than when it initially rolled out two weeks ago. In some cases, it might even be higher than the 10% or less figure that the company initially predicted might be impacted. Blocking Search Queries Two weeks […]