Inside SearchGuard: How Google detects bots and what the SerpAPI lawsuit reveals
We fully decrypted SearchGuard, the anti-bot system protecting Google Search. Here's exactly how Google tells humans and bots apart.
Topic: National Security Agency
Report: EU Preparing To File Formal Antitrust Charges Against Google
Company could face billions in potential fines, up to 10 percent of revenue.
DuckDuckGo Added To Firefox As Part Of Enhanced Privacy Options
Firefox is celebrating its 10th anniversary. A new version of the browser includes two new privacy features. The first is the availability of DuckDuckGo as a new pre-installed search engine choice. The second is a “forget” feature that allows users to delete recent history. Forget enables users to easily erase the “last 5 minutes, or […]
World War II, Communism Subtext In Right To Be Forgotten
From an American legal perspective, the recently established European Right to Be Forgotten (RTBF) is a disaster. It’s a confusing, vague, impractical and possibly even dangerous decision. But from a European historical perspective, it makes considerable sense. The different histories of the U.S. and Europe in the 20th Century have shaped different attitudes and rules […]
German Official: Google Should Reveal Its Ranking Algorithm
One of the unanswered questions in the ongoing European-Google antitrust saga is what concrete changes or concessions critics want (or will accept) from Google. One of those things may have just come to light in a Financial Times interview with German justice minister Heiko Maas. Maas asserts in the interview that Google needs to become more “transparent” about its algorithm and […]
SearchCap: Google Penalty, AdWords Website Call Conversions & Pigeon Fears
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 Launches Ability To Track “Website Call Conversions” In AdWords Today, Google launched a what’s likely to become a popular new feature for many AdWords advertisers. Website call conversions allow advertisers […]
SearchCap: Google Robots.txt Tester, Bing Ads Bid Suggestions & AdWords Express App
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Blogger Fined By French Court, Negative Restaurant Review Too Prominent In Google A French court has ordered a blogger to pay a substantial fine and change the title of a restaurant […]
Is Google’s European Antitrust Settlement In Jeopardy?
Widespread dissatisfaction among public and political figures with the existing antitrust settlement between Google and the European Commission appears to be putting the settlement in danger. According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the run up to this week’s European Parliament elections saw an increase in “rhetoric against the settlement with Google.” The article depicts an […]
DuckDuckGo Has Biggest Day Ever In 2014 With More Than 4 Million Queries On January 7th
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 […]
Ask.com Posts Most Popular Questions Of 2013 Without Waiting To See What Gets Asked In Dec.
It’s not even Thanksgiving week, but Ask.com has posted its Most Popular Questions and Search Terms for the year, listing 2013’s top ten trending terms for news, celebrity and entertainment, and political searches. According to the site, the Royal Baby ranked No. 1 for the top searched news term of the year, with the corresponding […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 30, 2013
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 Webmaster Tools Adds “Security Issues” Section Google has announced the addition of a new section within Webmaster Tools named “Security Issues.” This new section is aimed at better communicating to […]
Post-PRISM, Google Confirms Quietly Moving To Make All Searches Secure, Except For Ad Clicks
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 […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 27, 2013
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 AdWords Adds Cross-Account Conversion Tracking & MCC Search Funnels To help advertisers track performance across multiple AdWords accounts, Google announced cross-account conversion tracking and search funnel reporting. This is the […]
StartPage, Ixquick Passed 4 Million Daily Searches On Monday
StartPage and Ixquick, sister search engines that offer private searching, announced that they surpassed four million daily direct searches on Monday. The announcement comes about three weeks after the parent company announced that they reached three million daily searches for the first time. Ixquick CEO Robert Beens credits the higher search activity to public reaction […]
DuckDuckGo Launches New Search & Content App For iOS
DuckDuckGo (DDG) has launched a new iOS app called Search & Stories to go along with the Android app that’s been available since late 2011. The app offers many of the same features as DuckDuckGo’s Web-based search engine, particularly the anonymous searching that has earned DDG a lot of media attention after the NSA/PRISM privacy […]
Duck Duck Go’s Post-PRISM Growth Actually Proves No One Cares About “Private” Search
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 […]
DuckDuckGo Passes 3 Million Searches, Just 8 Days After Hitting 2 Million
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. […]
SMX Advanced: You&A Conversation With Matt Cutts (Pandas, Penguins & Payday Loan Spam)
Day one of our SMX Advanced show is almost over, but there’s one last session still to come: the traditional “You&A with Matt Cutts” keynote session. Search Engine Land’s founding editor, Danny Sullivan, will be sitting down for a lengthy chat with Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s webspam team. The session is due to […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 10, 2013
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Apple Makes Bing The “Default Search Engine” For Siri One of the things that you might have missed if you weren’t paying really close attention to the live blogs of the […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 8, 2013
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 Ad Group Mobile Bid Adjustments Roll-Out Starts Today Google announced that ad group-level mobile bid adjustments will start rolling out today and continue over the next couple of weeks in […]
Live Blog: “Which Way Google?” At SMX East
Welcome! It’s the “Which Way Google?” panel here at SMX East. We’ve got a great panel — Jeff Jarvis, Steven Levy and Marc Rotenberg — set to cover a range of issues. Let’s live blog. This is new for me — I never live blog at my own conferences. But I saw the queen of […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 4, 2010
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 To Add “Google Store Views” I received a tip from a New York retailer named Oh Nuts, that Google came to their store to take pictures for a new […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 30, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
SearchBiz: Mehdi Moves Up At Microsoft; Should MSFT learn from Ask?; Top 25 People On The Web; Google & The NSA
With Microsoft’s current advertising campaign still leaving many people shaking their heads in wonder, TechCrunch has an idea: follow the lead of Ask.com. Jason Kincaid confesses that Ask’s ad — the one that shows a young woman “exercising” (ahem) on a stripper pole in her house — actually made him curious enough to click through […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 17, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Google’s Matt Cutts Keynote At SES London
A Keynote Conversation with Google’s Matt Cutts from Search Engine Roundtable provides live blogging of Google’s Matt Cutts talking to Search Engine Land executive editor Chris Sherman during the keynote at SES London today. Matt covers: Eloping, a nice Valentine’s Day topic His typical day fighting spam Google search algorithm evolution Debunking myths How SEOs […]