The simplest way to describe Google Now on Tap is perhaps “context-driven search.” It’s a way for users to generate more content or information about a subject or item without ever conducting a formal search — or even swiping for Google Now. Whether in an app, mobile site, email or text message, Now on Tap […]
Celebrating its 60th anniversary, this year's NORAD Santa Tracker program includes a website with holiday-themed games, movies and music.
Disruptive technologies are often met with lobbying efforts to block them by vested interests trying to preserve the status quo. One such example is the unsuccessful effort by taxi companies to use the law to hold back Uber’s advance, especially in Europe. Another is the European newspaper industry’s efforts to boost sagging revenues with strict […]
Microsoft launches a new mobile app for real-time translation to compete with Google's Google Translate 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: Google Fights France To Prevent Globalization Of The Right-to-Be-Forgotten Google has formally appealed France’s data protection authority’s order that Google apply Right-to-Be-Forgotten (RTBF) removals to its global index. The Commission Nationale […]
Call it one of the most egregious examples of unintended consequences. The effort of the Spanish newspaper association and Spanish government to get Google to subsidize Spanish news publishers with a mandatory link tax (under the the guise of copyright fees) is a massive disaster — for publishers, for the Spanish internet and for innovation in […]
The Google Instant Translation app gets a lot more powerful.
The group of 80 lawyers and academics want a lot more information from Google.
Now you can get 9 million answers in French, German, Czech & Polish from DuckDuckGo.
The new Google Translate app for iOS and Android brings real-time camera based translation and conversational translation to iOS.
Did Google News really close in Spain? If you consider Google News to be the ability to browse stories by topic, especially from a dedicated home page, yes. But if it’s the ability to search for and find news stories, then arguably, Google News still lives. Anyone trying to reach the Google News Spain home page […]
News outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and AP are reporting that Google News España has shut down. However it appears to still be up and available on the site. As Barry Schwartz points out, if you visit news.google.es you’re directed to the following help page. The page offers an explanation and apology: As […]
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 Widget In AdWords Makes Countdown Copy Easy Quickly set up dynamic countdowns in ads without having to type variable strings. Quickly set up dynamic countdowns in ads without having to […]
A new effort by the Spanish Newspaper Publishers Association (AEDE) to prevent Google from shutting down its News site in Spain is an amazing example of industry chutzpah or hubris. The action shows so much chutzpah in fact that it enters the realm of unintentional political satire. First the background if you don’t already know […]
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 Rolls Out International Hotel Booking Feature & Updates Mobile Search Results Bing has partnered with TripAdvisor to deliver reviews, booking capabilities and rates for hotel searches in 22 different countries. […]
Google has decided to shut down Google News in Spain. This drastic step will occur next week (December 16) and is the result of a recently passed Spanish law that would have compelled Google to pay licensing revenues to Spanish publishers if their content appeared in Google News — even headlines. Some Spanish publishers, including newspaper group AEDE, […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Following Germany’s Lead Spain Passes Misguided “Google Tax” Anti-Piracy Law Given the saga of Germany’s ill-conceived and poorly implemented “ancillary copyright law” one would have thought that another European government wouldn’t […]
Given the saga of Germany’s ill-conceived and poorly implemented “ancillary copyright law” one would have thought that another European government wouldn’t immediately duplicate the mistake. But that’s exactly what’s happened in Spain. Spanish newspaper publishers, hoping to turn Google into a source of compulsory licensing revenue, worked to pass a new law that imposes strict fines for the […]
In July, Google began labeling the mobile search results that had results from Flash enabled sites with mobile warnings. The warning cautioned mobile users from clicking to the site, by showing a notice that reads: “Uses Flash. May not work on your device. Try anyway | Learn more.” That warning is rolling out to more […]
Google’s Pierre Far announced this morning that Google is expanding the mobile Flash warnings searchers get when searching Google and finding a search result that leads to a site made mostly in Adobe Flash. The warning was first introduced back in July, and today has started to roll out globally, in multiple languages and geo-graphic versions […]
There’s a basic feeling among traditional news publishers throughout Europe, and among some in the U.S., that Google has benefited enormously from their content but failed to offer anything in return. Furthermore, many publishers see Google as directly responsible for the decline of their traditional advertising and circulation revenues. The counter-argument that Google sends traffic […]
Jon Wiley, Principal Designer for Google Search, participated in a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) discussion, where in one question, he was asked to share something cool he is working on. He shared that Google is working on a feature to listen to multiple languages at the same time and be able to process them […]
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” the saying goes. There are plenty of good intentions with the EU’s Right To Be Forgotten mandate, as well as Google’s attempt to meet new obligations under it. Things are still going to hell regardless. Thanks to the new right, the EU has helped enable convicted […]
Google announced that their App Indexing protocol, the ability for Google to link search results to your mobile apps direct deep content now supports eight new languages. App Indexing lets developers markup their content so that if a searcher has an Android app installed on their phone, and the search result comes up, it would […]
Maria Belen Rodriguez is an Argentina-born model, actress and TV personality who now lives and works in Italy. She successfully sued Google and Yahoo in 2006 in her native country, alleging that her likeness was wrongfully appropriated by porn sites and then indexed/republished or disseminated by search engines. There was an alleged sex tape involving Belen Rodriguez (in […]
Depending on what you read, a “Right To Be Forgotten” court ruling in the European Union this week means that now anyone can ask for anything to be removed from Google, which will soon collapse under an overwhelming number of requests. In reality, it’s far more limited than it sounds, though the ruling does raise […]
The floodgates have opened. According to a Reuters story, following Tuesday’s European Court ruling establishing a Europe-wide “right to be forgotten” (RTF), Google is preparing for an anticipated “flood” of removal requests across the 28 country jurisdiction. The ruling provided a right to individuals to request (and ultimately compel) removal of unflattering or undesired information about […]
The “right to be forgotten”: a triumph of individual privacy rights or censorship? It’s going to depend on how it plays out in specific circumstances. The Luxembourg-based European Union Court of Justice, Europe’s “top court,” ruled earlier today that Google can be compelled to remove information about individuals from search results as part of 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: 10 Key Takeaways From Meet The Search Engines @ SMX West Another SMX is in the books! This show definitely had one of the most engaged attendee groups I have ever […]
As promised, Google has taken manual action to penalize link networks in Italy and Spain. It was just four days ago that Google warned webmasters in those two countries about its rules on paid links and willingness to take action against websites that violate those rules. The penalties were announced separately on Friday by Google […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced on Twitter today that they have penalized and taken action on two additional German link networks. He mentioned one by name: efamous. efamous looks like a typical ad network, but I guess they passed PageRank through their link network, which is against Google’s guidelines. Cutts also said […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yahoo Search App Gets iOS 7 Design Upgrade & More Yahoo has pushed out a new update to their iOS Yahoo Search app in the Apple App Store. The new update […]
Less than a month after Google targeted Polish link spammers and German link spammers, Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts announced that the company is targeting more countries. Cutts announced warnings to Spanish and Italian webmasters and SEOs not to use unnatural links to promote their sites. He posted both announcements on Twitter and […]
Millions of us have asked Google to play weatherperson. In order to get an answer to one of our oldest and most basic questions, we type a variety of words and numbers — city names, neighborhoods and ZIP codes, plus words like “weather,” “forecast” or maybe “temperature” — into the Google search box, and Google […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: England’s Lulworth Cove Tops Bing’s List Of Most Popular 2013 Homepage Images Bing has released its ten most popular homepage images of the year, with England’s Lulworth Cove off of the […]
European Union competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia announced Friday in a Spanish radio interview that Google’s second round of concessions in its current antitrust settlement proposal were “unacceptable.” The main obstacle to settlement is still Google’s treatment of competitors and its “own content” in “vertical search” results. Almunia was directly involved in negotiating the original settlement proposal […]
Fox News reports Japan has instructed their government authorities and state-run universities to not use Google Maps on their websites because of a conflict over disputed territories. The territory is Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea. Apple Maps had a similar issue back in November of last year. The territory is based in […]
Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot of odd spending patterns in client accounts, especially when it comes to international Google AdWords campaigns. No, I’m not referring to mobile or enhanced campaigns — I’m talking about to a failure to account for regional differences in how online consumers search and convert. How you approach the issue […]
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 “Remarketing Lists For Search Ads” Coming Out Of Beta On the heels of releasing dynamic retargeting for retailers in AdWords, Google has announced it will be rolling out remarketing lists […]
Today’s Google homepage is dedicated to Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi, the leader of Catalan Modernism. Born in 1852, Gaudi’s hometown in Catalonia, Spain is rumored to be Reus or Riudoms. An artist of many trades, including ceramics, stained glass, wrought ironwork forging and carpentry, Gaudi’s work was largely influenced by nature and religion, earning him […]