How to turn off Google’s social search features
Do you hate change? Loathe disruption of your normal routines? Are you mad as a wet hen over the new Google+ results showing up when you try to do a simple Google search?
Then this post is for you. We’re going to take you through the steps of turning off Google+ results in your web searches. We’re also going to show you how to turn them back on, in case you change your mind.
First, … Continue Reading
Google search gets its biggest change in a decade with a dose of Google+
Well, it’s finally happened. Google web search has been Google-Plus-ified.
Today, Google is bringing some specific new features to Google web search, its flagship and most widely used product. In addition to the usual assortment of links, pictures, news items and shopping results you’d see in a typical Google search results page, logged-in Google+ users will now also find several kinds of Google+ content sprinkled in among the normal search results. There are even promoted … Continue Reading
Google paying nearly $1B for Firefox search deal
The prominent search box atop the popular Firefox browser played the coveted prize jewel in a Christie’s-like bidding war between the web’s wealthiest whales.
Google competed in an aggressive auction with Microsoft and Yahoo to maintain its place as the default search engine on Firefox, according to AllThingsD. It successfully renewed a three-year deal, but the placement came with a massive markup and will now cost the company $300 million a year.
That’s one heck … Continue Reading
White is the new black — on all Google products
Leave it to Google to dispel the myth that one shouldn’t wear white after Labor Day. The search giant and social network contender has stripped off the ominous, horizontal black bar hovering atop its pages to reveal a milky-fresh new hue for each of its web-based products.
The new Google bar occupies the same space as the Google logo and search box in most products and now provides people with one- or two-click access to … Continue Reading
Baidu adds English search results from Microsoft’s Bing
Chinese search giant Baidu announced on Monday that it would add English results from Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, to its own search engine.
The results from Baidu are currently primarily in Chinese. That includes search queries that users type in English. For example, typing in “Last.fm” will deliver search results in Chinese, even if the link in the search results points to the English version of Last.fm.
The new deal will give Microsoft a foothold … Continue Reading
What do you love? Google knows.
Reactions to Google’s new “What do you love?” service are going to be mixed. That’s probably why the site wdyl.com was rolled out quietly, at night, with no more fanfare than an anonymous ”tip” going to Techcrunch.com.
Wdyl.com essentially takes a search request and turns it into a comic book-looking page of relevant results. You get the results after entering a term and then clicking on an adorable heart-shaped button.* The search results are then … Continue Reading
Microsoft and Google's war takes to the skies
Microsoft — along with a number of other new companies — has joined an increasingly large bandwagon trying to keep Google from purchasing ITA, a provider of flight information for search engines, for $700 million.
Google is looking to acquire the flight data provider for around $700 million to improve results for Web users making travel plans. The deal seems innocuous enough — Google said it had no plans to sell plane tickets and would … Continue Reading
DEMO: Semantifi crawls the deep, dark recesses of the Web for answers
Semantifi is one of 70 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Fall 2010 event taking place this week in Silicon Valley. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.
Google and other popular search engines only search about 1 percent of the Web, according to research data from UC Berkeley. That just isn’t enough for deep-Web crawler Semantifi, which launched its new search engine … Continue Reading
Google Instant: a fundamental shift in search
Google is already one of the fastest search engines on the planet — but apparently that isn’t fast enough.
Marissa Mayer, Google’s top search executive, announced a “fundamental shift” in how search operates with the launch of Google Instant at a press event in San Francisco Wednesday morning.
Google Instant still looks like the search engine’s home page people are accustomed to, but the results begin streaming in real time as a user starts typing … Continue Reading
Google CEO: "Fast is about to get faster"
A cryptic Tweet by Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt might hold some clues as to what to expect from today’s Google presentation in San Francisco.
Schmidt announced yesterday that Google was going to make a push into automated searches that dynamically provide results of what readers might want to see, not just what they are searching for. Based on Schmidt’s Tweet, it’s possible the announcement by Google today in San Francisco will just be a rehash … Continue Reading
Google's new search mantra: "Did you know?"
Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that the future of search was blazing-fast, “autonomous” searching that constantly provides users with results. He made the comments at a keynote speech at the German IFA home electronics event in Berlin Tuesday.
But autonomous search isn’t really search as we think of it — a user querying a massive database to get a result. Schmidt likened it to telling a user what he or she didn’t know, but was … Continue Reading
