Google is taking action against algorithmically generated spam. The search engine giant just announced upcoming changes, including a revamped spam policy, designed in part to keep AI clickbait out of its search results. “It sounds like it’s going to be one of the biggest updates in the history of Google,” …
Read More »Google Tweaked Search to Comply With EU Rules. Yelp Says It Makes Results Even More Unfair
To comply with looming rules that ban tech giants from favoring their own services, Google has been testing new look search results for flights, trains, hotels, restaurants, and products in Europe. The EU’s Digital Markets Act is supposed to help smaller companies get more traffic from Google, but reviews service …
Read More »Google Prepares for a Future Where Search Isn’t King
Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai still loves the web. He wakes up every morning and reads Techmeme, a news aggregator resplendent with links, accessible only via the web. The web is dynamic and resilient, he says, and can still—with help from a search engine—provide whatever information a person is looking for. …
Read More »Confessions of an AI Clickbait Kingpin
“I’m not a fan of AI,” Nebojša Vujinović Vujo says. The admission surprises me: He has built a bustling business by snapping up abandoned news outlets and other websites and stuffing them full of algorithmically generated articles. Although he accepts that his model rankles writers and readers alike, he says …
Read More »Cryptographers Are Getting Closer to Enabling Fully Private Internet Searches
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. We all know to be careful about the details we share online, but the information we seek can also be revealing. Search for driving directions, and our location becomes far easier to guess. Check for a password in a trove …
Read More »Your Internet Browser Does Not Belong to You
In the beginning, the browser was an herbivore who ate buds, shoots, and twigs off of trees and bushes. While grazers faced down to munch on grasses, browsers kept their heads up. They reached and craned, looking outward as they searched for sustenance. The word took on a more figurative …
Read More »Meet the Law Geeks Exposing Google’s Secretive Antitrust Trial
Months out of law school, Yosef Weitzman already has a huge courtroom role in the biggest antitrust trial of the century. In a US federal trial that started last week, Google is accused of unlawfully monopolizing online search and search ads. The company’s self-defined mission is to make the world's …
Read More »How to Remove Your Personal Info From Google’s Search Results
It can be quite frightening to find personal information about yourself in a Google search, like a home address or phone number, but you can take proactive steps to protect your privacy. A couple of years ago, Google expanded the ways you can submit removal requests for search results containing …
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