Bigmouthmedia Search Engine News: /google/

Google Zeitgeist reveals most searched terms

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 07:25:00 GMT

Google's Zeitgeist list of the year has been released to reveal the top search terms of 2012.

The 2012 top search terms included Whitney Houston, the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton, April Jones, who went missing in October, and most popular YouTube video of all time, Gangnam Style.

Zeitgeist gauges what is on the mind of the population, by monitoring the most popular or fastest growing search terms. The top ten list includes sport, celebrities, the royal family, viral videos and Apple product launches among others. The Euro 2012 and London Olympic Games were the fastest growing search terms of the year and Whitney Houston, who died in February is at number, followed by Kate Middleton at number 2.

"To many people it is, though it's outside institutional society, politics and foreign affairs," Oxford Internet Institute representative Dr Grant Black told the Guardian, expressing concerns over popular culture.

"Popular culture is a way for people to be connected to larger society, to something bigger than they are, and it's easier to connect to a person than to something more abstract."

Also in the top ten are Netflix, the on demand video site, the iPad 3, Korean pop song Gangnam Style which reached 1bn views on YouTube and Gary Barlow. Andy Murray, Jessica Ennis and Tom Daley were the top 3 most search for Olympians along with Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps and Roger Federer who also made the list.

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Google criticises potential changes to the UN's internet treaty

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 03:37:00 GMT

Changes made at an upcoming UN conference could threaten the independence of the internet, according to Google.

Government officials are attending the meeting in December to decide upon a new information and communications treaty which will govern how the internet operates.

Opponents of the changes believe that some countries will attempt to use the agreement as a way of suppressing free speech and restricting access material critical of them.

In a statement on their Take Action website Google voiced their concerns, saying, "The [UN agency] International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is bringing together regulators from around the world to renegotiate a decades-old communications treaty.

"Some proposals could permit governments to censor legitimate speech - or even allow them to cut off internet access. Other proposals would require services like YouTube, Facebook, and Skype to pay new tolls in order to reach people across borders. This could limit access to information - particularly in emerging markets."

Google is encouraging internet users to sign their online position to support their objections, with the company also critical of the fact that only nation states have been invited to the conference. The search engine giant is particularly fearful control over domain names and technical aspects of the internet could end up being transferred from the US to the international body.

The ITU has refuted Google's criticisms, stating that a new treaty is essential for allowing increased access to the internet and continuing its open and informative character. They also believe that the previous 1998 communications treaty needs drastically overhauled to encompass online advances and the development of smartphones.

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Google goes galactic in new exploration

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 02:36:00 GMT

After virtually transporting millions to the underwater world of the Great Barrier Reef and the snowy plains of Antarctica, Google has taken its intricate exploration of the universe one step better with new Chrome Experiment, 100,000 stars.

The impressive exploration of the Milky Way uses imagery from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) amongst others to plot the location of the stars closest to the sun.

Using the mouse, would-be space travellers can zoom in and out to see names of stars and information about planetary orbits, whilst navigating their way around a multi-perspective rendition of our galaxy.

A tour also shows the distance of stars from the sun, giving users some context of where we are in the Milky Way.

The site says: "It would take 18 years for a jet airplane to fly to the sun. The furthest man-made object, Voyager 1, is now almost 17 light hours away. The nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, is 4.3 light years away."

The experiment showcases Google's support for WebGL, CSS3D and Web Audio, with sci-fi style music accompanying the trip through the galaxy by Sam Hulick, composer for space adventure game series, Mass Effect.

Aaron Koblin of Google's Creative Lab, blogged: "As you explore this experiment, we hope you share our wonder for how large the galaxy really is. It's incredible to think that this mist of 100,000 measurable stars is a tiny fraction of the sextillions of stars in the broader universe."

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Rise in attempts by governments to monitor Google

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 02:13:00 GMT

Almost 21,000 requests for information were made to Google by governments in the first half of 2012.

The figure emerged as part of Google's recent Transparency Report, with the American government again the most zealous in pursuing data with 7,969 requests.

British appeals doubled to 1,425 during the first six months of 2012, with the search engine giant complying with 64 per cent of these requests.

Dorothy Chou, Google's Senior Policy Analyst, told the BBC that, "This is the sixth time we've released this data, and one trend has become clear: government surveillance is on the rise.

"It reflects laws on the ground. For example in Turkey there are specific laws about defaming public figures whereas in Germany we get requests to remove neo-Nazi content. And in Brazil we get a lot of requests to remove content during elections because there is a law banning parodies of candidates.

"We hope that the report will shed light on how governments interact with online services and how laws are reflected in online behaviour."

In total requests for user data affected 34, 614 people, with governments seeking to gain access to their search history, Gmail accounts or YouTube videos.

The Turkish government made 501 requests for content to be taken down, with the US making 273 whilst Germany was third with 247 demands. The most common reasons for removing information or online content are defamation, privacy breaches or security issues.

The report also disclosed the fact that a British law enforcement agency made 14 requests to have information criticising the police removed but Google rejected their appeals. The company also turned down a demand to remove a YouTube video that accused the police of racism.

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Google leak Google Wallet card info

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:13:00 GMT

Following a leak from an anonymous tipster last week, Google has added fuel to the rumour a physical Google Wallet card is on its way by briefly mentioning the card on its website.

TechCrunch posted screenshots from 'Eligible Devices' in the Help section of the Google Wallet site, which reference the yet-to-be announced Google Wallet card compatible with the Android 2.3.3 OS or higher.

Last week the Android Police blog also obtained screenshots of an unreleased version of the Google Wallet for Android app which mentioned a Google Wallet card - designed for use when the tap-and-pay feature was unavailable. The screenshots gave details of the card, such as using it in place of debit or credit card, paying for purchases with a swipe and also loading existing cards to the Google Wallet online service.

Now experts believe the mention of the card on the Google Wallet help page - which has since been removed - is an indication a formal announcement isn't far away.

Currently, the Google Wallet Virtual Card is only available at retailers who accept contactless payments and exists as an app on Android handsets. While contactless payment is accepted at 100,000 retail locations in the US, Google's mobile payment service runs on only 10 smartphones - those with NFC chips built in.

"We feel like we're making a huge difference on transaction volume," Osama Bedier, Google's vice president of wallet and payments, said at a Global Mobile Internet Conference in California last month. "We didn't think NFC was just going to happen in a single year. This is a three-to-five-year game.

"The problem is, there's a lot of ideas and not a lot of problems being solved. There's room for multiple solutions ... but each solution has to have a value proposition."

The introduction of a physical Google Wallet card would allow customers without NFC equipped phones to use the payment service, as well as those with devices which block the Google Wallet app - Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile have launched payment service Isis in direct competition to Google.

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Google faces lowest market share in five years

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 00:12:00 GMT

Internet giant Google has dropped to below 90 per cent market share according to a web traffic firm.

Figures released by Experian Hitwise have revealed 89.33 per cent of web searches in the UK were made via Google, a fall since last year. Rival search engine Bing, took 5 per cent of the market share.

"In the UK, Bing has been using very aggressive tactics of promotion for last few months, in preparation for the Christmas season," Forrester Research representative Luca Paderni told the BBC.

"But Google is still dominant, and we would need to see a trend over more months to call it a consistent decline."

Although Google is the leading search engine around the world, many have managed to become dominant in their home markets. Baidu is number one in China, whist in Russia, Yandex is the most popular engine, followed by Google. Hitwise used data from various internet services tracking the habits of over eight million people.

"Web users are demanding more of the engines they interact with every day," said Paderni.

"The search engines that remain reliable, relevant and useful will be the ones that profit in the future."

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Google announces Hurricane Sandy tracker

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:37:00 GMT

Google has announced the launch of interactive maps, which will allow users to track the path of Hurricane Sandy.

The map includes information on nearby evacuation centres and emergency shelters set up by the Red Cross.

Google was also due to launch its new product the Nexus 4, but was cancelled due to the events location now being an evacuation zone.

"The Google crisis response team has assembled a Hurricane Sandy map to help you track the storm's progress and provide updated emergency information," wrote Google software engineer Ka-Phing Yee on the firm's blog.

"We hope that you get the information you need to make preparations and stay safe if you are in the area.

"We will let you know our plans as soon as we know more," Google's Android team said in a statement announcing the cancellation of the event because of the hurricane.

Social media giant Facebook has also cancelled two New York events, both the announcement of its Facebook Gifts facility and an engineering open house day. People are taking to their social media accounts to locate and share updates regarding the Hurricane.

"I've found the most up-to-date information on Facebook and Twitter rather than the more traditional news sites, albeit the Facebook/Twitter accounts of certain news sites in some cases," assistant professor at Parsons The New School for Design Timo Rissanen told the BBC.

"The Consulate General of Finland in New York was doing a sterling job last night providing information on Facebook."

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Android accused of breaching user privacy

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 07:25:00 GMT

Millions of people who use Android apps may be misled into divulging personal details according to new research.

Scientists conducted tests on 13, 500 Android applications and found almost 8 per cent of them failed to protect private details such as bank account and social media logins.

By creating an imitation Wi-Fi hotspot, researchers from the University of Leibniz in Hanover were able to develop an attack device which allowed them to perform a number of security breaches such as capturing login details or bank accounts, email facilities and social media sites, disable security programmes and use computer code to manipulate programs making them insecure.

"About half of the participants could not judge the security state of a browser session correctly," researchers told the BBC.

"Most importantly, research is needed to study which counter-measures offer the right combination of usability for developers and users, security benefits and economic incentives to be deployed on a large scale."

Some of the apps tested in this project have been downloaded millions of times by Android users and the follow up survey shows that many people may have difficulty knowing when they are at risk.

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Google threatens ban on French media

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 07:01:00 GMT

Google has threatened to exclude French media sites from their search engine results pages if the country goes ahead with a law forcing search engines to pay for content.

French newspaper publishers have requested that the government pass a law making search engines pay them a cut of advertising revenue each time a user clicks a link to one of their websites or articles.

Media companies believe that the fees would help make up some of the revenue that has been lost by print newspapers, with ever increasing numbers of readers accessing news online for free.

But Google has responded with a letter sent to French ministerial offices, stating that it "cannot accept" this law, the passing of which would result in the company "no longer [referencing] French sites."

According to AFP, Google are of the opinion that the law would "threaten its very existence" and be "harmful to the Internet, Internet users and news websites that benefit from substantial traffic."

The anonymous Google representative went on to mention that the search giant "redirects four billion 'clicks' per month" towards French media pages.

However, French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti is in favour of the fees, telling a parliamentary commission it was "a tool that seems important [to her] to develop."

Unimpressed by Google's response, Filippetti told AFP: "You don't deal with a democratically-elected government with threats."

Adrian Drury, analyst for research firm Ovum, said: "France has a track record of enacting laws to protect its local media interest that seem out of step with the conventional wisdom in other markets."

Speaking to the BBC, Drury continued: "The question is whether, by returning a search result, Google is infringing the copyright of a site. The publishers will continue to contest this, but the general consensus is that it is not."

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Google told to revise privacy policy

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 06:12:00 GMT

Google has been forced to alter its privacy policy, following accusations of its current policy being unclear. The company has been advised by French data privacy regulator CNIL, that data collection facilities contained in its privacy policy are not user friendly and should provide them with clearer information.

In March, the corporation decided to consolidate sixty privacy policies into one agreement, allowing it to amalgamate data from a number of its products, including YouTube, Android phone systems and Google+.

CNIL carried out the investigation and reviewed the recently updated policy.

Google "provides insufficient information to its users, especially on the purposes and the categories of data being processed," said the CNIL in a document made public ahead of a conference. "As a result, a Google user is unable to determine which categories of data are processed in the service he uses, and for which purpose these data are processed."

Google has been asked to not only reinforce users' content, but to create a facility whereby users can choose which Google services provide any data about them so as to avoid target advertising.

"Our new privacy policy demonstrates our long-standing commitment to protecting our users' information and creating great products. We are confident that our privacy notices respect European law," global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer told the BBC.

"Although Google has not been directly accused of acting illegally, it has been accused of providing 'incomplete and approximate' details raising 'deep concerns' about data protection and the respect of the European law," he continued.

Google has not yet been accused of illegal performance but is being criticised for "incomplete and approximate" details which Fleischer added may raise concerns with respect to European law.

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De Castro appointed as Yahoo COO

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 06:01:00 GMT

Online corporation Yahoo has announced that former Google executive Henrique de Castro is to take up the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO).

The news came amongst reports Chief Executive Marissa Mayer is trying to restructure and strengthen management within the company in order to combat struggling market figures. De Castro will oversee operations, media and business development alongside global sales. According to the BBC De Castro will receive £373, 000 annual salary as well as around £22 million in additional bonuses and restricted stock units.

"His operational experience in internet advertising and his proven success in structuring and scaling global organizations make him the perfect fit for Yahoo as we propel the business to its next phase of growth," Mayer said in a company press statement.

The company has struggled in recent years due to market competitors like Google and Facebook, and Mayer, who joined Yahoo in July, became the organisation's third Chief Executive in twelve months.

De Castro is also the second former Google employee hired by Yahoo in recent months, and joins new finance chief Ken Goldman and marketing head Kathy Savitt, a former Amazon.com executive.

"This is a pivotal point in Yahoo's history, and I believe strongly in the opportunity ahead," De Castro told the BBC.

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