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03 Dec 2011 18:00

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Tech: Could Mozilla’s Firefox lose its biggest funding source: Google?

  • growth Over the years, Mozilla’s open-source Firefox browser grew from nothing to provide a solid secondary option to Microsoft’s once-dominant Internet Explorer. It funded itself in large part from a multi-year deal it made with Google to make their search the default, allowing Mozilla to grow quickly.
  • hindrance However, since they made the last deal in 2008, a strange thing started happening — Google created a browser of its own, Chrome, that quickly ate its own share of the market. It’s now tied with or ahead of Firefox. So … will Google renew the deal with Mozilla? Do they need to? source

03 Nov 2011 23:42

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Tech: Playing favorites with search: Who’s more biased, Bing or Google?

  • pro-Google So, let’s say you wanted to find out if there was any bias from what search engines spit out at you. For example, a recent study not done by Google, said that Bing searches would promote Microsoft-related results twice as many times that Google would promote Google.
  • pro-Bing Don’t get too comfortable with those facts, though. A different study, performed by a paid Microsoft consultant, showed claims that Google put itself first most of the time. Do you already know who to trust? Or are you feeling lucky? source

01 Jun 2011 15:04

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Tech: Google still revolutionizing internet search — +1 at a time.

  • It’s the new “like.” Google is expanding its rollout of a way to make searching more effective — the +1 button. Basically, it allows you to recommend search results to your friends and complete strangers in the event they search for the same thing you do. Google seems to think that they can even make searching for things on the web social. Realistically, it should help you sift through the thousands of search results to quickly find the one that’ll help the most. Keep an eye out for it, because a bunch of big sites are going to start using it. source

14 Oct 2010 10:31

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Tech: Yahoo blames Google Instant for their own search problems

  • I bet even the folks at Google are mystified by this kind of accounting.
  • Yahoo! Senior VP of Search & Marketplaces Shashi Seth • Trying to explain why Google gained on them by nearly a point in the overall search rankings. Hint: He thinks it has everything to do with Google Instant skewing the results. To which we say, whatever. This sounds like an excuse by a VP in a sector that needs explanations for their mediocre performance. Note that nobody dipped anywhere near as badly as Yahoo did last month. source

09 Oct 2009 12:30

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Biz: Dear Associated Press: Our boycott of you is still freaking on

  • We content creators have been too slow to react to the free exploitation of news by third parties without input or permission.
  • Associated Press Chief Executive Tom Curley • Discussing the idea of charging search engines money for finding their content. Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. is also on board. May we just say, as the Associated Press looks to screw over the entire Internet with its greed and lack of foresight, we would like to welcome our new Reuters overlords. (In case you’re wondering: We’re going to continue to post stuff from News Corp., because, come on, Glenn Beck!) • source

03 May 2009 11:30

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U.S., World: Terrorists’ technology of choice, post-9/11: Hotmail

  • the plea Ali al-Marri, in a guilty-plea agreement last week, admitted in court that al-Qaeda mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed planned to use common tools to plot terrorist attacks in the U.S.
  • the tools Beyond Hotmail, the easily-available tools that al-Qaeda used included prepaid calling cards, public phones, computer search engines, and simplistic codes used to cover their tracks. source