Archive for the ‘Search’ Category

Microsoft lodges antitrust complaint against Google with European Commission, ignores irony

So Microsoft doesn’t like anticompetitive behavior, huh? Since when? Brad Smith, General Counsel for the Redmond rabblerousers, has posted a lengthy blog post outlining Microsoft’s concerns with “a pattern of actions that Google has taken to entrench its dominance” in online search and ads, which he claims is detrimental to European consumers. Funnily enough, half the post is about Google’s legal issues in the US, but we’ll set that aside for now. What this boils down to is that Microsoft is finally taking the gloves off — Google accused it of pushing other companies to do its dirty work — and is now adding its name to the list of objectors to Mountain View’s stranglehold on search in Europe. The European Commission is already taking a regulatory looksee at Google’s tactics, so this isn’t sparking off a new investigation, but it does add the glamor of two big names locking legal horns yet again. Hit the source link for Brad’s exposition of Google’s villainous wrongdoings.

Microsoft lodges antitrust complaint against Google with European Commission, ignores irony originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 03:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Instant Speeds Mobile Search — If You’ve Got the Bandwidth

Google Instant on a PC browser has always been a clever idea in search of a use case. With the new mobile beta for Android and iOS, the search giant has found its first.

“Wouldn’t it be great to have Google Instant on mobile devices, where each keystroke and page load is much slower and you frequently have just a moment to find the information you need?” writes Google engineer Steve Kanefsky.

Indeed. With fast hands and a full QWERTY keyboard, the time between typing “Google Instant” and “Google Ins” is minimal. On a non-PC keyboard like a phone, e-reader or remote control, it’s considerable.

To activate the beta, you need to be running Android 2.2 (Froyo) or iOS. Then go to google.com in your mobile browser and tap the Google Instant “Turn on” link beneath the search box.

The only trouble with Google Instant on mobile devices is the net connection. Google Instant works by making server calls with each stroke. To even make it work in a mobile browser, google had to create a new AJAX and HTML5 implementation to dynamically update the page with new results.

On a good Wi-Fi network, that’s no big deal. On 3G, it’s not a major problem. On (gasp) EDGE, it can actually make search much, much slower.

“With Google Instant on mobile, we’re pushing the limits of mobile browsers and wireless networks,” Kanefsky writes. “Since the quality of any wireless connection can fluctuate, we’ve made it easy to enable or disable Google Instant without ever leaving the page. Just tap the ‘Turn on’ or ‘Turn off’ link.”

See Also:

• How Google Instant Could Reinvent Channel Flipping
• Chrome 8 Adds Google Instant to the URL Bar
• Google Debuts 'Instant' Search (Updated)
• What's In A Search, If You Don't Hit the Search Button …
• Google Adds Gesture Search to Android Phones
• Google Beefs Up Voice Search, Mobile Sync

Google Search Will Cease to Exist in China By Friday [Google]

As a result of Google standing up to cafeteria-manager China, demanding they serve pie every day of the week, China’s revoked their Internet Content Provider license, meaning in 24 – 48 hours the Chinese people can’t access Google at all. More »










Google – China – search – search engine – HongKong

Google Voice voicemails appearing in public search results

We’re not exactly sure what’s going on here, but it certainly seems like at least some Google Voice voicemails are being indexed and made publicly available somehow. If you punch in “site:https://www.google.com/voice/fm/*” as a search string you get a few pages of what appear to be test messages, with a couple eye-opening obvious non-tests scattered in there as well. Dates on these messages range from a couple months ago all the way until yesterday, so this is clearly an ongoing issue — hopefully Google patches this up awful fast.

P.S. – Google Voice transcription accuracy really falls off a cliff when it’s listening to muffled audio, doesn’t it?

Update: Google says it’s changed how shared messages are indexed and made available to public searches, so we’re hoping this was just a one-time thing.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Google Voice voicemails appearing in public search results originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WolframAlpha iPhone App Is a $50 Super Calculator [Wolframalpha]

Even diehard WolframAlpha fans may balk slightly at the $50 asking price. Then they, like me, might balk some more as they try to figure out why a mobile version of what’s in essence a free search engine costs $50.

WolframAlpha folks are billing this as a half-priced graphic calculator, with that added benefit that it plugs into the existing WolframAlpha search engine, but again I keep coming back to the fact that I can point my browser at that web site and it costs me substantially less than $50 to do so.

Said WolframAlpha rep Josh Dilworth in an email to Gizmodo today, “How many people will buy it? We’re not sure, but looking at the other apps that are $50+, we think that we’re of at least comparable in utility and functionality, if not more. And, part of what the company is also doing is making a statement about the non-trivial nature of WolframAlpha’s capabilities, and how much the system has matured since launch.”

What better way to show maturity than peg your inaugural App Store app with one of the higher price tags in the whole system. Amiright? Commenters, help a blogger out and let me know what I’d be paying a premium for if I purchased this. [App Shopper via Scoble]