Hasta La Gadget!

Here at the end of the week in the world of tech reporting, things often get kind of weird – and with Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” button update, today is no exception. Google’s newest update takes their web-based search homepage and changes out the “Lucky” button with a collection of options for the adventurous search user. The first example they give on the update is an “I’m Feeling Hungry” button which takes you to restaurants near your GPS location – fun!

When you put your cursor over the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button, you’ll find a collection of randomly selected terms that you might bring up. An animation “spins” the button and gives you a random result. You might see “Wonderful” or “Trendy” – leading you to results that associate with the term at hand. Don’t expect the result to connect with your search term, on the other hand.

While the “Lucky” button used to bring you to a single page based on your search term, the Google search system has been updated to a point where that functionality simply no longer exists. When you begin typing a search term into the search bar on the Google.com homepage, you immediately begin to see results on a whole new search page. Because of this, there’s no place for the “Lucky” button to live.

Some of the results that have been popping up thus far from examples of buttons are as follows: Lucky leads to Google Logos, Wonderful leads to the World Wonders Project in collaboration with the Google Cultural Institute and Google Maps, Stellar leads to the Hubble Telescope page in Google Earth. Have a crack at the button yourself and let us know what you find!

Google’s infamous “I’m Feeling Lucky” button gets big update is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google’s enabled yet another new function for its linchpin search engine, which will now hold onto your preferences, assigning them to your Google account and activating across all your web-ready devices and browsers. Saved settings include language preference, results per page and whether to enable Google Instant. It has also separated mobile and desktop options, to ensure your phone isn’t clogged up with hundreds of results on a weedy 3G connection. Hit the settings tag on the Google search page to enable the feature.

Filed under: Internet

Google adds saved search settings, keeps them tied to your account across browsers and devices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 07:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Google (Google Plus)  |  Google Support  | Email this | Comments

Yesterday, Google announced that it will begin using copyright takedown notices to influence where sites show up in search results. The general idea behind it is that if a site has a lot of takedown notices (made under DMCA), it risks being demoted in search rankings. Obviously, this new decision has won the hearts of copyright advocates like the MPAA and the RIAA, but it’s making those who would keep the Internet free and open a little uneasy.

Both the MPAA and the RIAA have praised Google for its newfound intolerance of copyright infringement. It wasn’t too long ago that Google was at odds with the MPAA and RIAA, as the search giant stood against SOPA, a bill which the MPAA and RIAA both loved. Now, however, Google is understandably caught between a rock and a hard place. PCWorld reports that Google needs partners in Hollywood, and one of the best ways to do that is to crack down on copyright infringement. Indeed, Google may have just earned those partners in Hollywood, as the MPAA and the RIAA both seem pleased as punch by the implementation of this new policy.

No one is going to argue that copyright infringement is a good thing, but groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation are worried that some sites may unjustly get caught in the crossfire. “In particular, we worry about the false positives problem,” the EFF wrote on its website. “For example, we’ve seen the government wrongly target sites that actually have a right to post the allegedly infringing material in question or otherwise legally display content.” The EFF continues by saying that since this new policy is so vague, it worries that Google will end up doing the same thing – punishing law-abiding websites, “without recourse” for those who have been wrongly demoted.

There’s also the matter of false take down notices. It isn’t exactly a secret that some business like to file fake take down requests against their competitors as of way of gaining an edge, so Google will have to be watching out for that as well. Google will definitely have its work cut out for it when it rolls out this new policy next week, so it’s easy to understand why it’s making some Internet advocates a little worried. Stay tuned more details as this whole thing develops.

Google’s new search policy leaves free Internet advocates worried is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week the folks at Google have announced that their smart engine known as Knowledge Graph will be launched worldwide for English-typing people using Google Search. What you’ll be getting here is a set of results in your auto-complete results as well as your search results page that pre-empt what you want to search for – these results see not only the keyword you’ve typed, but what you’ve searched for in the past and the types of answers you’re looking for, mashing them all up into a next-generation system for search supremacy.

What you’re going to start seeing everywhere around the world – no matter where you’re accessing the internet from, that is, is auto-complete results popping down from your search engine bar. These results see that you’ve typed a subject and expands upon that subject with possible complete phrases or titles. This isn’t the newest functionality in the world – but answering questions is.

Once you’ve found the subject you’re looking for – or more often the right spelling, as it were – you’re off to the races. Above you’ll see two screens – one with the Knowledge Graph results you get to the right of your query, the other with a carousel of results based on the search query. Obviously these elements work best with terms such as historical figures, physical locations, and the like, but all is possible.

The carousel interface will be appearing in your search results tomorrow along with results around the world based on location. If you’ve searched for spaghetti in your home town, you’ll get results of news articles about spaghetti from your home town’s newspaper and you’ll get restaurant results near you as well. This update will be rolled out to the world this week, with the major bit of it popping up tomorrow – start your search engines, race fans!

Google Knowledge Graph goes global is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

There a lot of things that people all around the world search for daily using a search engine such as Google or Bing that could benefit from more personalized results from offered by friends. For instance, if you’re looking for a good Italian restaurant in your city, it would help greatly to know if your personal friends on Facebook know one and have eaten there rather than simply relying on addresses returned in search results.

Microsoft has announced a new feature for Bing that’s actually a very good idea. Bing will now allow you to tag up to five Facebook friends on the search sidebar and share a search you make to get direct input from friends. The question will be posted to your Facebook Timeline automatically and the friends you tag will be notified.

Microsoft has offered several examples of how the feature can be used, and these are examples I think a lot of people can relate to. You could ask friends who have traveled to a vacation spot you plan to visit what they think of the hotel or a beach. You could ask your foodie friends if they have tried a specific recipe, or you can invite friends to a specific location for a get-together using the feature.

This new feature is a small tweak to the social sidebar that Microsoft added to Bing a few months ago. Is this feature interesting to you? I’m not sure we will ever see a similar feature from Google considering how hard the search giant is pushing Google+. Watch the video below to see more details on the new feature for yourself.

[via CNET]

Microsoft integrates Facebook tagging into Bing search results is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.