Google is experimenting with a “hyper-local news card” for Google Now that flags up location-specific information, such as nearby store promotions, social activities, or breaking news. The new card, currently in internal testing as Google works on the overall “Explore” experience, was confirmed by VP of search and assist at the company, Johanna Wright. Speaking
According to a report from Quartz, Google is preparing to launch an improved local news card in Now. The card would be an extension of its existing local news offerings, but would bring those stories directly to your handset based on your location. Quartz confirmed the card’s existence through Johanna Wright, the vice president of search and assist at Google. She described the card as be “hyper-local,” with granularity down to individual neighborhoods. According to Wright, the card is only being tested internally right now, and there’s no guarantee of when, or even if, Google will actually bring it to the public.
In many ways Now is meant to be a filter for the absurd amount of information constantly at your fingertips. It’s supposed to deliver only the information you need, when you need it. Problem is, Google still seems to be figuring out just what information you need at any given moment. Bus schedules, boarding passes, traffic reports, tourist attractions, calendar appointments, sports scores… the depth of data served up is growing more intimidating with every day. Now already delivers links to news stories that you’re following on your desktop. The logical next step (we suppose) is to serve up articles you didn’t know you were interested in, based on your location. We’ve reached out to Google for comment and confirmation, and we’ll update this story if we hear back.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Google
Source: Quartz
For all the worries about sweeping US surveillance programs, Americans are claiming at least a few victories in the fight for privacy. Just look to New Jersey’s Supreme Court for an example — it has ruled that police need search warrants to obtain tracking information from cellular carriers. Citing a ruling that requires warrants for GPS tracking devices, the court has decided that attempts to obtain cellphone location data represent searches and fall under constitutional oversight. Cellphone users can expect a reasonable level of privacy when they sign up for service, according to the Supreme Court. While there’s no law on the books to restrict tracking, like there is in Montana, the ruling sets a precedent for police monitoring that could extend beyond New Jersey’s borders.
[Image credit: Jeff Schuler, Flickr]
Filed under: Cellphones
Via: New York Times
Source: New Jersey Supreme Court (PDF)
Having a hard time finding something on the internet? You’re probably doing it wrong — at least that seems to be Microsoft’s supposition. The company has recently revised its Bing autosuggest categories to help users find the correct search parameters for the content they’re looking for. The idea is to eliminate erroneous results by suggesting more specific search terms up front. Asking Bing for information on Harry Potter, for instance, presents users with a number of options separated by category: the films, the character itself or the literary series that kicked off the franchise. Selecting one amends the original search with more specific parameters: selecting the book adds “wikipedia” to the end of the string, while selecting a film from the series tweaks adds the movie’s full name to the search heading. A simple tweak? Absolutely, but one that could help vague Bing users get off of Microsoft’s landing page and on with their lives.
“The story of your life.”
With that phrase, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced the company’s new Timeline profile in the fall of 2011. The social network’s original profile page, he explained, was the first place where most people “felt safe expressing their real self” on the internet, but it was only the “first five minutes of your conversation.” A major redesign in 2008 extended that to “the next 15 minutes.” Timeline, though, was the “next few hours.” Your true self, in full.
To illustrate the point, Zuckerberg went on to show a promotional video that put This Is Your Life to shame by recapping one man’s life from his own birth to the birth of his child (and then some) in just over a minute. Facebook has always wanted to be your online identity — your internet, in many ways — but it was now also bringing something else to the fore that once had a tendency to fade into the background; your memories.
Do you like privacy? Do you shun surveillance and eschew spam? Do you like simplicity? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you’ll love DuckDuckGo.
     |
Facebook Graph Search will begin rolling out to US users from today, offering complex filtering and search features that will allow users to hunt through their friends based on combinations of location, interests, Likes, and more. Announced back in January, Graph Search attempts to let Facebook users pare through their friends lists using complex queries, such as “people who like football and live in Miami”, with results coming up based on where users have checked into, what they’ve liked, where they are, and more.
Initial reactions to the Graph Search system were mixed. On the one hand, there’s an obvious technological and social advantage to being able to use more complex, natural-language queries to hunt through the ever-increasing amount of information Facebook users are sharing. The social site argued that it would help users make more meaningful connections by highlighting overlapping interests that might not have been normally recognized, for instance.
However, privacy advocates proved unsurprisingly wary of the amount of information – and the ease of its discovery – that Graph Search would unearth. Facebook responded by arguing that the same privacy tools and settings that had always been in place would continue to protect private data from Graph Search, however.
Facebook Graph Search privacy:
For Facebook, the goal is to better shape advertising so that users are more likely to click, as well as drive adoption of its various features with members hopefully wanting to increase the amount of information about themselves available so that they show up more accurately in search results. Initially, Graph Search only works on the desktop, rather than mobile, but Facebook tells the NYTimes that it intends to address that this year.
Also on track to be added is better data mining of status updates, picking out keywords rather than relying on explicit Likes and other indicators of interests. Facebook will also use third-party app data – not currently integrated in Graph Search – and is working on predictions.
That could end up promoting movies, books, places to eat, and other suggestions based on similar interests from other friends, something Facebook believes will increase the success rate since users are more likely to trust the data.
There’s more on Facebook Graph Search in our SlashGear 101.
Facebook Graph Search brings deep search to US today is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Remember that profile-specific social network search tool Mark Zuckerberg announced back in January? It’s finally ready for the general public. According to the New York Times and ABC News, Facebook Graph Search will start rolling out to US users this Monday. The update is more than a simple search bar revamp, however — it allows users to mine their social circle for very specific information, asking questions like “Who are my friends in San Francisco,” or searching for “people who went to Stanford who like the 49ers.” The tool is designed to harken back to the company’s original goal of connecting people, and aims to help users draw lines between their friends and interests. Graph Search will also pull select data from Bing, allowing users to peek at the weather from the comfort of their timeline.
Despite launching on a wider scale, the service isn’t perfect — the New York Times reports that it still has trouble juggling synonymous phrases (something we experienced in our own hands-on), returning discrepant results for searches like “people who like to surf” and “people who like surfing.” The tool also works within the confines of a user’s privacy settings and public activity, meaning that you won’t accidentally uncover your cousin’s secret My Little Pony fan-group if its privacy settings are locked down. The feature is set to debut for a few hundred million users this week, and will continue to become available to the all US users in the coming weeks.
Filed under: Internet, Facebook
Via: Verge
Source: New York Times, ABC News
Google it. Everyone who has ever connected to the Internet knows what that means. But should it really mean use Google to search for/find something on the Internet? Or should it be a term for being bombarded with ads and white space when you’re looking for something. Google.com’s search results have all just become links to Google’s own services.
| |
Before there were the Google, Bing, and Yahoo search engines, there was AltaVista. Launching in 1995, the search engine became wildly popular, but as Google launched and other big companies followed suit with their own search engines, AltaVista quickly fell behind. However, Yahoo (who owns AltaVista) will be shutting down the classic search engine on July 8.
Yahoo says that they’re shutting down AltaVista in effort to “sharpen” their focus on newer products, and the company is asking AltaVista users (if they still exist) to begin using Yahoo Search for now on, and the AltaVista URL will automatically redirect to Yahoo Search for now on.
AltaVista was acquired by Yahoo in 2003 after being the exclusive provider of search results for Yahoo starting in 1996, and it was a search engine that was far ahead of its competition in the mid-90s when it launched because it was able to index over 20 million websites, thanks to its innovative web “crawler” technology. Of course, it’s not so revolutionary anymore, as most big search engines have that type of technology.
The AltaVista shutdown is just one instance of a range of shutdowns that Yahoo recently announced. The other Yahoo services that are being axed may not be as well-known as AltaVista, but some niche users may be disappointed by some other shutdowns occurring at the company. FoxyTunes and Yahoo RSS Alerts were shut down yesterday, and the Neighbors Beta, as well as the Downloads Beta and Local API will shutting down later this month.
SOURCE: Yahoo
AltaVista search engine shutting down next week is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
