Google Trends Tells you What’s Hot

This article was written on May 22, 2007 by CyberNet.

Google Trends has just added a new feature which keeps you up to date with the hottest search queries. In case you haven’t heard of Google Trends before, it’s a comparison tool. You can enter in different topics and see what the trend is, or how often it’s been searched for on Google.

The new “hot trends” feature points out the hottest search queries for the day, and you can even change the date and go back in time.  According to Search Engine Land, a hot trend is determined by an algorithm.  If there is a “sudden rise in a query phrase that is not in the norm for that query,” it receives a hotness level score.

Googlehottrends2

Ten hot trends are automatically displayed on the Google Trends page, but you can click to view more hot trends, and then you’ll view a page with 100 of them.  Unfortunately for now, this service is only supported in the United States.

Once you click on one of the hot trends, you’ll get more information on the “hotness” of the topic and why it became popular.  For example, one of the hot trends was “how does a kangaroo keep cool.” This search query had a “Medium” hotness level.  The more popular, the hotter it gets.  The levels start at the very top with Volcanic, then on down to On Fire, Spicy, Medium, and Mild.

Googlehottrends

Google tries to offer explanations for why the query became popular by including news articles and blog posts with the key words. For the query “how does a kangaroo keep cool,” the returned news articles and blog posts offered no insight.

You’ll also see a graph that shows the increase in popularity, and a list of the locations where this search topic is popular. In this situation, people are searching for this query in Tampa, Atlanta, and Orlando.

My guess is that some of the hot trends come from radio stations that have trivia contests. One of the hot trends is “what sports league was born in 1949 when the BAA absorbed the remains of the NBL, and this query is popular only in Boston, Massachusetts.

This is one of those places where you could easily learn something new everyday. It’s fun to take a look through the list because there are a lot of really random searches. Check it out… Google Hot Trends.

 

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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How to Stop Google, Yahoo & Bing from Tracking Your Clicks

This article was written on October 21, 2009 by CyberNet.

In 2008, Google said there’s no such thing as complete privacy. You’re being tracked all over the web by their AdSense ads, by sites that use Google Analytics and – probably the most important – their search engine. But Google Search isn’t the only search engine that tracks your behavior. Concerned about your privacy? In this article, we’ll show you how you can get rid of click tracking in search engines.

The secret redirect

Google

google tracking-2.png

Whenever you click a link in Google Search, your click is redirected through a secret URL. If the site you’re going to is http://www.cybernetnews.com/, Google will do a secret redirect through a URL that looks similar to http://www.google.com/url?url=http://www.cybernetnews.com/. In some cases, you can reveal the secret redirect by right-clicking on a linked search result. If that doesn’t work, your last resort is an HTTP sniffer.

There are several Firefox add-ons that claim to get rid of Google Search’s click tracking. CustomizeGoogle is one of them. Among other tweaks, it promises to remove click tracking and disable Google Analytics cookies. If you just want the anti-tracking feature without the bells and whistles, there’s a Greasemonkey script you can download called Google Tracking B-Gone. To use Greasemonkey scripts, you need to install the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox. Also, if you use an international version of Google such as google.co.uk, you have to change the script’s URL range from http://*.google.com/* to http://*.google.*/* to ensure that the script is allowed to operate on your local Google site.

Yahoo

yahoo tracking-1.png

Unlike Google’s redirect, the one Yahoo uses is always easy to find. Right-click on a link and look at your status bar to reveal an intimidating garglemesh of strange characters originating from rds.yahoo.com. You can get rid of that by installing this Greasemonkey script. However, my HTTP sniffer revealed that Yahoo does some additional click tracking from a URL that starts with http://search.yahoo.com/ra/click?. To disable this, add http://search.yahoo.com/ra/click?* as a filter to Adblock Plus.

Bing

bing tracking.png

Bing seems to have a very subtle click tracking mechanism. The only fishy thing Bing does is call some URL’s that start with http://www.bing.com/fd/ls/ whenever you click a search result. Again, Adblock Plus can help you deal with this if you add http://www.bing.com/fd/ls/* to its filter list. Turning off JavaScript on bing.com seems to help too.

Shutting off the HTTP referrer

Although the tips listed above can help you stop search engines from tracking your clicks, it does not keep websites from gathering information about your web search. This is done through the HTTP referrer. Any page on the web can retrieve information on how you stumbled upon it, i.e. which URL referred to their web page.

The referrer is also known to be used by site owners to retrieve information about the search engine you used and what your search query was. On rare occasions, some sites alter themselves if you found them through web search. For example, I’ve seen sites display “Welcome, Googler!”-esque messages and even sites that highlight your Google search terms on the page you landed on. Although this rather creepy practice is not widespread, it just shows how much a site really knows about you.

Fortunately, you can disable the sending of the HTTP referrer to the websites you visit. While it is possible to disable the HTTP referrer entirely in Firefox’s about:config, this can break certain functionality on some sites. There’s a Firefox add-on called RefControl that does away with this issue by allowing you to add exceptions for sites that need the referrer.

Other browsers

It is possible to use the Google Tracking B-Gone and Yahoo Click-Tracking Disabler scripts in other browsers. So if you’re really serious about extending your tinfoil hat protection to other browsers, you can check out these resources:

To disable the HTTP referrer, follow these instructions:

Since I’ve only tested this with Firefox, I cannot guarantee that the content from these resources is accurate.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Google Docs gets a refresh, fills out the screen for Honeycomb

When Google dropped its official Docs app into our workaholic hands earlier this spring, we’d noted it wasn’t exactly tablet-ready. Well, all that’s changed with the Mountain View-based company’s latest update to its Android app, this time optimized for Honeycomb’s wider layout. Now, when users opt to edit on-the-go from their slates, they’ll be treated to a three-pane interface offering access to collections, document lists and even a preview panel. El Goog’s also tossed in support for over 46 languages across all Android 3.0 and up tabs. Go and ahead and hit up the source below for a download, or simply update if you’re already packing.

Google Docs gets a refresh, fills out the screen for Honeycomb originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceOfficial Google Enterprise Blog, Android Market  | Email this | Comments

Google Earth hits one billion downloads, those with fear of flying still getting virtual kicks

In a feat that outdoes even Dr. Evil’s vision of worldwide domination, the folks in Mountain View have reported a staggering one billion downloads of Google Earth. Over the years, the service has taken us around the world, giving us a peak into amazing and sometimes obscure places ranging from the bottom of the ocean to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. It’s also evolved from its humble beginnings as a desktop app back in 2005 to include a mobile app and a plug-in, not to mention a 3D flight simulation used with Google Maps — all features that helped it reach the astronomical milestone. For that, we salute you Google Earth. Check out the celebratory video after the break.

Continue reading Google Earth hits one billion downloads, those with fear of flying still getting virtual kicks

Google Earth hits one billion downloads, those with fear of flying still getting virtual kicks originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceOfficial Google Blog, Google Earth  | Email this | Comments

Add Directions to your Site via Google Maps

This article was written on August 21, 2007 by CyberNet.

Google Embedabble Maps

Finally! Google now lets you embed Google Maps into your own site, and even customize various aspects of them! The way they implemented it isn’t extremely technical…they just use an embeddable frame for you to put on your site. So you’re essentially serving up another website inside your own site.

Using the "Link to this page" option I was able to embed a map of Iowa State University (where I went to college) below, and as long as your browser supports frames (I think most of them do these days) it should show up just fine. You’ll also notice that the code Google gives you displays a link below the frame to view a larger version of the map.


View Larger Map

I want to point out something that I noticed in the code:

<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=iowa+state+university&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=55.937499,60.117188&ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1&s=AARTsJqmDOCbTh7fIz42wDKA1ToJInUvCg&ll=42.031253,-93.645658&spn=0.022314,0.036478&z=14&iwloc=addr&output=embed"></iframe><br/><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=iowa+state+university&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=55.937499,60.117188&ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1&ll=42.031253,-93.645658&spn=0.022314,0.036478&z=14&iwloc=addr&source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left;font-size:small">View Larger Map</a>

That URL that I highlighted is what’s displayed in the frame, and you can use that URL if you want people see a fullscreen view of the map. Click here to see what I’m talking about. There’s no header and no sidebar…it’s just a clutter-free map!

Source: Official Google Lat/Long Blog

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Google Video Search Adds MetaCafe to Results, Others Coming…

This article was written on May 18, 2007 by CyberNet.

If you go and search for a video at Google Video today, you’ll notice a new addition in the mix of results.  Up until recently, Google Video and YouTube videos were the only ones to appear in the results. Not so anymore as MetaCafe has now been added in.

They’re not stopping there either – MetaCafe will not be the only video sharing website that will be included in the results.  At the Searchology event, Google’s Marissa Mayer said that “we have them all.” And eventually, they will include the results from many of the video sharing sites.

Not only will the text results be included, but they’ll also have thumbnails for the videos from five or six of the major video sharing services.Mayer was asked about the availability of video search and her response was, “if we can crawl it, you will be able to search it.”

Metacafesearch

What’s interesting is that when you do a search and a MetaCafe result is displayed, it’s linked back to MetaCafe, the thumbnail is from MetaCafe, but you can watch an inline preview of the movie and it’s played using the Google Video Player. Apparently Google downloads the video themselves because they’re hosting the file that is played in the video player.

This really changes the way people will search for videos. Instead of going to one site to search, they can do a comprehensive search (eventually) of all of the major video sites to get a larger set of results.

I’m wondering how MetaCafe feels about this right now, because as it stands there’s really no need for anybody to click through to their site when they can stay and watch the video inline right from Google Video. It would be different if just a preview was offered and in order to watch the full video, users would have to go to MetaCafe to watch it.

Keep your eye out because other video sharing sites will be added soon…

Source: ZDNet

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Android Gingerbread has growth spurt, grabs 38.2 percent device share

Gingerbread has apparently made a substantial mark on Android users, with new figures showing it holds a 38.2 percent share of all Google OS-powered devices. That’s some kind of growth from the one percent sliver it held earlier this year. Froyo still remains dominant at 45.3 percent, but fragmentation continues to shrink, with 95.7 percent of all Google-coated devices now running Android 2.1 or above. These figures, taken from Android Market statistics over the last two weeks, give a pretty good illustration of the gulf between Android smartphone and tablets, as well, with Honeycomb versions accounting for a meager 1.8 percent. But the tablet version will likely get a boost from Ice Cream Sandwich — which, as we all know, is just around the corner.

Android Gingerbread has growth spurt, grabs 38.2 percent device share originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Oct 2011 08:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Mobile Syrup  |  sourceAndroid Developers  | Email this | Comments

Google Security Woes Continue

This article was written on June 04, 2007 by CyberNet.

Google is no stranger to security issues, that’s for sure. They’ve had their fair share to deal with, and it doesn’t appear that it’s getting any better. Each time it’s serious business and the fact of the matter is, security will always be something that Google will need to viscously deal with.

One of the more recent incidences involves Gmail experiencing some issues with XSS holes (Cross-site scripting).  This is dangerous for users because it can expose their Google account information and even allow hackers to hi-jack a Gmail session, not to mention the fact that Google uses a single sign-on method.This issue has since been fixed, but the problems didn’t stop here.

Googlesecuritycartoon

Another recent incidence involves Google Desktop and a zero-day vulnerability. It’s explained best by Robert Hansen who has previously taken in-depth looks at security flaws:

  • User goes to Google and performs a search.
  • Man in the middle detects the action and proceeds to inject his own content.
  • The attacker injects a piece of JavaScript that creates an iframe to the target URL as well as makes the iframe follow the mouse. This is invisible to the user.
  • He then frames another search query to correctly position the content inside the follow mouse script.
  • As the evil search query loads, he injects a meta-refresh to reload the same page forcing Google Desktop to load. This could be any program already installed on the victim machine that is indexed by Google Desktop.
  • User inadvertently clicks on evil Google Desktop query which actually runs the associated program.

While Google may tout “don’t be evil,” that doesn’t mean that there isn’t evil lurking amongst their services. Case in point, here are some of the Google security issues we’ve already discussed:

  1. Google Exploit Found – Pretends to be Gmail Plus
  2. Gmail Flaw can Give Anyone your Contact List
  3. Another Google Security Flaw Found
  4. Google Desktop Patched to Prevent Computer Takeover

As always, users beware! Hansen says in regards to the zero-day-vulnerability with Google Desktop, “This should drive home the point that deep integration between the desktop and the web is not a good idea, without tremendous thought put into the security model.”

For those using Google Desktop, his statement gives you something to think about.

Source: Slashdot (Thanks for the tip Cory!)
Image Source

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Samsung teases next week’s ‘Unpacked,’ offers a momentary glance at a mysterious device

See that image above? It’s Samsung’s way of being sly. The company put out a teaser video for its “Google Episode” of Unpacked occurring on October 11th (we’ll be there live, by the way), stating that “something BIG is coming.” And if you’re not looking close enough, you may completely miss the brief glimpse it gave us of a device with a curved screen. The vid doesn’t go so far as to loudly exclaim that this mystery device is the Nexus Prime, of course, but c’mon — we’re picking up what Sammy’s putting down. Check out the video below to do some sleuthing of your own.

Update: Samsung amended the end of the video to add the words “Ahead of the curve.” Discuss.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Samsung teases next week’s ‘Unpacked,’ offers a momentary glance at a mysterious device

Samsung teases next week’s ‘Unpacked,’ offers a momentary glance at a mysterious device originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink BriefMobile  |   | Email this | Comments

Why Block YouTube Ads?

This article was written on August 24, 2007 by CyberNet.

YouTube Ads

Right now I feel pretty bad for the YouTube team because of all the vulgar comments they’re receiving over the recent addition of video overlay ads. Most of the comments are irrelevant to helping YouTube improve the ad experience for the users, and if you decide to go look through the comments I’m sure you would see how immature some people can really be.

I’ve had a chance to interact with one of the video ads (pictured above) and I don’t understand why people despise them so much. The first time I saw one of the ads it was for The Simpsons Movie, and it really caught my attention. I was drawn into the ad, and even found myself compelled to watch it. It only takes up the lower 20% of the video, is heavily transparent, and it will disappear after a few seconds if you don’t click on it. Or there is always the "X" in the corner to manually close the ad.

Crazily enough the anti-ad outcry has been heard and there is a Firefox extension, called TubeStop, that will block YouTube ads. It does so by replacing the standard YouTube player with an "embedded" one…the same one you’ll find on other non-YouTube sites. This works because YouTube is currently not showing the ads on videos that are embedded on other sites.

So my real question is why would you want to block YouTube ads? I can only imagine how much money it costs to run YouTube because of the extreme bandwidth usage, but as of 1-year ago the associated costs were reported to be $1 million per month! Since that time their traffic has almost trippled, and I can’t imagine that the cost to run it has gotten any cheaper. Not only that but I’ve heard that a portion of the ad revenue is given to the authors of the video, and by leaving the ads you’re thereby supporting them.

Maybe I feel this way because we run our own site and rely on advertising for our income, but all I know is that you’ve got to support the sites you use the most. They’re not asking you to fork out money from your own pocket…all they’re trying to do is give the advertisers and viewers the best experience possible. I’d much prefer to see this type of video ads rather than the ones that are shown for the first 15-seconds of the video.

Source: Mashable

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