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Google execs' 'New Digital Age' resists cyber-siren song

When two executives at the world's most optimistic technology company write about humanity's digital future, you might expect a book brimming with excitement about the wonders to come.

Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen offer plenty of that, but what makes "The New Digital Age" worth reading is the correspondingly healthy dose of pessimism. The book, released today, ultimately is persuasive in making the case that people can steer technology so it helps us more than it harms us.

The book, with straightforward writing and compelling details, seeks to predict what happens as today's online population … Read more

Yahoo tries to freshen up, kills a bunch of products

Yahoo is doing some spring cleaning. The company announced its plans on Friday to shut down several products, including Yahoo Deals, Yahoo SMS Alerts, and the Yahoo Mail and Messenger apps used on feature phones.

It's all about getting rid of the old to make room for the new, according to Jay Rossiter, Yahoo's executive vice president in charge of platforms, who wrote about the changes in a blog entry.

"We want to bring you experiences that inspire and entertain you every day," Rossiter wrote. "That means taking a hard look at all of our … Read more

Google tweaks mobile search to deliver information quicker

Google introduced a pair of new features today intended to help speed mobile users' searches.

"When you're searching for information on the go, speed matters," Google software engineers Hiroshi Mizuno and Alex Fischer wrote in a company blog post explaining the features.

Starting today, mobile users will be able to use expandable site links to quickly access specific sections of certain sites, trimming the number of pages.

For example, instead of navigating the Rotten Tomatoes home page while looking for a new movie to see, mobile users will encounter a quick link for "In Theaters" … Read more

Google's Voice Search and the thirst for conversation

Google's engineers are known for tackling difficult problems, grand challenges like driverless cars. But the grandest challenge for Google has always been search. Fifteen years into its evolution as a company, Google's brain in the cloud is becoming much more conversational and smarter.

The best evidence is Google Glass, for which speech input is the primary interface. "Voice recognition is good enough that you can talk to these things," Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said about the Glass user experience. He believes that making conversational queries with Glass and other devices will make Google's search engine … Read more

Google's Euler doodle highlights an O.G. math star

It's another good day to be a numbers nerd, at least based on Google's doodle tribute to Swiss super-mathematician Leonhard Euler that showed up earlier.

How appropriate that Euler, considered the pre-eminent mathematician of the 18th century, should have been born on our modern Tax Day. Ignoring the IRS' big day is also likely to be much less controversial than failing to acknowledge Easter with a doodle.

If he'd lived to see his 306th birthday today something tells me Euler would either be one rockin' CPA, or the only guy to understand derivatives markets.… Read more

Bing serves up more malicious sites than Google, report says

Although most search engines have measures in place to protect users against trojans, malicious sites still manage to crop up from time to time -- even in the top search results. An independent testing lab in Germany by the name of AV-Test has just completed an 18-month survey to find out which search engines are the worst offenders.

The lab tested 40 million Web sites (PDF) across seven search engines -- Google and Bing, the world's two most popular search engines; Yandex, Russia's biggest search engine; Blekko; peer-to-peer search engine Faroo; Teoma, better known as Ask.com; and … Read more

Google adds local safety alerts to search results

Alerts from police, firefighters, and other authorities should soon start popping up in your Google search results.

The new initiative comes courtesy of a team-up between Google and Nixle, a San Francisco-based startup.

Nixle allows people to sign up to receive crime alerts, missing person notifications, and other updates from local police and fire departments. The alerts are sent via e-mail or text message to a mobile phone.

Google has tapped Nixle as the first partner to work with the Google Crisis Response Team to expand those safety alerts beyond just e-mail and mobile phones. Local public safety agencies can … Read more

Prepare a digital will for your Google accounts

Google doesn't want you worry about what happens to your online self when you leave finally this world -- or just the virtual world.

The company introduced a tool today called the Inactive Account Manager that lets you tell Google what you want done with your data hosted on its network after you die, or stop using your account for a long period of time. Think of it as an automated will for your digital assets.

"Not many of us like thinking about death -- especially our own," Product Manager Andreas Tuerk wrote in a blog post. &… Read more

Google proposes fix for Europe's search competition concern

Google has submitted its ideas for how to address complaints in Europe that it uses its search power to benefit its other online properties.

Antoine Colombani, the European Commission's spokesman on competition policy, told Reuters that the move took place after the EC finished its years-long assessment of Google's search dominance and its effects:

In the last few weeks, the Commission completed its preliminary assessment formally setting out its concerns. On this basis, Google then made a formal submission of commitments to the Commission.

We are now preparing the launch of a market test to seek feedback from … Read more

Foursquare puts search first in update of iOS app

Holding true to its mission to take down Yelp, Foursquare makes search a priority in the latest update to its iOS app.

Foursquare 6.0 takes the 3.5 billion check-ins made through the service and uses them to beef up its "Explore" function. The new iOS app -- following in the footsteps of Foursquare's recent update to its Android app -- shows personalized recommendations, based on past check-ins, and your friends' check-ins right off the bat. There's also a full search bar on top, while the check-in button moves to the bottom of the screen. … Read more