Nearly a year after rumors began swirling that Google could face a record-breaking fine in order to put a six-year long European antitrust investigation related to its search behind it. European regulators are ordering the tech giant to pay up, to the tune of $2.7 billion. [More]
search results
Google Wiping Private Medical Records From Search Results
By 6.23.17
If the thought of a stranger accessing your medical history online gives you the creeps, you’re not alone: In an effort to tamp down on the spread of such private information, Google has started wiping private medical records from its search results. [More]
Google’s New “Shop The Look” Lets You Buy Clothes, Furniture From Image Search Results
By 9.6.16
A number of fashion and celebrity gossip sites have long tinkered with “get the look” features that try to turn paparazzi pics into e-commerce gold, and now Google has introduced a “Shop the Look” program for mobile that aims to put a price tag on the clothes and furnishings you see in your search results. [More]
Yelp, TripAdvisor Not Happy With Google’s New Critics’ Review Search Results
By 8.8.16
TripAdvisor and Yelp, two of the biggest names in crowdsourced reviews, say that Google is using its position as the dominant online search engine to push Google-backed reviews ahead of links to review sites. [More]
Payday Lending Trade Group Promises To Clean Up Misleading Online Ads
By 7.15.16
Google dealt a big blow to the payday lending industry, when it recently decided to ban the short-term/high-cost lenders’ ads from search results. At the same time, federal regulators are pushing for stricter regulations on these controversial financial products. Now a payday lending trade group is hoping to do some damage control by creating a program to identify companies making misleading claims in online ads. [More]
Google Tests Using All-Black Text For Search Result Links
By 5.9.16
We’re all very familiar with Google search results. Linked sites are shown in blue text (unless you’ve already clicked that link), and the text related to that link is in black. Now the tech giant is testing a move that has users confused: making all search results text black.
[More]
Google Adds Paid Home Service Provider Suggestions To Search Results For “Clogged Toilet,” “Plumber”
By 8.31.15
Less than a year after Amazon took on the likes of Angie’s List, Yelp and other companies that can connect consumers to professional service providers like plumbers, locksmiths, electricians and others, Google announced it would join the fray by adding prescreened service providers to its sponsored search results. [More]
Amazon Ending Pay-Per-Click Ad Program That Took Shoppers To Other Retail Sites, Creates Text-Only Ads
By 8.12.15
Smaller retailers who pay to have ads appear on the bottom of Amazon search results will soon see less of their products and more text, as the e-commerce giant prepares to shutter a pay-per-click ad program that took shoppers away from its site. [More]
Google Can Now Show You The Best Time To Pick Up Your Dry Cleaning
By 7.28.15
Waiting in line is often an annoying, but unavoidable aspect of everyday life: grabbing lunch, picking up a prescription, cashing a check, just to name a few. Now instead of just telling you how much time it will take to drive from one place to the other, Google has used its skills (all that data it collects) to create a new feature that gives a little more insight on just how busy the coffee shop is at 8 a.m. (busy). [More]
Microsoft Now Accepting Requests To Remove Revenge Porn From Bing, Xbox Live & OneDrive
By 7.23.15
Microsoft joined the growing list of tech companies taking steps to crack down on so-called revenge porn – the posting of nude photos or videos online without the consent of the subject – by honoring requests to remove links to the images or the content from appearing in results on its search engine Bing and other platforms. [More]
Google Begins Testing Buy Button On Select Mobile Searches
By 7.15.15
Google has finally made good on those reports that it would simplify the smartphone shopping experience by allowing users to simply hit a “buy button” to complete a transaction straight from sponsored search results, rather than toggling between retailer websites. Today, the company announced it is officially testing what it calls Purchases. [More]
Should We Have The “Right To Be Forgotten” By Google In U.S.?
By 7.7.15
Even those of us who didn’t grow up in the Internet age can still find traces of our much younger selves online, which can occasionally make for a fun trip down memory lane. But not everyone is pleased with the idea that every online mention of their name may be forever etched into Google’s search memory. In 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that people have a legal “right to be forgotten” by Internet search engines, requiring Google and others to consider such removal requests from residents of the 28 EU countries. A new complaint filed today with federal regulators is calling for a similar program in the U.S. [More]
Amazon Must Face Trademark Lawsuit Over Wristwatch Search Results
By 7.7.15
If Amazon doesn’t sell a specific product I’m looking for, should it simply tell me “Sorry, nothing here” or should it bring up a slate of other, possibly similar, competing products? To one high-end watchmaker that’s been involved in a four-year legal battle with Amazon, these questionable search results aren’t just an annoyance but constitute trademark infringement. And yesterday, a federal appeals panel said Amazon must face this trademark complaint in court. [More]
Google Giving Revenge Porn Victims A Way To Remove Pics From Search Results
By 6.19.15
This past spring a number of tech companies took steps to crack down on so-called revenge porn – the posting of nude photos or videos online without the consent of the subject. Today, Google announced it was joining those sites by honoring requests to remove nude or sexually explicit images shared without the featured person’s permission from search results. [More]
Google Reportedly Adding Buy Button To Sponsored Mobile Search Results
By 5.18.15
Searching for and buying a product with your smartphone is about to get a bit easier. Google is reportedly just weeks away from adding a “buy” button to mobile search results, a move that will increase the company’s rivalry with other online marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon. [More]
Lysol Buys Google Search Ads To Take Advantage Of Ebola Panic
By 10.29.14
A few weeks ago, we shared the not-at-all-surprising news that Americans are buying more cleaning supplies, especially disinfectants, than we normally do at this time of year. We can partly credit the Ebola virus. While cleanliness is rarely a bad thing and Ebola is a terrifying disease, we do have to give some side-eye to Lysol for buying ads on Google searches about Ebola. [More]
