Search

Syria: All communications reportedly down

Google tweeted Tuesday that all its services are inaccessible in Syria, where a bloody civil war is ongoing and Israeli airstrikes were conducted over the weekend.

Google reports that Internet traffic from the beleaguered Middle Eastern nation suddenly stopped at about 11:45 a.m. Pacific Time.

Other traffic-monitoring services confirmed the outage. Renesys also tweeted:

Renesys confirms loss of Syrian Internet connectivity 18:43 UTC. BGP routes down, inbound traces failing.

This isn't the first time the country has fallen off the digital map in recent months. A similar outage last November lasted for two days.

Almost immediately, … Read more

Google: The future of search is Now

Google needs a new tagline: The future of search is Now.

It wouldn't be a stretch, given the huge bet Google is making that it can create intelligent digital assistants for billions of people by putting Google's computer brain to work for you via Google Now. The service, which Google this week expanded to iOS users, is about far more than one-upping Siri in the battle for digital assistants. Google is angling to maintain its top position in search as people leave the desktop and search on mobile and wearable devices.

Google Now, arguably not the most compelling … Read more

Google to integrate app activities into Search

NEW YORK--Google plans to integrate information on app activities into its Search page, giving users insight into what peers are doing and linking Google+ more closely with Google's other offerings.

The company in February launched its Google+ sign-on service that allows Google accounts to be used when logging into third-party apps and Web sites. Users taking advantage of the Google sign-in also can instantly download the Android app version without having to turn on their phones. The move was viewed as a way for Google to weave its accounts more tightly into the fabric of the Internet and a … Read more

Twitter may already have an app for Google Glass

If a now-deleted tweet is to be believed, Twitter may already have created an app for Google Glass.

That's TechCrunch's conclusion, at least, as the technology news site has a story up this afternoon positing that someone may already have sent a tweet from an obviously as-yet-unannounced Twitter app for Google Glass.

Is @mogroothmuddler beta testing an official Twitter for Glass app? Certainly looks like it. twitter.com/jonmarkgo/stat...

— Jonathan Gottfried (@jonmarkgo) April 29, 2013

In the photo that's embedded in the above tweet, it is possible to see that the tweet (assuming it actually existed) … Read more

Foursquare CEO: Yes, actually, we are generating revenue

NEW YORK -- Foursquare's CEO wants to dismiss worries that the startup isn't growing, saying that all important metrics are rising about 10 percent to 30 percent from month to month.

Dennis Crowley, who also is a co-founder of the check-in and local search app, noted that Foursquare "doesn't talk about growth numbers that much," but the company pays attention to the number of active users, signups, check-ins, people using search and other metrics. All are rising, he said.

"There's a little perception we're not growing, which is false," Crowley said … Read more

Twitter as local news station? Yes, please

If Twitter looked inward to bring me the most entertaining or educating information unfolding around me, I'd be one happy camper. The company is in the unique position of showing me what my neighbors, and even my local newscasters, think is most interesting right now.

The information network may already be testing such a tool for local discovery. The company reportedly wants to surface the most relevant tweets nearby, as determined by spikes in related activity. Twitter even piloted the feature in Boston around the time of the tragic Boston Marathon bombings, according to AllThingsD.

The Boston example, though … Read more

Twitter may soon tell you what's going on nearby, right now

If you've ever wondered what people near you are tweeting about in real-time and thought that might help you find cool things going on nearby, Twitter may soon offer exactly that feature.

According to AllThingsD, Twitter may well be working on new features that would show tweets from people near you.

"Twitter is in the process of testing a new feature that lets you discover tweets from people within a certain distance of your location," AllThingsD said it had been told by multiple sources. "The idea is to surface relevant activity based on where you are … Read more

Google: More government takedown requests than ever before

Requests by governments worldwide to remove content from Google's services have hit an all-time high, according to the company.

Between July and December 2012, Google received 2,285 government requests for the removal of content on its services. In total, 24,179 pieces of content were asked to be removed by the government entities, setting a new record, according to Google. In the first half of 2012, Google received 1,811 requests to remove more than 18,000 pieces of content.

Google's release, which is part of the company's Transparency Report launched three years ago, indicates that … Read more

EC details Google's proposed search concessions

Google's proposal for resolving a European investigation into anticompetitive practices in search includes labeling its own services in search results, showing services from rivals nearby, and letting specialized search services block Google from using their content.

The European Commission on Thursday published Google's proposed resolution for the long-running case and issued a request for feedback. (For the full proposal in detail, see below.)

That feedback now includes criticisms from rivals that say Google has unfairly squeezed them off the Web, promoting its own services even when they wouldn't merit top placement when judged on the basis of … Read more