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Google launches Keep to help you store your notes

Google unveiled its rumored Keep service today, giving users a new way to create and save notes and integrate them with Google Drive.

The service is live both on the Web and in a new app for Android devices running on 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and above.

Keep gives Google users a central place to store the information they collect from its various services. People are doing this already in Google Docs -- keeping to-do lists, recipes, and other short snippets of text on individual documents.

Here's how the company put it in a blog post:

"With … Read more

Google admits to accidentally eliminating Digg from search

Digg, which bears little to no resemblance to the site it once was, is still alive and kicking as a curated collection of top news stories from around the Web -- just not in Google's world.

If you queried Google for Digg links earlier this morning, you found that the search giant had no recollection that Digg ever existed. Seriously. As Martin MacDonald, an online marketing specialist, observed in a blog post, Digg disappeared altogether from Google's index.

Fear not. It's just a case of temporary amnesia -- well, actually a case of botched brain surgery. When … Read more

Yahoo brings back former employees with Jybe acquisition

Yahoo has picked up a new app and brought some former employees along for the ride.

Announced today, Yahoo has acquired Jybe, an iOS app that recommends books, movies, and restaurants based on a user's personal tastes. Jybe's service and app kicked off about two years ago.

The Jybe team consists of five people who used to work at Yahoo. The team will join Yahoo's platform organization to focus on targeting and personalization, according to the company.

"This will be a 'coming home' for the team -- all five are former Yahoos," Yahoo said in … Read more

Google Images adds filters for animated GIFs

Google is making it easier to find the perfect animated GIF with which to e-mail a friend or post on a blog, adding new filters to Images that let users query specific file types.

Google confirmed to CNET that it is rolling out the new filters to users today. The file types now searchable include faces, photos, clip art, line drawings, and animated GIFs. All appear under "search tools." Click "any type" on the drop-down menu that appears to see the animated GIF option.

The filters highlight the wide range of file types contained within image … Read more

Facebook Graph Search to add posts, comments to search

Facebook posted a deep dive of the tech behind its Graph Search ranking system today and buried at the bottom was a promise of new features: posts and comments search.

Sriram Sankar, an engineering manager on Facebook's search infrastructure team, wrote in the post that Facebook next steps include a better search on mobile and new content.

"We are also extending our search capabilities to do better text processing and ranking and have better mobile and internationalization support. Finally, we are also working on building a completely new vertical to handle searching posts and comments," he wrote. … Read more

Google to split mapping, commerce ops, WSJ reports

It appears that Google's "spring cleaning" is even broader than thought.

The online search giant is splitting its mapping and commerce unit into two separate businesses, The Wall Street Journal reported today, citing its sources.

Jeff Huber, who led the mapping and commerce business, is stepping aside from his role and will be moving to the Google X unit, the Journal said. That business is run by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and works on projects such as self-driving cars and Google Glass.

Google confirmed to CNET that Huber is shifting roles.

"Jeff is an extraordinary executive,&… Read more

Pope Francis spurs hundreds of domain name registrations

Shortly after the smoke rising from the Sistine Chapel turned from black to white and Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was deemed the world's new Roman Catholic leader, hundreds of people took to the Web to register domain names with the new pope's title.

Web hosting and domain registration site GoDaddy told CNET that it racked up more than 100 domain registrations within the first 10 minutes of the announcement. By the first hour, 479 new domains were registered. And, as of this writing, 647 domain names have been registered at GoDaddy.

"The election of Pope Francis is … Read more

'Star Trek' computer inspires future of Google search

AUSTIN, Texas--At Google, the future of search looks an awful lot like something out of one of the iconic science fiction franchises of the past.

At least that's the impression given by Google's Amit Singhal when he was interviewed on-stage by Guy Kawasaki at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin recently.

No matter how much Kawasaki prodded Singhal for insights into the inner workings of Google's algorithms, the senior vice president of search seemed far more interested in talking about his apparent obsession with the computer from "Star Trek."

"For those of you who have never watched an episode of 'Star Trek,' please go do that," Singhal implored the audience at one point.… Read more

Foursquare gunning for Yelp

AUSTIN, Texas--Make no mistake: Foursquare, the New York-based social network centered around places, is chucking the check-in to take over local search, a move that pits the 4-year-old company directly against Yelp.

When asked whether Foursquare was now gunning for Yelp, co-founder and CEO Dennis Crowley said during an interview with CNET at South by Southwest Interactive that "if we keep doing what we're doing, we make the previous generation of local search products irrelevant."

The shorter answer would have been, "yes."

The underlying message is clear: The future of Foursquare depends on the company … Read more