Tag: Search Engines

  • Sometimes it pays to listen

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    Tom Raftery
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    I wrote, shortly after Google bought YouTube, that this purchase was a potential windfall for YouTube copyright claimants however recent happenings are proving me wrong (imagine that!). Prof Tim Wu (Professor of Law at Columbia) wrote recently in an article in Slate that YouTube (or GooTube as people are now taking to calling it): is…

  • Google get asinine

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    Tom Raftery
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    I see Google are now telling us when we can and when we can’t use the word Google in our everyday speech! we do have a brand to protect, so we’d like to make clear that you should please only use “Google” when you’re actually referring to Google Inc. and our services I actually think…

  • Google's windfall for copyright claimants

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    Tom Raftery
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    In case you haven’t heard (where have you been?) Google announced that the rumours were true after all and that they have agreed to buy YouTube for $1.65bn. Yep. You read that correctly, $1.65bn. Unsurprisingly, this is the top story on TechMeme. It looks like Google believes video on the web has a real future…

  • Google Blogsearch adds ping

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    Tom Raftery
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    Thanks to Niall Kennedy for pointing out Google’s new ping service. This is great – one of the biggest problems I had with Google’s blogsearch was how slow it was to pick up on posts. Several hours after posting an article, typically it still wasn’t up on Google whereas the post is often up on…

  • Google Maps and Google Earth images updated

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    Tom Raftery
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    The Google Earth blog notes that there has been a significant update to Google Earth and Google Maps images. On checking Cork, I found that it has been significantly updated with recent high-res images. However, Rushbrook, where I am based, is still only available in low-res. In this screen you can see Rushbrook is on…

  • Finally, an outstanding online RSS reader

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    Tom Raftery
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    I have had issues with Google Reader (Google’s online RSS/feed reader) in the past but in the latest update to Google Reader, released today most of those issues have been addressed. Lots of people are posting opinions on this from Marshall Kirkpatrick on TechCrunch to Robert Scoble on Scobleizer to Richard McManus on the ReadWrite…

  • Where's the case for data retention?

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    Tom Raftery
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    Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt announced today that he thinks the greatest danger to people’s privacy is not from leaks of people’s data as happened earlier this week to AOL users but rather from government snooping. I have always worried the query stream is a fertile ground for governments to snoop on the people. This is…

  • The myth of privacy

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    Tom Raftery
    in

    You do know that every search term you type into a search engine is saved by the search engine, don’t you? That time you searched for porn, or an ex boy/girlfriend, or information about an illness you thought you might have – all saved by the search engine. This practice was brought sharply into focus…