Google Search

Engineers from Twitter, Facebook and MySpace have created an open-source plug-in that they hope proves their worst fears about Google's decision to fold its social results into search — that Google is moving away from its mission to be a neutral directory of the Internet. The plug-in, created by engineers at the three competing social networks, alters the new Google features that showcase Google+ to include social media results from several social networks including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Flickr,...

Google announced a new music service on the first day of its annual developers' conference Tuesday, and the company's chief executive officer, Larry Page, answered questions from the audience in San Francisco. The subscription-based music service, Google Music All Access , will be similar to other platforms already online: The service, which lets users listen to tracks on demand and forms "stations" of related songs as you listen, will cost $9.99 per month. Early users, who sign on to the service before...

Apple users get the chance to see what all the fuss over Google Now is about, thanks to an update from the company that brings Google's version of the personal assistant to the iPhone and iPad. The app plugs into users' Google accounts to offer personalized information — traffic status, nearby restaurants or packages you may be expecting — based on information pulled from your smartphone's location, Gmail account or Google Calendar. The app requires users to sign-in to their Google account, and to verify a good amount of data...

Google said Wednesday that it is expanding its voice search capabilities and other features of its core product that it hopes could fundamentally change the way the people look things up on its search engine. The features the company announced at its annual developers conference seemed more incremental than revolutionary, but Google senior vice president Amit Singhal said that he hopes that some of the technology introduced today will lead to the "end of search as we know it. " The key to that, Singhal said, lies in new voice...

Gregory Ferenstein is a writer for TechCrunch . This piece reflects his opinion. In a 2005 interview, Eric Schmidt said that, ideally, a Google search should yield only a single, perfect result. "When you use Google, do you get more than one answer? Of course you do," he told public television host Charlie Rose at the time . "Well, that's a bug. We should be able to give you the right answer just once. We should know what you meant. You should look for information.

Thank goodness Google's working on the really important stuff, like adding sound effects to SearchWiki , instead of releasing the promised off button to that dreaded service . Although, I have to admit it's pretty cool. To add the sound effect, turn this Google experiment on and delete a search result in Google search (you have to have SearchWiki turned on). It makes a Desktop Tower Defense like sound, recorded by co-founder Sergey Brin himself. Check it out in the video below.

Google search got a real-time upgrade and started to integrate Tweets from Twitter in real-time into search results. So its makes sense for Google's Search Appliance (GSA) to now include tweets from Twitter next within enterprise's internal Search Appliance results. Google offers businesses its GSA product, a yellow box that resembles a slice of Swiss cheese, that can index any enterprise data generated by Oracle databases, SAP systems, Documentum, SharePoint, Salesforce.com, HR systems, intranets,...

Google isn't content being the most popular Internet search engine -- it continuously tinkers to create a more immersive user experience. Sometimes it fails as PC World outlined in this article . And Google's SearchWiki, a user-edited search results feature unveiled yesterday , in my opinion is Google's latest bad idea since, well, since Lively . SearchWiki allows you to edit and customize your search results pages. You must be signed into your Google account for it to work.

More often than not these days, I find myself clicking Google's Show options link when looking at a page of search results. As you probably know, doing so reveals a handy sidebar with filters like Recent results and Timeline . The thing is, I want that sidebar to appear by default, on every search, so I don't have to click the link every time. If you're a Firefox user like I am, you're in luck: there's an add-on for that. It's called, fittingly enough, Google Always...

Searching Gmail sucks, and we all know it. Google knows it too, which is why the company released an "expanded" search feature Monday that not only helps you find emails within Gmail, but also pulls relevant results into Google searches. "When you're looking for something, you should be able to find what you need quickly and easily without needing to think about where it might be, whether it's in your email or out on the public web," Google software engineer Bran Moolenaar said in a blog post . ...

Correction:

Apple users get the chance to see what all the fuss over Google Now is about, thanks to an update from the company that brings Google's version of the personal assistant to the iPhone and iPad. The app plugs into users' Google accounts to offer personalized information — traffic status, nearby restaurants or packages you may be expecting — based on information pulled from your smartphone's location, Gmail account or Google Calendar. The app requires users to sign-in to their Google account, and to verify a...

Google has brought Google Now, its prime Siri competitor, to the iPhone and iPad by incorporating the feature into its search app for iOS devices. The feature, which has been available to Android users for months, pulls together information from across Google services to give users a digital starting point. The company said Monday that the service is now open to iPhone and iPad users through the company's free Google Search app. To use Google Now, users will have to sign into their Google accounts to enable the...

Gregory Ferenstein is a writer for TechCrunch . This piece reflects his opinion. In a 2005 interview, Eric Schmidt said that, ideally, a Google search should yield only a single, perfect result. "When you use Google, do you get more than one answer? Of course you do," he told public television host Charlie Rose at the time . "Well, that's a bug. We should be able to give you the right answer just once. We should know what you meant. You should look for information.

Google once was seen as such a ripe target for investigation that the nation's antitrust enforcers battled over the right to claim it as their own, as a potential high-tech pelt to be hung on the wall alongside Microsoft and AT&T. Yet after nearly two years of a high-profile probe, Google recently reached a tentative settlement deal that many observers called a slap on the wrist. And the agency that claimed the case in 2011, the Federal Trade Commission, began facing such...

Google and the Federal Trade Commission are on the verge of a deal that would end a nearly two-year-old investigation into allegations of monopolistic behavior by implementing concessions that fall far short of what the company's rivals have sought, said people familiar with the negotiations. Under the deal, which still ­requires the approval of the five-member commission, Google would agree to new limits on its ability to use snippets of content from other Web sites and would agree to make it easier for...

European antitrust officials announced Monday that they have found four areas of concern in an investigation into Google's search practices, saying the search giant has "a matter of weeks" to volunteer remedies. The findings mean that the clock effectively has started ticking for Google to come up with solutions to the regulators' concerns — or face formal charges that could result in a hefty fine or restrictions on Google's behavior. Pressure is rising on the dominant search engine as the European...

Google said Wednesday that it is expanding its voice search capabilities and other features of its core product that it hopes could fundamentally change the way the people look things up on its search engine. The features the company announced at its annual developers conference seemed more incremental than revolutionary, but Google senior vice president Amit Singhal said that he hopes that some of the technology introduced today will lead to the "end of search as we know it. " The key to...

PAOLI, Pa. — N ot far from Valley Forge, around the corner from Bravo Pizza, up the road from Paoli Auto Body, there is an odd-looking office building that resembles a stone castle. An eye doctor is on the first floor. On the second floor is a search engine. The proprietor of the search engine is Gabriel Weinberg, who is 33. A few years ago, when Weinberg told his wife about his new business idea — pitting him against more established outfits such as Google and Bing — he admits that she briefly thought he was nuts.

Searching Gmail sucks, and we all know it. Google knows it too, which is why the company released an "expanded" search feature Monday that not only helps you find emails within Gmail, but also pulls relevant results into Google searches. "When you're looking for something, you should be able to find what you need quickly and easily without needing to think about where it might be, whether it's in your email or out on the public web," Google software engineer Bran Moolenaar said in a blog...