Search Engine Roundtable: Google Can & Does Drop URLs From Its Index Over Time. “Most SEOs that have been doing the search engine optimization thing for any amount of time know that Google can and likely will drop out URLs from the Google index. John Mueller from Google confirmed that this happens with Google Search on Twitter the other day.”
MakeUseOf: How to Manage Your Side Search Panel in Google Chrome. “Google Chrome is constantly finding ways to improve its user experience. When you’re on a web page, and you want to perform a quick Google search, you can do that without opening a new tab. Enabling your Side Search panel allows you to easily browse through Google search results. In this article, you’ll learn how to manage your Side Search panel in Google Chrome.”
TechRepublic: How to use Google Data Studio: A beginner’s guide with examples. “Try this free, browser-based data visualization tool that connects to hundreds of data sources and lets you create, collaborate and share interactive charts and reports.”
Ars Technica: Update Chrome now to patch actively exploited zero-day . “The exploit was reported by Ashley Shen and Christian Resell of the Google Threat Analysis Group, and that’s all the information we have for now. Details of the exploit are currently tucked behind a wall in the Chromium bugs group and are restricted to those actively working on related components and registered with Chromium. After a certain percentage of users have applied the relevant updates, those details may be revealed.”
How-To Geek: 6 Effective Ways to Use Explore in Google Sheets. “The Explore feature works differently in Google Sheets than in Google Docs. You can use it to get useful details about your data to help you analyze it. You can also use pieces that the tool provides in your spreadsheet. If you’re looking for a handy way to learn more about the data in your Google Sheet, here are various ways to use the Explore feature.”
Ars Technica: Chrome “Feed” is tantalizing, but it’s not the return of Google Reader. “Does Google enjoy teasing and sometimes outright torturing some of its products’ most devoted fans? It can seem that way. Tucked away inside a recent bleeding-edge Chrome build is a ‘Following feed’ that has some bloggers dreaming of the return of Google Reader. It’s unlikely, but never say never when it comes to Google product decisions.” NewsBlur and Feedly are both excellent RSS readers.
Australian Associated Press: High Court rules Google not a publisher. “Australia’s highest court has ruled Google is not legally responsible for defamatory news articles as it is not the publisher of such content. A majority of High Court justices on Wednesday found Google was not the publisher of a defamatory article by The Age about a Victorian lawyer, as it was a search engine that only provided hyperlinks to news stories.”
Drive: Google Maps blamed for family left stranded in outback. “A family rescued from outback New South Wales has blamed Google Maps for sending their Hyundai Tucson down an inaccessible track, according to 9News. Despite a single asphalt road connecting the remote towns of Tibooburra and Packsaddle in the north west of NSW, it’s understood the Hyundai Tucson was located about 50km southeast of Tibooburra.”
Poynter: Australia’s news media bargaining code pries $140 million from Google and Facebook. “More than a year after Australian political parties across the spectrum united around a law that pushed Google and Facebook to pay for the news they distribute, a further 24 smaller media outlets will now receive money from Google. This means that Google has made deals with essentially all qualifying media companies. These deals, and those struck with Facebook, have injected well over $200 million AUD into Australian journalism each year according to Rod Sims, the former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission who initiated the Code.”
WIRED: Google Search Is Quietly Damaging Democracy. “Google’s latest desire to answer our questions for us, rather than requiring us to click on the returns and find the answers for ourselves, is not particularly problematic if what you’re seeking is a straightforward fact like how many ounces make up a gallon. The problem is, many rely on search engines to seek out information about more convoluted topics. And, as my research reveals, this shift can lead to incorrect returns that often disrupt democratic participation, confirm unsubstantiated claims, and are easily manipulatable by people looking to spread falsehoods.”
CNET: Teen’s Google Doodle Highlights Importance of Having Support. “Sometimes, caring for yourself means recognizing that there are others in the world who are also there to help you. That realization is the cornerstone of a Doodle created by high schooler Sophie Araque-Liu. Google announced Tuesday that her Doodle, titled Not Alone, is the winner of the 2022 Doodle for Google competition, an annual contest open to school kids across the US.”
Business Insider: Why Google employees fear the worst as the company quietly extends its hiring freeze. “Google employees are on edge as the company has yet to reverse what was meant to be a two-week hiring freeze, and some have described a ‘real vibe change.’”
9to5 Google: Google Images on the web now uses Google Lens. “After being integrated across Android and the Chrome browser, Google Lens is now the main visual search experience on the desktop Google Images website.”
CNN: How Google found itself under pressure from all sides after Roe’s demise. “In mid-June, one week before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, more than 20 Congressional Democrats wrote a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. In it, they urged the company to prevent searches for abortion clinics from returning results and ads that direct users to facilities that actually oppose the procedure, noting it could put women’s health at risk. The next month, 17 Republican attorneys general wrote a letter to Pichai pushing for the opposite.”
ABC News (Australia): Google fined $60 million for misleading some Australian mobile users about collection of location data. “Google has been slapped with a $60 million fine for some misleading consumers about the collection and use of their personal location data on Android phones between January 2017 and December 2018.”
