Business Post (Ireland): Google workers protest over ‘unequal’ treatment in lay-offs

Business Post (Ireland): Google workers protest over ‘unequal’ treatment in lay-offs. “Close to 200 staff at the tech giant have signed their names to a petition that says the severance deals it is offering to around 20 recruiters impacted by ongoing lay-offs are worse than a previous round of job cuts earlier this year. The petition, submitted to management at the company on Friday, calls on Google to offer staff impacted by current and future layoffs ‘equal severance compensation’ to what was paid out during lay-offs in March.”

MENAFN: Kerala Police Issues Advisory On Using Google Maps While Driving

MENAFN: Kerala Police Issues Advisory On Using Google Maps While Driving. “The Kerala Police has emphasised the need for caution when using Google Maps in light of the deaths of two young doctors in a car accident in Ernakulam while using the app. … The Kerala police took to Facebook and wrote that most accidents involving Google Maps occur during monsoon season. In the past, travellers would look at landmarks and other signs to inquire for directions. However, people continue to depend on the map.”

MakeUseOf: 10 Vivaldi Features That Google Chrome Doesn’t Have

MakeUseOf: 10 Vivaldi Features That Google Chrome Doesn’t Have . “Vivaldi is a web browser that has existed since about 2015. Released by Vivaldi Technologies, this browser intended to revive features Opera lost after it transitioned to a Chromium engine. It remains a relatively small browser in terms of user base and isn’t an especially big threat to Chrome’s browser dominance at the moment. However, Vivaldi boasts a multitude of features you won’t find in Google Chrome. It is one of the most feature-rich web browsers for surfing websites. These are some of the more notable Vivaldi features that Chrome doesn’t have.”

Search Engine Journal: Google Search, Chrome & Ad Execs Plotted To Increase Ad Revenues

Search Engine Journal: Google Search, Chrome & Ad Execs Plotted To Increase Ad Revenues. “United States antitrust lawsuit against Google uncovers emails of executives from Google Search, Chrome and Ads discussing schemes for increasing ad revenue. There are two documents, one from 2019 that features top Google executives from Search, Chrome and Ads hatching plans for pumping up ad revenues before the end of the quarter. At one point they even discuss the impact on Google’s stock price and their own personal fortunes.” Every day I get a little bit sadder.

Globe and Mail: Federal Court of Appeal ruling opens door for Canadians to have ‘right to be forgotten’ on Google

Globe and Mail: Federal Court of Appeal ruling opens door for Canadians to have ‘right to be forgotten’ on Google. “Google’s search engine is covered by federal privacy law, a court has ruled, opening the door for people to demand to have their names made unsearchable – commonly known as a ‘right to be forgotten.’ In a 2-1 ruling, the Federal Court of Appeal said Google, which is responsible for as much as 75 per cent of internet searches in Canada, is not covered by an exemption in the federal law for journalistic or artistic work.”

MakeUseOf: 4 Google Podcasts Alternatives to Consider

MakeUseOf: 4 Google Podcasts Alternatives to Consider . “Google Podcasts has been the one-stop destination for many podcast listeners since its launch in 2018. However, Google has been increasingly shifting its focus towards YouTube Music. The platform offers all the functionality of Google Podcasts with the added benefit of offering video support. So, it’s not surprising that the tech giant is shutting down Google Podcasts in late 2024. Fortunately, there are a number of appealing alternatives available.”

‘Ejipura Stonehenge’: Unfinished Bengaluru flyover named must-visit monument on Google Maps (Deccan Herald)

Deccan Herald: ‘Ejipura Stonehenge’: Unfinished Bengaluru flyover named must-visit monument on Google Maps. “The unfinished flyover was marked as Ejipura Monument and Ejipura Stonehenge on Google Maps, where citizens even started giving out reviews by tagging the flyover as a ‘must visit’. A user’s review read, ‘These monuments are an epitome of tourism in the most happening part of Bangalore. Must visit! Please be prepared for the huge loving crowd of people who have all come here to witness the greatness of the beautiful structures.’ Google Maps later removed the flyover’s listing.” I think in America we would call the flyover an overpass. Same idea anyway.

Washington Post: Tech giants ramp up cloud security under pressure from Washington

Washington Post: Tech giants ramp up cloud security under pressure from Washington. “After a recent theft of emails from top U.S. officials raised alarms about the country’s increasing dependence on the biggest cloud computing companies, Amazon, Google and Microsoft have begun to explain more of the work they do to secure the data of tens of millions of online customers.”

Search Engine Journal: Google Launches “SEO Made Easy” YouTube Series

Search Engine Journal: Google Launches “SEO Made Easy” YouTube Series. “Google has released the first video in a new YouTube series called ‘SEO Made Easy’ to teach people how to improve their website’s performance in search results. In the inaugural episode, Martin Splitt from Google’s Search Relations team explains how sites can customize the way their brand name appears in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).”

Electronic Frontier Foundation: How To Turn Off Google’s “Privacy Sandbox” Ad Tracking—and Why You Should

Electronic Frontier Foundation: How To Turn Off Google’s “Privacy Sandbox” Ad Tracking—and Why You Should. “Google referring to any of this as ‘privacy’ is deceiving. Even if it’s better than third-party cookies, the Privacy Sandbox is still tracking, it’s just done by one company instead of dozens. Instead of waffling between different tracking methods, even with mild improvements, we should work towards a world without behavioral ads. But if you’re sticking to Chrome, you can at least turn these features off.”

Krebs on Security: ‘Snatch’ Ransom Group Exposes Visitor IP Addresses

Krebs on Security: ‘Snatch’ Ransom Group Exposes Visitor IP Addresses. “The victim shaming site operated by the Snatch ransomware group is leaking data about its true online location and internal operations, as well as the Internet addresses of its visitors, KrebsOnSecurity has found. The leaked data suggest that Snatch is one of several ransomware groups using paid ads on Google.com to trick people into installing malware disguised as popular free software, such as Microsoft Teams, Adobe Reader, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Discord.”

The Verge: Google adds a switch for publishers to opt out of becoming AI training data

The Verge: Google adds a switch for publishers to opt out of becoming AI training data. “Google just announced it’s giving website publishers a way to opt out of having their data used to train the company’s AI models while remaining accessible through Google Search. The new tool, called Google-Extended, allows sites to continue to get scraped and indexed by crawlers like the Googlebot while avoiding having their data used to train AI models as they develop over time.”

How-To Geek: Firefox Now Works Better With Google Apps, Including Meet

How-To Geek: Firefox Now Works Better With Google Apps, Including Meet. “Most browsers nowadays are just using the same Chromium engine found in Google Chrome. That means most sites work the same in all Chromium-based browsers, since those sites are tested in the most in Chrome, but they might run into issues on Firefox or Safari. Google’s web apps have been far from perfect on Firefox over the past few years, but now many of them are working better than ever in Mozilla’s web browser, even Google Meet.”

Bloomberg: Apple, Google agreed to ‘defend’ search deal from regulators

Bloomberg: Apple, Google agreed to ‘defend’ search deal from regulators. “Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) lucrative agreement to use Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Google as the default search engine for the iPhone includes a provision that the two tech giants will ‘support and defend’ the deal against government scrutiny, a top Apple executive said at an antitrust trial.”