Yahoo News: ‘Am I having a panic attack?’ Google anxiety searches break records amid coronavirus pandemic. “Scientists from the University of California, San Diego, have since found Google searches for ‘panic attacks’ and ‘anxiety attacks’ in the US were the highest they have been since the data started being collected 16 years ago. More than 3 million anxiety-related searches were carried out in the US alone during the first 58 days of its outbreak.”
Web search
Google Blog: Find helpful information on the mortgage process in Search
Google Blog: Find helpful information on the mortgage process in Search. “Buying a house is a big financial decision and having clear, trustworthy information is important. To help people better understand the mortgage process, we collaborated with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to create a new mobile experience in Search. When you search for ‘mortgage’ on your phone, you’ll find a feature that breaks down the complex mortgage process into easy-to-follow steps to help guide you, wherever you may be in the process. It also connects you to a set of useful resources, including news articles, industry definitions and terms, a calculator to assist with payment plans and average mortgage rates. And for those looking for relief and refinance information, we’ll show some of the options available to you.”
The Verge: Google now highlights search results directly on webpages
The Verge: Google now highlights search results directly on webpages. “Google is trying to make it easier to find the information you’re looking for on external websites by highlighting relevant sections in yellow, SearchEngineLand reports. The functionality works with Google’s Featured Snippets — the standalone boxes that appear at the top of search results that attempt to give you answers without having to visit a website beyond Google.”
Coronavirus: Google Launches SOS Alerts For Searches Of The Fatal Virus (Mashable)
Mashable: Coronavirus: Google Launches SOS Alerts For Searches Of The Fatal Virus. “Whenever global tragedy strikes, people on the internet rush to exploit it. The spread of the deadly coronavirus is no different, with fake stories going viral in an attempt to accomplish who knows what. Google, however, wants no part of that, and today announced a new feature in collaboration with the World Health Organization that will hopefully both reduce the spread of misinformation and get valuable information to those in need.”
Google Blog: A fresh way to revisit your online finds in Google Search
Google Blog: A fresh way to revisit your online finds in Google Search. “Today, we’re launching some changes to Collections in Search to make it easier to jump back into your task without digging through your search history. Last year, we created activity cards in Search to make your search history more useful, and to help you pick up where you left off. Using AI, Collections in the Google app and mobile web now groups similar pages you’ve visited from Search related to activities like cooking, shopping and hobbies. You can choose to save these suggested collections so you can come back to them later.”
Ubergizmo: Drug Mule Busted At Airport After Authorities Go Through His Search History
Ubergizmo: Drug Mule Busted At Airport After Authorities Go Through His Search History. “Our searches can tell a lot about us and our current state of mind, and it is because of this that a drug mule entering into Australia was caught. 36-year-old Sam Kul was entering Australia after spending four months in Europe, where upon entry into the country, airport customs officers searched through his phone where they found his search history that led them to believe he was hiding something.”
TorrentFreak: Rightsholders Remove Google Results of Legal Search Engine ‘JustWatch’
TorrentFreak: Rightsholders Remove Google Results of Legal Search Engine ‘JustWatch’. “Copyright holders would like Google to be more proactive when it comes to piracy. The company should promote legal services in its search results, is an often heard suggestion. A good idea perhaps but, at the moment, some copyright holders are taking things in the opposite direction.”
Boolean search for social media monitoring: What to track, how to track, and why (Search Engine Watch)
Search Engine Watch: Boolean search for social media monitoring: What to track, how to track, and why. If you have any experience with social media monitoring platforms, you know that getting precise results may be tricky at times: Apps can show a lot of noise for brands with common names or, quite the contrary, miss some valuable data behind due to the restrictive filters. That’s when Boolean search fits in perfectly.”
Boolean basics: How to write a search query for newsgathering that works (First Draft)
First Draft: Boolean basics: How to write a search query for newsgathering that works. “When searching for newsworthy content online, you’ve got to know exactly what you’re looking for and have the skills to find it. This is where Boolean search queries help. These strings of words allow you to cut through the usual social media chatter by upgrading a default search to a multifaceted, specific search to find more precise snippets of information.” The librarians out there — I see you, Mary Ellen and Joyce and Martha and all the rest of you! — might sneer at this article, but it seems to me like Boolean is being talked about less and less, and it’s still important. Good article covering the basics.
Quartz: An MIT researcher demonstrated how we can now search the internet through a wearable “sticker”
Quartz: An MIT researcher demonstrated how we can now search the internet through a wearable “sticker”. “At the TED conference last week, MIT Media Lab’s Arnav Kapur showed that we might be one step closer to becoming cyborgs. For the first time, the 24-year old intelligence augmentation researcher conducted a live public demo of AlterEgo, his wearable device that allows users to access the internet or any computing device without typing or using our voice.”
Lifehacker: How To Find Old Websites That Google Won’t Show
Lifehacker: How To Find Old Websites That Google Won’t Show. “As it turns out, they may only be lost to Google. Earlier this year, web developer-bloggers Tim Bray and Marco Fioretti noted that Google seems to have stopped indexing the entirety of the internet for Google Search. As a result, certain old websites — those more than 10 years old — did not show up through Google search. Both writers lamented that limiting Google’s effective memory to the last decade, while logical when faced with the daunting task of playing information concierge to our every whimsical question, forces us to reckon with the fact that, when you use Google for historical searches, there are probably more answers out there.” Decent roundup.
CNBC: Your Google searches can be used to predict when you’re about to go to the emergency room, researchers find
CNBC: Your Google searches can be used to predict when you’re about to go to the emergency room, researchers find. “A new study from Penn Medicine, which involved analyzing both medical record data and Google search histories of more than 100 patients, found that searches related to health increases a lot in the week before a patient goes to the emergency room.”4
BetaNews: Google unveils 2018 top global search trends
BetaNews: Google unveils 2018 top global search trends. “2018 has been quite the wild ride, and it isn’t even over yet! Sure, there has been a lot of negativity in the news, but let us not forget — there are many positive things happening too that simply don’t get reported. The world isn’t all bad. With Google being the most popular search engine on Earth, it has the ability to offer great insight into the interests of people all over the world. Today, the search giant reveals its 2018 top global search trends.”
MakeUseOf: How to Find a Book Without Knowing the Title or Author
MakeUseOf: How to Find a Book Without Knowing the Title or Author. “Tracking down that long-lost book is like a treasure hunt. In the old days, you could have asked the librarian. Today, search engines like Google have the librarian beat. Here are some tips to help you find a book without knowing the title or author.” “Have the librarian beat”…I don’t know about THAT… but there are a lot of tools here.
Search Engine Journal: 6 Unique & Free Keyword Research Tools You Didn’t Know You Needed
Search Engine Journal: 6 Unique & Free Keyword Research Tools You Didn’t Know You Needed. “Luckily, there are several other great keyword research tools available on the market: some free, some paid. This list represents some of the most unique keyword research tool alternatives you’ll find – ideal for when you’re in a rut or have a special circumstance that requires more than the most well-known options.” Or you want to expand your search vocabulary. (Don’t tell the SEO people.)
