Google Search

On The Google Privacy Policy Controversy And The Fantasy Of Opting Out. How to Use Google Search More Effectively [INFOGRAPHIC] Among certain circles (my family, some of my coworkers, etc.)

I'm known for my Googling skills. I can find anything, anywhere, in no time flat. My Google-fu is a helpful skill, but not one that's shrouded in too much mystery — I've just mastered some very helpful search tricks and shortcuts and learned to quickly identify the best info in a list of results. Sadly, though web searches have become and integral part of the academic research landscape, the art of the Google search is an increasingly lost one. A recent study at Illinois Wesleyan University found that fewer than 25% of students could perform a "reasonably well-executed search.

" That search process also included determining when to rely on Google and when to utilize scholarly databases, but on a fundamental level, it appears that many people just don't understand how to best find the information they seek using Google. Thanks to the folks at HackCollege, a number of my "secrets" are out. Infographic via HackCollege. Google Knowledge Graph Could Change Search Forever. Google has a confession to make: It does not understand you.

If you ask it “the 10 deepest lakes in the U.S,” it will give you a very good result based on the keywords in the phrase and sites with significant authority on those words and even word groupings, but Google Fellow and SVP Amit Singhal says Google doesn’t understand the question. “We cross our fingers and hope someone on the web has written about these things or topics.” The future of Google Search, though, could be a very different story. In an extensive conversation, Singhal, who has been in the search field for 20 years, outlined a developing vision for search that takes it beyond mere words and into the world of entities, attributes and the relationship between those entities. In other words, Google’s future search engine will not only understand your lake question but know a lake is a body of water and tell you the depth, surface areas, temperatures and even salinities for each lake.

Big Changes Coming. The Good News About Google's New Search Plus Your World. Google launched a major new feature this week called Google Search Plus Your World and many people are incredibly upset about it.

The feature presents search results from your contacts on Google's social network, Google+, and the things they've shared. It's clutter, critics say, it's unfair, it's a violation of a sacred contract between users and Google. Be that as it may, the feature can also be pretty awesome. Below I've listed 5 examples of search queries that were fabulously improved by the availability of the new search results. Google to merge user data across its services. As Google grows, it wants to streamline its many products and keep single profiles about each user.

Google announces changes to its privacy policyGoogle will soon create a single profile of the data it has about each userThe new policy will take effect on March 1 (CNN) -- Google plans to start combining information the company collects about each user of its various websites and services into a single profile, the company announced on Tuesday. Previously, Google said it did not create comprehensive profiles across its various properties, including its leading search engine, Android smartphone operating system and YouTube video site. In a statement, Alma Whitten, a Google privacy director, wrote that the changes "will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience. " Internet Freak-out Over Google's New Privacy Policy Proves Again That No One Actually Reads Privacy Policies. How to Turn Off Google Search Plus Your World Results. Google Merges Search and Google+ Into Social Media Juggernaut.

Twitter Slams Google: Social Search Changes Are 'Bad for People' The social networking war just heated up a few degrees. After Google announced Tuesday morning that it would more closely integrate Google+ into its regular search results , vocal opposition to the changes arrived Tuesday afternoon from an unlikely source: Twitter . A statement from the microblogging company said Twitter's real-time information was often the most relevant result on Google.

"As we've seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter," the company said. Google Fires Back at Twitter: You Took Yourself Out of Search. Not At Any Price: Twitter Denied Data To Google And Bet On Itself. If Twitter continued to sell its firehose to Google, fewer searches would occur on Twitter’s internal search engine where the microblog platform can serve its own ads.

That’s why sources familiar with the negotiations tell me Twitter wouldn’t renew the data access deal at any price, or at least set a ludicrously high price to sink the deal. Google Fuses Google+ Into Search — And There Are Bigger Changes Afoot. Since the launch of Google+, Google has been putting a lot of muscle behind promoting and integrating the service into its core products.

Fire up a new Android 4.0 device, and you’ll be prompted to create a Google+ account if you haven’t already. They’ve given it TV ads, not to mention a priceless promotion on its homepage. Sharks Circle Around Google Search+: EPIC Cries Antitrust, Twitter Provides Evidence. There’s blood in the water surrounding Google Search+ (what we’re now calling Google Search Plus Your World).

The Electronic Privacy Information Center recommends the FTC look at Search+ for possible privacy or antitrust concerns. New Site Helps You Control Google Search Results for Your Name. Potential employers, clients and dates are all Googling your name.

BrandYourself, a new website launching Thursday, helps make sure they find what you want them to. The website guides you in search optimizing the links you want to push up in Google results for your name. Here’s how it works: You choose the links you want to “boost,” for example your LinkedIn profile. The platform assigns SEO tasks that will help those links show up higher in Google search results. For LinkedIn, suggestions include setting your name, customizing the URL and adding a profile photo. BrandYourself tracks the links you choose and lets you know if their Google rankings change. The startup also provides a profile page where you can link to all your other online profiles. Co-founders Pete Kistler and Patrick Ambron launched the first beta version of BrandYourself in 2008. That one thing – boosting positive links in search results – has been proven to be important. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Maravic.