Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 27th Jan 2011 20:15 UTC
It seems like the content industry has managed to score another hit in its 'fight' against piracy, and this time, it's a big fish. Announced a few weeks ago already, Google has started censoring its auto-complete and instant features for an arbitrary set of search terms - such as 'bittorrent', 'torrent', 'rapidshare', and any terms derived from those (e.g. 'ubuntu torrent' is censored as well).
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Member since:2009-07-30
Yeah, I almost miss the good old simple days, when Microsoft was evil and Google said it won't be. Well, I've been getting this sense for a while that big evil is not to be found in Redmond, WA any more (I still stay clear of their products, but it's mostly matter of personal preference and what enables me to be efficient/productive rather than fight against evil at this point). Well, I've switched my default search engine to Bing now, we'll see how that goes.
BTW. Thom, you're style might be hard to swallow for some (even though really that is probably just lack of perspective and sense of humor on receiving end), but over all, good job on dragging big contents and their plots to open daylight. Appreciated.
Member since:2007-12-26
I don't want to use Bing because of dogmatic view of the world, but are there actually any good alternatives?
I know many other search engines but they only seem useful if you'd like to find pictures of Britney Spears, want to know the recipe of cake or want to know if that lump is malignant while being to lazy to visit a doctor.
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2007-03-26
I don't want to use Bing because of dogmatic view of the world, but are there actually any good alternatives?
I know many other search engines but they only seem useful if you'd like to find pictures of Britney Spears, want to know the recipe of cake or want to know if that lump is malignant while being to lazy to visit a doctor.
I know many other search engines but they only seem useful if you'd like to find pictures of Britney Spears, want to know the recipe of cake or want to know if that lump is malignant while being to lazy to visit a doctor.
Aside Google, Yahoo and Bing, the only other search engine I know of that doesn't just echo a feed from the aforementioned is Ask.com
Member since:2005-07-06
This is my personal favorite - http://duckduckgo.com/
Its great and constantly improving.
Member since:2010-03-08
Member since:2005-08-18
Member since:2006-02-15
Uh, do you actually use the autocomplete feature? It's not like you don't get results back from searching for torrents.
It doesn't matter whether we use it or not, there's plenty of not-so-technical people who do. Besides, once Google starts censoring stuff it's only a matter of time before the amount of censorship escalates. THAT is the thing people here are so adverse to, including me.
EDIT: Tried to straighten up my English. You shouldn't be writing comments in the middle of the night after been awake for 20+ hours and after carrying 3 truckloads of stuff to new apartment.. :S
Edited 2011-01-28 04:40 UTC
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 23:59 UTC
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 22:33 UTC
Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Linked by Howard Fosdick on 05/24/13 21:41 UTC
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 14:44 UTC
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 23:22 UTC
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:04 UTC
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:01 UTC
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 17:52 UTC
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:38 UTC
"The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession." I really hope HTC pulls it together.More News »
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Member since:
2005-06-29
It's utterly retarded. Google is going to lose users over this. Since I just switched to Windows Phone 7 anyway, I actually pondered starting using Bing.
Fcuking Bing I tell you.
Edited 2011-01-27 21:35 UTC