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  Geebo 10:37 am on February 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Amazon ( 104 ), Google, identity theft ( 96 ), scam ( 22 ), tech support scam ( 43 )   

  Google ad for Amazon was actually link to scam site 

  

  Many tech news sites are reporting that there was a false ad for Amazon this past week when you searched for the retail giant on Google. The ad, that would come first in the search results, did not take you to Amazon, but instead took to you to a site that tried to perpetrate a tech support scam.

  If you went to the site on a Windows computer the site would emulate the infamous blue screen of death and advise you to call a tech support number. If you were in an Apple computer you’d receive a warning that your machine had been infected by ransomware and again be given a number to call. As long as you didn’t call the number your machine would be relatively ok.

  This scam has been around for about as long as the internet has. Fictitious sites would inundate you with pop ups telling you that your computer had been infected with some kind of malware and if you call an ‘official’ tech support number your computer will be fixed. When you call the number usually a ‘technician’ would gain access to your computer remotely with your permission and would use that opportunity to root around your computer for any information worth stealing.

  The problem with this particular scam is that it was perpetrated through Google, possibly the most perceived legitimate site on the internet. Google says that the problem has fixed but still leaves users concerned since this fake ad made it through their screening purpose. In the future users may want to not click on ads on Google’s search page and instead click on the listings instead, at least for now.

   

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  Geebo 9:18 am on November 8, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Election ( 20 ), Google, lyft ( 15 ), politics ( 15 ), Uber ( 24 ), voting ( 3 )   

  Get out and vote! 

  

  It’s finally here. Today is election day in what is possibly the most important and controversial election in decades. While we’re not here to tell you who to vote for, we do have some information to help you along with the voting process.

  NBC News has a guide to some helpful tech tips for the election including some helpful apps and how to find your voting place with your smart phone. Speaking of technical tips, Google is claiming that they will have election results as soon as the respective polls are closed.

  In case you need a ride to the polls, ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft are offering either free or discounted rides.

  If you’re thinking about foregoing voting today because you’re afraid the election will be hacked, you can put that thought out of your head. Not only is the government on high alert for such an attack, the real threat to hacking the election is good old-fashioned misinformation and misdirection.

  Lastly, please don’t forget that if you’re in line to vote when the polls close they still have to let you vote.

  Now you have no excuses, get out and vote as every vote really does count, especially in this crucial election.

   
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  Geebo 10:08 am on October 20, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: cord cutting ( 4 ), Google, Netflix ( 15 ), streaming ( 9 )   

  Google to launch its own streaming service 

  

  Google announced recently that they will be launching their own video streaming service in 2017 to compete with services like Netflix. Reports say that Google is already in talks with Disney, FOX, and CBS to feature their content. This is both good news and bad news for consumers.

  The good news is that Netflix could use some real competition. Once the darling of the cord-cutting movement Netflix has recently been shown not to have access to all the movies that users feel they should. So, if Google offers an alternative to Netflix, this could cause Netflix to step up its game. Competition and choice is usually good for consumers.

  On the other hand however, Google is entering into an already crowded industry and if Google has the same issues obtaining properties like Netflix does it could just be another service that cord-cutters may have to sign up for. Since not all the services have all the movies or TV shows, this could cause some cord-cutters to subscribe to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, Sling TV, HBO Go and now the new Google service. Since these services cost anywhere from $9.95 to $19.95 a month, the charges for these services start to add up and start to resemble the cable bill that cord-cutters were trying to escape in the first place.

  If any one can beat Netflix at its own game it’s Google with their branding and cache. Maybe we can see a time where Google and Netflix actually become complimentary with each other so we won’t see the return of outrageous bills for our entertainment.

   
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  Geebo 9:52 am on October 14, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: fact checking ( 2 ), Google, Google News, News ( 7 )   

  Google to bring fact checking to News 

  

  With the advent of fake news sites, wild Facebook claims and slanted political sites, Google has decided to enter the fray. Google has added the tag ‘Fact Check’ to Google News along with the already active tags of ‘highly cited’ and ‘opinion’. Google says that they have strict guidelines in place to be considered a fact checking source. It’s almost guaranteed that someone will try to game the system however, Google has a better reputation for content moderation than someone like Facebook.

  Will it be a successful feature though? With the 2016 Presidential Election being what it is, never before have we seen more people clutch to their confirmation bias. Even if a controversial story has been vetted by Google’s fact checking process there will still be a large enough group of people who will refuse to believe the evidence to make the fact check tag irrelevant or they will accuse Google of having a bias.

  People who do actually try to fact check a story generally tend to be like-minded, not necessarily politically aligned, but having the same sense of wanting to know the truth. This group tends not to engage the groups with confirmation bias so there will still be a rather large rift between the two. That’s not to say that the fact check tag isn’t completely useless. As long as someone in our society is striving to find the impartial truth then maybe there is hope for civil discourse after all.

   
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  Geebo 10:28 am on September 1, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Google, ride sharing ( 6 ), Uber ( 24 )   

  Google set to take on Uber and will probably win 

  

  Google has recently made public their own plans to start a ride sharing service not too dissimilar from Uber. Rather than have a fleet of drivers, the Google program will have volunteers who will drive people going in the same direction as them, so it’s more like a hitchhiking program than a ride sharing program, but it still cuts into Uber’s market share and reportedly at a lower price.

  Normally, this would be a good thing as competition usually breeds innovation, that’s not always the case when it comes to the search giant, they usually have a more of a scorched earth policy. Think of all the products that Google got into late in the game like search, email and maps. They took these products that many others had been doing for years, perfected them, and crushed the competition. No one uses Altavista or Mapquest anymore, and when Gmail users see that one of their friends still uses Yahoo mail they tend to roll their eyes at the address.

  While Google’s proposed program might vary differently from Uber’s it could only be a matter of time before Google perfects the ride sharing experience and Uber becomes the butt of tech based humor, much like MySpace became after the dawn of Facebook.

   
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  Geebo 10:01 am on August 26, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: games ( 3 ), Google, pac-man, solitaire, tic tac toe   

  Shall we play a game? 

  

  Come on. Be honest. You’re not going to get a lot done today. It’s Friday, the boss has left early for the weekend and the phones are pretty quiet. The problem is that the IT Department has stripped anything even remotely fun from your computer. So if you’re looking for something to keep you occupied while the minutes slowly tick away until quitting time, Google has got your back.

  As of yesterday, if you go to Google Search and type in either ‘tic tac toe’ or ‘solitaire’ you’ll now be able to play those games within your browser. This works on both desktop and mobile platforms. These are just the latest tricks you can do with Google Search dating back to when they fist introduced the ‘do a barrel roll’ trick. Google has also put games in browser before as it once put a PAC-MAN game within the Google Doodle when it was celebrating PAC-MAN’s 30th anniversary.

  The fact that Google chose tic tac toe as one of their games reminds me of the 1980s movie War Games and how Matthew Broderick’s character had to have the military supercomputer play itself in tic tac toe in order to prevent nuclear Armageddon. Back then, even the most rudimentary video games required either a console or computer. Now in a lot of instances we only need a browser or an app. In case you’re not that old and have always lived with more complex games, appreciate what you have now because you will see many more amazing technological advances in your lifetime.

   
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  Geebo 12:59 pm on August 24, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Facebook ( 173 ), Google, internet ( 9 )   

  Is the internet as free as it should be? 

  

  The first webpage

  Yesterday was celebrated as the 25th anniversary of the internet. While that date may be in question, WIRED has published a great article on whether or not the web has lived up to its promise.

  WIRED supposes that the internet was intended to give everyone in the world a voice and not just a select few who have the resources to shout their voice over everyone else. While mostly everyone on the internet has an opportunity to voice their opinion and stories, we are still beholden to a chosen few gatekeepers. For example, if you want to be any kind of content creator you have to follow Google’s ever-changing rules to receive higher rankings in their ubiquitous search engine. Facebook has created a walled garden determined to keep its users within their website. If you want to get people to view your content, it’s almost a requirement that you have to promote your work on Facebook. Want to use Twitter or Snapchat to share your internet voice? You’ll still have to abide by their terms of service and you could lose your voice at their whim.

  While the idea of an internet that is totally free is a great idea the reality is that without some of these gatekeepers the web would be a disorganized mess. Prior to the advent of Google, searching on the web was far from an exact science and finding what you wanted was often a time-consuming chore. While Facebook may be keeping their users in their gates at least you can go and share your voice where mostly every one can see it. Without this kind of organization the web would just be a chaotic mess and may have only been a passing fad.

   
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  Geebo 10:06 am on August 18, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: backspace key, Chrome ( 2 ), content creation, Google, writing   

  Google Chrome and the backspace debate 

  

  As a blogger/writer, or even someone just trying to type out a Facebook status, nothing is more frustrating than hitting the backspace key to correct a typo only to have your browser go back three pages and lose all your work. Up until recently, Google’s Chrome browser on the desktop had the backspace key mapped as a shortcut for the command to go back in your history. While most users celebrated Google’s latest decision to free the backspace key for its intended purpose, others, who we’ll refer to as Philistines, lamented the change.

  In an unusual move by Google, they’ve tried to please all the people all the time by releasing a Chrome extension called Go Back With Backspace. When Google removes a feature or service, they usually don’t care whose toes they step on. Google Reader anyone?

  While this may be a textbook example of a first world problem, this comes as a great relief to many a writer who has accidentally lost their content after hitting a mis-functioned backspace key.

   
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  Geebo 10:02 am on July 26, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Google, Microsoft ( 18 ), News ( 7 ), Verizon ( 10 ), yahoo ( 13 )   

  Yahoo: What could have been 

  

  Yesterday it was announced that Yahoo has been purchased by communications giant Verizon for $4 billion. While that may seem like a fair price for the aging internet icon, it pales in comparison to what might have been for Yahoo.

  Although hindsight is 20/20 Yahoo has made some financial decisions that even through the looking-glass of history seem questionable. For example, Yahoo had the chance to buy Google twice. In 1998, Google founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin were trying to sell their company, that would later become Google, for $1M. Both AltaVista and Yahoo turned them down. In 2002 Yahoo entered into negotiations to purchase Google but walked away from Google’s asking price of $5B. In 2008, Microsoft sought to purchase Yahoo for upwards of $40B. Once again, Yahoo walked away from the deal. However, the question has to be asked, if Yahoo did purchase Google, what’s to say that they still wouldn’t be a floundering tech company today? Not to mention we’d be without a lot of Google services that many of us rely upon today. If history is any indicator, Yahoo would more than likely find themselves in the same situation they’re currently in.

  The news isn’t all bad for Yahoo though, at least not as far as Verizon sees it. Verizon already owns another massive tech property in AOL. While the AOL brand may not have the same punch it once did it still has such properties under its banner as TechCrunch and the Huffington Post. Business Insider purports that with the addition of Yahoo to its portfolio, Verizon could have a bigger web network than both Google and Facebook. That may not be hyperbole since Yahoo was once the most visited website in the world and still holds a place in the top ten.

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