DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Premarket stocks: Why another unexpectedly hot jobs report could derail markets
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN —Wall Street was taken aback by the US labor market’s resilience in January. Another unexpectedly hot report could shake things up again. The January jobs report showed that the US economy added a stunning 353,000 jobs that month and the unemployment rate stayed at 3.7%. The new EU regulations force sweeping changes on some of the world’s most widely used tech products, including Apple’s app store, Google search and messaging platforms, including Meta’s WhatsApp. The broad obligations apply only to the EU, which could leave tech users in the United States and other markets looking longingly at some of the features Big Tech is rolling out in response to the European directive.

Persons: Jerome Powell, he’s, “, ” Powell, Bonnie Cash, —, ’ ”, BeiChen Lin, It’s, Loretta Mester, ”, José Torres, Meta’s, Brian Fung, Apple, Bing, Read, Elisabeth Buchwald, NYCB, Steven Mnuchin’s, Alessandro DiNello, ” Read Organizations: CNN Business, Bell, New York CNN, Federal, Financial, Capitol, Reuters, Traders, Russell Investments, ” Cleveland Federal, CNBC, Market, Interactive Brokers, Apple, Google, Union citizens, Big Tech, New York Community Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, Liberty Strategic Capital Locations: New York, Washington ,, United States, NYCB, Silicon

☆ Big Tech goes from 'teenager' to 'grown-up' under landmark EU law. Here's what you need to know
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-07 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Justin Tallis | AFP via Getty ImagesAn EU law that seeks to rein in large digital companies has officially kicked in, spelling big changes for primarily U.S. tech giants. CNBC runs through how the law impacts large U.S. tech companies — as well as consumers in the EU. The EU Digital Markets Act primarily impacts U.S. tech giants — the likes of Alphabet , Amazon , Apple , and Meta . The rules have already sparked big changes for tech giants in how they serve customers in the EU. It's likely more adjustments will come, as competitors to Big Tech firms aren't happy with the proposals put in place so far.

Persons: Justin Tallis, Bill Echikson, Echikson, ByteDance, Apple Organizations: Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Getty, Digital Markets, European Commission, Center for, CNBC, Big Tech, EU Digital Markets, Meta, Google, Companies, EU, Spotify Locations: EU, U.S, iPhones

☆ Sweeping EU rules for tech giants take effect today. Here’s what’s changing
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-07 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

The new EU regulations force sweeping changes on some of the world’s most widely used tech products, including Apple’s app store, Google search and messaging platforms, including Meta’s WhatsApp. Its broad obligations affect six of the world’s largest tech companies: Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. While the law could increase demand for tech companies to extend EU-specific features to other markets, few platforms have shown signs they plan to do so. Tech pushes backBut some tech companies have pushed back on the DMA, warning that it could lead to unintended consequences. “The changes the DMA requires will inevitably cause a gap” between EU users’ security and the security Apple users enjoy outside the EU, it added.

Persons: Meta’s, Apple, Bing, Elon Musk’s, “ Fortnite, ”, Agustin Reyna, “, Apple’s, ” Apple, Reyna, ” BEUC, Tim Sweeney, Meta —, Daniel Friedlaender, CCIA, Friedlaender, Olesya Dmitracova Organizations: Washington CNN, Apple, Google, Union citizens, Big Tech, Spotify, Netflix, Digital Markets, Meta, Microsoft, European Commission, EU, YouTube, Epic, Consumer, Tech, Games, CNN, Computer, Communications Industry Association Locations: United States, Europe

And the rise of generative AI chatbots is giving people new and different ways to look up information. A recent study by German researchers suggests the quality of results from Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo is indeed declining. But they have their own issues: Because the tech is so new, there are concerns about AI chatbots’ accuracy and reliability. If you want to try the AI way, here's a how-to:Photos You Should See View All 33 ImagesWHERE DO I FIND AI SEARCH TOOLS? A slew of startup AI search sites have emerged, but they aren't as easy to find.

Persons: — It's, Bing, Bard, There’s, Andi, Phind, “, Taylor Swift, Perplexity, Microsoft's Copilot, —, Aston Martin —, AskAI, they’re, HuggingChat, Gemini Organizations: Google, Komo, Gemini, Microsoft Locations: U.S, Britain, Switzerland, Europe, You.com, Canada, London, New York

☆ Google is getting worse as it loses its fight against search engine spam
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-21 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Read previewIt appears to be true: Search engines like Google are getting worse. They spent a year analyzing almost 7,400 of these queries on three search engines: Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo. Their baseline finding was that search engines have "significant problems" with affiliate links — paid-for links that refer a customer to a seller. While the number of product reviews online that contain affiliate links isn't huge, the researchers said these reviews are overrepresented in search engine results. And as content generated by AI continues to flood the internet, the researchers said search engine results are likely to get worse.

Persons: —, Bevendorff Organizations: Service, Business, Google, Leipzig University Locations: Germany

☆ Use this hidden Google feature to detect and delete your personal information in search
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-28 | by ( Jake Piazza | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

If you Google your name, address or phone number, you might be surprised by the number of results you see with your personal information. There's a hidden feature in Google that will alert you when it finds these results, though, allowing you to remove them. Instead, this feature proactively searches for your phone number, email and home address and will alert you when it finds something. Then, you can just tell Google to delete it from search results. Note: Google doesn't remove your information from the internet, but it scrubs it from Google Search and makes it harder for people to find.

Persons: Microsoft's Bing Organizations: Google, Yahoo

☆ 'Grandpa Google': Search head testifies that young users see it as out of style
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

As Google fights claims that it violated antitrust law to maintain its online search dominance, the company's search lead testified Thursday that young users mock Google as old-fashioned. Prabhakar Raghavan, a Google senior vice president responsible for for products including search, ads and commerce, said that some young users have referred to the search engine as "Grandpa Google." Raghavan testified that Yahoo's search dominance at one point seemed insurmountable. For example, Google has conducted research that's led to features that let it directly answer users' questions, understand voice queries and lens queries, where users search via a photo they take. "We don't see users carrying through these journeys entirely on Google," Raghavan testified.

Persons: Prabhakar Raghavan, Google, It's, Raghavan, Bing, that's Organizations: Google Inc, Google, Department of Justice, Yahoo, CNBC, YouTube Locations: San Francisco , California

Google's search engine earned its huge market share by almost instantaneously presenting people with helpful information culled from the billions of websites that have been indexed since former Stanford University graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed the technology during the late 1990s. These agreements don’t preclude users from switching to a different search engine in their settings, but it’s a tedious process that few people bother to navigate. “You get up in the morning, you brush your teeth and you search on Google,” Nadella said. “Google must think they getting a great benefit from those default agreements, but maybe they're really not worth that much,” Olson said. That would be ironic.”Although the trial is focused on Google's search engine, a government victory could have more sweeping consequences across the technology industry if Mehta decided all default settings are anti-competitive and outlaws all defaults in the settings.

Persons: it's, Judge Amit Mehta, Mehta, “, ”, Luther Lowe, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Department's, Bing, Satya Nadella, ” Nadella, Bing —, Nadella, Florian Schaub, ” Schaub, Eddy Cue, David Olson, ” Olson, Siri Organizations: Google, U.S, Justice Department, Stanford University, Apple, Microsoft, University of Michigan, Verizon, Boston College Law School Locations: U.S, Europe

A woman holds her smart phone which displays the Google home page, in this picture illustration taken February 24, 2016. Google's James Kolotouros, who negotiated search distribution agreements with Android device makers and carriers, testified the agreements gave Google search exclusivity, and Google monitored compliance with them. Advertisers are not told their LTV, and Google uses "tunings" to adjust the price of ads, he said. Google's vice president and general manager of ads, Jerry Dischler, acknowledged that Google earned more than $100 billion in 2020 from search ads. Apple's (AAPL.O) senior vice president of services Eddie Cue praised Google's search and acknowledged under questioning that the smartphone maker had meetings with Microsoft and DuckDuckGo, which uses Bing searches, but found them inadequate.

Persons: Eric Gaillard, Google's James Kolotouros, Adam Juda, Joshua Lowcock, Jerry Dischler, Satya Nadella, Eddie Cue, Bing, John Schmidtlein, Google's, Diane Bartz, Marguerita Choy Organizations: REUTERS, U.S, Google, Department, GOOGLE, Verizon, Samsung, LTV, UM Worldwide, Microsoft, Apple, Nokia, Bing, Thomson Locations: WASHINGTON

A woman holds her smart phone which displays the Google home page, in this picture illustration taken February 24, 2016. Google's vice president and general manager of ads, Jerry Dischler, acknowledged that Google earned more than $100 billion in 2020 from search ads. GOOGLE'S DEFENSE NO. GOOGLE'S DEFENSE NO. GOOGLE DEFENSE NO.

Persons: Eric Gaillard, Sundar Pichai, Kevin Murphy, Apple, Joshua Lowcock, Jerry Dischler, Eddie Cue, Bing, John Schmidtlein, Google's, Jennifer Fitzpatrick, Diane Bartz, Marguerita Choy Organizations: REUTERS, U.S, Google, Justice Department, Verizon, Samsung, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Microsoft, UM Worldwide, Nokia, Bing, GOOGLE, Core Systems, Thomson Locations: WASHINGTON

☆ Apple rejected opportunities to buy Microsoft’s Bing, integrate with DuckDuckGo
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-05 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

But it also shows how Apple has wrestled with Google’s rise and how some at Apple yearned for “optionality.” Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. (Last week, Nadella testified that he has spent every year of his tenure as CEO trying to persuade Apple to adopt Bing.) He made a similar argument internally about DuckDuckGo, saying in an email that moving ahead with that partnership was “probably a bad idea.” (DuckDuckGo licenses search results from Bing.) Still, Giannandrea testified, some within Apple thought that dealing with Bing in some fashion could yield benefits to Apple. Apple today has the enormous resources to build a true rival to Google, Giannandrea testified.

Persons: Microsoft’s Bing, they’ve, Gabriel Weinberg, John Giannandrea, Apple, Apple didn’t, Laura Jones, Jeff Chiu, Giannandrea, Bing, Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, Nadella, DuckDuckGo, Weinberg, Jakub Porzycki, ” Weinberg, ”, Apple’s, Cook, Bing “, “, Adrian Perica, ” Giannandrea, “ it’s Organizations: CNN, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Cook, Bing, Mozilla, Opera, Samsung Locations: Bing, San Francisco

☆ Apple considered buying Bing from Microsoft in 2018
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-05 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Apple executives have said they picked Google because it's the best search engine, not primarily because of Google's payments. The deal with Microsoft wasn't completed and Giannandrea said he believed Apple CEO Tim Cook told Microsoft it wasn't going forward. Google pays Apple as much as $19 billion per year to be the default search engine on Apple products, according to an estimate . Microsoft was interested in Apple paying for improvements to the search engine, Giannandrea said, including expanding it to additional international markets. He also compared Bing and Google search in 2021 to see the progress Microsoft had made and found Google was significantly better at mobile queries.

Persons: Gabriel Weinberg, Apple, Giannandrea, Adrian Perica, Bing, Microsoft wasn't, Tim Cook, Siri, Apple's, John Giannandrea, he's, Cook, Satya Nadella Organizations: Google, Apple, Department, Bing, Microsoft, CNBC, DOJ

☆ DuckDuckGo CEO testified that Apple was 'really serious' about replacing Google as default for private browsing
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-05 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Apple once considered replacing Google as its default search engine in private browsing mode on its products in favor of DuckDuckGo, according to recently unsealed testimony by the rival search CEO. DuckDuckGo first got a response from Apple about its idea to become the default search engine in private browsing in 2016, Weinberg said. DuckDuckGo claims its search engine greatly reduces the amount of tracking that is still possible in other search engines, even while on private browsing mode. DuckDuckGo presented Apple executives with data about what Apple users expect from private browsing mode, which Weinberg said he'd thought "was pretty compelling." DuckDuckGO estimated its market share "would increase multiple times over" just by becoming the default in private browsing mode.

Persons: Gabriel Weinberg, Apple, Weinberg, Apple's, DuckDuckGo, Craig Federighi, he'd, Adler, John Giannandrea, Giannandrea, Apple didn't Organizations: DuckDuckGo Inc, Washington , D.C, Google, CNBC, Department, Apple, Microsoft, Bing, Worldwide Developers Conference, Samsung, Mozilla, Opera, YouTube Locations: Washington ,, Cupertino , California, Cupertino

A redacted transcript unsealed late on Wednesday showed DuckDuckGo had struck a deal with Apple in 2014 to be shown as an option on Apple devices. Soon after, DuckDuckGo began pressing Apple to be made the default choice for users who wanted to work in privacy mode, which limited data collected on the user. DuckDuckGo has about 2.5% of the search market, he testified. In those meetings, Weinberg said, Apple executives would bring up the concern that its distribution agreements with Google may bar the change. The Justice Department has said that Google, which has some 90% of the search market, pays some $10 billion annually to Apple, other smartphone makers and others to be the default search.

Persons: Eric Gaillard, DuckDuckGo, Gabriel Weinberg, Weinberg, Apple, Apple's John Giannandrea, Bing, Giannandrea, Diane Bartz, Richard Chang, Marguerita Choy Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Apple, Google, Thomson

☆ Apple considered switching to DuckDuckGo from Google for Safari - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Technology category · October 2, 2023The Biden administration warned Beijing of its plans to update rules that curb shipments of AI chips and chipmaking tools to China as soon as early October, a U.S. official said, a policy decision aimed at stabilizing relations between the superpowers.

Persons: Biden Organizations: Beijing, U.S Locations: China

☆ Apple exec Eddy Cue set to testify in Google trial about $19 billion search deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-26 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Under scrutiny is a deal in which Google pays Apple billions of dollars to be the default search engine on the iPhone's browser and other settings. Google could pay Apple as much as $19 billion this year, according to an estimate from Bernstein. Cue, who negotiated the deal with Google from Apple's side, is expected to testify that Apple picked the Google search engine as an iPhone default because it was the best product. He's also expected to say that Apple doesn't see a reason to create a new Apple search engine because Google already exists, according to a person familiar with Cue's anticipated testimony. "I think their search engine is the best," Apple CEO Tim Cook said when asked about using Google as the iPhone's default search engine in 2018.

Persons: Bernstein, He's, Cue's, Microsoft Bing, Tim Cook Organizations: Apple, U.S . Department of Justice, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft

Google counters that it dominates the market because its search engine is better than the competition – a position that Apple’s Cue supported in his testimony Tuesday. Google also argues that users can, in any event, switch to other search engines with a couple of clicks. And last week, the founder of search engine DuckDuckGo, which has about 2.5% of the search market, testified that his company struggled to compete because of Google's revenue-sharing agreements with Apple and other companies. If he decides Google broke the law, another trial will determine how to rein in Google's market power. The Mountain View, California-based company could be stopped from paying Apple and other companies to make Google the default search engine.

Persons: ’ ’, Eddy, Apple’s, Trump, Judge Amit Mehta Organizations: WASHINGTON, Apple, Google, U.S . Department of Justice, Verizon, Justice Department, Microsoft Locations: U.S, Washington, View , California

☆ Google's contracts with browser makers blocked us from distribution, says rival search engine DuckDuckGo
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Google's exclusive contracts proved to be an "obstacle" for DuckDuckGo in pitching browsers on becoming the default search engine for their private browsing modes, DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg testified in federal court on Thursday. DuckDuckGo, known for its privacy-centric search engine that rivals Google's, had at some point pitched its search engine to be the default in private browsing modes of other browsers, Weinberg testified in Washington, D.C., District Court. "We thought it was a great pitch to browsers, honestly," Weinberg said during questioning by an attorney for the Justice Department. DuckDuckGo's own research has found that many consumers aren't aware that private browsing modes do not provide as much tracking protection as they would expect. Weinberg said the company presented that information to browser makers, showing that private browsing can mislead consumers, offering DuckDuckGo as a solution to that problem.

Persons: Gabriel Weinberg, DuckDuckGo, Weinberg Organizations: DuckDuckGo Inc, Washington , D.C, Google's, Google, Department of Justice, Justice Department Locations: Washington ,

☆ C.E.O. of Google Rival Describes Obstacles to Efforts to Compete
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Cecilia Kang | More About Cecilia Kang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Gabriel Weinberg of DuckDuckGo said that Google’s deals to make its search engine the default on browsers and other platforms blocked its ability to compete effectively. DuckDuckGo, with only 2.5 percent of the U.S. market for search, tried to negotiate with other companies to make its privacy-focused search engine a default. But it was continually turned down because of Google’s deals with those tech partners, he said. “We ultimately decided after three years of trying this that it was a quixotic exercise because of the contracts,” Mr. Weinberg said. Executives at Apple, Microsoft and Verizon are also expected to testify in the trial, which could reshape how consumers get information online.

Persons: DuckDuckGo, Gabriel Weinberg, “, ” Mr, Weinberg Organizations: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Verizon Locations: U.S

“We hit an obstacle with Google's contracts,'' Weinberg said in U.S. District Court in Washington. Google counters that it dominates the internet search market because its product is better than the competition. After a couple years, the company began positioning itself as a search engine that respects people’s privacy by promising not to track what users search for or where they have been. That's loose change for Google's parent company, Alphabet, which generated $283 billion in revenue last year. In court Thursday, Lehman said his best guess is that search engines will shift largely from relying on user data to relying on machine learning.

Persons: Gabriel Weinberg, Weinberg, DuckDuckGo, Edward Snowden, Eric Lehman, Department’s, Lehman, Baidu, Russia’s, Google’s, ’ ’, Judge Amit Mehta, Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce Organizations: WASHINGTON, Google, The U.S . Department of Justice, Apple, Verizon, MIT, Cambridge, Microsoft, NFL Locations: U.S, Washington, The, Pennsylvania

A sign is pictured outside a Google office near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, U.S., May 8, 2019. KEY QUOTE:Weinberg testified that he had pressed particular companies - he did not name them - to use DuckDuckGo as the default and found some interest but ultimately no success because of Google's contracts with the companies. "We ultimately decided, this was after three years of trying this, that this was a quixotic exercise because of the contracts." *The clout in search then makes Google a heavy hitter in the lucrative advertising market, boosting its profits. *DuckDuckGo has around 2.5% of the online search engine market because it has not been able to win a default position on devices made by big companies.

Persons: Paresh Dave, DuckDuckGo, Gabriel Weinberg, Weinberg, Diane Bartz, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Google, Apple, Thomson Locations: Mountain View , California, U.S, Washington

The Google sign is reflected in a rain puddle outside their offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., June 27, 2017. Acquire Licensing RightsWASHINGTON, Sept 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Want to know how to remove Google as the iPhone’s default search tool? According to him, the search engine operated by Alphabet (GOOGL.O) enlists Apple (AAPL.O) to answer the query by directing users to its website. Using Google as the default search engine wasn’t Apple’s “choice,” Dintzer said. Follow @BenWinck on XFollow @thereallsl on XCONTEXT NEWSThe U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Alphabet’s Google started on Sept. 12.

Persons: John Schmidtlein, Kenneth Dintzer, Google, ” Schmidtlein, Schmidtlein, ” Dintzer, It’s, Tim Cook, Alphabet’s Google, Ben Winck, Lauren Silva Laughlin, Jeffrey Goldfarb, Sharon Lam Organizations: Google, Rights, Reuters, Apple, U.S . Department of, Yahoo, Verizon Communications, Microsoft, Netscape, U.S, U.S . Department, Alphabet’s, Thomson Locations: Cambridge , Massachusetts, U.S, Safari, Japan, Washington, New York

Consumers, Google's lawyers will argue, can delete the Google app from their devices or simply type Microsoft's Bing, Yahoo or DuckDuckGo into a browser to use an alternative search engine. They will argue that consumers stick with Google because they rely on it to answer questions and are not disappointed. In the first, Judge Amit Mehta will decide if Google has broken antitrust law in how it manages search and search advertising. If Google is found to have broken the law, Judge Mehta will then decide how best to resolve it. He may decide simply to order Google to stop practices he has found to be illegal or he may order Google to sell assets.

Persons: Bing, Amit Mehta, Judge Mehta, Diane Bartz, Jamie Freed Organizations: Google, The U.S . Justice, Apple Inc, Mozilla, Yahoo, Big Tech, Microsoft, Thomson Locations: United States, Washington, The

DuckDuckGo, Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Yahoo are among a long list of Google competitors who will be watching the trial closely. “It would be difficult to overstate the importance of this case, particularly for monopolies and companies with significant market share,” antitrust lawyer Luke Hasskamp told Reuters. The lawsuit that goes to trial was brought by former President Donald Trump's Justice Department. read moreJudge Mehta will decide if Google has broken antitrust law in this first trial, and, if so, what should be done. Reporting by Diane Bartz; additional reporting by Mike Scarcella; editing by Diane CraftOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Toby Melville, DuckDuckGo, Kamyl Bazbaz, Luke Hasskamp, ”, Amit Mehta, Barack Obama, Donald Trump's, Joe Biden's, Mehta, Daniel McCuaig, Cohen Milstein, Diane Bartz, Mike Scarcella, Diane Craft Organizations: Google, REUTERS, U.S . Justice, Apple Inc, Mozilla, Microsoft, Yahoo, Big Tech, Facebook, Reuters, Apple, Twitter, Big, U.S, District of Columbia, Department, Android, U.S . Justice Department's Antitrust, Thomson Locations: London, Britain, WASHINGTON, United States, “

The U.S. government is taking aim at what has been an indomitable empire: Google’s ubiquitous search engine that has become the internet’s main gateway. That's what happened to Microsoft after its antitrust showdown with the Justice Department: Distracted, the software giant struggled to adapt to the impact of internet search and smartphones. From Google's perspective, the perpetual improvements explain why most people almost reflexively gravitate to its search engine, a habit that long ago made “Googling” synonymous with looking things up. The Justice Department contends Google's claim that it dominates the market by supplying the best search engine is a canard. Google insists that consumers could easily switch their default settings to another search engine.

Persons: Judge Amit Mehta, Sundar Pichai, Larry Page, Eddy, Mehta isn’t, Sergey Brin, Andy Bechtolsheim, Page, Brin, Trump, Microsoft's Bing, Bing Organizations: Washington D.C, Microsoft, U.S, Google, Stanford University, Sun Microsystems, Inc, Apple, Justice Department, U.S . Justice Department, Yelp, Department, Firefox, Regulators Locations: Washington, , California, Silicon, Colorado

Search resuls for: "DuckDuckGo"

25 mentions found