Snip Snip
A new lawsuit by a major publishing conglomerate takes aim at Google’s AI summaries—and hints at the many ways that Google undermines its own mission by forcing unwanted features on its users.
The AdTech Underbelly
Ever wonder why online advertising is so confusing, complicated, and privacy-threatening? A new book by an industry insider helps explain why—and how Google put its giant hand on the scale.
One Extra Click
Google announces a plan to add yet another barrier to the ease of getting an ultra-simple Web search. Great.
Could &udm=14 Break?
That popular single-serving site I built to work around Google’s AI snippets could, unfortunately, see an infusion of AI soon. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
My Big Dumb Webmail Client
They say you don’t know what email’s all about until you’ve built a webmail client of your own. I guess I kind of get it now.
Let’s Bring Back Small Tools
Thoughts on the misadventure of udm14, or what I hope to gain from successfully reviving the single-serving site for a couple of weeks.
Does One Line Fix Google?
Forget AI. Google just created a version of its search engine free of all the extra junk it has added over the past decade-plus. All you have to do is add \"udm=14\" to the search URL.
Cache Clearing
Google appears to hide away an important feature from its search engine—an easily accessible cache of search results. (It’s still there, if you know where to look.)
Waking Up The Regulators
While regulators have long struggled with how to attack big tech, a landmark ruling and a big disclosure suggests that big tech is finally getting noticed. Finally.
Jell-O In A Sack
Google claims that its Core Web Vitals initiative has saved users 10,000 years of collective waiting time. The problem is, they sloughed those costs and headaches onto developers.
The Technorati Generation
The search engine that kept up at the speed of blogging created a “search war” with Google. But eventually, the speed of blogging just wasn’t fast enough.
A Linux Labor of Love
The JingPad A1, a flashy new tablet from Linux-land, shows a ton of potential, though you might want to wait for a few rounds of software updates first.
Respect Your Power Users
Pondering why, in the internet era, it has become so common for big tech companies to treat their power users like dirt. (Yes, this is about Google Reader.)
Epic MegaFight
Why did Epic Games decide to go scorched-earth on the App Store model last week with Fortnite? Perhaps it reflects the company’s shareware roots.
The Backlink Economy
Businesses want to show up on the front page of a specific search term, and they’re willing to annoy you to get a backlink from you. Please never do this.
Extreme Googling
It’s easy to forget given its size, but Google fundamentally changed our relationship with information. Two decades later, we’re still feeling the effects.
Google’s Zombie
Why FeedBurner, a service that Google once bought for $100 million, has become the one service it literally can’t kill. Here's why the service lingers.
Search By Text
Before the search giant shot for the moon, Google occasionally had to accept the limitations of consumer technology. So they bent the rules instead.
The Windex Problem
The problem with information literacy we have in the age of Google: We give up too early. It’s an issue research librarians are struggling to tackle.
Down With Snippet View
The limitations of Google Books can be seen in the way that it handles obscure trade publications. Everyone who made that old magazine? Probably dead.