Yahoo Joins Search Privacy Bandwagon

By Digital Trends Staff July 25, 2007

Yahoo is joining other search engines in changing its privacy policy. And it’s trying to push ahead of its rivals. The company has announced it willanonymize data after only 13 months, less than the 18 months announced by Google, Microsoft and Ask.com. Although Yahoo hasn’t announced when it will implement the decision, it hopes to move forward as soon as possible – and it will need to, tocompete in the privacy marketplace. Ask.com has rolled out its AskEraser tool for privacy, which allows the user the choice of whether the search engine retains any data. A lot of this hasbeen prompted by an EU group investigating Google’s privacy policies on search data, which prompted the giant to cut its retention time from 24 months to 18, a move rapidly followed by others.But Yahoo has decided to go even further. According to company spokesman Jim Cullen, “Yahoo’s new global policy is: All search log data will be anonymized within 13 months of collectionexcept where users request otherwise or where Yahoo is required to retain the information to comply with legal obligations. We believe the 13 month policy is the appropriate timeline to meet ourcommitment to our users’ privacy while preserving our ability to continue to continue to defend against fraudulent activity and improve our services to advertisers, publishers and users.” Yahoo is currently the number two search engine, behind Google.

Digital Trends Staff

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Computing

I’ve seen the (distant) future of AI web search – here’s where it’s amazing, and where it struggles

Bing copilot AI chat interface.

The aggressiveness with which artificial intelligence (AI) moved from the realm of theoretical power into real-world consumer-ready products is astonishing. For several years now, and up until a couple of months ago when OpenAI's ChatGPT broke onto the scene, companies from the titans of Microsoft and Google down to myriad startups espoused the benefits of AI with little practical application of the tech to back it up. Everyone knew AI was a thing, but most didn't actually utilize it.

Just a handful of weeks after announcing an investment in OpenAI, Microsoft launched a publicly-accessible beta version of its Bing search engine and Edge browser powered by the same technology that has made ChatGPT the talk of the town. ChatGPT itself has been a fun thing to play with, but launching something far more powerful and fully integrated into consumer products like Bing and Edge is an entirely new level of exposure for this tech. The significance of this step cannot be overstated.
ChatGPT felt like a toy; having the same AI power applied to a constantly-updated search database changes the game.
Microsoft was kind enough to provide me with complete access to the new AI "copilot" in Bing. It only takes a few minutes of real-world use to understand why Microsoft (and seemingly every other tech company) is excited about AI. Asking the new Bing open-ended questions about planning a vacation, setting up a week of meal plans, or starting research into buying a new TV and having the AI guide you to something useful, is powerful. Anytime you have a question that would normally require pulling information from multiple sources, you'll immediately streamline the process and save time using the new Bing.
Let AI do the work for you
Not everyone wants to show up to Google or Bing ready to roll up their sleeves and get into a multi-hour research session with lots of open tabs, bookmarks, and copious amounts of reading. Sometimes you just want to explore a bit, and have the information delivered to you -- AI handles that beautifully. Ask one multifaceted question and it pulls the information from across the internet, aggregates it, and serves it to you in one text box. If it's not quite right, you can ask follow-up questions contextually and have it generate more finely-tuned results.

Computing

Oops — Google Bard AI demo is disproven by the first search result

A Google blog post discussing its LaMBDA artificial intelligence technology displayed on a smartphone screen.

These are heady days if you’re following the world of artificial intelligence (AI). ChatGPT is taking over the world, Microsoft is adding its tech to Bing, and Google is working on its own AI called Bard.

Except, Bard might not quite be ready for prime time -- and Google just proved it during its own tech demonstration. Oops.

Computing

How ChatGPT could help Microsoft dethrone Google Search

A person on the Google home page while using a MacBook Pro laptop on a desk.

Microsoft is attempting to dethrone Google as the search champion by integrating ChatGPT into its Bing search engine. That’s according to a new report from The Information -- but will the gamble pay off?

ChatGPT only launched in November 2022, but it’s already been making waves among artificial intelligence researchers and the general public alike due to the unerring realism of its output. Chuck in any prompt you can think of and you’ll get back something that keenly resembles human-generated text, and people have been using it to write articles, generate code, and compose musical scores.