18964490
submission
RabbitWho writes:
Google has run a sting operation that it says proves Bing has been watching what people search for on Google, the sites they select from Google’s results, then uses that information to improve Bing’s own search listings.
http://searchengineland.com/google-bing-is-cheating-copying-our-search-results-62914
"
At Google we strongly believe in innovation and are proud of our search quality. We’ve invested thousands of person-years into developing our search algorithms because we want our users to get the right answer every time they search, and that’s not easy. We look forward to competing with genuinely new search algorithms out there—algorithms built on core innovation, and not on recycled search results from a competitor."
15236152
submission
RabbitWho writes:
It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "one for the road". Whisky, the spirit that powers the Scottish economy, is being used to develop a new biofuel which could be available at petrol pumps in a few years.
This biofuel can be produced from two main by-products of the whisky distilling process – "pot ale", the liquid from the copper stills, and "draff", the spent grains.
Copious quantities of both waste products are produced by the £4bn whisky industry each year, and the scientists say there is real potential for the biofuel, to be available at local garage forecourts alongside traditional fuels. It can be used in conventional cars without adapting their engines. The team also said it could be used to fuel planes and as the basis for chemicals such as acetone, an important solvent.
14958812
submission
RabbitWho writes:
Are you the least popular person you know? Do you blame your awkwardness, love of garlic and countless hours of introspection? Well, as usual, charts, graphs and field tests are here with to save you!
Satoshi Kanazawa writes: "The title of Feld’s paper says it all, and here’s a little demonstration you can do to confirm his conclusion. List all of your friends. Then ask each of your friends how many friends they have. No matter who you are, whether you are a man or a woman, where you live, how many (or few) friends you have, and who your friends are, you will very likely discover that your friends on average have more friends than you do. [...]
If you think about it for a moment, you’ll figure out the source of this seeming paradox (although this simple insight did not occur to anyone before Feld published his paper in 1991).
14838732
submission
RabbitWho writes:
"MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google Inc. said Wednesday it will shut down Google Wave, a Web-based program that lets people chat, share files and collaborate on documents in real time.
In a blog post , Google said Wave "set a high bar for what was possible in a Web browser." The Web search and software company pointed to the ability to drag files from a computer desktop into the Web application and to see what someone else was typing as they typed it, character by character.
"Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked, [...] We don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects. " said Google senior vice president Urs Holzle."
12452810
submission
RabbitWho writes:
NASA scientists are puzzling over an abrupt change in what they're hearing from Voyager 2, the space probe launched more than 30 years ago.
It's traveled more than 8 billion miles toward the edge of the solar system. Chief scientist Ed Stone says Voyager has suddenly begun sending back data NASA computers can't decipher.
12371798
submission
RabbitWho writes:
"Google (NSDQ: GOOG), which just last week launched a redesign of its search results page, is now introducing some changes to the content of its results too. The company says it will directly answer 'millions of different fact-seeking searches' with short answers at the top of its results. Search for 'Catherine Zeta-Jones date of birth', for instance, and the date shows up at the top, along with where Google is pulling the information from. Google says the feature is based on Google Squared, the experimental search tool it rolled out a year ago that gathers facts from the around the web and presents them in an organized way. "
