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Google search engine is the default search engine for most of us and is therefore the biggest player in the market. Its dominance can’t be easily contested by competitors like Bing and Neeva. The latter learned that the hard way. Here’s what happened: Neeva Search Engine closes shop Neeva has announced its closing down its search engine on June 2.  Before we learn about why Neeva had this unfortunate end, you should know the search engine came across a promising alternative to Google search engine because it was ad-free and more privacy-friendly. Also, showed visual elements and human-created information over the top 10 blue links that you see on the Google Search Engine Results Page. Now, it offered this service behind a paywall. Well, there was a 3-month trial period after which users had to pay $4.95 (~₹410) a month. Even with the promise of a better search engine UX, it had to convince people to try it. That was possible only if people knew or cared about changing the def...

Facing trolls on social media, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Saturday apologised to sacked Twitter employees, saying that he grew the micro-blogging platform too quickly. Reports earlier said that several Twitter employees hate Dorsey for their current sad status after the hostile takeover by Elon Musk who has fired almost 50 per cent of the Twitter workforce. "Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that," Dorsey posted. "I am grateful for, and love, everyone who has ever worked on Twitter. I don't expect that to be mutual in this moment...or ever and I understand", he added. Dorsey quit Twitter in November last year, handing over the baton on Parag Agrawal, who is among those sacked. Following his departure from Twitter,...

Earlier this month, Google released two flagship smartphones, the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro. The devices come with Google's latest Tensor G2 chipset, have a versatile camera system and provide a mostly stock Android experience to users. However, those following the Pixel series know that Google also releases a toned-down version of its flagship series as an A-series smartphone. This year, that phone could be called Pixel 7a. The purported Pixel 7a is codenamed “Lynx” Pixel 7 series image used for representational purpose. In the past, we have seen the Pixel 4a, Pixel 5a and earlier this year, Pixel 6a, the first Google smartphone to come out in India after a long time. Now, 9To5Google has learnt about a Google device with the codename "Lynx", and it could be the unreleased Pixel 7a.  As per the publication, a public conversation in Android code reveals that Pixel 7a is "in the works." Usually, the A-series smartphones follow Google's flagship next year...

Tech billionaire Elon Musk says his rocket firm SpaceX will continue funding its Starlink Internet service in Ukraine, a day after he said it could no longer do so. On the microblogging site Twitter, Musk wrote that "the hell with it... Even though Starlink is still losing money and other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we'll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free". According to the BBC, Starlink has been vital for Ukraine's military and people to stay online. Ukraine says it helped to reboot key infrastructure after Russian attacks. Energy installations were among the facilities targeted by more than 100 Russian missiles this week. Starlink consists of thousands of satellites in low-Earth orbit and ground terminals. Last month, Musk asked the Pentagon to fund the Starlink programme instead of him, according to the US media. And on Friday, he tweeted: "SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system inde...

YouTube is borrowing a feature that’s found in social media platforms like Twitter. We are talking about ‘handles’ and now every YouTube user can get a “truly unique” ID that’s different from YouTube channel names. We will get to know the hows, whys, and whatnot of YouTube handles here. What is YouTube handle? YouTube Handle is being called “a new for people to easily find and engage with creators and each other on YouTube”. Now, you may think but isn’t there channel names for that purpose? How is YouTube Handle different from YouTube Channel? Well, there can be multiple YouTube channels with the same name. But, YouTube handles will be unique and distinct. This will help the creator brand themselves better and their viewers/audience can connect with them easily using the handle. You could interact with your favorite YouTube via YouTube comments, mentions, in Shorts, etc. YouTube handle will also appear on Shorts player, Search results, and your channel page. So all in...

Facing a massive controversy over the proliferation of child pornography on its platform in India, Twitter said on Saturday that it banned 57,643 accounts in the country for promoting child sexual exploitation, non-consensual nudity and allied content between July 26 and August 25. Earlier this week, Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal had said the replies received from Twitter in the child pornography complaints were incomplete and the Commission was not satisfied with them. Maliwal had on September 20 summoned Twitter India Policy Head and Delhi Police over tweets depicting child pornography and rape videos of women and children on the micro-blogging platform. Taking suo moto cognisance of several tweets openly depicting videos and photographs of sexual acts involving children, the Commission said that most of the tweets portrayed children completely naked and many of them also depicted brutal rape and other non-consensual sexual activities with children and women...

Tech giant Google's artificial intelligence (AI) has reportedly flagged parents' accounts for potential abuse over nude photos of their sick kids. The father said that after using his Android smartphone to take photos of an infection on his toddler's groin, the tech giant flagged the images as child sexual abuse material (CSAM), citing the NYT, The Verge reported. The company closed his accounts and filed a report with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and spurred a police investigation. It highlights the complications of trying to tell the difference between potential abuse and an innocent photo once it becomes part of a user's digital library, whether on their personal device or in cloud storage. The incident occurred in February 2021, when some doctor's offices were still closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As per the report, Mark (whose last name was not revealed) noticed swelling in his child's genital region and, at the reques...

The Indian smartphone users are spending 30 minutes a day on consuming memes and 80 per cent have increased meme consumption in the last year, a new report showed on Monday. While most users enjoy memes as a good way to release stress, 50 per cent expect their meme consumption to increase, according to the report by strategy consulting firm Redseer. "The shareability of memes makes them popular among groups with the same interest or even globally because most people find them relatable. Thus, it comes as no surprise that in just the last year, close to 80 per cent have increased meme consumption," said Mrigank Gutgutia, Partner at Redseer. Memes are now at the peak of the entertainment sector. To keep up with this rising demand, meme creation platforms are crowding the market, indicating that monumental growth is on the cards for this industry. "Ninety per cent of consumers are open to creating memes themselves, indicating large latent demand for meme creation apps,...

A poll by Tesla CEO Elon Musk has revealed that nearly 65 per cent of his followers do not believe in Twitter's claim that less than 5 per cent of daily users are fake/spam on the platform. Musk, who is fighting a bitter legal battle with Twitter over the cancellation of the $44 billion takeover deal, last week began a Twitter poll among his 102.8 million followers on whether Twitter's claim of less than 5 per cent of daily users are fake/spam. While 35 per cent said Twitter is telling the truth, nearly 65 per cent said this is not the case and the number of fake accounts are much higher. "Twitter has spoken," Musk said on Monday. The Tesla CEO has said that if Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal can prove the actual number of fake accounts, then the terminated deal can still move forward. "If Twitter simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and how they're confirmed to be real, the deal should proceed on original terms," Musk tweeted. "However, ...

Amid the ongoing legal dispute over the $44 billion takeover deal to buy Twitter, tech mogul Elon Musk has challenged the platform's CEO Parag Agrawal to have a public debate on fake accounts and spam.  While replying to a user who summarised his accusations, which included Twitter stonewalling Musk and giving him "outdated data" about the microblogging platform, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO wrote a "good summary of the problem". "If Twitter simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and how they are confirmed to be real, the deal should proceed on original terms. However, if it turns out that their Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings are materially false, then it should not," Musk said in a series of tweets. "I hereby challenge Parag Agrawal to a public debate about the Twitter bot percentage. Let him prove to the public that Twitter has lesser than per cent fake or spam daily users!"  The tech billionaire also posted a p...

Social Media is the voice of the masses and thus plays a powerful role in shaping the public discourse. We often come across instances of how social media is toxic for teenagers, degrades mental health, and can even upend civil and democratic systems. This must be why the Indian government wants to rein it in. Recently, while speaking at a program, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw shared his views on the power and influence of social media on public lives and hinted at what the government plans. Indian Social Media Regulation "Social media is a very powerful medium. Social media has a big influence on our lives. How to make it accountable has become a very valid question across the globe. All across the globe, countries, and societies are moving in the direction of making social media accountable," said Mr. Vaishnaw. He adds that self-regulation is the first step. That is social media companies have the onus on them to ensure the quality and civility of content on their ...

Bharti Airtel on June 13, 2022 announced that their paid video streaming service, Airtel Xstream, has hit the 2 million paid subscribers milestone within a span of 100 days. For this reason, it is reportedly the fastest growing OTT aggregator platform in India. Airtel Xstream offers the largest bouquet of OTT platforms across TV and mobile formats in India. Subscribers can subscribe to a single OTT provider from the selection for a minimum price of Rs 148. The Airtel Xstream Premium large screen format launched earlier in the year, and for Rs 149 enables access to over 10,500 movies, shows and Live TV from Airtel's OTT partners, including Sony LIV, Eros Now, Lionsgate Play, Hoichoi, ManoramaMax, Shemaroo, Ultra, HungamaPlay, EPICon, Ducobay, DicoTV and more. Top 5 movies and web shows on Airtel Xstream in the last month Movies  Web shows James (Kanda) on SonyLiv   Gullak (Hindi) on SonyLiv Haathi Mere Saathi (Hindi) on ErosNow Flesh (Hindi) on ErosNow Spartacus (English...

You don’t search for something online, you Google it! However, sometimes, we may want to quickly delete what we Googled recently, say the search results of the last 15 minutes. Well, Google has just added that ability within its Android app. The latest update of the Google app for Android brings a ‘Delete Last 15 Minutes’ feature for some users that lets them do what it says. This option can be accessed by tapping the G logo or the profile icon at the top-right corner of the app. How to delete the last 15 minutes of your Google Search history   Delete last 15 minutes option on Google for Android | Source: Mishaal Rahman Open the Google Android app Tap on the round icon at the top right corner which could be either the Google ‘G’ logo or your profile photo. Now in the list of options, there is the new ‘Delete Last 15 Minutes’ feature. Click that and you’ll get the message that “Deleting history. Changes will show in your account soon”. Delete last 15 minutes option on Goog...

As internet technologies grow to encompass the entire globe, Elon Musk’s Starlink aims to beam accessible internet all over the world. But, it looks like the company may have hit a bit of a snag when it comes to India. Starlink, as a subsidiary of SpaceX, has registered as a business in India. This took place earlier this month. The company has started pre-orders but according to the Indian government, has no permission to actually start running the service in the country. The Indian government has also asked people to stop placing pre-orders and signing up for the service.  Elon Musk's Starlink will need a license to operate in India India is currently hovering at around the 65th to 70th place in terms of internet speed rankings. It also only has about 41% of the population connected to the internet. Even though that is a large number globally, it means that more than half of the Indian population does not have easy access to the internet. Elon Musk's Starlink could change ...