Google

Google has revealed its top search terms for 2013. Topping the list: gadgets, dead people, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters. Google broke its top search terms into several categories, including People, Events, Athletes, Consumer Electronics, ... Movies, Performing Artists, and TV Shows. Death Casts Shadow Over Popular Search Terms The people Google users searched for the most: recently deceased South African leader Nelson Mandela and American actor Paul Walker, who was killed in a high-speed traffic accident a few weeks ago. Google users also searched for Pakistani education activist ... (view more)

Google has bought up a firm that makes animal-like robots for the US military. It's all part of Google's plan to become more involved in the robotics industry. The company in question is Boston Dynamics, a contractor for the Pentagon. The company ... has worked with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a government organization that works on some outlandish projects -- such as making a robot that can outrun Olympic champion Usain Bolt. In the past Boston Dynamics has focused on producing technology that assists military officials fighting in harsh territory against enemies who ... (view more)

Google has agreed to pay a $17 million penalty for cheating a privacy system in Apple's Safari browser. Google was fined because it effectively lied to customers about its privacy policy. The case involves cookies, small text files placed in a ... user's web browser so that websites can quickly get information about the user. In some cases this can be beneficial; for example, a movie listing site can make a note about a user's ZIP code so that they immediately receive localized listings when they visit the site. In some cases, though, advertisers will use cookies to track which sites a user ... (view more)

Google says it's facing a rapidly increasing number of data requests from national governments, and particularly the United States government. At the same time, the firm says it still hasn't made any headway in its fight to show its users the ... information it's being forced to share. Google says that, in the six-month period between January and June 2013, the United States government made almost 11,000 requests for information related to Google's users. U.S. Government Makes Most Data Requests -- By Far By comparison, the government of India -- the country that made the second-most data ... (view more)

Google says it plans to change the way users install add-on tools (known as "extensions") for its Chrome web browser. It's expected the changes will make the browser more secure. A Chrome extension is the same thing as an "add on" in Internet ... Explorer. It's a tool made by an independent developer that adds new functionality to the browser. For example, Amazon has released a Chrome extension that adds a button to the top of the browser screen. When you are reading a lengthy web page, such as a newspaper article, you can click the button to have a copy of the page sent to your Kindle device in ... (view more)

A court has ordered Google to remove all links to embarrassing images of an automotive industry icon. Google is appealing the verdict in a case that raises questions about legal, technical, and geographical restrictions on the Internet. The case ... centers on Max Mosley, previously the head of the Formula 1 racing circuit. In 2008, a British newspaper published photographs of Mosley in an intimate setting with several women. Mosley took the case to court and successfully argued that a breach of privacy had taken place. Mosley won a similar verdict in France, where copies of the newspaper had ... (view more)