Legal Action Taken Against Google
Google Being Sued By Apple Users
A group of 12 Apple users have alleged that Google abused their privacy rights during 2011 and 2012. It is claimed that the major search engine installed cookies onto the computers of people using the Safari web browser. These cookies could have been used to track the websites being visited, which would have allowed for the scheduling of targeted advertisements.
Leading privacy campaigner Nick Pickles said, ‘Google tracked people when they had explicitly said they did not want to be tracked, so it’s no surprise to see consumers who believe their privacy had been steamrollered by corporate greed seeking redress through the courts.’
Google Image Search Update
The tech experts at Google have been hard at work improving the image search facility in recent months. The newly introduced inline image interface allows the use of keyboard cursor keys to scroll through the images. The images pop up beside detailed meta data and website links. This makes it very easy to find out the image size and to navigate back to the main Google search page.
There has been a mixed reaction to the introduction of this image search platform. Some people have pointed out that Google have merely followed the example set by Microsoft Bing. Others claimed that the keyboard scrolling feature has made it even easier to identify suitable images.
Search Market Share Increase For Bing & Yahoo
Representatives of Bing and Yahoo will be happy to hear that their respective UK search market shares increased during 2012. The share enjoyed by Microsoft’s search engine went up from 3.84% to 4.99%. This may be partly due to the partnership that they have managed to forge with Facebook. Another reason could be the integration with Microsoft devices. Yahoo’s share went up from 2.72% to 3.58%.
Google won’t be worried too worried about the improving fortunes of their major rivals. They hold an 88% share of the market and are continuing to make a number of search engine innovations. A spokesperson for Experian pointed out that ‘there are seven times more searches conducted on Google sites than on all the other search engines combined.’