Google adding search privacy protections

Google is changing its data retention practices to make it harder to identify the specific computers used in searches.

Google's servers log information every time someone conducts a Web search, keeping data such as the keywords used, the Internet Protocol address or unique number assigned to that person's computer, and information from Web cookies, which are small bits of data exchanged between a server and a Web browser each time the browser accesses the server. Cookies are used to authenticate the user and maintain information such as the user's site preferences.

Currently, Google maintains the search data logs indefinitely. Under the new policy announced on Wednesday, which Google expects to have fully implemented by the end of the year, the company will anonymize the final eight bits of the IP address and the cookie data after somewhere between 18 months and 24 months, unless legally required to retain the data for longer. The information on specific searches will remain indefinitely, but it will be much harder to tie the searches to specific individuals or computers.

"Logs anonymization does not guarantee that the government will not be able to identify a specific computer or user, but it does add another layer of privacy protection to our users' data," the company said.

The policy change will apply to future Web search data as well as archived logs and all copies of the data stored on other servers, Google said. Users will be able to opt out of the practice and request that their search data be maintained indefinitely.

Privacy advocates in general said Google's policy change is a step in the right direction but not nearly enough to really protect Web searchers from overzealous law enforcers. Keeping the search histories could enable investigators and governments to get to all sorts of personal information about people, they argue.

"I don't think the Google proposal is adequate. This period is too long and it's not in fact data destruction, it's more data de-identification, and that should be happening in 18 to 24 hours, not months," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "I'm not persuaded that this isn't still a ticking time bomb for Google's search engine."
Richard M. Smith, an Internet security and privacy consultant at Boston Software Forensics, said Google should never be archiving the IP address and cookies on servers. "Google should not be in the spy business," he said. "By logging IP addresses and search strings they are running the largest intelligence operation in the world."

Anonymizing the last eight bits of the IP address effectively would enable investigators to narrow the IP address down to 256 possible computers or users. That would be similar to obscuring the last digit in someone's street address.

"For most average consumers that is pretty much anonymous," because many people connect to the Internet through large companies that dynamically assign IP addresses, making it even harder to determine exactly which person conducted a search, said Ari Schwartz, deputy director for the Center for Democracy and Technology. "It is a risk, but it is better than what we have today."

Kevin Bankston, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said he would like to see Google scrub the entire IP address within six months, but praised Google for making this "positive first step."

"We hope other online service providers will heed this example and work to minimize the amount of data they keep about their customers," Bankston said.
Yahoo and Microsoft have declined to disclose their exact data retention policies with respect to Web searches. AOL saves personally-identifiable search data for up to 30 days in a way that's visible to the user and uses an encryption hashing technique to obscure it thereafter, said AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein.

"We do not keep any IP addresses in our search database, and we de-identify any associated account information through an encryption algorithm," he said. "We have also made a business decision not to keep any unique identifiers (i.e. the hashed user ID) for longer than 13 months. ..."That said, it still might contain information of a personal nature, as the data released last year clearly did."

The risks associated with Web search data were highlighted last August when AOL inadvertently exposed on the Internet the search history of more than 650,000 of its users. The move prompted widespread criticism from privacy advocates and Congress and the filing of a complaint against AOL with the Federal Trade Commission, as well as the firing of two AOL employees and the resignation of its chief technology officer and a class action lawsuit.

Google's tweaking Search Engine

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--These days, Google seems to be doing everything, everywhere.

It takes pictures of your house from outer space, copies rare Sanskrit books in India, charms its way onto Madison Avenue, picks fights with Hollywood and tries to undercut Microsoft's software dominance.
But at its core, Google remains a search engine. And its search pages, blue hyperlinks set against a bland, white background, have made it the most visited, most profitable and arguably the most powerful company on the Internet. Google is the homework helper, navigator and yellow pages for half a billion users, able to find the most improbable needles in the world's largest haystack of information in just the blink of an eye.
Yet however easy it is to wax poetic about the modern-day miracle of Google, the site is also among the world's biggest teases. Millions of times a day, users click away from Google, disappointed that they couldn't find the hotel, the recipe or the background of that hot guy. Google often finds what users want, but it doesn't always.
That's why Amit Singhal and hundreds of other Google engineers are constantly tweaking the company's search engine in an elusive quest to close the gap between often and always.
Singhal is the master of what Google calls its "ranking algorithm"--the formulas that decide which Web pages best answer each user's question. It is a crucial part of Google's inner sanctum, a department called "search quality" that the company treats like a state secret. Google rarely allows outsiders to visit the unit, and it has been cautious about allowing Singhal to speak with the news media about the magical, mathematical brew inside the millions of black boxes that power its search engine.
Google values Singhal and his team so highly for the most basic of competitive reasons. It believes that its ability to decrease the number of times it leaves searchers disappointed is crucial to fending off ever fiercer attacks from the likes of Yahoo and Microsoft and preserving the tidy advertising gold mine that search represents.
"The fundamental value created by Google is the ranking," says John Battelle, the chief executive of Federated Media, a blog ad network, and author of The Search, a book about Google.
Online stores, he notes, find that a quarter to a half of their visitors, and most of their new customers, come from search engines. And media sites are discovering that many people are ignoring their home pages--where ad rates are typically highest--and using Google to jump to the specific pages they want.
"Google has become the lifeblood of the Internet," Battelle says. "You have to be in it."
Users, of course, don't see the science and the artistry that makes Google's black boxes hum, but the search-quality team makes about a half-dozen major and minor changes a week to the vast nest of mathematical formulas that power the search engine.
These formulas have grown better at reading the minds of users to interpret a very short query. Are the users looking for a job, a purchase or a fact? The formulas can tell that people who type "apples" are likely to be thinking about fruit, while those who type "Apple" are mulling computers or iPods. They can even compensate for vaguely worded queries or outright mistakes.
"Search over the last few years has moved from 'Give me what I typed' to 'Give me what I want,' " says Singhal, a 39-year-old native of India who joined Google in 2000 and is now a Google Fellow, the designation the company reserves for its elite engineers.
Google recently allowed a reporter from The New York Times to spend a day with Singhal and others in the search-quality team, observing some internal meetings and talking to several top engineers. There were many questions that Google wouldn't answer. But the engineers still explained more than they ever have before in the news media about how their search system works.
As Google constantly fine-tunes its search engine, one challenge it faces is sheer scale. It is now the most popular Web site in the world, offering its services in 112 languages, indexing tens of billons of Web pages and handling hundreds of millions of queries a day.
Even more daunting, many of those pages are shams created by hucksters trying to lure Web surfers to their sites filled with ads, pornography or financial scams. At the same time, users have come to expect that Google can sift through all that data and find what they are seeking, with just a few words as clues.

Yahoo opens Panama search Ads Platform

Yahoo announced Monday that its Panama search advertising platform is now open to third parties.
Under Panama, which was launched in February, sponsored search results are based on items such as relevancy and not just on the advertiser's bid price.
Through its new Yahoo Search Marketing Commercial API Program, both businesses and individual developers have access to a series of application program interfaces (APIs) so that they can tweak the Panama platform to suit their individual needs.
The company is offering three levels of partnership, ranging from a free "basic" deal for small advertising agencies and technology companies, to "advanced" and "elite" levels with varying subscription rates.
All participants in the Panama APIs, regardless of partnership level, have access to the software platform and any related technical support. Advanced partners also have account management support and a listing in Yahoo's partner directory.
Elite partners, according to Yahoo, can "leverage the Panama platform, resources and brand via regular business review, product council, road map coordination and joint marketing activities." The inaugural Elite partners in the API program include SearchIgnite, Efficient Frontier, Omniture and The Search Agency.
Yahoo launched Panama earlier this year as a direct competitor to Google's successful advertising programs. So far, Panama's biggest success has been a deal with media giant Viacom to provide sponsored search and contextual ads to 33 of its entertainment sites. Viacom, meanwhile, is famously at odds with Google over a billion-dollar copyright infringement lawsuit over YouTube video clips.
In another strategic move to bolster its place in the online advertising market, Yahoo purchased ad exchange Right Media in late April.

Palm: The comeback Kid

Palm, which lost its footing in the competitive smart phone market this past year, is turning to private equity and some former Apple execs to help it reinvigorate its product lineup.

But will it be enough?
That's the big question that Wall Street investors and gadget gurus will be looking at over the next 18 to 24 months.
On Monday, Palm said it would sell 25 percent of the company to private equity firm Elevation Partners for $325 million. Elevation Partners was founded by Fred Anderson, Apple's former CFO, and Roger McNamee, who will now sit on Palm's board, replacing Eric Benhamou and D. Scott Mercer. The company also said it would bring on Jon Rubinstein, who formerly ran the iPod division at Apple, as executive chairman of the board.
The deal comes as Palm, which essentially invented the smart phone category with its popular Treo product, tries to regain its position as a leader in an increasingly crowded market. Over the past couple of years, everyone and their brother--from BlackBerry maker Research In Motion to the big handset makers Motorola, Nokia and Samsung--have been introducing so-called smart phones that combine phone functionality with e-mail and Web surfing capability, competing directly against the Treo.
And now Apple's iPhone, which is already generating unprecedented buzz, is only weeks away from launch on AT&T's network.
Meanwhile, Palm has been struggling to keep up with competitors in terms of new features and functionality. In recent months, rumors have floated around Wall Street that the company might be ripe for a takeover, with bigger players such as Motorola and Nokia mentioned as potential suitors.
In the middle of this ultracompetitive market, Palm introduced its latest product, a miniature Linux-based laptop dubbed the Foleo, which has left many experts scratching their heads. The 2.5-pound keyboard and computing device, which is designed to attach to a Treo so people can type more easily, was announced last week, but so far has gotten a lackluster reception.
"The company has been under tremendous pressure to do something," said Tavis McCourt, a managing director at Morgan Keegan & Company. "The company has missed a product cycle, and it's good to change things around to signal to investors that something new is coming."

10 things phone will do in 10 years

The cell phone used to be mainly about making phone calls, but those days are long gone.
The past decade has seen the device evolve into the Swiss Army Knife of consumer electronics. Not only can you take pictures and video with your phone, you can use it to send e-mails, chat on instant messengers, listen to music, get directions, and even watch television.
The technology has come a long way since the days of brick-shaped analog phones that barely fit in a purse, let alone a pocket. Two years ago, experts predicted that there would be 3 billion cell phone subscribers worldwide by 2010. Now it looks as if we'll pass the 3 billion mark by the end of this year.
As wireless-service operators continue to deploy third-generation, or 3G, networks, which support high-bandwidth applications such as video and Internet access, this phenomenal growth is likely to continue. But a big question for consumers is: what will these phones do? CNET News.com talked to industry experts and executives and spent some time gazing into a crystal ball to come up with the following list of 10 things the average cell phone user will be doing with his or her phone in the not-too-distant future.
1. No wallet? No problemA new technology standard called "near-field communications," or NFC, will turn cell phones into credit or debit cards. A chip is embedded in a phone that allows you to make a payment by using a touch-sensitive interface or by bringing the phone within a few centimeters of an NFC reader. Your credit card account or bank account is charged accordingly.
Unlike RFID (radio frequency identification) technology, which also can be used to make wireless payments, NFC technology allows for two-way communication, making it more secure. For example, an NFC-enabled handset could demand that a password or personal identification number be entered to complete the transaction.
The NFC mobile-payment application is currently in trials in the United States, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, and a few other countries. The technology is widely used in Japan, where people use their phones to pay for everything from sodas dispensed in vending machines to subway cards. Nokia announced the first fully integrated NFC phone, the Nokia 6131 NFC, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, and the company is currently testing the 6131 with AT&T's Cingular Wireless in New York City.
Experts also note that NFC technology can be used for more than just retail transactions. It can be used to get data from an NFC-equipped business card, or to download tickets or other data from an NFC-equipped kiosk or poster.
2. The World Wide Web in your pocketThe promise of the mobile Internet has yet to live up to its hype. Users have had disappointing experiences with HTML Web sites that render poorly on handsets, or they've been forced to use stripped-down wireless application protocol, or WAP, sites that don't provide the same richness that they have come to expect on the wired Web. But as more phones come equipped with full HTML browsers, cell phones will truly become just another device used to access the Internet.
Today many smart phones already provide full HTML browsers. Nokia's latest N-series and E-series phones, which run Opera browsers for the Symbian operating system, are among the most advanced.
In the future, these mobile HTML browsers will make their way onto even the most basic phones. Motorola recently announced it is adding an HTML browser to its popular Razr phones.
So what will full Internet browsing mean for users? For one thing, it could accelerate the growth of mobile social networking. In the last couple of years, social-networking sites such as MySpace and YouTube have become hits. Now people are extending those social networks to their cell phones. In December, ABI Research said that almost 50 million people used social-networking sites on their mobile phones. That number is expected to grow to 174 million by 2011.
Mobile operators such as AT&T and Helio have a special deal with MySpace, and Verizon Wireless has a special deal with YouTube. Mobile phones could allow people to more seamlessly connect their virtual presence with their physical presence. But Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research, predicts that this fact alone could mean that people will form smaller, more-private social networks with their mobile phones instead of simply using the phones as extensions of the social networks they created using their PCs on sites like MySpace.
"Do you really want everyone on MySpace to be able to track where you are?" he says. "Cell phones are such personal devices, and they go with us everywhere. I think people will be more inclined to communicate among smaller groups who they already know and socialize with."
3. Location, location, locationDue to a Federal Communications Commission mandate that requires operators to locate people when they dial 911 in an emergency, a large number of mobile phones sold in the United States already have integrated GPS (global positioning system) chips. While these chips are used by some mobile operators to pinpoint users' locations when they're in danger, they can also be used to support a variety of location-related services.
The most obvious service is turn-by-turn navigation, which provides directions simply by allowing users to type in a destination. Satellites then locate the GPS-enabled device and map the device's location to the destination. A map can then be generated on the user's screen, along with text-based directions. Some devices will also "read" the directions to the user.
Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel already offer navigation services. Verizon charges $9.99 a month for the service and Sprint is offering the service for free when customers buy certain data packages. Handset makers Nokia and Motorola also plan to offer navigation map services. In February at the 3GSM Wireless trade show in Barcelona, Nokia introduced the 6110 Navigator, the company's first navigation-enabled handset designed for the mass market.
But location services will soon go far beyond navigation. GPS technology will also be used to enhance local search engines, so that when you type in the word "pizza" you get a list of local pizza parlors, rather than a list of pizza-related Web sites.
Media conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp, which owns more than 60 Internet brands, said recently it will use GPS-enabled search on its Ask.com mobile Web site to help consumers find friends, shops, and services based on their locations. The application will be available on Sprint's network. IAC plans to add the feature later to some of its other Web sites, such as Ticketmaster and Match.com.
Mobile virtual network operators Boost, Helio, and Disney Mobile are already offering tracking services that allow people to keep tabs on their kids or find their friends. Many of these services are beginning to come to market now, but by 2010 they should offer better accuracy and will also reach more mainstream users.
4. Search goes mobileMobile search will become a standard feature on all handsets over the next three years. Most phones will likely have search built into their main screens, with a search icon prominently featured next to the time and the icons depicting battery and signal strength. Some phones will actually have a search button on the keypad or protruding from the case. In April, Alltel Wireless announced that it would preinstall JumpTap's mobile search button on LG Electronics' LGVX8600 devices.
Helio's new smart phone, the Ocean, has a search feature that allows you to slide out the keyboard, type a keyword, hit Enter and immediately get results from Google, Yahoo, and Wikipedia.
While the big guys--Google and Yahoo--will certainly have a presence on mobile devices, "white label" services, such as one available from JumpTap, will also be popular because they allow carriers to brand the service as their own.
5. TV on the go-goMobile TV in all its forms is expected to explode in the next few years. IMS Research forecasts that by 2011 there will be more than 30 million mobile TV subscribers in the United States. The firm also predicts that almost 70 million handsets capable of receiving mobile TV will be shipped in the U.S. in 2011.
Consumers will have access to a wide range of TV possibilities on their phones, from original and professionally produced content to repurposed clips to live broadcasts and user-generated clips.
The mobile handset will become an extension of TV and computer screens at home, allowing consumers to time- and place-shift viewing. Sling Media already offers mobile users the option of viewing programming available on their home TVs on their Windows Mobile devices using a wireless data connection.
Four major cable operators working with Sprint Nextel--Comcast, Time Warner, Cox Communications, and Advance/Newhouse Communications--are also expected to expand some video programming to cell phones. Today they offer features such as remote programming for DVRs.
Over the next three years, broadcast TV networks designed to provide service for mobile devices will also emerge on the scene. Qualcomm's MediaFlo has already signed deals with Verizon Wireless and AT&T, which will use MediaFlo broadcast technology to distribute live TV programming to mobile subscribers. Another broadcast technology, known as DVB-H, will likely find a strong following in Europe.
Experts believe there will be a spike in mobile TV usage in 2008 when the Summer Olympics in Beijing are scheduled to take place. Many operators around the world expect to have their mobile video services up and running to air the games.
6. Simplifed surfingEver notice how many clicks it takes to find the one thing you're looking for on your phone? It's worse than counting how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop. But handset makers and mobile operators are hard at work trying to make phones easier to navigate and simpler to use.
The upcoming iPhone from Apple is a perfect example of how user interfaces will be improved. Apple fans are confident that the company has come up with another slick and intuitive design, just as it did for the iPod.
One aspect of the iPhone's interface that has been publicized is its use of sensory technology to detect when the device is rotated. This allows the phone to automatically render pictures on the screen in portrait (vertical) or landscape (horizontal) format. That allows the user to determine which format is best for viewing whatever is on the screen, be it a Web page, video, or photo.
In the future, motion-sensing technology, similar to that used in the Nintendo Wii game console, will also allow people to navigate their cell phone menus or the mobile Internet with a flick of their wrists.
But motion sensing is just one piece of the puzzle. Operators such as Verizon Wireless are redesigning their content menus to reduce the number of clicks users must endure to find what they want. Ryan Hughes, vice president of digital media programming for Verizon Wireless, said he believes that user interfaces will be customizable so that users can decide for themselves which applications will be displayed on their phones most prominently.
Motorola is already offering a customizable interface on the Razr 2, which the company claims will make searching for contacts, accessing applications, and messaging much easier.
7. Brainier radiosMany phones today are equipped with dual radios that let subscribers roam on differently configured cellular networks throughout the world, but in the next few years handset makers will also embed Wi-Fi technology into phones, allowing customers to use the devices in any Wi-Fi network hot spot.
T-Mobile USA has been experimenting with such a service for the past several months in its hometown of Seattle. The HotSpot @Home service, which is expected to launch across the country this summer, uses UMA (unlicensed mobile access) technology to allow phones to seamlessly switch calls between a Wi-Fi connection and a cellular connection, depending on which is available and most cost-effective at any particular moment.
T-Mobile HotSpot @Home costs $20 a month on top of a regular cell phone plan, and it delivers unlimited "voice over Wi-Fi" calls from T-Mobile's more than 8,000 hot spots and through any Wi-Fi access point in a home that is connected to a broadband Internet service.
These dual-mode Wi-Fi and cellular phones will also make it possible for users to use voice over Internet Protocol services like Skype to avoid roaming charges when they are traveling internationally, for example. Skype is already available on PocketPCs and Windows Mobile smart phones.
8. Your very own cell towerDoes your cell phone get bad reception inside your house, but works just fine when you stand on your porch? Mobile operators may soon ask you to help them improve cellular coverage in your home or office with small Wi-Fi-like routers that boost cellular signals.
These routers create what are called femto cells, or small personal cellular sites. And they could help solve a major problem for cellular operators who have trouble covering less-populated regions or have difficulty reaching users indoors.
The femto cell router has a cellular antenna to boost the available cellular signals in a small area. The device is then attached to a broadband connection, and uses voice over IP technology to connect cellular phone calls to the mobile operator's network.
Because cell phones use licensed spectrum, the devices would be tied to a particular carrier's network just like a handset. If a consumer wanted to switch carriers, he'd have to get a new femto cell router.
While no carriers in the U.S. have said they plan to use femto cell technology, several companies are already developing products for it. 3Way Networks, based in the U.K., and Ericsson, based in Sweden, each introduced femto cell devices in February.
9. Picture perfectOne of the most dramatic changes in cell phone technology over the past decade has been the emergence of the camera phone. Today roughly 41 percent of American households own a camera phone. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to buy a phone today that doesn't have a camera.
By 2010 more than 1 billion mobile phones in the world will ship with an embedded camera, up from the 589 million camera phones that are expected to be sold in 2007, according to market research firm Gartner.
There's little doubt that the technology will improve, with high-end phones easily supporting 8-megapixel cameras. The Nokia N95 already offers a 5-megapixel camera. William Plummer, Nokia's North America vice president of sales and channel management for multimedia, says that in a few years users will likely be able to manipulate their images directly on their handsets, just as they would on a high-end digital camera or PC.
Some camera phones will also let users stream live video to friends, family, co-workers, or anyone else with a video-capable phone. Motorola's Razr 2, due out this summer, will support this feature. And AT&T will offer two-way video sharing as a service later this summer using devices made by LG Electronics.
Phones of the future will also come with multiple cameras that will provide additional functionality, Forrester's Golvin predicts. While one camera may provide high-end imaging for sharing pictures and video, a second, lower-end camera could be used for things like capturing two-dimensional bar codes known as QR codes.
QR code-reading software on camera phones eliminates the need to type in contacts or URLs. In Japan, they're already widely used to store addresses and URLs on the pages of magazines, with the codes pegged to both editorial content and advertisements. The addition of QR codes to business cards is also becoming common, greatly simplifying the task of entering contact information into mobile-phone address books.
10. Mad for mobile musicThere's no question that mobile music is hot and will continue to grow in popularity. Mobile phone users around the globe are expected to spend $32.2 billion on music for their handsets by 2010, up from $13.7 billion in 2007, according to Gartner.
This content category includes everything from basic ringtones, "real tones" (uncompressed, digital representations of analog signals), and ring-back tones to more sophisticated full-track downloads. Music in all its incarnations is the second-most popular mobile data service, behind short message service (SMS), in terms of use and revenue.
Over the next couple of years, full-song downloads will drive growth in this category. The entrance of big brands like Apple into the mobile phone market will likely push mobile music to the forefront.
Apple's iPhone, announced in January, has created a kind of hysteria that has not been seen before in the consumer electronics market. The device, which combines Apple's popular iPod music player with a mobile smart phone, will go on sale in late June and will be available exclusively on AT&T's network. Even though critics have already noted some downsides to the iPhone--namely that it will not be 3G capable--it has still managed to raise the bar in terms of what's expected from a music playing phone.
All the major handset manufacturers are poised to offer iPhone competitors. Sony Ericsson has the Walkman series. Motorola has its Rokr, Z8, and MotoQ phones. And Research In Motion, best known for phones that cater to business users, has the new BlackBerry 8300 Curve, which comes with stereo Bluetooth, a true 3.5mm headphone jack, and a microSD expansion slot. All of these phones could be strong competitors, if not iPhone killers.
So what will be new in mobile music by 2010?
Most likely it will be more of the same. The line between phones and music players will increasingly blur. And if network operators, device makers and music studios are smart, there will be easier and more cost-effective ways for people to download their favorite tunes onto their phones.
Verizon Wireless, Helio, and Sprint Nextel already offer over-the-air downloads. But many experts believe that, in order to compete, all major operators will have to offer this convenience. And issues surrounding digital rights management--the use of software that limits the use and transfer of copyright material, including music and video files--will also likely be worked out in the next few years to allow users an easy and legal way to port songs from one device to another.