The launch is part of a wider Google personalized-search initiative that the company's global privacy counsel, Peter Fleischer, has acknowledged raises privacy issues.
"Personalized search does raise privacy issues," Fleischer wrote earlier this year in the Financial Times. "In order for it to work, search engines must have access to your Web search history. And there are some people who may not want to share that information because they believe it is too personal. For them, the improved results that personalized search brings are not matched by the 'cost' of revealing their Web history."
Fleischer argued that Google can handle this privacy issue by asking users if they want to opt in to the service when they open an account.
Google uses the information gathered from users' search histories for marketing purposes.
Web giant is spending $120 million to beef up its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, according to filings with the city reviewed by the San Jose Mercury News.
Tor's "obfsproxy" technology would make encrypted data look innocuous and let it dodge government censors. That could help citizens in Iran reach blocked sites as antigovernment protests reportedly loom.
MIT creates a simulation to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Spacewar. A relic of the early days of minicomputers, it was one of the first computer video games and set the stage for many others, including Asteroids.
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