Relevant Results

Google's putting a little more attention into social cues when it comes to returning search results.

Over the course of the day Google will start rolling out new social search features that more prominently display content that connections on social networks like Twitter have shared. Google's been doing that for a while, but in the slums of the search results page: all the way at the bottom.

Now those results will appear interspersed with regular search results when you're signed into Google and someone on a social network that you have connected to your Google profile shares … Read more

Living amongst a sea of data can be a great thing, but only if it can be put to use.

Google plans to open the tools behind its Public Data Explorer to the general public later today, allowing any group or individual to upload their data into the tool and manipulate it for comparison or presentation purposes. The Public Data Explorer currently allows you to compare datasets from around the world uploaded by partners such as the U.S. Census Bureau or the World Bank.

But lots of smaller local organizations or even companies have reams of data on economic and social trends … Read more

Google has launched one of its first experiments aimed at fighting back against content farms, asking the public to help identify the worst offenders.

Chrome users can now download an extension from Google called Personal Blocklist that will allow users to block certain domains from appearing in a personalized list of search results. Google will also track the domains that users flag "and explore using it as a potential ranking signal for our search results," wrote Matt Cutts, principal engineer at Google and a prominent anti-spam spokesman for the company, in a blog post.

For several weeks Cutts and Google have been acknowledging frustration … Read more

Now all Google users can take advantage of the two-step log-in procedure previously available to Google Apps customers.

The company started rolling out the option to use two-step verification to Google Account holders today, according to a blog post. The idea comes from a classic security tactic, the notion that accounts are more secure when you log in using two factors: something you know, such as a password, and something that only you have, such as your phone.

Google Apps users started using this feature in September. Account holders log in to Google as usual, but the first time they … Read more

Sometimes it's easier to compete by giving the world no option but to deal with you. By declaring its intention to use WebOS in its biggest selling and most well-known product line, Hewlett-Packard is doing just that.

Almost two hours into an event ostensibly scheduled to reveal HP's new smartphones along with the TouchPad tablet, HP Executive Vice President Todd Bradley dropped a bit of a stunner. HP has long said since acquiring Palm that it planned to use WebOS in a variety of devices, but until today few realized it intended to drive the software into its PC lineup.

"I'm excited to announce our plans to bring the WebOS to the device that has the biggest reach of all: the personal computer," Bradley said. And with that, many in the tech industry stopped wondering whether the TouchPad was really good enough to compete with the iPad and started wondering about how the world has been changed.… Read more

Editor's note: This live event has concluded. You can replay our full coverage of the announcement in the Cover It Live module at the bottom of this post. To get the key details on what was announced--including the long-awaited TouchPad tablet, an upcoming version of WebOS for desktop and laptop PCs, a new version of the Pre phone, and the new Veer smartphone--read our summary post here.

What follows here is a collection of excerpts from the live blog with some of the newsier and more interesting entries. To get all the nitty-gritty details, reader comments, and our … Read more

MENLO PARK, Calif.--Mark Zuckerberg is moving into Scott McNealy's old digs.

Later this year Facebook will move into the nearly vacant office complex formerly home to Sun Microsystems near the foot of the Dumbarton Bridge, Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman announced today at Menlo Park City Hall. The first groups will make the short trek from downtown Palo Alto to Menlo Park starting in June or July, the company said in a press release, confirming what was already fairly common knowledge.

After Oracle acquired Sun, it laid off thousands of employees and started moving others farther north up … Read more

Ken Olsen, co-founder of the defining technology company of a bygone era, Digital Equipment Corporation, has died. He was 84.

A spokeswoman for Gordon College in Massachusetts, where Olsen was a trustee and prominent donor, confirmed Monday evening Twitter reports of his death on Sunday. Olsen's company dominated the minicomputer era of the tech industry from the 1960s through the 1980s with the PDP and VAX series computers, and was a key part of the famed Route 128 technology corridor just outside Boston, along with companies like Data General and Wang.

"Ken Olsen is in the elite club … Read more

Google could be a little closer to resolving at least one of its regulatory headaches, according to a report.

Reuters notes that Google and the European Commission have entered into talks over the antitrust investigation that began last November. It's still pretty early in the process: Reuters' source said there were "some tentative discussions in resolving the issue, but no really concrete proposals on the table."

Google is even more dominant in Europe than it is in the U.S., with market share over 90 percent in a few countries. A few companies, led by Foundem, have long complained that Google unfairly penalizes their sites … Read more