Dec. 9, 2010 at 11:16 a.m.
Filed under:
Internet,
Technology
By Wailin Wong
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
Education-related Web sites ranked among the most popular Google searches for Chicagoans in 2010, according to the search giant’s newly released “Zeitgeist” list.
Google compiled lists of the hottest search items for individual U.S. cities, ranking searches based on their uniqueness to that city. A search query is considered unique if it is “disproportionately popular” in a certain city versus the rest of the country, Google said.
In Chicago, the top search was the bulky “student.cps.k12.il.us,” which is a Web portal for Chicago Public School students to manage grades and assignments. Jim Lecinski, Google’s Chicago-based managing director of U.S. sales, said students were likely bringing home flyers or notes from teachers with the URL printed on it. Their parents would then type the address into a Google search bar instead of their browser’s address bar. Get the full story »
By Wailin Wong | Illinois has joined a list of governments in the U.S. and worldwide that are probing Google’s data collection for the search giant’s Street View service.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said Wednesday her office is investigating whether the California-based company gathered personal information from state residents. Street View is used in Google Maps and Google Earth to show photos at the street level, displaying pictures taken by special camera equipment mounted on cars and other vehicles.
The controversy over Street View arose last month, when Google admitted to inadvertently capturing and storing bits of private information sent over unencrypted WiFi networks. This “payload data,” as the information is called, can include e-mails, passwords and browsing activity.
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By Wailin Wong
| Google generated $3.2 billion for Illinois businesses in 2009, the
search engine said Tuesday as part of a nationwide announcement about
the company’s impact on state economies.
The publication of the “Google’s Economic Impact” report marks the first
time the company has released this kind of data. Google calculated its
figures by estimating the profits businesses derive from advertising though the
search engine.
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