IMAGE: Brian Davison, Associate Professor of Computer Science Engineering at Lehigh University, is principal investigator of an NSF-backed project to develop a search engine intended to help scientists and others locate... view more There was a time--not that long ago--when the phrases "Google it" or "check Yahoo" would have been interpreted as sneezes, or a perhaps symptoms of an oncoming seizure, rather than as coherent thoughts. Today, these are key to answering all of life's questions. It's one thing to use the Web to keep up with a Kardashian, shop for ironic T-shirts, argue with our in-laws about politics, or any of the other myriad ways we use the Web in today's world. But if you are a serious researcher looking for real data that can help you advance your ideas, how useful are the underlying technologies that support the search engines we've all come to take for granted? "Not very," says Brian Davison, associate professor of computer science at Lehigh University.

In 2015, Microsoft's Bing search engine achieved something it had never had before: relevancy. By notching a 20-percent share of U.S. search, according to comScore, it managed to impact Google, the brand that was literally synonymous with search. In 2018, it seems like Bing's willing to hand some of that success right back. Why? Because, as a habitual Bing user, I've noticed a deterioration in quality. In the past I've argued that there were four good reasons to switch from Google to Bing.

Hundreds of Google employees have signed a protest letter over the company's reported work on a censor-friendly search engine to get back into China, The New York Times said Thursday. The employees are demanding more transparency so they can understand the moral implications of their work, said the Times, which obtained a copy of the letter. It has been signed by 1,400 employees and is circulating on the company's internal communications system, the newspaper said, quoting three people who are familiar with the document. While China is home to the world's largest number of internet users, a 2015 report by US think tank Freedom House found that the country had the most restrictive online use policies of 65 nations it studied, ranking below Iran and Syria. But China has maintained that its various forms of web censorship are necessary for protecting its national security.

Google executives on Thursday addressed the company's plans to reintroduce a search service in China, following an employee backlash over concerns about complying with Beijing's censorship laws, according to reports of an all-hands company meeting. Chief executive Sundar Pichai told staff that Google is in the "early stages" of considering a return to China, Bloomberg reported, but that the company is not close to finalizing a search product. Pichai pledged transparency as the development process advances and cast the potential for business in China as a boost to Google's mission. "I genuinely do believe we have a positive impact when we engage around the world, and I don't see any reason why that would be different in China," Pichai said, according to Bloomberg. Google did not respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post.

More than a thousand Google employees have signed a letter criticising the company's plan to launch a heavily censored version of its search engine in China. In the letter, which is an internal petition, the employees asked for more transparency and oversight of Project Dragonfly, the project's internal title. "We urgently need more transparency, a seat at the table and a commitment to clear and open processes: Google employees need to know what we're building," the letter, seen by the Reuters news agency, reads. The employees are reportedly worried about kowtowing to China by implementing the government's requests for censorship. China restricts internet users massively by blocking websites, censoring words and clamping down on free speech.

The internal dissent over Dragonfly comes on the heels of the employee protests over Google's involvement in the Pentagon project to use artificial intelligence. After Google said it would not renew its contract with the Pentagon, it unveiled a series of ethical principles governing its use of A.I. In those principles, Google publicly committed to use A.I. only in "socially beneficial" ways that would not cause harm and promised to develop its capabilities in accordance with human rights law. Some employees have raised concerns that helping China suppress the free flow of information would violate these new principles. In 2010, Google said it had discovered that Chinese hackers had attacked the company's corporate infrastructure in an attempt to access to the Gmail accounts of human rights activists.

Mr. Pichai, speaking Thursday at a weekly all-hands meeting in Mountain View, Calif., was responding to criticism from employees, human rights groups and others who in recent days have voiced concerns over the Alphabet Inc. unit's work with the Chinese government. Google is developing services for Chinese citizens, including a search engine that could adhere to China's strict censors, The Wall Street Journal and others reported last week. At the meeting, Google co-founder and Alphabet president Sergey Brin sounded optimistic about doing more business in China, cautioning that progress in the country is "slow-going and complicated." Mr. Brin was instrumental in Google's decision in 2010 to withdraw its search engine from China to protest the government's censorship regime and attempts to hack into the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. At the time, he described the government as having the "earmarks of totalitarianism" of the Soviet Union, where he was born.

Google's workforce is demanding answers over the company's secretive plans to build a search engine that will comply with censorship in China. More than 1,000 employees have signed a letter demanding more transparency over the project so they do not unwittingly suppress freedom of speech. In a version of the letter obtained by the New York Times, the employees say they lack the "information required to make ethically-informed decisions about our work, our projects, and our employment." China's censorship requirements "raise urgent moral and ethical issues," it adds. The letter, which has circulated through Google's internal communications, has gained more than 1,400 signatures, according to the Times.

Google employees, upset over reports of a secretive search engine project for China, have signed a petition asking for more transparency from company leaders. SAN FRANCISCO -- Hundreds of Google employees have signed a petition protesting a secret project to develop a search engine for China, the latest example of tech workers rebelling against corporate policies that push moral boundaries. The letter, which was posted by Buzzfeed and first reported by The New York Times, says Google's decision to work with China raises "urgent moral and ethical issues," and that employees "do not have the information required to make ethically-informed decisions" about their work, projects and employment. The employees, who represent a fraction of parent company Alphabet's workforce of 89,000, also were upset by the secrecy of the project and in the petition demanded more transparency about the company's myriad ventures, which range from self-driving cars to advanced artificial intelligence. Google was scheduled to have a regular company-wide meeting between senior leadership and global employees late Thursday, during which in-person and remote staffers can ask any question they want.

SAN FRANCISCO – Google's plan to launch a censored search engine in China requires more "transparency, oversight and accountability," hundreds of employees at the Alphabet Inc. unit said in an internal petition seen by Reuters on Thursday. Hoping to gain approval from the Chinese government to provide a mobile search service, the company plans to block some websites and search terms, Reuters reported this month, citing two people familiar with the matter. Disclosure of the secretive effort has disturbed some Google employees and human rights advocacy organizations. They are concerned that by agreeing to censorship demands, Google would validate China's prohibitions on free expression and violate the "don't be evil" clause in the company's code of conduct. After employees petitioned this year, Google announced it would not renew a project to help the U.S. military develop artificial intelligence technology for drones.