Google has started actively prompting users on its homepage to set up a video selfie as an optional sign-in method, following its initial announcement of the feature in July. The setup involves recording a short video while turning your head, which Google can use later to verify identity if you're locked out of your account. Google also says the selfie data may be used to estimate a user's age and, with opt-in consent, to improve its broader facial recognition and verification systems.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-19
Hister is a new privacy-focused search tool that indexes the full text of web pages visited and local files kept on a user's machine. It runs locally through a browser extension, terminal, or web interface, and can also be accessed by AI assistants via MCP integration. The tool is available as a downloadable binary or through Homebrew, Docker, and Nix.
github.com
· 2026-09-17
Antfly, a startup building a document, full-text, vector and graph indexing database, has released version 0.2 of its engine rewritten entirely in Zig with no external dependencies controlling core logic. The original v0.1 engine was built in Go, chosen for its concurrency support and mature Raft implementation, but the team decided to rewrite the system early rather than iterate on it.
antfly.io
· 2026-09-15
An Entrepreneur opinion piece argues that most chief executives mismanage their company's search engine presence, viewing it as a static reputation gauge rather than an active revenue source. The author notes that page one of search results functions as an informal vetting tool for prospects, investors and job candidates before any direct contact occurs. Citing data showing 93% of online experiences start with a search engine, the piece calls for continuous, deliberate management of digital search visibility.
entrepreneur.com
· 2026-09-07
A new analysis argues that digital infrastructure—search engines, cloud platforms, and networks people rely on daily—should be designed, built, and maintained with the same rigor applied to physical infrastructure like water systems and power grids. It draws comparisons to failures such as Flint's water crisis and Puerto Rico's electrical grid collapse to illustrate what happens when essential systems are neglected.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-07
European regulators have designated ChatGPT as a search engine under EU digital regulations, placing it under stricter oversight requirements. Reddit and Roblox have also received similar classifications, bringing them under the same heightened regulatory scrutiny.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-08-31
Google has begun automatically expanding AI Overviews at the top of some search results pages, rather than requiring users to click a 'Show more' button. This pushes the usual list of website links, and an 'Ask anything' box, further down the page, forcing more scrolling to reach traditional results. Google says the behavior is inconsistent and applies only to select queries where its systems determine an expanded view is more useful.
theverge.com
· 2026-08-28
GoKawiil