Harvard scrambles to explain why it secretly searched deans’ emails
Harvard University officials scrambled Monday to contain the fallout from a damaging report in The Boston Globe over the weekend disclosing how administrators secretly accessed email accounts belonging to 16 resident deans at the university.
In a statement Monday, Harvard Deans Michael Smith and Evelynn Hammonds acknowledged that the search described in the Globe report had happened. However, they maintained the search was done in an extremely limited and thoughtful manner to identify an individual who shared a confidential email with an unauthorized person.
Though the specific email was inconsequential, the fact that it was forwarded word-for-word to someone else was concerning, the deans said in their statement. The disclosure prompted concerns that other information, especially sensitive student information, was also at risk of similar disclosure. Read more...
Amazon Web Services launches CloudSearch
Amazon Web Services has introduced CloudSearch, which allows users of its cloud to integrate fully managed and highly scalable search functionality into their applications, the company said on Thursday.
CloudSearch is based on the same A9 technology that powers search for Amazon.com, the company said
To use the search functionality, IT staff start by creating a search domain and uploading the data they want searchable. CloudSearch then automatically provisions the technology resources required and the indexes needed, the company said. Read more...
Critics accuse Google of unfairly promoting Google+ in search results
The long-standing and persistent accusation that Google unfairly uses its search engine to promote its other online services is once again in the spotlight, triggered by new social search functionality the company is rolling out this week that more tightly links its search engine with its Google+ social networking site.
The complaints have come from different quarters, including competitors and industry experts, and have focused on various arguments, but at bottom all charge Google with using its dominant search engine to deliberately boost Google+'s popularity, by giving Google+ pages and profiles an artificially prominent position in result pages.
One of the strongest arguments made so far comes from search engine expert Danny Sullivan, who described on Wednesday in his technology news site Search Engine Land how Google is now suggesting Google+ business pages that companies and public figures have set up on the site in a way that makes the Google+ pages much more prominent than similar pages these public figures and organizations have set up on competing social media sites. Read more...
Report: Yahoo board not focused on finding new CEO for now
Days after giving Carol Bartz the pink slip, Yahoo's board of directors is focused on deciding whether the company should be sold, not on finding a new CEO, according to a report on Saturday in The Wall Street Journal.
Before starting a search for Bartz's replacement, Yahoo's board wants to determine whether the correct strategy for the company is to remain independent or be sold whole or in parts, the Journal reported, quoting anonymous sources.
Yahoo has yet to retain an executive search firm, and instead has instructed a board committee to conduct a review into whether Yahoo should be sold or not, according to the article. Allen & Co. and UBS Investment Bank will assist Yahoo with this review, the Journal said. Read more...
Bing and Facebook grow closer
Microsoft on Monday began letting Bing search results reflect "likes" of people's friends at Facebook as the social networking star and the software colossus grew closer.
"The best decisions are not just fueled by facts, they require the opinions and emotions of your friends," Bing senior vice president Yusuf Mehdi said in a release.
"We're marrying fact-based search results with your friends' street smarts to combine the best data on the Web with the opinions of the people you trust the most and the collective IQ of the Web." Read more...
In reversal, Yahoo will store user search data longer
In a move that is unlikely to win it any new friends in the privacy community, Yahoo has announced that it will retain consumer search data for a substantially longer period of time than it does today.
Starting sometime in mid-July, Yahoo will hold raw search log file data, including IP addresses, cookies and search-related information, for up to 18 months. It currently retains such data for 90 days.
Yahoo's chief trust officer, Anne Toth, said in a blog post that the change, announced on Friday, was designed to give consumers a more robust and personalized search experience while also bringing Yahoo into closer alignment with industry-wide data retention norms.
"We will hold raw search log files for 18 months and we will be closely examining what the right policy and time frame should be for other log file data," Toth wrote. "In announcing this change, we have gone back to the drawing board to ensure that our policies will support the innovative products we want to deliver for our consumers." Read more...