Early Saturday morning listeners may have missed our weekend interview segment with Senator Colin Deacon. If so, it was completely my fault. A typo in the submission instructions prevented it from being posted online until late Saturday morning. But even if you haven't had a chance to listen to it, it's still there and very valuable.
Google strengthens browser security with AI, launches new paid 'premium' version, Google users report account lockouts that break two-factor authentication. Google blocks access to California news as fight over journalism pay bill and Gen Z ditches Google for TikTok and YouTube searches**
Including the above, we will explain the “too much Google” edition of hashtag trends. I'm your host, Jim Love. Let's get started.
Before I start, let me say that I didn't intend to write a Google version of everything. Maybe it's because of Google's big event last week, but when I evaluated tech-related articles over the weekend, these articles hit the top of the pile. .
Google is rolling out major new security enhancements to its hugely popular Chrome web browser, used by billions of people around the world.
At last week's Cloud Next conference, the tech giant announced that it has developed a custom artificial intelligence language model specifically trained to detect and block spam, phishing, and other malicious content targeting Gmail users. I made it clear.
Google says these AI defenses, introduced late last year, are already seeing significant results. We caught 20% more spam in Gmail, saw 1,000% more reported spam every day, and responded to new phishing threats in Google Drive 90% faster.
The company says its AI model is uniquely adept at identifying semantically similar malicious content at scale across more than 3 billion Google Workspace users.
So far, it's been very effective, but Google admits it's “very focused” on further innovation to tackle the remaining 0.1% of spam and malware that slips through its advanced filters. Masu.
Separately, Google is introducing a new premium version of its Chrome web browser aimed specifically at enterprise users.
This paid tier, called Chrome Enterprise Premium, adds enhanced data loss prevention controls and in-depth malware scanning not found in the existing free Chrome browser.
While the free version of Core continues to provide common malware and anti-phishing protection, the premium edition is intended to provide businesses with an additional level of security and management capabilities.
This new AI-powered data protection costs $10 per user per month on top of your existing Workspace subscription.
The announcement comes as Google considers giving all Chrome users more control over restricting website permissions, such as access to keyboards, mice, and other device inputs. I did.
Source: Android Police and Forbes
The need has never been greater. Another article in Forbes this week reported that many users have reported having their two-factor authentication bypassed and access to their Google accounts taken away.
how do they do this? Apparently they aren't hacking his two-factor authentication process itself, but using something called “session cookie hijacking.”
This technique typically begins with a phishing email that delivers malware designed to capture authentication cookies that allow users to seamlessly resume active sessions on sites like Gmail.
If an attacker is able to steal these session cookies after a user logs in, they can play the cookies to impersonate a legitimate user and trick the service into bypassing further 2FA prompts.
As far as Google's systems are concerned, attackers have already successfully authenticated using hijacked cookie data.
Once a hacker gains access to an account, they can lock the real owner out of the account.
These attacks are reported to begin with phishing lures, most notably cryptocurrency get-rich schemes. However, this attack could also exploit vulnerabilities that could expose session cookies or allow session hijacking on unpatched systems.
Security experts warn that session hijacking remains a significant risk that can undermine common multi-factor authentication protections relied on by billions of people.
Remedies include more widespread use of hardware 2FA security keys and shortening the lifetime of session cookies to reduce the hijack window.
While major providers are working on other mitigations, users should continue to be wary of phishing and keep their software patched to avoid falling victim to attacks that break two-factor authentication on their accounts. Recommended.
Source: Forbes
Can you resist just one more Google story?
It's an eerily familiar battle for Canadian listeners, and Google is currently fighting it. Representative from California. Google has begun restricting access to state-originated news articles for some users, in a bid to take a hard line against a bill that would force tech companies to pay publishers for their content.
The move comes amid the reinstatement of the California Journalism Protection Act, which passed the state Legislature last year. The bill would require digital giants like Google and Meta to compensate news organizations when their articles or links appear on their technology platforms.
Google executive Jafar Zaidi said in a blog post that the bill would be an “unworkable” tax on links to news sources and would prompt “significant changes” to services already available to Californians. Stated.
Zaidi wrote that in anticipation of the bill's potential passage, the company temporarily blocked news from appearing in search results for an unspecified “small number” of California users.
Google says the proposal is the “wrong approach” to support the struggling U.S. news industry, which has been plagued by layoffs and newspaper closures even as big tech companies' digital advertising revenues soar.
Supporters of the bill say it would provide a critical lifeline for the state's publishers, who have seen more than 100 shutter their doors in the past decade as advertising revenues plummet. .
The bill aims to redirect some of the billions of dollars in digital ad revenue earned by tech giants like Google and Meta to compensate journalists and publishers who reuse their content.
More than 70% of digital ad spending now goes to just these two companies, and supporters say they have a responsibility to support the news industry they have destroyed and profited from.
But critics argue that such a link tax is an unworkable model that undermines the principles of an open internet.
Google's aggressive move mirrors past tactics used when faced with similar pay-for-journalism rules in Canada and Australia. After initial threats to block the news, the company eventually struck a deal with the publisher.
As California's bill gains momentum, the battle over compensation for news organizations appears headed for an increasingly bitter showdown between lawmakers and the tech giants that dominate the digital advertising market.
And while Google finally reached some sort of agreement with Canada, Meta continues to block Canadian news articles on its platform. This story may continue for some time to come.
Sources include: Axios
Google dominated the headlines last week, but it turns out the giant may want to keep an eye on its search engine dominance. There's no question that Chrome is the most dominant browser by a mile. Well, it seems like a mile is still better.
However, there are some threats to its dominance. We published several articles last week to show that people in Europe would choose other browsers if they were actually given a choice.
Google is also experimenting with adding AI to search in the UK, but early reviews are not great, with reports saying junk content is more likely to appear higher in searches.
For others, using AI search like Perplexity.ai has proven to be much more reliable and beneficial than Google. But now there is a generational rift.
It turns out that for Gen Z (also known as Gen Z by Canadians), Google is no longer the default starting point when searching for information online. Instead, he turns to social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube as the go-to search engines for many young people.
New data from youth research firm YPulse reveals a clear generational divide. 58% of Millennials aged 25-39 still start their internet queries on Google, but this drops to just 46% for 18-24 year olds.
Among Gen Z, 21% start their search directly on TikTok, and an additional 5% go directly to YouTube. This is a clear departure from his Google-centric behavior of the older demographic.
This shift highlights how social media has evolved from simply connecting with friends to a vast “information superhighway” for the first generation of true digital natives.
Gen Z users say they prefer more relevant and authentic results delivered through human-curated videos and posts compared to Google's algorithms that heavily rely on sponsored content.
There's also an innate comfort and affinity with social platforms, developed by younger users who have no memory of the early days when Google dominated search.
This trend is becoming a growing headache for Google and its parent company Alphabet. Google derives most of its roughly $2 trillion valuation from digital advertising tied to search traffic.
In response, Google rolled out new features aimed at Gen Z, including AI tools that generate a more personalized search feed and better highlight social media conversations.
However, many people are still dissatisfied with the quality of Google's search results due to excessive advertising and search engine optimization strategies.
As Gen Z increasingly eschews traditional search engines, incumbent tech giants will be forced to adapt to behavioral changes that will bring about a generational shift in how they discover and consume information online.
Imagine this. In the future, someone born in 1990 will be the same age as me. They'll mention his 90s rock group, stare dumbfounded and say “TikTok.”
Hey, no more Kleenex tissues. There may be a world where search isn't Google.
And that’s today’s show…
And tomorrow, unless a monumental article comes along, we'll be free from Google, I promise.
I'm your host, Jim Love. Have a wonderful Monday!
