About: search engines
EU institutions reach agreement on Digital Services Act
European Union co-legislators reached an agreement on the Digital Services Act (DSA), flagship legislation that will reign in the digital sphere and step up the fight against illegal content and disinformation.
DSA: The European Commission’s new strategy to cover search engines
The EU executive has put forth a non-paper on how to best include search engines in the obligations of the Digital Services Act (DSA), addressing concerns that Google and the likes might slip the regulation’s scope. The Commission’s non-paper on...
France orders removal of e-commerce giant Wish over safety concerns
The French government ordered on Wednesday (24 November) search engines and app stores to delist US e-commerce giant Wish on the grounds that the online retail platform was "flouting product safety regulations". EURACTIV France reports.
Denmark, Italy, Portugal, Spain issue warning on DMA ahead of ministerial meeting
The Danish, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish embassies to the EU circulated a warning statement on Monday (22 November) ahead of the Competitiveness Council that is set to adopt the EU’s Digital Markets Act, a key piece of digital legislation, on...
DSA: EU ambassadors reach agreement to start interinstitutional negotiations
Representatives of EU countries endorsed a key piece of digital legislation, the Digital Services Act, on Wednesday, confirming proposals for a 24-hour deadline for removal of illegal content, liability provisions for online marketplaces and centralised enforcement for very large online platforms.
Search engines push for opening default positions
DuckDuckGo, Qwant, Ecosia, and Lilo sent an open letter to EU lawmakers on Thursday (7 October), urging them to take action against their dominant rival Google in the upcoming legislative proposal on the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Online platforms under fire as EU pushes for transparency on search results
Online platforms ranging from ecommerce retailers like Amazon to search engines including Google will be forced to reveal the criteria they use to display search results, under a new European Commission proposal.
Getty Images takes Google grievance to EU antitrust regulators
Getty Images has become the latest company to take its grievances with Google to EU antitrust regulators, as it accused the search engine giant of favouring its own images service at the expense of rivals.
Google search competition case may not be over
SPECIAL REPORT / EU Competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia has repeatedly tried to settle the Google search case, but serious concerns remain, and may open the way for a surprise ending in what is probably the most important legal battle for the future of e-commerce in Europe.
Consumers join battle against Google in search case
The EU’s main consumer organisation joined the antitrust case against Google on Monday (March 31), accusing the tech giant of misleading users with biased search results.
Google’s carbon footprint exposed
Search engines such as Google generate massive CO2 emissions, shows a study by US physicist Alex Wissner-Gross.
Google aims to set EU data protection agenda
As EU privacy regulators maintain their focus on search engines, Internet giant Google pushed for harmonisation of EU and global rules on data protection during the first meeting of a new European Commission expert group designed to review current legislation.
Google tries to please privacy watchdogs
Google announced yesterday (9 September) that it will further shorten the period it stores Internet users' private data in an attempt to address privacy-related concerns. Yet by halving its data retention period from 18 to nine months, the search engine still falls short of fulfilling the demands of EU privacy protection authorities.Regulator warns of mobile Internet privacy concerns
Searching on the Internet via a mobile phone poses higher privacy-related concerns than traditional computer-based queries, according to the Italian authority for the protection of personal data.Online privacy a concern for EU citizens
EU citizens believe data transmission over the Internet is not sufficiently secure and are increasingly using technology to protect their privacy online, a new poll reveals. The trend is posing a challenge to the current business practices of IT giants which rely on private data to offer their services.
ICT: EU acts on growing privacy concerns
The EU institutions are stepping up their efforts towards stronger protection of personal data on the Internet and in relation to the use of new technologies, such as radio frequency identification (RFID).
EU mulls new measures to protect privacy on the Web
European institutions have a range of initiatives in store which could lead to the imposition of clearer limits for the conservation of personal information by useful but occasionally privacy-breaching Internet technologies such as search engines.
Microsoft bid for Yahoo is new competition challenge for EU
If Microsoft's offer to buy Yahoo ends up with an agreement between the boards of the two IT giants, competition authorities around the world will have a new complex Internet issue to deal with in addition to the proposed merger between Google and DoubleClick.
Images to be alongside text in future search engines
Next generation search engines may work not only with text but also with images thanks to new technologies for visual content retrieval developed by Vitalas, a European Commission-funded project whose prototype system will be tested from next week by Exalead, the fourth biggest search engine in the world.