One of Google Search's oldest and best-known features, cache links, are being retired, Google's search liaison said in an X post seen by The Verge. Best known by the "Cached" button, those are a snapshot of a web page the last time Google indexed it. However, according to Google, they're no longer required.
"It was meant for helping people access pages when way back, you often couldn’t depend on a page loading,” Google's Danny Sullivan wrote in the post. “These days, things have greatly improved. So, it was decided to retire it.
Hey, catching up. Yes, it's been removed. I know, it's sad. I'm sad too. It's one of our oldest features. But it was meant for helping people access pages when way back, you often couldn't depend on a page loading. These days, things have greatly improved. So, it was decided to…
Nowadays, however, the feature is used for more than just a web page backup. Many people rely on it to check to validity of a site, and SEO managers can employ the feature to check their pages for errors. Many users, particularly news professionals, use the cache to see if a website has recently been updated, with information added or removed. And sometimes, a cache can let you check a site that's geoblocked in your region.
Previously, clicking on the three-dot menu next to a result would open an "about this result" dialog with the Cached button at bottom right. Now, however, it opens a much larger menu showing a website's "about" page, a Wikipedia descrtipoin, privacy settings and more. The cached button is now nowhere to be seen.
None of the comments in Sullivan's replies were positive, with one SEO user saying "come on, why delete the function? It's really helpful for all SEO." Sullivan did say that Google may one day add links to the Internet Archive where the cache link button used to be, within About This Result.
However, that sounds like it's far from a done deal, and would shift a massive amount of traffic over to the Internet Archive. "No promises. We have to talk to them, see how it all might go — involves people well beyond me. But I think it would be nice all around," he wrote.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-search-is-losing-its-cached-web-page-feature-113503903.html?src=rss
YouTube has hit a new milestone with its Music and Premium offerings. The paid services have more than 100 million users between them as of January, including those who were on a free trial. That's an increase of 20 million members in just over a year, and the figure has doubled since September 2021. YouTube has successfully grown the figures despite a $2 per month increase for Premium that came into force last summer.
It's unclear how many people are actually using YouTube Music (Premium includes access to that service). However you slice it, the music streaming service has significantly fewer paid users than Spotify, which had 220 million Premium members as of September 30. Spotify will reveal its latest membership numbers in an earnings report next week. Apple no longer breaks out its number of Apple Music subscribers. The last firm number the company gave for the service was 60 million subscribers back in 2019.
Regardless, the comparison between YouTube's paid service and Apple Music and Spotify Premium is hardly like-for-like. YouTube Premium is its own thing with its own benefits. It can be tough to go back to the lousier ad-strewn free version of the service after having Premium. The option to download videos for offline viewing without having to resort to workarounds and background playback feature are both very useful. YouTube Music is just an extra perk on top of that for many members.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtubes-paid-music-and-premium-services-now-have-more-than-100-million-subscribers-210008040.html?src=rss
Amazon launched a new generative AI shopping assistant, Rufus, on Thursday. The chatbot is trained on Amazon’s product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&As and “information from across the web.” It’s only available to a limited set of Amazon customers for now but will expand in the coming weeks.
The company views the assistant as customers’ one-stop shop for all their shopping needs. Rufus can answer questions like, “What to consider when buying running shoes?” and display comparisons for things such as, “What are the differences between trail and road running shoes?” It can also respond to follow-up questions like, “Are these durable?”
Amazon suggests asking Rufus for general advice about product categories, such as things to look for when shopping for headphones. It can provide contextual advice as well, lending insight into products based on specific activities (like hiking) or events (holidays or celebrations). Other examples include asking it to compare product categories (“What’s the difference between lip gloss and lip oil?” or “Compare drip to pour-over coffee makers”). In addition, it can recommend gifts for people with particular tastes or shopping recommendations for holidays.
Rufus can also answer more fine-tuned questions about a specific product page you’re viewing. Amazon provides the examples, “Is this pickleball paddle good for beginners?” or “Is this jacket machine-washable?”
“It’s still early days for generative AI, and the technology won’t always get it exactly right,” wrote Amazon executive Rajiv Mehta. “We will keep improving our AI models and fine-tune responses to continuously make Rufus more helpful over time. Customers are encouraged to leave feedback by rating their answers with a thumbs up or thumbs down, and they have the option to provide freeform feedback as well.”
Rufus is launching in beta today to only “a small subset of customers,” and it will appear (for those in the beta) after updating the Amazon mobile app. The assistant will continue rolling out to US customers “in the coming weeks.” Once you’re allowed into the beta, you can summon Rufus by typing or speaking your questions into the search bar. A Rufus chat box will appear at the bottom of the screen.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-launches-rufus-an-ai-powered-shopping-assistant-204811837.html?src=rss
The rumors were true: a remake of Until Dawn is coming to PlayStation 5 and PC later this year. As revealed during the latest State of Play showcase, the upgraded version of the interactive horror game is being built in Unreal Engine 5 and it will have several new bells and whistles.
You'll be able to experience the action from a third-person perspective for the first time. Ballistic Moon, which is handling the remake in the stead of original developer Supermassive Games, is expanding the color palette to make it more cinematic and bringing in contextual character movement animations.
There's also a new score from horror composer Mark Korven (The Witch), while the characters, visual effects and environments are all getting upgrades. "We’ve endeavored to keep the fantastic narrative integratory of the original, but we have seized the opportunity to expand upon unexplored emotional parts of the story," Ballistic Moon creative director Neil McEwan wrote on the PlayStation Blog.
The remake should arrive before the movie adaptation of Until Dawn that was announced in January. Unless the cast members all reprise their roles, the new version of the game will likely have bragging rights in at least one respect: the presence of a bonafide Academy Award winner in the form of Rami Malek.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/an-until-dawn-remake-is-coming-to-ps5-and-pc-this-year-191524477.html?src=rss
The days of sharing a Hulu account with friends and family are numbered. Like Netflix and sibling service Disney+ before it, Hulu is clamping down on password sharing outside the account holder's "primary personal residence" per an updated subscriber agreement. That is unless the practice is "permitted by your service tier," indicating that users may be able to pay extra to share their membership outside of their household.
Hulu has started telling users that they'll need to comply with the new rules by March 14, as The Verge reports. The service has been informing subscribers in emails that it's "adding limitations on sharing your account outside of your household," but it's unclear exactly how Hulu plans to track that.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hulu-is-the-latest-streaming-service-to-crack-down-on-password-sharing-161957187.html?src=rss
After threatening to do so earlier this week, Universal Music Group (UMG) has started pulling the catalogs of performers it represents including Taylor Swift, Drake, Billie Eilish, The Weeknd and others. There are no longer tracks listed in profiles of some of the world's most notable artists.
Moreover, UMG music featured in TikTok videos will be muted going forward, forcing creators to replace the tracks with options from other music labels. That won’t be easy for many of them, considering the huge number of lip-sync videos that litter the social network.
It’s a drastic move on Universal’s part, given that TikTok is a valuable marketing platform for its artists. However, UMG also has a fair amount of leverage, given that it’s the largest record label in the world with some of the most popular artists. Either way, it’s a blow for both creators and users of the platform.
Universal had previously stated that TikTok wanted to pay a "fraction" of the rate paid by other social media sites: "As our negotiations continued, TikTok attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value and not reflective of their exponential growth."
In response, TikTok said that it serves as a valuable marketing tool for artists and publishers. "Despite Universal's false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is they have chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users that serves as a free promotional and discovery vehicle for their talent."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/taylor-swift-and-other-universal-music-tracks-are-disappearing-from-tiktok-134536998.html?src=rss
The CEOs of Meta, Snap, Discord, X and TikTok testified at a high-stakes Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on child exploitation online. During the hearing, Mark Zuckerberg, Evan Spiegel, Jason Citron, Linda Yaccarino and Shou Chew spent nearly four hours being grilled by lawmakers about their records on child safety.
Judiciary Committee Chair, Senator Dick Durbin, noted Discord’s Citron “only accepted services of his subpoena” after US Marshals went to the company’s headquarters. Compared to previous hearings with tech CEOs, it was a heavier setting. The room was filled with parents of children who had been victims of online exploitation.
“Discord has been used to groom, abduct and abuse children,” Durbin said. “Meta’s Instagram helped connect and promote a network of pedophiles. Snapchat’s disappearing messages have been co-opted by criminals who financially extort young victims. TikTok has become a, quote, platform of choice for predators to access, engage and groom children for abuse. And the prevalence of CSAM (child sexual abuse material) on X has grown as the company has gutted its trust and safety workforce.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be a US Senate hearing without politicians also embarrassing themselves: Senator John Kennedy asked Snap’s Evan Spiegel if he knew the meaning of “yada yada yada” (Spiegel claimed he was “not familiar” with the phrase). “Can we agree… what you do is what you believe and everything else is just cottage cheese,” Kennedy asked. (… What?)
X’s Yaccarino, who repeatedly claimed X was a “brand new company” (and not Twitter with a poorly received rebrand), said the platform was considering adding parental controls. “Being a 14-month-old company, we have reprioritized child protection and safety measures,” she said. “And we have just begun to talk about and discuss how we can enhance those with parental controls.”
Twitter launched in 2006.
— Mat Smith
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Universal Music Group is threatening to pull all of its music from TikTok today following a breakdown in negotiations over royalties. The company wrote in an open letter that TikTok wanted to pay a “fraction” of the rate paid by other social media sites. “As our negotiations continued, TikTok attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value and not reflective of their exponential growth.”
The sides have reportedly been in negotiations for the past year. Such deals are worth billions annually to music publishing companies – and Universal is the world’s largest record label. If a deal isn’t struck, TikTok creators would lose access to songs from stars including Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, the Weeknd, Drake and others.
With Persona 3 Reload, developer Altus chose the most confusing (and influential) entry in the series to remake. There are some big changes you may not even notice if you haven’t played the 2006 original recently, with new English language voice actors (all the Japanese VAs return from the original) and, interestingly, the most voiced scenes from any game in the Persona series. Oh, it’s also incredibly gorgeous at times. But damn, it makes me feel old.
Hideo Kojima appeared on PlayStation’s State of Play not only to give Death Stranding 2 another nudge but also to say he’s developing a brand-new game for PlayStation. It’ll be an action-espionage title codenamed PHYSINT — so nothing to do with the Metal Gear Solid series that made his name. Kojima Productions has started early work on the project, but it won’t go into full production until the team finishes Death Stranding 2. Which is looking bonkers.
The Xbox Design Lab is neat. You can customize the colors of your controller pretty much however you like, with more options for the Vapor series. The six top case options have swirling color patterns more typically seen at your local bowling alley. If that still exists.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-senate-tells-social-media-ceos-they-have-blood-on-their-hands-133101841.html?src=rss
Universal Music Group (UMG) is threatening to pull all of its music from TikTok today following a breakdown in negotiations over royalties, the company wrote in an open letter. That would mean TikTok creators would lose access to songs from stars including Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, the Weeknd, Drake and others.
With UMG's deal with TikTok set to expire, the sides have reportedly been in negotiations for the past year. Such deals are worth billions annually to music publishing firms and are typically negotiated every few years. Universal is the world's largest record label, and if does pull it's music from TikTok, it would be the first time this has happened in recent memory.
Universal said TikTok wanted to pay a "fraction" of the rate paid by other social media sites. "As our negotiations continued, TikTok attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value and not reflective of their exponential growth."
In its own post, TikTok said that it serves as a valuable marketing tool for artists and publishers. "Despite Universal's false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is they have chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users that serves as a free promotional and discovery vehicle for their talent."
TikTok also benefits greatly from access to Universal's catalog and being cut off from access to ultra-popular artists like Taylor Swift would be a blow to creators and users. TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance has more than 3 billion monthly active users and made $29 billion in revenue in a single quarter ending June 2023, according to The Financial Times. Warner Bros. Music, the number three record label behind Sony Music and UMG, recently struck a deal with TikTok.
Universal said it does "not underestimate what this will mean for artists and their fans" but that it will not shirk its responsibilities. "TikTok’s tactics are obvious: use its platform power to hurt vulnerable artists and try to intimidate us into conceding to a bad deal that undervalues music and shortchanges artists and songwriters as well as their fans." The company added that payments from TikTok amount to "only about 1 percent of our total revenue."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/universal-music-threatens-to-pull-songs-from-tiktok-over-payment-terms-101528365.html?src=rss
Las Vegas will host Super Bowl 58 in its new billion-dollar, sustainably powered Allegiant Stadium. The venue holds 70,000 people, but if you’re not one of them and American football is your thing (or you just like the buzzy commercials and want to see Usher perform at halftime) you’ll need a way to watch at home. Luckily, there are a multitude of ways to do so — and one of them is nearly free. Kick off happens Sunday, February 11, at 3:30pm Pacific (6:30pm Eastern) so you have some more time to decide how you want to watch the big game. Here are all the ways to watch Super Bowl 2024.
How to watch Super Bowl 58
This year, the rights to air the biggest annual sporting event in the US goes to CBS… and Nickelodeon. Yep, the kids channel is hosting a live, family-friendly version of the event, complete with helpful thematic graphics and the cast of SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer hosting, providing commentary and explaining the rules to the youngest NFL fans. If you don’t need sideline reports from Sandy Cheeks, regular versions of the game will appear on CBS, CBS Sports Network, Paramount+ and on the NFL+ mobile app.
How to watch the Super Bowl with cable or satellite TV
Cable and satellite subscribers can tune into their local CBS station. If your plan includes CBS Sports Network (or Nickelodeon), you can go that route, too. Here’s a list of local CBS stations and affiliates so you can find your channel.
How to stream Super Bowl 2024
Last year, the Super Bowl was a little more complicated to stream since the broadcaster (Fox) didn’t have an over-the-top streaming app. It’s easier this year: the standalone Paramount+ app lets subscribers watch the game live. Plans start at $6 per month and there’s currently a free seven-day trial, but there’s no telling if that deal will still be live right before the big event. Of course, most live TV streaming services will also have the game, either on your local CBS station or via CBSSN. Here are the providers that will show Super Bowl LVIII:
If you’re willing to pay, Paramount+ is the cheapest way to stream the Super Bowl this year, plus you’ll get other shows to watch when the game’s over.
Can I watch the 2024 Super Bowl for free?
Almost. If you buy an indoor digital antenna, which hooks up to the coaxial port on your TV set, you can grab the game broadcast from your local CBS affiliate at no extra cost. It’ll let you watch your local NBC, ABC, PBS and FOX networks, too.
Can I watch the 2024 Super Bowl on mobile?
The NFL+ mobile app is airing the Super Bowl, but only on your smartphone or tablet (PC access and casting isn’t supported for primetime games, which includes the Super Bowl). So if you’re watching solo, this could be a good option. A subscription goes for $7 per month and it also provides NFL Network content with 24/7 football news.
Who is performing at the Super Bowl 2024 halftime show?
For some, the action in between the two halves of the game is what really matters. Mega stars have headlined the halftime show for decades now, with performances by Rihanna, Shakira, Lady Gaga, Prince, The Rolling Stones and Beyonce garnering almost as many headlines as the game itself. This year, Usher, who's timing the release of his latest album to drop just two days before the game, will light up the stadium with a set. Before the game, Reba McEntire will sing the national anthem and Post Malone will follow that up with a rendition of "America the Beautiful."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-watch-super-bowl-2024-how-to-stream-super-bowl-133039040.html?src=rss
We finally know for certain who will face off in Super Bowl 2024: The Kansas City Chiefs will play against the San Francisco 49ers in the biggest annual sporting event in the US. The game will take place in Las Vegas at the $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium, with kick off at 3:30pm Pacific or 6:30pm Eastern on Sunday, February 11. The game will air on CBS, which means it’ll also be streaming live on Paramount+ since both are owned by Paramount Global. You can also watch it on cable, with a live TV streaming service and with the NFL's app on mobile. That’s all to say that you have plenty of options to watch, stream and otherwise enjoy the big game this year. Here are all the ways to watch Super Bowl LVIII in 2024.
How to watch Super Bowl 58
This year, the rights to air the biggest annual sporting event in the US goes to CBS… and Nickelodeon. Yep, the kids channel is hosting a live, family-friendly version of the event, complete with helpful thematic graphics and the cast of SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer hosting, providing commentary and explaining the rules to the youngest NFL fans. If you don’t need sideline reports from Sandy Cheeks, regular versions of the game will appear on CBS, CBS Sports Network, Paramount+ and on the NFL+ mobile app.
How to watch the Super Bowl with cable or satellite TV
Cable and satellite subscribers can tune into their local CBS station. If your plan includes CBS Sports Network (or Nickelodeon), you can go that route, too. Here’s a list of local CBS stations and affiliates so you can find your channel.
How to stream Super Bowl 2024
Last year, the Super Bowl was a little more complicated to stream since the broadcaster (Fox) didn’t have an over-the-top streaming app. It’s easier this year: the standalone Paramount+ app lets subscribers watch the game live. Plans start at $6 per month and there’s currently a free seven-day trial, but there’s no telling if that deal will still be live right before the big event. Of course, most live TV streaming services will also have the game, either on your local CBS station or via CBSSN. Here are the providers that will show Super Bowl LVIII:
If you’re willing to pay, Paramount+ is the cheapest way to stream the Super Bowl this year, plus you’ll get other shows to watch when the game’s over.
Can I watch the 2024 Super Bowl for free?
Almost. If you buy an indoor digital antenna, which hooks up to the coaxial port on your TV set, you can grab the game broadcast from your local CBS affiliate at no extra cost. It’ll let you watch your local NBC, ABC, PBS and FOX networks, too.
Can I watch the 2024 Super Bowl on mobile?
The NFL+ mobile app is airing the Super Bowl, but only on your smartphone or tablet (PC access and casting isn’t supported for primetime games, which includes the Super Bowl). So if you’re watching solo, this could be a good option. A subscription goes for $7 per month and it also provides NFL Network content with 24/7 football news.
Who is performing at the Super Bowl 2024 halftime show?
For some, the action in between the two halves of the game is what really matters. Mega stars have headlined the halftime show for decades now, with performances by Rihanna, Shakira, Lady Gaga, Prince, The Rolling Stones and Beyonce garnering almost as many headlines as the game itself. This year, Usher, who's timing the release of his latest album to drop just two days before the game, will light up the stadium with a set. Before the game, Reba McEntire will sing the national anthem and Post Malone will follow that up with a rendition of "America the Beautiful."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-watch-super-bowl-2024-133039872.html?src=rss