When TechCrunch journalist John Biggs encountered HTC’s immersive VR goggle “Vive” in March, he was bowled over by the experience, even though the device was still in its development phase; now, news is breaking that the Taiwanese company plans to release the gadget to consumers later this year, with November being the most likely launch date.

The long-awaited official Windows 10 launch has happened – what can you expect?

Can neuroscience help create more meaningful digital content? Neuroscientist Dr Beau Lotto certainly seems to think so, and he’s been explaining why.

Google has started to implement the latest version of Panda, its search results ranking algorithm. Originally released in February 2011, Panda had as its aim the lowering in the rank of so-called low-quality or thin sites and the promotion of higher-quality sites to nearer the top of online search results.

Google has been discussing how it deals with the new top-level domains, or TLDs. John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst with Google, took to the Google Webmaster Blog in response to what he said were questions and misconceptions among members of the webmaster community regarding the issue of TLDs.

Consumers searching for a thinner mobile device are to get new options, thanks to Samsung. The Korean device manufacturer is rolling out its thinnest smartphone ever – the new Galaxy A8. The company is also rolling out its thinnest ever tablet device, in the shape of the Galaxy Tab S2, available in 8-inch and 9.7-inch models.

Does Google have any regrets over its 2010 acquisition of YouTube? Not if Google’s announcements of recent days are to be believed, and the figures the company have been quoting are certainly impressive.

Google has commenced roll-out of the buy button feature in search ads, though users will find that the button is not an actual button after all. The feature, known as Purchases On Google, was announced along with a number of other updates to mobile Product Listing Ads (PLAs). With Purchases On Google, the search engine giant is intent on helping merchants boost online conversion rates.

The shift from traditional to online news sources continues apace, with research conducted by US-based think tank The Pew Research Centre indicating that Facebook and Twitter are becoming increasingly popular among those searching for the latest headlines. The report, published on 14th July, covers US respondents only, but it does give an interesting insight into news consumption trends, given the sheer size and scale of the US market.

Google Search Console, the feature previously known as Google Webmaster Tools, is to start sending notifications to fewer people in respect of average notification types. This is according to Gary Illyes, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst. Google’s intention is that the change will take effect in August and its impact will be limited to the average type of notification only. The change will not impact on the way in which the search engine giant issues notifications to webmasters in respect of more critical messages. Such a message might be for a site that is being hacked, for instance.