It seems that the big players in cyberworld are becoming very twitchy about public perceptions of their somewhat lackadaisical attitude to personal security: last week, Google announced that its new Android “L” OS will feature automatic data encryption built-in just a day after Apple announced that its new iOS 8 shields users data with passwords that Apple can’t decrypt (even if they’re confronted with a court order).

Google Authorship is dead. Long live Google Authorship. That may sound like pure flapdoodle, but claims of Authorship’s literal death may be premature.

There probably aren’t many webmasters and content creators out there who would regard a new Penguin as a good Christmas present; but the signs are that the nervously anticipated Penguin 3.0 will be with us before Santa boards his sleigh this year.

When it comes to maximising profits and developing new revenue streams, there’s little doubt that Google is a genius in both departments; but things aren’t going its way in Europe, after the European Commission bowed to growing pressure to seek new concessions from the search giant on how it displays search results.

Google Authorship is the royal road to more trustworthy Web content, right? The key for publishers to build a sound online reputation, the path to meaningful search engine results, yes? It was certainly billed as all of these things. But now it’s been euthanised.

Jetpac is known for its ability to supply information as a somewhat different (even quirky) travel guide. Its app covers 6,000+ cities and allows users to delve down deep into information about “where people like you hang out.” Local guides can be found for places frequented by business travellers, students, surfers, lovers of fine wine, music fans, etc., etc.

With all of the recent updates to the Google search algorithms (Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird), a toll is being taken on social sharing and content.

The technology giants are awash with cash, so apart from buying up other companies what can they do with it? The answer is… they can build themselves futuristic headquarters to impress us all. Quirky designs fit the image of such companies and as money is no object, why not create something really special?

Help is at hand for news content publishers with the launch this week of Google’s new news portal, Google News Publisher Center.

Do you notice when search features get added or taken away? Probably not, unless it’s a feature you absolutely love. But search engines like Google often change their formats, adding and taking away features, in order to refresh and revitalise the search experience. For example, one big decision Google made this year was to completely disable the Google discussion forum search filter.