"Google has tweaked the SafeSearch filter so that porn doesn't leak into image search results... For parents and those who'd rather not be frightened by results stemming from search queries like "cucumber" and "hotdog", SafeSearch is a handy tool for toning down or completely blocking offending sexual and other questionable content. Typically it was easy to set: simply adjust the lever to "on", "moderate" or "off"..."

"Unlike previous years, NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense Command) has decided to use Bing maps to track Santa's journey as he goes around the world delivering presents. Starting Christmas eve, one will be able to go to the official NORAD Santa tracking site (http://www.noradsanta.org/) and use Bing maps to see where Santa is delivering presents at that time. In previous years, NORAD has always gone for Google maps to track Saint Nick.

"Lastminute.com founder Martha Lane Fox has told companies in the UK to "steal from Google" and make the world wide wibble their number one priority. According to the Telegraph, Fox thinks Google was successful because it thought of the web first with everything. This is not really surprising because it started out life as a search engine. But she said that if people are considering a new aspect of their business or changing an existing process, think internet first..."

"As part of its financial website, Google allows users to compare search traffic of aggregated industries against the developing price of stock. The search traffic is normalized to the value of 1.0 and the search volume that occurred on January 1, 2004. Don't expect any dramatic revelations or search numbers or even a search volume pertaining to a single company. However, the selection of 27 industries and related search terms may cause some speculation of a changing way how we acquire information.

"The company said that it will now award $20,000 for any bug that allows code execution on its "production systems". Google will also pay $10,000 for SQL injection bugs as well as for "certain types" of information disclosure, authentication, and authorization bypass bugs. The previous top reward of $3,133.70 now applies to "many types of XSS, XSRF, and other high-impact flaws in highly sensitive applications."

"Google Play Market bans popular Reddit Android app over spurious adult content violations.

Within the past 24 hours Google Play removed and banned indie developer Andrew Shu’s Reddit Is Fun app from its market.

Google Play’s brief email told Shu the app - a fan-created link client - is a “Violation of the sexually explicit material provision of the Content Policy.”

"It hasn’t been a good year for Firefox. Mozilla has lost share to Google, it’s lost the loyalty of enterprise customers, and it’s lost key talent. And a deal with Google that supplied 84% of its revenue last year was scheduled to end in November. Can Firefox avoid a slide into irrelevance?"

"Happy Halloween from the Google Doodle, which uses mammoth pumpkins and some pretty sophisticated pumpkin carving to send its holiday message. It's no trick and all treat. The Google Doodle often uses a static image when it temporarily revamps its home page. But Monday, users are treated to a time-lapse video showing huge pumpkins being sliced and diced and, as the sun goes down, emitting a flickering, ghostly glow -- and the name of the search engine, of course."

"Not content with making it hard for people to export their Facebook contacts to Google+, Facebook has now banned all ads from app developer Michael Lee Johnson, who ran an ad saying 'Add Michael to Google+.' Facebook sent him the following message: 'Your account has been disabled. All of your adverts have been stopped and should not be run again on the site under any circumstances.