Google Search update turns spotlight on YouTube for music searches

Google wants to make sure you keep using its services with a new update for its search engine. If you search for a song on Google, a Google Now-style card will appear with a link to the YouTube video plus information such as artist, album, and release date.

Search Engine Watch reports the feature has been available since September last year. A Google spokesperson said, "This was already available in September 2013 when you searched for an artist and then clicked on a song—you’d see a preview of the music video if it was available to display. Yesterday we made it easier to get to—you can now just search for a song directly and see the video screenshot right away.”

BlackBerry rolls out Find Friends feature to iOS and Android BBM apps

BlackBerry released a new update for its iOS and Android BBM apps to integrate the new Find Friends features. BBM users on both platforms can now discover if their contacts are on BBM so they can send PIN invites. Aside from that, users can also send invites for non-BBM friends to download the app. The invite can be sent through SMS or email.

The feature will show up the first time you launch the app after updating and then it can be seen under the “invites” tab menu located at the bottom left hand corner of the app.

Source: The Next Web

Name your price for Sid Meier game bundle

Been a fan of Canadian-American video game developer Sid Meier and his highly addictive simulation games? Well, his creations are up for grabs over at the Humble Bundle store for a limited time. You just have to name the price you want to pay to own Civilization III, Civilization IV, Ace Patrol, Ace Patrol: Pacific Skies, and Railroads. If you pay over the average $8.58, you can also own Civilization V and Civilization V: Gods and Kings downloadable content. Pay over $15 and they also throw in the new Civilization V: Brave New World DLC.

Proceeds of the sale can either go to 2K video game publisher, who publishes all his games; Action Against Hunger charity; or Humble Bundle store itself. Buyers can choose how much of their payment goes to the three groups. 

Google to clamp down on phony YouTube views

Google wants to make sure the video viewing count on streaming site YouTube remains accurate to not just help keep trust of users but to make sure the advertisers were assured the ads are seen by actual people. That is why the tech company plans to validate view counts periodically and take out fraudulent views.

YouTube software engineer Philipp Pfeiffenberger said in a blog post, “We don’t expect this approach to affect more than a minuscule fraction of videos on YouTube, but we believe it’s crucial to improving the accuracy of view counts and maintaining the trust of our fans and creators.”

Source: Ubergizmo