local

A change to Google's search algorithm for local rankings has prompted fierce debate about what information is most useful to customers. The rankings now vary minute to minute based on listed opening hours. The change affects "local pack ranking". ... That's the section that appears at the top of many Google search results pages showing three businesses close to the user's location and relating to the search. The section, often marked "Places" gives basic information about the business including its address and user ratings. Many business recently noted their appearance or non-appearance in this ... (view more)

Facebook has announced four changes to its Safety Check feature for dealing with local crises. The changes will offer more detail about what's currently happening, coordinate local help, and help make fundraising easier. Safety Check is a feature ... that lets people in the geographic area of a natural disaster, terror attack or other crisis quickly mark themselves as "safe." The idea is that this saves people exchanging a plethora of messages in order to check if somebody is OK. That's particularly important with voice calls and text messages, which can easily overload local ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Alice K. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just installed Windows 10 on my PC, and I was disappointed that I now have to sign on with a Microsoft account email address. I would much rather not have to login to Windows 10 with a Microsoft ... account. Is there any way I can login to Windows 10 normally without an email address? " My response: Windows 10 and its services are largely based on the user having an Internet connection and a Microsoft account. For example, OneDrive, which allows users to store files seamlessly on the Internet, requires a Microsoft account in order to ... (view more)

Facebook is to issue missing child alerts in user news feeds to US citizens. The alerts will be based on the user's location and will tie in with existing alert systems. The updates will be based on the AMBER Alert program that has been run for 20 ... years in the United States. AMBER Alert updates already go out via a range of media including: radio and television, highway electronic billboards, electronic signs outside participating retailers, and text alerts to users who have chosen to receive such messages. Whether and when to send an alert is the decision of local police, using their own ... (view more)

Microsoft is facing a storm of protest over its decision to remove a popular feature from its OneDrive cloud storage service. The change is set to take shape when the company's next operating system, Windows 10 , is released next year. In Windows ... 8.1, OneDrive shows ' smart files ', otherwise known as ' placeholders ' stored on the cloud, but not available on a local device. If a user decides they want to view or edit that file and double click on it, OneDrive begins to download the file to local storage. The advantage of smart files is simple: they let users view the entire contents of ... (view more)

A South Carolina woman was recently imprisoned for failing to return a VHS tape checked out from a local video store roughly nine years ago. Kayla Michelle Finley went to her local police station a few days ago to report a crime. The 27-year-old ... hardly expected that such a visit would result in her imprisonment for the crime of failing to return a VHS copy of the film "Monster-in-Law," a film that starred singer-actress Jennifer Lopez and Academy Award winner Jane Fonda. "Monster" Criminal Forgets to Return Video Tape Finley rented the justifiably forgotten comedy from ... (view more)