3 chapters across the catalog
AI startup Perplexity has made an unsolicited $4.5 billion offer to purchase the Chrome browser from Google. The bid comes as federal judges consider forcing Google to divest Chrome to address search engine monopoly concerns. While Google has not expressed interest in selling, the offer highlights the high valuation of browser data and advertising tracking.
Analysis of search engine bots suggests that Google's crawlers are significantly more efficient than Microsoft's. Data indicates that the Google bot often follows Chrome users to re-scan and index websites within minutes of a visit, effectively using the browser as a distributed crawling tool.
A new web tool called CraigsFinder is introduced, which allows users to search multiple Craigslist locations simultaneously using an Ajax-based interface. The developer, identified as the stepson of one of the hosts, reportedly spent years overcoming IP blocking issues from Craigslist to make the service functional. A bug report is noted regarding the tool's performance on the Safari browser, specifically involving the search box and region sliders.
