Author: GT

European search engines Qwant and Ecosia said on Wednesday that they have both started serving search queries through an index they developed together, Staan, which aims to be a cheaper, more privacy-focused alternative to Google and Bing. Last year, French privacy-focused search engine Qwant struck a joint venture with German non-profit search engine Ecosia to develop a European search index. Called European Search Perspective (EUSP), the JV now aims to serve around 50% of French queries and 33% of German queries by the end of the year. Qwant said it is using the new index to power some of its…

FILE PHOTO: Crude oil tanker Nevskiy Prospect, owned by Russia’s leading tanker group Sovcomflot, transits the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey September 6, 2020. Yoruk Isik | ReutersThe oil market is shrugging off President Donald Trump’s threats to impose heavy tariffs on countries that buy Russian energy exports.Trump has given Russia until Friday to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine. If Moscow does not comply, the U.S. will impose 100% “secondary tariffs” on countries that buy Russian exports, the president has said. This would in theory force countries to choose between buying Russian oil or trading with the U.S.India, China and Turkey…

Attendees walk through an exposition hall at AWS re:Invent, a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services, in Las Vegas on Dec. 3, 2024.Noah Berger | Getty ImagesAmazon Web Services has agreed to provide U.S. federal agencies with up to $1 billion in discounts for cloud adoption, modernization and training through 2028, an agency overseeing government procurement announced Thursday.The agreement is expected to speed up migration to the cloud, as well as adoption of artificial intelligence tools, the General Services Administration said.”AWS’s partnership with GSA demonstrates a shared public-private commitment to enhancing America’s AI leadership,” the agency said in a release.Amazon’s cloud boss…

Google has confirmed that some customers’ information has been stolen in a recent breach of one of its databases. In a blog post late on Tuesday, Google Threat Intelligence Group said one of its Salesforce database systems, used to store contact information and related notes for small and medium-sized businesses, was breached by a hacking group popularly known as ShinyHunters, formally designated as UNC6040.  “The data retrieved by the threat actor was confined to basic and largely publicly available business information, such as business names and contact details,” the company said. Google did not disclose how many customers are affected,…

Roblox, the online gaming platform wildly popular with children and teenagers, is rolling out an open-source version of an artificial intelligence system it says can help preemptively detect predatory language in game chats. The move comes as the company faces lawsuits and criticism accusing it of not doing enough to protect children from predators. For instance, a lawsuit filed last month in Iowa alleges that a 13-year-old girl was introduced to an adult predator on Roblox, then kidnapped and trafficked across multiple states and raped. The suit, filed in Iowa District Court in Polk County, claims that Roblox’s design features…

Microsoft is making OpenAI’s new free and open GPT model, gpt-oss-20b, available to Windows 11 users via Windows AI Foundry, the tech giant’s platform that lets users tap AI features, APIs, and popular open source models on their computers. The company said in a blog post that gpt‑oss-20b is “tool-savvy and lightweight,” adding: “Optimized for agentic tasks like code execution and tool use, it runs efficiently on a range of Windows hardware, with support for more devices coming soon. It’s perfect for building autonomous assistants or embedding AI into real-world workflows, even in bandwidth-constrained environments.” Launched on Tuesday, OpenAI’s gpt-oss-20b…

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event with Apple CEO Tim Cook in the Oval Office of the White House on August 6, 2025 in Washington, DC. Win Mcnamee | Getty ImagesU.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed 100% tariffs on the import of semiconductors has brought major chip names into the spotlight.Questions linger about how these duties will be implemented: will they apply to the raw chip itself that is imported, or the end product, like a smartphone or laptop? And how much manufacturing needs to actually be done in the U.S.?Trump said that, if companies are “building in the…

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 marks 20 years of shaping the startup world — and tonight’s your last chance to save up to $675 on your ticket. From October 27–29, Disrupt returns to Moscone West in San Francisco. Join 10,000+ tech innovators, founders, VCs, and ecosystem builders for three days of high-impact programming, networking, and startup energy. But first: your savings. You have until 11:59 p.m. PT tonight to save up to $675. Once the clock strikes midnight, prices jump. Register now. Why you won’t want to miss this 20th-anniversary Disrupt TechCrunch Disrupt has been the launchpad for breakthroughs and next-generation deals…

Lesley Mathis knows what her daughter said was wrong. But she never expected the 13-year-old girl would get arrested for it.The teenage girl made an offensive joke while chatting online with her classmates, triggering the school’s surveillance software.Before the morning was even over, the Tennessee eighth grader was under arrest. She was interrogated, strip-searched and spent the night in a jail cell, her mother says.Earlier in the day, her friends had teased the teen about her tanned complexion and called her “Mexican,” even though she’s not. When a friend asked what she was planning for Thursday, she wrote: “on Thursday…

Locket, the photo-sharing app that allows users to share images with friends that are then displayed on their home screens as widgets, wants to stay on your radar, and it’s enlisting the help of celebrities. When it launched in 2022, Locket emerged as a competitor to BeReal, offering a more authentic way to connect with others. The app places a widget on iPhone home screens that updates with the latest pictures added by friends. Users can select up to 20 close friends, creating an intimate space to share unfiltered selfies and updates on their lives. The app claims to have…