Google change in search brings ‘Mobilegeddon’

If your website doesn’t look good on a phone, Google is giving you a good reason to fix it.

Google is changing how it ranks websites in search — a move some are calling Mobilegeddon. Google searches made on a phone will only display links to pages that look good on a smaller phone screen. Business owners may find themselves scrambling to fix their websites, or else lose out on mobile search traffic.

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Google change in search brings ‘Mobilegeddon’

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Also in this tech-news roundup, learn about Twitter’s latest changes. Users have the option to receive private, direct messages from people they don’t follow. Marketers, politicians and other brands may love this, but if you turn it on, you may open yourself up to spam or harassment from strangers.

Twitter is also making changes to fight back against trolls. Twitter expanded its policy to not only prohibit specific threats of violence, but also those that promote violence against others. And Twitter can lock out abusive accounts for set amounts of time.

Worried about your past tweets coming back to haunt you? The Clear app is working with IBM’s Watson to sort out your potentially offensive social media posts. Unfortunately, no app can stop you from acting like a moron online.

CNET Update delivers the tech news you need in under three minutes. Watch Bridget Carey every afternoon for a breakdown of the big stories, hot devices, new apps, and what’s ahead. Subscribe to the podcast via the links below.

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