Ad sales surge at Google parent Alphabet, but so do costs

The YouTube Africa Day Concert 2022 seeks to bring Africans, the Diaspora, and people from across the world together to celebrate a continent that is home to more than 1.5 billion people and find new ways of artistic expression. This year’s concert features artists from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, South Africa, and Congo.

Google is set to pay $US118 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused it of systematically underpaying women. But will other companies take note? Annette Young talks to author and gender equality consultant, Gill Whitty-Collins. Also as the bloody war continues in Ukraine, we head to a school in Kosovo that's training Ukrainian women to clear deadly Russian landmines that now dot the landscape. Plus a goal for equality on the football field with Italy giving the go-ahead for a women's professional league.

Google uses unclear language and deceptive designs that trick users into agreeing to give up their data, EU watchdogs have said. The tech company has two other pending antitrust suits in the EU.

Google guesses users' age, gender, marital status, income bracket, and personal interests. Using the tool shows that many of Google's predictions can be off-base, but the majority of them are scarily accurate. It's also possible to stop Google from tracking your information or predicting your profile going forward.

In 2022, German users primarily searched Google for news and background information on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But there was also great interest in major sporting events, Queen Elizabeth II's death, and COVID.

The conversational service, introduced as Bard, comes after rival Microsoft announced it was investing in ChatGPT. Google said Bard would be integrated into its search engine.

Microsoft says it is revamping its Bing search engine and Edge web browser with artificial intelligence akin to ChatGPT, in the hopes of making inroads into Google's dominance of online searches.

Alphabet's Google is rolling out more artificial intelligence for its core search product, hoping to create some of the same consumer excitement generated by Microsoft's update to rival search engine Bing in recent months.

Google will begin using its AI chatbot in its search engine, as it seeks to catch up with rivals in the fast-growing sector. The announcement came on the eve of a European vote on new regulations for artificial intelligence. Also in the show: US inflation drops below 5 percent for the first time in two years, and French drivers accuse petrol distributors of raking in the profits from unfair prices.

Brazil's Supreme Court ordered the investigation into Google and Telegram executives after the firms campaigned against a bill that would curtail online disinformation.

Arguing for their "right to be forgotten," a couple in finance had sought to have content critical of them delisted from Google. The court said Google must do so only if content is proven false.

Alphabet's Google was charged by EU antitrust regulators with anti-competitive practices in its digital advertising business on Wednesday and may now have to sell part of its operations to address their concerns.