Google Lets Schools Keep Search Without Gemini. The AI Overviews Come Along Anyway.

On Tuesday, which was also Election Day, Google announced a K-12 policy that switches Gemini, Gemini Notebook and Search off by default for schools using its education software. A Google education VP told the New York Times that "Search and AI are deeply integrated," so districts that ban AI would lose Search as well. Bernie Sanders called it "extortion," and Sen. Richard Blumenthal and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined in. Within hours Google partly walked it back: schools can now turn on Search by itself, without Gemini. That Search still puts AI Overviews on the results page, though, so the fight now is over what "AI off" means.

On Tuesday, which was also Election Day, Google announced a K-12 policy that switches Gemini, Gemini Notebook and Search off by default for schools using its education software. A Google education VP told the New York Times that "Search and AI are deeply integrated," so districts that ban AI would lose Search as well. Bernie Sanders called it "extortion," and Sen. Richard Blumenthal and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined in. Within hours Google partly walked it back: schools can now turn on Search by itself, without Gemini. That Search still puts AI Overviews on the results page, though, so the fight now is over what "AI off" means.

Happy Wednesday. If your pager has stayed quiet so far, enjoy it while it lasts. Today's security news is the kind that lands on whoever happens to be on call. A little background before you scroll:

• PHP is 31. Rasmus Lerdorf shipped "Personal Home Page Tools" in 1995, and a startling amount of the web still runs on what grew out of it.
• CVSS scores run from 0 to 10. Anything 9.0 or higher counts as "critical," which in practice means your lunch plans just got cancelled.
• A residential proxy is someone's home internet connection, rented out to strangers. It usually gets there through an SDK tucked inside a free app the owner forgot they installed.
• DNS dates to 1983. It was built to turn names into addresses, and people have been bolting new jobs onto it ever since.

Patch early, rotate your tokens and refill the coffee. Here's the room today.

Happy Wednesday. If your pager has stayed quiet so far, enjoy it while it lasts. Today's security news is the kind that lands on whoever happens to be on call. A little background before you scroll:

• PHP is 31. Rasmus Lerdorf shipped "Personal Home Page Tools" in 1995, and a startling amount of the web still runs on what grew out of it.
• CVSS scores run from 0 to 10. Anything 9.0 or higher counts as "critical," which in practice means your lunch plans just got cancelled.
• A residential proxy is someone's home internet connection, rented out to strangers. It usually gets there through an SDK tucked inside a free app the owner forgot they installed.
• DNS dates to 1983. It was built to turn names into addresses, and people have been bolting new jobs onto it ever since.

Patch early, rotate your tokens and refill the coffee. Here's the room today.