Daily Dispatch: Google improves synonym display; White House launches iPhone/iTouch app

Combing through hundreds of blog posts and news articles daily, Dirk Klingner, our technology-trend watcher, sifts through the noise to bring you the tech news most important to consumers. If you have a tip on a story you want to share, leave a comment below.

...We also recently made a change to how our synonyms are displayed. In our search result snippets, we bold the terms of your search. Historically, we have bolded synonyms such as stemming variants — like the word "picture" for a search with the word "pictures." Now, we've extended this to words that our algorithms very confidently think mean the same thing, even if they are spelled nothing like the original term. This helps you to understand why that result is shown, especially if it doesn't contain your original search term.

Apple, Microsoft Discuss Giving Bing Top iPhone Billing (BusinessWeek)

...Apple is in talks with Microsoft to replace Google as the default search engine on its iPhone, according to two people familiar with the matter. The talks have been under way for weeks, say the people, who asked not to be named because the details have not been made public.

WhiteHouse.gov: Anywhere (The White House Blog)

Today, we're excited to announce the new White House App available for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. The White House App delivers dynamic content from WhiteHouse.gov to the palm of your hand. Image of White House iPhone App showing list of photos and video playerOne feature that stands out is live video streaming. Now anyone with this app can watch the President's public events at the White House, frequent web chats with Administration officials, and other events like key speeches and press briefings in real time.

Snapsort Does Detailed Camera Comparisons (LifeHacker)

...Snapsort compares major features like the max ISO setting, weight, speed of continuous shooting, megapixels, sensor type, and more. The information is grouped into category by similarity and difference so you can quickly see what is identical—or nearly so—and what is different enough to merit a closer look.

Bill Gates Rejoins Facebook, Gives Twitter A Try Too (TechCrunch)

...Gates' first updates on Twitter, which were first noticed by TheNextWeb are mostly related to the crisis in Haiti, which may well have spurred his decision to join. President Obama recently sent his first tweet from an aid center in Haiti, and plenty of other celebrities have used the platform to help encourage donations. The new Twitter account has been verified by Twitter as the real deal.

Tweak the Tweet: New Twitter Hashtag Syntax for Sharing Information During Catastrophes (ReadWriteWeb)

...One of these groups, in collaboration with Project EPIC, developed a new syntax to make it easier for computers to read tweets from areas that are affected by a disaster. If adopted widely, this new hashtag-based syntax will make it easier to automatically extract data about locations or the status of a road or person.

Lighter Side: Pigeon: Impossible (LucasMartell)