Welcome to AdFeeder’s web Wednesdays, your weekly dose of the latest news and stories that have caught our eye. From technology news to the latest vehicle releases and everything in between, we aim to bring you a quick run down of what you need to know each week.

Welcome to the first Web Wednesday of October! The nights are drawing in, the temperature is plummeting, but the news is still toasty!

The most searched for term on Bing is rather funny

We’ll get straight into something that really cheered up this gloomy Wednesday afternoon, and the news that Google has thrown some serious shade to another rival search engine. Many of us open up a web browser and don’t even notice the Google colour palette and logo appear, it’s completely second nature to us. But there are some that use different search engines, take Yahoo, Ask.com and Bing. Funnily enough, Bing is the one we wanted to talk about – can you guess what the most searched for term was on Bing? Covid-19 Symptoms, How to use Zoom, What countries are on the green list? Not quite – it’s actually ‘Google’.

There’s currently a rather large court case ongoing for Google, who have faced a 4.3 billion Euro fine from the European Union for abusing its market power. The EU accused Google of using Android’s success in the smartphone market to make Google the default search engine.

But Google says its service is simply the most popular, and their argument is pretty simple: “People use Google because they choose to, not because they are forced to.”

“Google’s market share in general search is consistent with consumer surveys showing that 95% of users prefer Google to rival search engines.”

Still, that must have caused some bruises for Bing!

Meet the Amazon Astro, a robot that follows you

Our next topic has caused a fair bit of controversy when it was released. Amazon has officially launched the Amazon Astro with a launch video that promises that the $999 robot, which is squat with two wheels and a rectangular screen that features two orbs for eyes, will be able to do things like watch your home or join impromptu dance parties.

This being Amazon, there’s good reason to be skeptical, especially since Astro is essentially a giant camera on wheels that will watch everything you do. The cutesy smiling face relies almost entirely on facial recognition and its owner’s behavior to determine its actions. In its announcement video, Amazon says Astro is designed to give “peace of mind” to its owners. When a user purchases the $999 robot, customers are asked to “enroll” their face and voice, as well as the faces and voices of anyone who’s likely to be in a home, so Astro can learn who is supposed to be there.

What’s even funnier, is If the robot detects something it thinks is out of the ordinary, such as seeing a person it doesn’t recognise, or a sound like glass breaking or a fire alarm, it will investigate further, including following an unidentified person around the house. We’re just imagining this awkward looking thing with a terrifying smile on its face following a person hell-bent on burgling your home.

Of course, this product is entirely made to sell more products, and whilst we’ve seen other products like the loveable Roomba become part of the family, we can’t see this one making a lasting impression.

Elfyn Evans wins historic Rally of Finland

Next let’s take a look at a motorsport that requires serious bravery. Rallying in general isn’t for the faint of heart, hurtling a stripped out hatchback down a narrow gravel road with only trees, spectators and the faint sound of your co-driver to guide you is truly ludicrous, but the Finnish rally takes it one step further.

In the past 70 years, only eight drivers born outside of Scandinavia have conquered Rally Finland. Such is the unique challenge the spiritual home of rallying presents, that it has traditionally favoured drivers who grew up driving its fast gravel stages. Until 1990, when Carlos Sainz broke through for Toyota, every single iteration of the rally had been won by either a Finn or a Swede.

With that in mind, hearing that a Welshman won every single stage during this year’s event is all the more impressive. Elfyn Evans’ talents have been known for some time, having won Rally GB as long ago as 2017 – and only missing out on his maiden World Rally Championship win earlier that year in Argentina by 0.7 seconds. Upon moving to Toyota for 2020, he won on his second start in Sweden and led the standings into the final round at Monza, only to fall at the final hurdle in a duel with seven-time champion team-mate Sebastien Ogier.

Therefore winning the Rally of Finland was a truly special moment for the man from North-West Wales, and one that he believes was “probably the highest” of his World Rally Championship career to date. Whilst there are a lot of people in Wales with Evans as a surname, some slightly older viewers might be thinking of another Welsh rally driver, Gwyndaf Evans – aka Elfyn’s old man.

So what makes the Rally of Finland such an important event? It’s regarded as the one you want to win, think of it as the Monaco Grand Prix of rally events. Well, it’s the jumps, and the sheer relentless pace of the stages. The compact hatchbacks can scale jumps travis pastrana would be scared to set foot on, all whilst hitting the limiter in top gear. The fan footage from this event really shows the raw speed of the event, as cars dice between century-old trees and huge rocked banks.

Evan’s win makes him only the second Briton to win one of rallying’s most prestigious events, following in the footsteps of Kris Meeke in 2016, and with just two events to go and only 24 points between him and his French team mate Sebasitien Ogier, the battle really is on!