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MAILONLINE BLOG: Follow live coverage from Pope Francis's funeral as world leaders gather in Rome. Francis died on Easter Monday after 13 years in the Vatican.

"A group of researchers says it has identified a hidden reason we use Google for nearly all web searches," reports the Washington Post. "We've never given other options a real shot." Their research experiment suggests that Google is overwhelmingly popular partly because we believe it's the best, whether that's true or not. It's like a preference for your favorite soda. And their research suggested that our mass devotion to googling can be altered with habit-changing techniques, including by bribing people to try search alternatives to see what they are like... [A] group of academics — from Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT — designed a novel experiment to try to figure out what might shake up Google's popularity. They recruited nearly 2,500 participants and remotely monitored their web searches on computers for months. The core of the experiment was paying some participants — most received $10 — to use Bing rather than Google for two weeks. After that period, the money stopped, and the participants had to pick either Bing or Google. The vast majority in the group of people who were paid to use Bing for 14 days chose to go back to Google once the payments stopped, suggesting a strong preference for Google even after trying an alternative. But a healthy number in that group — about 22 percent — chose Bing and were still using it many weeks later. "I realized Bing was not as bad as I thought it was...." one study participant said — which an assistant professor in business economics and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania says is a nice summation of the study's findings. "The researchers did not test other search engines," the article notes. But it also points out that more importantly: the research caught the attention of some government officials: Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D), who is leading the group of states that sued Google alongside the Justice Department, said the research helped inspire a demand by the states to fix Google's search monopoly. They asked a judge to require Google to bankroll a consumer information campaign about web search alternatives, including "short-term incentive payments." On the basis of that, the article suggests "you could soon be paid to try Microsoft Bing or another alternative." And in the meantime, the reporter writes, "I encourage you to join me in a two-week (unpaid) experiment mirroring the research: Change your standard search engine to something other than Google and see whether you like it. (And drop me a line to let me know how it went.) I'm going with DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused web search engine that uses Bing's technology."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The pontiff, whose death at 88 was announced by the Vatican on Easter Monday, is being buried today in a funeral service attended by the world's leaders.

The Dutch royal family were notably absent from a delegation of European royals who attended the funeral of Pope Francis today - due to a national holiday at home.

Adventurer Ed Stafford witnessed the heated argument near a car park in Cornwall as he spent 60 days with Romani gypsies and Irish travellers across the UK.

Did you get married on August 28? If the answer's 'yes', you have the most common anniversary, according to official statistics.

A man who won the biggest prize in quiz show history was forced to flee the country after his life-changing victory - and still has one big regret after his experience.

The farm are in "piglet heaven' as three pig mums - Peppa, Peaches and Primrose gave birth

More than 250,000 mourners gathered in St Peter's Square to pay their respects to the Argentine pontiff who died from a stroke, aged 88, on Easter Monday.

Virginia Giuffre shared a series of cryptic social media posts in the weeks leading up to her unexpected suicide.

The brother of Virginia Giuffre has shared a final photo of his sister after she died by suicide in Western Australia.

The American-born mother-of-three was found dead at her farm in Neergabby, Australia, where she had been living for the past several years.

Essex Police want to speak to this man in connection with an on-going investigation

A vast delegation of European royals arrived in St Peter's Square for the funeral of Pope Francis, with Prince William representing his father King Charles.

President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden sat just five rows between them at Pope Francis' funeral on Saturday, easily in the other's sight line.

Hoppus, 53, recalled an encounter aboard an aircraft carrier in the early 2000s - when the war in Iraq was heating up - where he allegedly provided his insights to an admiral.

New details have emerged about Virginia Giuffre's final moments after she was found unresponsive in a rural town in Western Australia - as those closest to her break cover at the family's $1.9M mansion.

The president, who sat in the front row of hundreds of foreign dignitaries and royalty, donned a mid-blue outfit, adorned with a pin showing the American flag. He paired it with a shiny blue tie.

Melania Trump epitomised class and decorum as she attended the Pope's funeral on her 55th birthday today.

An appeal for information has been launched regarding the whereabouts of a man who Essex Police wants to speak to in connection with a sexual offences investigation.