Many headlines yesterday about two bloggers who received visits -- and subpoenas -- from the Transportation Security Administration after publishing a security directive that was emailed to them anonymously. The source used a Gmail account. So did Google get a subpoena, too? The company says it can't comment either way, sending me this statement: We don't talk about individual cases to help protect all our users.  Obviously, we follow the law like any other company.  When we receive a subpoena or court order, we check to see if it meets both the letter and the spirit of the law before compl [...]

Related Topics: Features: Analysis | Legal: Privacy

Happy New Years! The Search Engine Land team would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy and successful 2010. Just for fun, I wanted to share the various logos from the search engines and also Google's surprise. Let's start with Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" count down to New Years. Remember when you hit the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button on Google.com, it would show you how many minutes to 2010? Well, when 2010 hits, it then shows you a fireworks display. Here is a video I made of it. Now for the logos, which is basically a repost of my listing from the Search Engine Roundtable: [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Ask: General | Google: Logos | Microsoft: Bing | Search Engines: Baidu | SEM Industry: General | Top News | Yahoo: General

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Doesn’t Want Searchers To Find SEOs & Web DesignersIf you go to Google.com and type “hamburgers,” “shoes,” “candy,” “grills,” “beer,” and hundreds of other terms of ambiguous local intent, Google will almost always show you local results on a map that’s tied to your IP address. But type in “seo,” “seo company,” “web design company” [...]

Related Topics: SearchCap

If you go to Google.com and type "hamburgers," "shoes," "candy," "grills," "beer," and hundreds of other terms of ambiguous local intent, Google will almost always show you local results on a map that's tied to your IP address. But type in "seo," "seo company," "web design company" and several terms related to these two types of businesses -- heck, go ahead and specifically add in a city name like "seattle" or "houston" or wherever, and even include the state abbreviation like "wa" or "tx" -- and Google will almost never show you local results on a map. Why does Google have it out for [...]

Related Topics: Google: Maps & Local | Top News

The wide-ranging search and advertising deal between Verizon Wireless and Microsoft reportedly cost Redmond between $550 million to $650 million in revenue guarantees over five years, according to prior reports in the Wall Street Journal. The deal specifically exempts Android handsets, such as Droid, from the provision that Bing become the default search engine on Verizon's mobile devices. Verizon Wireless is the largest wireless carrier in the US with 89 million subscribers. As Verizon has begun to implement the Microsoft deal, and involuntarily installed the Bing app on many BlackBerry [...]

Related Topics: Google: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Microsoft: Partnerships

To kick off the 2010, Google is currently exporting the PageRank values to the Google Toolbar. Yes, there are major reports of a Google Toolbar PageRank update taking place right now. This may become a New Years tradition for Google. Last year, Google pushed out a PageRank update for New Years 2009. I wonder why they make the push right before New Years? Maybe because it is slower for Googlers and less going on? I am not sure. In any event, I hope that most of you can add this to your new years celebration. If not, I wouldn't fret, see our explanation of Toolbar PageRank vs. real [...]

Related Topics: Google: SEO | Google: Toolbar | Google: Webmaster Central

While analysts and practitioners have been prognosticating the imminent arrival of local search for the last several years, 2009 was finally the year that proved us right. A number of innovations and developments in mobile search, such as the widespread adoption of the iPhone, the release of Android, and a burgeoning number of location-based apps like Foursquare have certainly helped fuel local search's rise. But local has gained mind share among SEO's, marketers, business owners, and perhaps most importantly, searchers, in its own right as well. Let's take a loo [...]

Related Topics: AOL: MapQuest | Google: Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing | SEO: Local | Top News | Yahoo: Maps & Local

In Search Month European Edition we bring you a monthly update of European search news, with related links to full coverage. Here’s what happened in December. Google fined $430,000 dollars in France. A Parisian court ruled that Google should be fined over $430,000 dollars because it has broken French copyright laws by displaying snippets of books in search results. Google said it would appeal the ruling. Most Europeans don't go past the first ten results. IAB Europe and InSites Consultancy performed research which shows European internet users rarely look beyond the first 10 search res [...]

Related Topics: Top News

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Now That Everything Is Known, Will The Nexus One Launch Generate a Collective Yawn?The way that the “Google Phone” rumors and later Nexus One blogging played out probably mean that when Google finally announces the device on January 5 (in all likelihood) there won’t be much news. I could be quite wrong of course. Regardless, I imagine the event will be interesting — something like “a year of [...] Year In Review: Sear [...]

Related Topics: SearchCap

The way that the "Google Phone" rumors and later Nexus One blogging played out probably mean that when Google finally announces the device on January 5 (in all likelihood) there won't be much news. I could be quite wrong of course. Regardless, I imagine the event will be interesting -- something like "a year of Android" with milestones and other data -- but the cherry on the top of the ice cream sundae was probably supposed to be the now overexposed handset. It's not clear what Google thought would happen when it handed out the device to several hundred of its employees as an early Xmas gif [...]

Related Topics: Features: Analysis | Google: Mobile | Top News

The iPhone was introduced on June 29, 2007 and that was effectively the beginning of the mobile internet era. With the iPhone also came the acceleration of mobile search for Google, the default engine for the iconic Apple device. This year mobile became a cornerstone of Google's strategy with a string of announcements, product tweaks and the $750 million AdMob acquisition announcement (now under FTC scrutiny). The aborted $500+ million Yelp acquisition was also partly about mobile as well. The big mobile story of 2009, however, is the rise of smartphone adoption and in particular the iPh [...]

Related Topics: Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Google: Web Search | Microsoft: Bing | Top News | Yahoo: Mobile & Go | Yahoo: Outside US

The mobile web is a fascinating space that is still in its infancy. If the current capabilities of mobile devices are a sign of things to come, I can only imagine what will be possible five years from now. Here are 10 reasons I think that anyone with an online presence should establish a mobile presence separate from your website: 1. Google has a separate index for mobile content. Not only do they have a separate index for mobile content, but also it is fairly empty. The other day I performed a search for an Imax theater in Santa Barbara, and it told me that the best option was a th [...]

Related Topics: Features: Analysis | Search Marketing: Mobile

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Hitwise: Facebook More Visited Than Google on ChristmasHitwise tweeted this morning that Facebook reached the number one site in the U.S. for the first time ever and it happened on Christmas. The tweet was in it’s normal less than 140 characters and read: Facebook was the most visited site in the US on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. 1st time the site [...] Google Movie Search Bug Shows Cryptic 9/11 Attacks ReferenceThis morning spotted a [...]

Related Topics: SearchCap

Hitwise tweeted this morning that Facebook reached the number one most visited site in the US for the first time ever over the Christmas holiday, pushing past Google. But digging a little deeper, that might not be so. It all depends on what you consider "Google" to be. From the tweet: Facebook was the most visited site in the US on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. 1st time the site has been the #1 visited US site ever. We followed up to get some actual numbers and go beyond this 140 character tidbit. Hitwise kindly responded, telling us: On Christmas Eve, December 24th, Facebook had 7 [...]

Related Topics: Facebook | Google: General | Stats: Hitwise | Stats: Popularity

This morning I spotted a case where Google Movie Search began showing this cryptic message about the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and United States. A search for [movie: nine nyc] returned the words "Showtimes for September 11 attacks" in the blue bar under the search box. Here is a picture: Google informed me this is some type of bug that they are working on fixing. I am not sure if this is some type of weird joke by someone, like we saw with the Google Trends Twin Towers hoax a couple years back or if this is something else. The reason I am not sure is because [...]

Related Topics: Google: Web Search | Top News

We just received a press invitation from Google to an "Android Press Gathering" for January 5. That coincides a report that T-Mobile has advised employees that Google will be selling its own phone with T-Mobile "support" on January 5. So, the rumor of a new Google phone called "Nexus One" is moving closer to reality. From the press email we received: With the launch of the first Android-powered device just over a year ago, we've seen how a powerful, open platform can spur mobile product innovation. And this is just the beginning of what's possible. Please join us in Mountain View on [...]

Related Topics: Features: General | Google: Mobile | Top News

Sometimes the ideal AdWords strategies are counterintuitive. If you’re in a competitive market, you need every optimization you can get. The following tips will give you an edge in profitability.

Related Topics: Google: AdWords | How To: PPC

Collecta has announced a real-time search tool that taps into content posted on MySpace. The dedicated MySpace search includes the public comments, blog posts, videos, photos, and links that are posted by MySpace users. It can be accessed at myspace.collecta.com for now, and Collecta says the MySpace content will eventually be incorporated into its primary real-time search results on collecta.com. Just a couple weeks ago, OneRiot announced that it's indexing and including MySpace content in its search results. Google has also said it'll include MySpace updates in its real-time search result [...]

Related Topics: Search Engines: Real Time Search

Reuters published an article today in which Microsoft asserts that China is its top search priority: "Microsoft is committed to the China market and the search market in China is the most important strategic market for Microsoft," the company said on Tuesday in emailed responses to questions from Reuters. China has the largest internet and mobile markets in the world; the scale is massive and the obvious basis for the quote above. There are 350 million Chinese Internet users and 700 million mobile phone subscribers according to various estimates. However, the Reuters piece pegs the value of [...]

Related Topics: Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Outside US

I may be the only one who noticed, but it seems to me that 2009 saw an unusual amount of new comparison search tools released. Perhaps it was the launch of Bing, or the growth of real-time search? I don't know, but something inspired programmers to develop new tools and sites to let us compare search results. In this edition of my occasional search tools series, I'll look at four comparison search tools that may have slipped under your radar. Search3 One of the simpler tools, and probably the one with the cleanest interface, Search3 does what it name suggests: It lets you compare the [...]

Related Topics: Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Other Search Engines | Top News