The Olympics are just around the corner and Google has their widest ever logo on their home page this morning, for the special event that kicks off tonight in Vancouver. Here is a picture of the special Google Winter Olympics logo: Yahoo and Bing also have special logos or themes up already. Here they are: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: Bing | Yahoo: General

Yesterday Yahoo hosted a press event called SearchSpeak that sought to dispel the "misconception," in the words of new Search Products SVP Shashi Seth, that Yahoo was no longer investing in search. As Seth took the stage to begin his presentation the power in the room went out. Not a very auspicious start to the day, it seemed symbolic of Yahoo's new difficulties and challenges in search. Attempting to generate enthusiasm, he pressed on without slides: despite the popular misconception, Yahoo is not out of search, echoing statements made by CEO Carol Bartz and others on past company earning [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Top News | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Employees | Yahoo: General | Yahoo: Maps & Local | Yahoo: Outside US | Yahoo: Search Monkey | Yahoo: Shortcuts

The HotJobs for sale rumor has been around for some time. Yesterday a deal with Monster was finally announced. It is being widely hailed as a smart move by Yahoo to gain cash and divest itself of another "non-core asset." Except for payment and other terms the deal is conceptually analogous to what Yahoo is doing with PriceGrabber in shopping and with Microsoft in search: outsourcing content or fulfillment. Yahoo will continue to have a career site (at least for the next three years) but it will be powered and populated by Monster: Monster and Yahoo! have also entered into a three year [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Display Ads | Yahoo: General | Yahoo: Partnerships

Microsoft is the first of the major search engines to agree to the European Union's demand that data retention be cut to six months. The company will now completely delete IP addresses after six months. Here's what Microsoft said on the Bing community blog about the move: Today we sent a letter to the Article 29 Working Party notifying them of our intention to make a change to Bing’s data retention policy. Specifically, we are reducing the amount of time we store IP addresses from searchers to 6 months.  Currently we keep that information for 18 months before we delete it.  Generally, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Critics | Google: General | Google: Legal | Google: Outside US | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: General | Microsoft: Outside US | Top News | Yahoo: General | Yahoo: Legal | Yahoo: Outside US

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr day and the search engines are showing off their logos and themes for the special day. Below you can see logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. In addition, check out the 2009 and 2008 logos, if you missed them the previous years. Google's MLK Logo: Yahoo's Flash MLK logo: Bing's MLK Theme: Ask.com's MLK Theme: DogPile: Search Engine Roundtable: [...]

Related Topics: Ask: General | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: Bing | SEM Industry: General | Yahoo: General

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 | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: Bing | Search Engines: Baidu | SEM Industry: General | Top News | Yahoo: General

As many of you know, Google started their holiday logo blitz earlier this week. Google has now posted four of (I believe) five logos they have for the holidays. We also have logos from Yahoo, Bing, Ask, DogPile, Baidu and many other search engines and search industry web sites. I wanted to share them with you today and update them tomorrow, as more come in. Here are the logos: [...]

Related Topics: Ask: General | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: Bing | SEM Industry: General | Top News | Yahoo: General

Peace on earth, good will toward holiday travelers. That seems to be Yahoo's modus operandi today: The company is paying the baggage fees for all outbound travelers at San Francisco and San Jose international airports. It's part of the Yahoo for Good campaign, and as local news reports suggest, it'll probably help build some goodwill among harried holiday travelers. It's noteworthy because Yahoo has shut down its offices over the holidays as a cost-cutting measure. But paying for luggage at two busy airports on one of the busiest travel days of the year? That should cost Yahoo a nice, littl [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: General | Yahoo: Marketing | Yahoo: Other

It is that time of the year again, the Google Holiday logo blitz is on for 2009. Google posted their first logo today, and will be archiving them up until the day of Christmas, I believe. You will be able to see them all at google.com/logos/holidays-2009.html. So keep an eye out for them. In other logo news, I posted many of the Winter logos, today is the first day of Winter here, at the Search Engine Roundtable. Here they are: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: General | Yahoo: General

According to a report on Wednesday, Yahoo is in the process of identifying as many as 400 engineers who may be headed to Microsoft after US government regulators do their anti-trust review and clear the companies' search deal. The formal agreement between the two companies closed at the end of last week. The 400 engineer transfer is part of the formal agreement between the two companies. In addition, Microsoft is to pay Yahoo  $150 million to defray costs associated with the partnership's implementation. The Associated Press is also reporting that the $150 payment will likely be accelerate [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Microsoft: Bing | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Employees | Yahoo: General | Yahoo: Partnerships

Telecoms, cable companies and search engines are fairly routinely asked to divulge information about their users' activities (and even location in the case of wireless carriers) by the government and law enforcement. Disclosure of this information and the fact that they charge for these "spying" services would potentially upset or outrage users and badly damage their images as consumer friendly businesses. Right now, Yahoo is engaged in an effort to pull down what amounts to a surveillance menu and price list for law enforcement that has been posted online. Wired summarizes: Yahoo isn’t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Legal: Privacy | Yahoo: General

Yahoo announced on their blog and press area that Yahoo will integrate their properties with Facebook Connect at a pretty massive level. The Yahoo announcement reads: Yahoo! Inc. today announced further integration with Facebook that unites social experiences from across the Web to provide a place for consumers to enjoy meaningful content and stay in touch with the people they care about most. Facebook will be integrated on properties including Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Answers, Yahoo Sports and others. In addition, you will be able to see your Facebook friends’ activities on Yah [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook | Yahoo: General

Today is World AIDS Day and Google, Yahoo and Ask.com all have the red bow on their home pages. In addition, Google has a blog post showing how they are supporting the day and asking everyone to either "include #red to turn your tweets the color red or if you like, follow @joinred." In addition, you can learn more on how Google is supporting the day at Google.org, Yahoo has their own page and Ask.com is the only one linking to a search result. Here are the red bows from the search engines, as I posted at the Search Engine Roundtable: Google: Yahoo: Ask.com: [...]

Related Topics: Ask: General | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Yahoo: General

According to AllThingsD the MicroHoo search deal is nearing completion and "definitive agreement" status. Speculation that the deal was in trouble started happening when the two companies failed to meet their self-imposed October 27 deadline to finalize the complex agreement. However it appears the circumstances were just as reported in the parties' 8-K filing with the US Securities & Exchange Commission: The Letter Agreement specified that the parties would execute Definitive Agreements by October 27, 2009, but given the complex nature of the transaction, there remain some details to be [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Legal: General | Microsoft: Bing | Yahoo: General | Yahoo: Partnerships | Yahoo: Search | Yahoo: Search Ads

Yahoo has smartly launched a Spanish Language version of its mobile homepage. The company cites Census data that reflect a population of 46 million Hispanic people in the US. Yahoo also cited comScore data that show tremendous mobile internet growth among Hispanics, which is "outpacing that of all other groups, with 88% of Hispanics consuming content on their mobile phones." Here's the new Spanish language mobile homepage, which mirrors the look and feel of the English-language version: Here's the PC version; note the tile ad en Espanol: The ad below from the Spanish mobile si [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Yahoo: Display Ads | Yahoo: General | Yahoo: Mobile & Go

If you visit Google.com today, you will see a special logo for Veterans Day. The logo is less complex when compared to last years, where Google had to fix their Veterans Day logo. Last year, Google placed hats on top of each letter on the Google logo, the hats included Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. But they forgot one, the U.S. Coast Guard, which they added later. Google also has a logo on Google.co.uk for Remembrance Day: Bing has a Veterans Day Theme: Yahoo typically skips adding a special logo for today, which is what they have done today. But you can see more [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Ask: General | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: General | SEM Industry: General | Yahoo: General

Like many people, I misspelled a domain name today when I was trying to visit a web site. I typed Twiter.com (with one T) rather than Twitter.com. I wasn't surprised to land on a site with ads, as is common when entering typos. I was surprised that both Google and Yahoo were making money off those ads. Google has a program known as AdSense For Domains, previously known as DomainPark. Got a tasty domain but no content for it? AdSense For Domains will put lucrative ads up on it, for you (really lucrative: see more here and here). The practice is known as domaining. And before some domainer [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Features: Analysis | Google: AdSense | Search Ads: Domaining | Top News | Yahoo: General

Today is Halloween and the search engines have logos up for the special day. Before I post the logos, here are some posts from others in the community on Halloween. Matt Cutts of Google had a holy costume. Google Blogoscoped noticed Google added trick or treat to their robots.txt file. Bing has a special visual search edition for today. Bruce Clay's team dressed up and PPC Heros added some funk. Finally, the logos you see below is reposted from the Search Engine Roundtable. Google has four Doodles: Yahoo (Flash): AOL (Flash): YouTube: Bing: Ask.com: [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Ask: General | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: General | SEM Industry: Community | Top News | Yahoo: General

I got two calls yesterday from people asking what I made of the Yahoo-Microsoft failure to meet their self-imposed search-deal deadline (October 27). I said it was probably just a case of needing more time to work through some of the details rather than a warning sign that the entire deal was in jeopardy. There's much at stake for both companies (somewhat less for Bing) in having committed to this deal. The market would punish both if the deal were to fall apart. It would be very hard for Yahoo to recover in the short term, having lost some of its best search people (many of whom are now wo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Microsoft: Bing | Yahoo: General | Yahoo: Partnerships | Yahoo: Search

When "activist investor" Carl Icahn forced his way onto Yahoo's board in the middle of last year the company was resisting a takeover attempt from Microsoft. Icahn wanted to see a deal and was trying with all his might to broker one between the two companies. He initiated a very public bid to oust Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang as CEO and bring a slate of Microsoft-friendly candidates to the Yahoo board. He went so far as to file a shareholder lawsuit against Yahoo. The settlement gave Icahn a seat on the Yahoo board and control of three of 11 total board positions. After Jerry Yang resigne [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: General