For all the uber-geeks and electrical engineers, CNET offers an interesting story about Google’s approach to servers. From the very early days Google was thinking carefully about scale, efficiency but perhaps mostabout cost savings. Rather than buy servers, Google has built them from the beginning. Google finally revealed one of its home-made servers before an […]
Ask around and you probably won’t find many people who think the idea of “Internet everywhere” is a bad thing. Thanks to laptops and smart phones, wi-fi and 3G, we can work (or play) at airports, check email during cab rides, and compare prices online from any department store. We can Google anyone or anything […]
A new tool takes us one small step closer to bringing real-time search, i.e., Twitter search results, to the Google interface. It’s called Twitter Search Results on Google, and it adds the most recent five tweets for your search query above Google’s regular search results, like this: (The tool is actually a Greasemonkey script for […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Microsoft (so far) has been unable to buy Yahoo or Yahoo search assets, so it instead continues to take search talent away from the company. Last year Microsoft successfully lured engineering lead Qi Lu from Yahoo to become head of the company’s Online Services Group. Redmond also recently nabbed Sean Suchter from Yahoo. Now Bloomberg […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Google is rolling out voice search on the Android platform via the new software update happening this week. That’s also supposed to add a virtual keyboard apparently. The G1 has only a physical keyboard. CNET points out that the central difference between the iPhone version of voice search and Android’s is the inability to simply […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
I was reminded by CNET that it was exactly a year ago when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made his bold, unsolicited bid for Yahoo. It seems like a lifetime ago, certainly for the economy it is. CNET’s Stephen Shankland speculates about what might have been if the offer had been accepted by Yahoo rather than […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
CNET reports on a conviction based in part on search query logs from Google that was upheld on appeal: A physical search of Justin’s computer revealed that a few months before the murder, he had searched for terms including “trauma, cases, gunshot, right chest” and “Florida & divorce.” Prosecutors had also discovered that the defendant […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
There’s new buzz and speculation about the status of Google’s unconfirmed online file storage service, informally dubbed “GDrive.” Garrett Rogers points to a CNET interview with Gmail Product Manager Todd Jackson, who’s quoted saying: “We know people’s file sizes are getting bigger. They want to share their files, keep them in the cloud, and not […]
SearchBiz today rounds up some items from the last 24 hours. Most of them concern personnel moves or speculation about who might get the top spot at Yahoo. Then there’s the ongoing MicroHoo saga and whether a new CEO will restart talks with Redmond. There’s also the matter of MSN being branded a “lewd” site […]
The Associated Press reports that Google has released “a substantial number” of its contract and temporary employees, but the exact number isn’t known. The news isn’t a surprise; in October, Google co-founder Sergey Brin told the San Jose Mercury News that the company would reduce some of the 10,000 contractors on its payroll as a […]
It wasn’t too long ago that YouTube was mostly a haven for the video expressions of teens and young adults; popular clips often showed skateboard crashes, air guitar contests, and bedroom renditions of Numa Numa. But now, as the site continues to grow in popularity, it seems YouTube is finally turning into a serious business […]
Google is testing a number of changes to its search results, including a way for select publishers to enhance their page descriptions, a way for searchers to jump to sub-sections of a web page and automatically correcting misspelled queries, to some degree.
In a fairly lengthy interview this morning, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer tells the Wall Street Journal that he’s still interested in a deal with Yahoo, but says there are no talks happening right now. Perhaps to get that ball rolling again, though, Ballmer says a deal “would probably be better for both us, and certainly […]
Will Yahoo have a new CEO by the end of the month? That’s the word from sources talking to AllThingsD today. The report says Yahoo has put together an informal search committee to help executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles find a new CEO. There’s reportedly a list of six criteria the new Yahoo CEO […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
YouTube announced that all videos on their web site will now be in the wider format HD format, 16:9 ratio. The YouTube player is now 960 pixels wide, as opposed to the standard format of 4:3 ratio. 4:3 aspect ratio videos will continue to play in the wider format, but YouTube has added black borders […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
By almost doubling its spending on lobbying, Microsoft managed to kill the Google-Yahoo ad deal and may also have saved itself millions of dollars on a Yahoo buyout. That’s the case made by Declan McCullough today on CNET. McCullough explains that Microsoft spent about $12-$14 million per year on lobbyists between 2005 and 2007, but […]
This morning the Android Market formally launched, coinciding with the arrival of the T-Mobile G1, the first Android phone. There’s a showcase that features a sampling of the more than 50 existing apps, with many more to come. All the apps are currently free, with paid apps to come in the first quarter of 2009.
Yahoo announced (pdf) Q3 revenues this afternoon. Search revenues and performance-based display ads were up. However, “premium display” (CPM) was down. Revenues were $1.786 billion, a (tiny) one percent increase, vs. $1.768 billion in the same period last year. The company stressed that consumer page views and engagement were up. Yet Yahoo confirmed that it […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Just a couple months after launching in Europe, Google StreetView is running into a roadblock in Germany. Via WebProNews, Spiegel Online reports that the small town of Molfsee in northwestern Germany plans to require Google to request a permit before being allowed to record video while driving through the town’s streets. “And when they ask […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
A Search Engine Land reader points us toward the Science/Tech category of Google News, where, for the better part of the morning, a CNET news article about private rocketry was displaying with the headline, “Delicious.” Here’s a screenshot:
Most of the tech journalists in the San Francisco Bay Area were at Google this morning for a briefing and demo of Chrome. Danny earlier posted lots of detail on the search dimensions of Chrome. And there are quite a few posts and articles about features and first impressions.
Revamped Google Picasa site identifies photo faces by Stephen Shankland reports Google’s adding facial recognition technology to Picasa. Picasa users will be able to label their photos with names. Google will then start to automatically suggest other photos that look similar to the ones you already named. Mike Horowitz, Google’s Picasa product manager told News.com:
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
CNET rekindles the Google StreetView trespassing controversy that we’ve written about a couple of times in the past (here and here). Google has said publicly and in email comments to us that its policy is to photograph public roads and stay off private property. The CNET article effectively argues that Google is willfully violating and […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Both Reuters and CNET report on a Securities and Exchange Commission filing by Yahoo that contains many of the details of its paid search deal with Google. It’s a redacted version of the agreement the two companies signed. The omitted portions of the document are deemed confidential.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Perhaps we’re coming to the point where we’ll no longer be writing about Microsoft and Yahoo and their failed courtship. We’ll see. Today Yahoo survived its long-anticipated shareholder meeting. It’s detailed in this CNET blog post. At the conclusion of the meeting, Yahoo issued a statement that its slate of directors was elected, following the […]
Remember Google losing its head of PR, Elliott Schrage, to Facebook back in May? Google has quietly found a replacement, that of Rachel Whetstone. She formerly headed corporate communications for Google in Europe. Google confirmed to us she was named to the post several weeks ago, though no announcement was made. But her replacement got […]