Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt took to the Google Europe Blog this weekend to defend his company against a Europe-wide ad campaign that asserts Google has abused its dominant market position in search. It’s essentially a public appeal on the same terms being argued to the European Commission for why Google needs to be restrained. […]
Google has taken a big step forward in complying with the European Union’s new “Right To Be Forgotten” that was established after a court ruling earlier this month. The company has created a new form allowing those in the EU to request takedown of URLs they dislike. Removals will only happen for EU-versions of Google, […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: SMX West Rates Increase Saturday – Register Now, Save $200! Early Bird rates for Search Engine Land’s SMX West conference expire Saturday. Register now and get three days of exceptional content […]
A new bill making its way to Israel’s parliament (the Knesset) would assess a tax of 7 percent on search engine ad revenues to subsidize local content publishers. The story was reported in the Financial Times. While it’s not explicit or exclusive to any individual company, the bill has been nicknamed the “Google Law.” This […]
It sounds pretty damning. Two recent surveys suggest that Google Shopping isn’t leading searchers to the best prices on products. But the surveys weren’t well documented, nor did they include competitors like Bing, Shopzilla, PriceGrabber and Nextag, which have similar issues. So, Search Engine Land will be running its own fully documented tests. Every few […]
Consumer Watchdog has lodged a new complaint about Google’s “search monopoly” with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), this time saying Google Shopping results don’t pass the sniff test. The group calls the way the search engine displays its Product Listing ads “deceptive and unfair”, adding that Google Shopping’s paid listings are price gouging consumers. […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: 2013 Boston Marathon Explosion: Official Information Sources Following today’s explosions at the Boston Marathon, social media channels were immediately swamped with reports and graphic images, videos from the scene. Race officials […]
The proposed terms of the Google antitrust settlement in Europe have started to come to light, first through a report in the Financial Times, and this weekend, in articles from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. As anticipated, the primary “remedy” Google is offering involves labeling its own results to distinguish them from third-party […]
Google’s antitrust case in the US concluded in January, much to the dismay of companies that had been agitating for tough action by the FTC. It was seen as a near total victory for Google. Rivals quickly turned their attention to Europe in the hope that, unencumbered by some of the legal issues that inhibited US regulators, it […]
The UK has seen the closure of three high-profile, traditional retail brands in the last fortnight, following on from a dismal 2012 and an increased downturn for the sector since 2009. The recent closures had legacy presence in bricks and mortar on the UK high street (AKA: the UK’s Main Street or Mall retail profile) […]
While saying he’s “still investigating,” the head of the European Union’s antitrust regulatory body has told the Financial Times that he’s convinced Google is “diverting traffic” and that it will be forced to change its results. From the FT interview: “We are still investigating, but my conviction is [Google] are diverting traffic,” Mr. Almunia told the […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Tracking Changes To Google’s 50 Webmaster Guidelines Pages Shaun Anderson created a tool to keep track of changes made to 50 of the top Google webmaster guidelines. The tool shows you […]
The Financial Times (FT) is reporting that the thrust of Google’s antitrust settlement proposal to European Competition Czar Joaquín Almunia primarily involves “labeling” its own services to distinguish them from other organic search results. According to the FT, citing “people familiar with the search giant’s submission”: Under the proposal, Google would put its brand on any […]
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 Antitrust “Settlement” Take Two: Not Quite Yet On the basis of statements and representations made in a Financial Times report, I wrote a post yesterday entitled “Google Strikes Antitrust Deal […]
On the basis of statements and representations made in a Financial Times report, I wrote a post yesterday entitled “Google Strikes Antitrust Deal With EU, Avoids Legal Battle.” But it’s clear 24 hours later that it was premature to make such sweeping statements and declare the case “settled” in Europe. A Reuters article today makes […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Report: Google Strikes Antitrust Deal With EU, Avoids Legal Battle According to a report in the Financial Times, Google and the EU have agreed in principle to the “outlines of a […]
According to a report in the Financial Times, Google and the EU have agreed in principle to the “outlines of a settlement” that will avoid a legal battle over antitrust claims against the company. The settlement reportedly also extends to mobile search, an issue that emerged late in the talks and threatened to disrupt a […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Search In Pics: Marissa Mayers Yahoo Baby Gift & Goodbye Google Balloons, Android Nail Polish & Chrome Hats In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from […]
As anti-trust talks between the European Union and Google come close to a conclusion, the key anti-trust enforcer has brought up a new objection. Joaquín Almunia, the EU’s competition commissioner, is demanding the company make broad changes to its mobile services, according to a report in the Financial Times. Google and the European Union have […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Movember SEO Moustache Competition Raises $17,000 For Cancer Research What started out as a friendly rivalry between Bing’s Duane Forester and Google’s Matt Cutts resulted in $17,000 for the Movember, a […]
According to dealReporter (via the Financial Times), the first stage of the formal European antitrust investigation against Google is almost complete. Google will shortly receive a 400-page “statement of objections” presenting findings from the European Commission’s investigation. It will detail Google’s alleged “abuse of dominance” and presumably — this is drawing an inference from the […]
Part 2 of a two-part interview with information architect and author Louis Rosenfeld about search analytics that can (and should) be used for optimizing your website.
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+ Has Been Blocked In China Just one day after Google offered invites to Google+, China has blocked access the new social networking site. This is not surprising at all as […]
The Financial Times has identified a “privacy flaw” within Google+: re-sharing. A privately shared post or picture can be subsequently re-published or shared by the recipient to any of his or her Circles or the entire world. This would potentially thwart the privacy “settings” or objectives of the original creator of the post. Google is […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing’s Read/Write World: An Ambitious Project To Bridge Maps With Movies, Photos, Local Data & More It’s probably not something that you can wrap your head around pretty quickly. It’s also […]
How did we go from the New York Times seeming to single out visitors from Google with a “5 free visit per day” policy to supposedly all search engines being limited in such a way? And what’s up with there being no limit for visitors coming from anything that’s not a search engine, including Twitter […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Mobile App Comes To Verizon Android Handsets Microsoft previously said there was going to be an Android version of Bing soon, following its successful iPhone app. Today there is — […]
Google plans pay-per-view films from the Financial Times reports Google is in talks with several major Hollywood film companies to offer a pay-per-view service of their films. Reports say that the streaming movie service from YouTube will bring these movies to online consumers at about $5 per movie. The movies would not download to the […]
Demand Media has filed for an IPO. The company, known as a content farm to some, produces much of its content on sites like eHow and others in direct response to what it determines people are searching for on the web. Its filing shed new light on how much it depends on SEO and Google, […]
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 News Has Major Redesign: Personalization, Sharing & “News Stream” Offered Today, Google News is undergoing its first major redesign since being launched in 2002. Gone is the default “section” view, […]
French regulators said today that “Google had abused its dominant position in the internet advertising market when it barred a location data company from using its AdWords service,” according to a report appearing in the Financial Times. The complainant is Navx, a company that provides “geolocalized content” of various sorts. The company complained to French […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Fighting The Oil Spill On Google: BP Versus The Lawyers As oil-poisoned pelicans are found on Gulf shorelines, lawyers and British Petroleum are looking to Google for help gaining public awareness. […]
Google is backtracking on its previous refusal to hand over private data collected in April by its Street View cars to several European governments. The Financial Times reports that Google will initially give the intercepted data to officials in Germany, France, Spain, and Italy sometime within the next two days. The Financial Times quotes Google […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Woman Follows Google Maps “Walking” Directions, Gets Hit, Sues Is Google responsible for giving out bad directions through its Google Maps service? We’re about to find out. After Googling walking directions […]
Google ditches Windows on security concerns from the Financial Times reports that Google is no longer installing Windows on Google owned computers. In fact, the report says that no desktop is allowed to have Windows and only under special circumstances will Google allow Windows OS on a laptop. The report cites security as the main […]
It’s been a little while since we’ve done a Search Biz column. So it’s time to dust off the old snark machine and get right into it. First up there’s a very entertaining post on some new, unsealed records from the YouTube-Viacom litigation featuring a range of colorful expletives as both sides insult one another […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: What We Know So Far About Google TV It’s very had to overstate the potential impact of Google TV (GTV) announced today. While there have been numerous efforts to put the […]
Still smarting from the privacy furor over Buzz and then the inadvertent collection of personal data from WiFi networks by its Street View cars, the Financial Times reports that Google is reconsidering how and whether it should use facial recognition technology: Eric Schmidt, chief executive, said a series of public disputes over privacy issues had caused […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Internet Ad Revenue Hit Record High In Q4 2009 Recession? Economic slowdown? Financial gloom-and-doom? Not online, and not as far as Internet advertising is concerned. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) says […]
While Google waits for news about its proposed book search settlement with authors and publishers, it’s about to face a new legal challenge. The Financial Times reports that the American Society of Media Photographers and related trade groups are expected to file a new, class action lawsuit over the images that appear in the books […]