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Hitwise Report: Bing Shopping On Rise Following Double Cashback
Hitwise is reporting that Bing Shopping moved up to 4th place (from 8th) in the comparision shopping tools category last week, rising to 11% weekly market share. Combining the recent Double Cashback offer from retailers listed on Bing Shopping and the fortunate timing of the annual Back-to-School shopping rush has moved their weekly market share […]
Google’s Next Doodle, Hans Christian Ørsted Birthday
Google’s home page is featuring a Google Doodle for the birthday of Hans Christian Ørsted, who was born today on 1777. He is known for figuring out that a magnetic field can be induced by electric currents. In other words, he noticed that an electric current can make a compass needle move to the magnetic […]
Bizmore: Like Yahoo Answers For Small Business
There’s no shortage of web sites online offering help for small business owners. Heck, Search Engine Land’s Small Is Beautiful column does it, I do it both here and on my Small Business Search Marketing blog, and there are countless other blogs and sites with advice for the SMB market. But what if a small […]
Google’s Doodle For The Perseids Meteor Shower
If you visit Google.com today, you may notice a special logo, or Google Doodle. The logo is to help drive awareness to the special Perseids meteor shower that is taking place today. In fact, the shower has been active for a few days now, but it is most visible today from areas around Scotland. NASA […]
Google Adds “Prices From The Page” Search Option
Google Operating System noticed that Google added an additional search option feature, named “prices from the page.” When you select this option, Google will try to pull out prices from the web page results, for the query you entered. Here is an example, please note that I cropped the screen shot to highlight the prices […]
Yahoo Enhances Flickr Search
Just when you think Yahoo is out of the search game, they strut their stuff with an improved Flickr search. Flickr, the popular image service, has revamped the Flickr search page. The changes include: “View” controls to see the image results in small, medium or detailed view or even to see them as a slideshow. […]
Yahoo Testing New Search Results Layout
A sign of things to come, perhaps? Based on this screenshot posted today on Flickr, Yahoo appears to be testing a new layout for its search results pages. It looks very much like the new Yahoo homepage that launched a couple weeks ago, which suggests this may be soon become the default layout for Yahoo’s […]
Google’s “Show More Results” Link Goes Contextual
It seems like Google has changed the way they handle the “show more results from” feature, by removing the simple HTML link to a site command feature and by dynamically opening up several more results, within the same search results page. They are using an AJAX (JavaScript) driven plus sign box that adds an additional […]
Collecta Upgrades Video, Image Results
Collecta has announced improvements to its handling of images and video in real-time search results. The company says it’s now including video feeds from 12seconds, Qik, and uStream — three popular video sharing services. On the image side, Collecta says it has “enhanced” how it handles photos posted to TwitPic and yFrog, two of the […]
Yahoo Adds Travel Photo Tours To Image Search
Image search could use a little organization, especially when you’re searching for generic terms like place names — cities, states, or tourist/geographic attractions. Who wants to browse through a couple million images of Boston to help plan your first visit there? Yahoo is making it easier to virtually tour popular places with what it calls […]
Yahoo’s New Homepage Gets Personal, Tests Search Filters
When I heard about the call with Yahoo yesterday, which was to feature “a significant announcement,” I thought: “Bing, here it is.” When it turned out the call was about a formal announcement of the new Yahoo homepage I was disappointed; it seemed anti-climactic. The existence of a forthcoming Yahoo homepage redesign has been known […]
Video Of Danny Sullivan, Matt Cutts & Others On Real Time Search
As a follow up to Danny’s What Is Real Time Search? Definitions & Players, I wanted to share a video of a panel Danny, Matt Cutts and others spoke on at CrunchUp event that took place a few days ago. Here is the panel, including Gerry Campbell of Collecta, Matt Cutts of Google, Kimbal Musk […]
Microsoft Lets You Bing Inside Your Hotmail
Microsoft has announced the addition of Bing searches to its Hotmail email service. It works via Hotmail’s quick add feature and lets users search the web via Bing while composing an email, then put content found via Bing into the outgoing message. To be clear, this isn’t a new feature. The feature debuted late last […]
Google Sublinks As Sub Listings Being Tested
This morning, I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable that Google was testing some type of sublink to the search results, to show additional search results from the same site, but not as indented results. It is really hard to explain, so here is a picture provided by BlogsDNA: It seems to currently be forum […]
Yahoo Search Pad To Launch Tomorrow
In the works for nearly a year, Yahoo Search Pad is to formally launch tomorrow for all users. The feature is a nifty “notepad” service that allows users to collect information from search results into a single page for reference purposes. I first saw a demo last November and immediately wanted SearchPad to be live. […]
Hunch Doing ‘Pretty Well,’ Co-Founder Says
Barely two weeks after its launch, Hunch is already taking stock of its progress. “How well do we think Hunch is working?,” asks co-founder Chris Dixon. “Pretty well, although we still have a ways to go.” Writing on the Hunch blog, Dixon explains that the decision engine is using what it calls “success rate” as […]
Google Tests Dropping Off Country Specific Search?
The SEO Home blog has noticed that Google UK is now testing removing the radio button to only show “pages from the UK.” If you visit google.co.uk you may notice the radio button, but some are noticing that the radio button for that country specific option is now missing. Google UK With the Country Specific […]
Funny: “Googling With Bing”
Monday’s can be rough for many people, so I thought I share with you a funny video named “Googling with Bing.” It basically is a Bing commercial, but they replace the word “search” with “Google.” See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor. Hat tip to TechCrunch for spotting this.
The Bogus Google Give-Away
Here’s a new one on me. I just got an email telling me that I’ve won nearly $1 million from a “drawing” randomly selected from those searching on Google. Suffice to say, it’s a scam. I can assure you that Google’s done no drawing like this. Add the spam to those about missing fortunes in […]
Kayak Says Bing Isn’t Playing Air Fair, Hakia Sees Near Mirror Image
Kayak travel search launched a formal attack on Microsoft’s Bing Travel yesterday in an article that appeared on Wired, Kayak to Bing: Stop Copying Us!. Apparently, Kayak’s executives are more than a little steamed by the eerily similar look and feel, and even went so far as to put Microsoft on legal notice (presumably a […]
Cuil Maplines: A Good Idea That Needs Work
Cuil has announced an interesting new map-based tool called Maplines. On some queries, the Mapline shows in the right column of Cuil’s search results above the Timeline feature. What’s a Mapline. Here’s Cuil’s explanation: “Just as our Timelines show a concept across time, our Maplines show a concept across a map.” It’s an interesting idea, […]
Google Showing Facebook Friends On Profile URLs
Google Blogoscoped reported that Google seems to be testing showing Facebook friends in the Google search results for some Facebook profile URLs. For example, a search for facebook marissa mayer, I see the following search snippet: Why is this showing up? As Philip notes, it doesn’t seem like Facebook is using the rich snippets markup […]
Happy Father’s Day From Google & Others
We wanted to wish all the fathers out there a happy Father’s Day from all of us at Search Engine Land. To celebrate, below is a collection of some of the logos from Google and the rest of the industry. Happy Father’s Day! Google: Yahoo: AOL: DogPile: Bing: Ask.com: Cre8asite Forums: Search Engine Roundtable:
Google Goes Rainbow For Gay-Related Searches
Google Operating System notes that Google is once again flying rainbow colors to support gay pride celebrations happening this month throughout the world. Certain searches get topped by a rainbow-colored divider, symbolic of rainbow flags often flown by those in the gay community or in support of them. To see the colors, try searches for […]
Ask.com Expands AnswerFarm Q&A Database
Continuing its move from being a traditional search engine to an “answer engine,” Ask today has announced that its “AnswerFarm” database has tripled in size, from 100 million Q&A pairs to 300 million. Ask says they’ve also improved the quality of the Q&A database content: “Our semantic search technology advancements in clustering, rephrasing, and answer […]
Microsoft Makes It Easier To Filter Out Unsafe Images In Bing
Microsoft announced two new ways Microsoft is making Bing image and video search safer to use. The first change Microsoft made was to serve up all adult related images and videos on a new domain, explicit.bing.net. Having the content served from a different domain will help schools and homes set their own safe filters to […]
Hunch: Your “Personal Decision Maker”
Hunch is not a “search engine” insists Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake, one of the people behind the new site. But you’ll probably start seeing it show up in (Google) search results, just like Wikipedia or Yahoo Answers. And in some ways it’s like a mix of both of those concepts, as Matt McGee discusses in […]
Hunch: A Real Decision Engine
Caterina Fake’s enthusiasm for her latest project is contagious. Hunch is now open to the public, but it’s still three days pre-launch when we talk and, at this point, about the only uncertainty is how best to describe it in all the media interviews she’s doing. Phrases like “Q&A community” and “knowledge tool” are mentioned, […]
Google SearchWiki: You Can ‘Check Out,’ But Your Results Don’t Leave
After months of requests from its users, Google has finally added a way to turn off its SearchWiki tool. But, while you can “check out” of using SearchWiki, your customized search results don’t leave. More on that in a moment. Users can turn SearchWiki off (and on) by clicking on the “Preferences” link next to […]
WolframAlpha Goes Halfway On iPhone Mobile Search
The WolframAlpha Blog announced they have launched an iPhone mobile friendly version of their search engine. If you visit www.wolframalpha.com on your iPhone, you should see an iPhone friendly home screen. It looks like this: The issue is, if you conduct any search, it doesn’t give you an iPhone friendly version of the results page. […]
Translation: A New Instant Answer From Bing
The Microsoft Translator Blog announced that translation is now an instant answer in Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine. Here are some examples: Google added limited translation as a OneBox over a year ago. But it seems like both Yahoo and Ask.com do not have smart answers for translation. Hat tip to LiveSide for spotting this.
How Google Suggestions Should Handle Adult Related Sites?
A reader sent us a problem he has with Google’s Search Suggestions. In short, his main issue is that when a searcher is looking for an adult web site, Google will suggest alternative sites, as to not show adult related search suggestions. Here is an example of entering in [adultfriend] and expecting to see the […]
Wolfram|Alpha’s First Production Update
The Wolfram|Alpha blog announced that they will be updating their index of structured data today. In fact, they gave a very detailed explanation of what exactly they are updating. Unlike, Google, Yahoo or Bing, Wolfram’s updates are not necessarily web crawls, but rather Wolfram uses sources of data to build their index and provide structured […]
Google Celebrates 25 Years Of Tetris With Doodle
June 6th is the 25-year anniversary of the game Tetris. If you visit Google Australia, where it is already June 6th, you will see a special Google logo: a Tetris Doodle. The game Tetris was released on June 6, 1984, by programmer and designer, Alexey Pajitnov. Expect the other Google search portals to switch over […]
Yahoo Adds Apps & Widgets To Mail, My Yahoo & More
If you’ve ever wanted to send money via Paypal without leaving your email In box, or if you wanted to publish a blog post without leaving your My Yahoo page, today’s announcement from Yahoo is sure to put a smile on your face. Yahoo is adding a number of third-party apps and widgets to several […]
Google Squared Is Now Live
Google has pulled the covers off of Squared, the search tool that was first demoed during the Searchology event last month. Google Squared takes a search query and tried to present the results in tabular form — like an online spreadsheet of sorts. Sometimes it works very well and provides interesting results, and other times […]
Can Microsoft Retain The Bing-Curious?
According to Net Applications Bing saw lots of testing and trial usage in its first full day: According to the company, the usage is coming from Live Search users as well as Google, Yahoo and others. Early buzz for Bing has been mixed but positive. The question now is whether Microsoft and Bing can retain […]
The Big Bing Reaction
As many of you know, Microsoft’s Bing went live early this morning and many searchers had a chance to get their feet wet with the new search engines. I have been hearing a mix of reaction on Bing and I thought I share some of those articles and blog posts with commentary on Bing’s debut. […]
Live Search Adds Sports Stats & Scores
I’m a little surprised that Microsoft is rolling out newish functionality on Live Search given that the new Bing rebranding is imminent. But the Live Search blog announced that sports stats and scores will appear in a “one box” like presentation when events, teams or player names are queried: What this means, I assume, is […]
Yahoo Image Search Adds Creative Commons Filter
The Yahoo Search Blog announced they have added a very useful search filter to Yahoo Image Search. The filter is known as the creative commons filter and it allows searchers to find images that can be reused for commercial reasons or that can be modified (remixed, tweaked, or built upon) with restrictions set by the […]