Search results for "Google News"
Yellow Journalism: New York Times Calls for Bing Boycott Over Chinese Results
Nicholas Kristof took to the pages of the New York Times to call for a boycott of Bing. Yes, Kristoff is attempting to create the news instead of just cover it, and yes, that goes against the fundamentals covered in any Journalism 101 class. Kristof claims that Bing is cozying up to China and serving up censored results. Kristof even admits that Google is serving up some censored results, but only calls for the Bing boycott. Bing admitted that it still has some "bugs" when it comes to results in Simplified Chinese characters. Listen, it's not easy doing the search...
Shaking My Head at Steve Ballmer...
Last week, I was shaking my head at Mark Cuban. He suggested that Microsoft pay online publishers to de-index their sites from Google. Presumably, then Bing could go out there and say "Hey, search us to find the Wall Street Journal." I scoffed. I laughed. Who would do such a thing? Apparently, Steve Ballmer would. To my utter dismay, news reports are in fact breaking that Microsoft is talking to News Corp, which recently said it was considering blocking the Googlebot from its news sites. Nevermind that Bing is experiencing some nice growth. Almost 2 percentage points in search share...
Google News Updates Mobile Site for iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre
Google has made some enhancements to its mobile news site. The updates are just for the iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre. The look and feel is pretty much the same. What's new is more stories, sources, and images. A new "Jump to" link brings a pop up box offering quick access to a specific news category. Any personalizations you make on your desktop will be accessible via your mobile now, as well (as long as you're signed into the same account on both). Screenshots: News.Google.com on an iPhone Jump to...
Yahoo! Adds Tweets, Breaking News to News Shortcut
After announcements from Google and Bing about incorporating Twitter into their search results, Yahoo! is throwing hopping on the real-time results news bandwagon. Yahoo!'s Twitter integration is part of a new update when the News Shortcut is implemented in the search results. Yahoo! is also recognizing when there's breaking news and indicating as such on the News Shortcut. Here's a screenshot of a search for the space shuttle Atlantis shortly after launch earlier this week (per the Yahoo! Search blog): What do you think of these updates to the Yahoo! News shortcut? Let us know by leaving a comment below....
FacteryLabs Launch FactRank Engine
The search industry has seen a lot of new engines developed moving towards a diversity of specific needs. Recently, "real time" search has been a hot topic with the use of social media in search. This week a new engine was launched by FacteryLabs - an search technology company founded by Paul Pedersen and Sean Gaddis who have worked at Google, Powerset, eBay, and Skype. The company has developed a FactFinder API that can be used to combine data from Twitter and Yahoo BOSS. The results I found for various searches may need some fine tuning but the product offers...
Google To Preview Chrome OS Thursday, Launch In New Year
Google has announced they will hold a preview of the Chrome OS this Thursday and the product will launch in the new year, according to the Washington Post. "Sundar Pichai, Google's VP of Product Management and Matthew Papakipos, Google Engineering Director for Google Chrome OS will be speaking at the event,: the newspaper reported. Rumors of the operating system have been around for much of the year and Thursday will be the first time the product will be shown with technical information and some demos. Did-It CEO Kevin Lee suggested some interesting ways to prepare Adwords for the OS launch....
Bing and Google Both Gain Half Point in October 2009 comScore Rankings
comScore has released their search market share rankings for October 2009 and the news is good for both Google and Bing - they both gained 0.5% in search share. This came at the expense of Yahoo! who lost 0.8% and AOL, which lost 0.1%. Ask.com stayed steady. After experiencing a slowdown in the rate of growth in September, Bing is back on the momentum it was gaining since launch last June. Bing has now gained 1.9% share since launch. At first, Bing's growth came at Google's expense. As of this new report, Google has recouped all losses, while Bing keeps...
Ask.com Sharpens Focus on Q&A
When Internet users conduct searches at Ask.com, they pose their keywords as questions three times more than any other search engine. So, it makes sense that Ask.com is focused on improving the Q&A experience on their site and on the web. Last summer, Ask launched a specific Q&A section with 300 million Q&A pairs in their database. They've recently reached the milestone of reaching 400 million Q&A pairs. Adding 100 million Q&A pairs in 5 months is impressive indeed. But Ask's focus on Q&A is not *just* about finding pairs and serving them up in search results. Ask.com has big...
Leapfish Launches Portal, Search For "Living Web"
Leapfish has launched an entry portal for web users to what they are calling "the Living Web" as they show in their impressive YouTube commercial below. Basically Leapfish offers a start page for web users where they can watch their Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as set up feeds for news, entertainment, sports and other services. The site offers some very interesting possibilities. It has some similarities to iGoogle but has managed to integrate social media faster than the search giant that recently signed a data share agreement with Twitter. Bing also has access to both Facebook and Twitter...
Bing Searches Increase 7 Percent in October 2009
My colleague Nathania Johnson reported yesterday that "Bing Wave 2 Becomes Tsunami: Social Sharing, Travel and Health." I didn't get the news until this morning, because I was flying from San Diego back to Boston. But I also found this press release in my email inbox: "Bing Searches Increase 7 Percent in October 2009." So, it looks like Bing also has the "Big Mo," or momentum. If you look closer at the data, Bing's share of searches among leading search engines increased from 8.96 percent in September 2009 to 9.57 percent in October. Meanwhile, Google's share decreased 1 percent --...
YouTube Tests Skip Button on Pre-Roll Ads
Over at our sister site ClickZ, Zachary Rodgers has the news on a new YouTube test where a "Skip" button is added to some Pre-Roll ads. This would allow users to avoid watching advertisements before the video they've chosen to watch. YouTube hopes the test will lead to more creative ads. But this also could be a step towards performance pricing in video ads. Don't expect big changes anytime soon. Pre-roll ads only appear on premium content from the likes of Sony and MGM. And YouTube maintains that the primary goal is better ads....
UPDATE: Google Caffeine to Launch After Holidays (For the Most Part)
Earlier today, news broke that Google's new index would launch soon. The news was simultaneously exciting and disconcerting since most SEOs and search marketers are in full-fledged holiday mode, and boy, would this disrupt things. But Google spam ninja Matt Cutts took to his personal blog to assure that most people won't get the update until after the holidays. You can breathe that sigh of relief now. Caffeine will still be rolled out to one data center, which Cutts said will affect a small percentage of searchers....
Google To Murdoch: Use No Index Or Just Ask
News Corp. Founder and CEO Rupert Murdoch claims Google is stealing their content - the "content kleptomaniacs" as he has termed them. As Greg Jarboe's article below details this could be a major problem for News Corp web sites. Watch the embedded video to hear Murdoch's position. The UK Telegraph quotes an unnamed Google spokesperson suggesting Murdoch just tell them they want to be dropped from the Google News index. "Publishers put their content on the web because they want it to be found, so very few choose not to include their material in Google News and web search. But...
Murdoch to Google: Drop Dead
Okay, so News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch didn't really tell Google to drop dead. That's just an attention getting device like the classic headline in The Daily News back in the 1970s: "Ford to City: Drop Dead." What Murdoch did say in a Sky News interview today was that his company is considering blocking Google from being able to search its Web sites. Murdoch said, "I think we will (block Google), but that's when we start charging. We have it already with the Wall Street Journal. We have a wall, but it's not right to the ceiling. You can...
5 Google Updates for 11/6/09: News, Maps, Books, Music and Mobile
It's the end of another eventful week in search blogging, and once again there are several Google updates just piled up waiting to be written about. So, we're saving everyone some time and just compiling them into one post. Check them out: Google News has a new sitemaps interface. You have six months to adopt the new sitemap. Google Books now has a magazine search page. Via Google Search's new music search, you can now access exclusive songs hosted by MySpace and Lala for artists such as Lady Gaga and Arctic Monkeys. Google Maps has released imagery of Berlin from...
PRSA 2009 International Conference Features Two Online Marketing Heroes
I'll by flying to San Diego this weekend to speak at the PRSA 2009 International Conference next week. Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing and a member of the SES Advisory Board, will also be speaking at the annual Public Relations Society of America event. Odden is speaking on Monday, November 9, at 10:15 a.m. about "Help Google Find Your Releases: Top 10 Search Engine Optimization Tactics for Public Relations Professionals." Nine out of 10 journalists, reporters and editors use search engines to do their jobs, according to a recent survey by TopRank Online Marketing. In this environment, public...
Google News Offers Customization via New Sections
Alex Chitu over at Google Operating System noticed a new feature in Google News. Look to the top right corner and you'll see a link for "Add a section." Clicking on "Add a section" takes you to a directory of news sections that you can use to customize your Google News experience. Update: You can also create your own sections and either keep it private or make it available for public consumption. Here's how you do it: First, click the "Create your own section" button in the right sidebar (when you're on a sections page): On the next page, choose...
Google Updates Friend Connect to Match Up Content, Ads with Uses Interests
Google has released updates to Friend Connect that will help the tool be more, um, friendly to both web developers and their site visitors. They're using the interests that users note in their profiles to help deliver a more personalized experience. Custom newsletters - Friend Connect now offers newsletters. You can select to send them to your entire Friend Connect audience - or send newsletters according to interest. Google Ads - If you have AdSense on your site, Google Friend Connect will now use the interests of a Friend Connect visitor to help serve up more relevant ads. Personalized Content...
Google Extends Local News to France
Google is now offering Local News in its Google News service for France. This allows the French to access local news when they visit Google News instead of just the standard Google News fare. Local News has already been rolled out in the U.S., U.K., Canada, India and Germany. To see Local News in any of these countries, look for the local section where you can enter your postal code. If you don't see the section, head to the "Personalize this page" link on the top right corner of the page....
125.5 Million Americans Watched 10.3 Billion YouTube Videos in September
Normally, announcements made on a Friday afternoon are bad news. But yesterday at 4:21 p.m., comScore Video Metrix announced that more than 168 million U.S. Internet users watched nearly 26 billion videos online during September 2009 -- an average of 154 videos per viewer. That's good news, isn't it? To put this in perspective, Super Bowl XLIII achieved the largest television audience in U.S. history with a total audience of 151.6 million viewers, according to official national ratings data released by Nielsen Media Research. In other words, more Americans are watching online video each and every month than watch the...
