Google choosing between advertisers and searchers. Guess who is losing?

The first thing you need to keep in mind about Google’s business is that it’s an advertising marketplace.

The “search engine” part of Google, the part we love, is constantly under assault as Google tries to adapt and keep its business growing.

Now, with the introduction of Search Plus Your World earlier this month, Google has shown us it may believe it has enough clout that it can more or less ignore its original customers, … Continue Reading

Bing beats Yahoo in search market, Microsofties heard chanting “We’re number two!”

We jest, we jest. Microsofties don’t chant.

But we’re sure the company is mighty proud of today’s numbers released by comScore that show Bing’s market share has, for the first time ever, surpassed Yahoo’s search market share.

For the month of November 2011, Yahoo grabbed 15.1 percent of the U.S. search market for home and work locations, while Bing took home 15 percent of that pie.

However, for the month of December 2011, comScore says … Continue Reading

Orbitz, Kayak think Google is abusing its power with travel search

Peak holiday travel may be near its end, but the battle for online travel search is just heating up, with Google’s recently launched flight search tools angering competitors.

Google debuted its flight search tool in September and starting placing its own flight search results at the top of regular searches in December, just in time for the holiday travel season. The flight results pop up when you type a query about trying to get from … Continue Reading

Bieber fever afflicts nation: Pop star most searched person of 2011

Did Bieber fever get the best of you this year? Join the club. The YouTube sensation and current cause of adolescent ague was the most searched person of 2011 on Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

Bieber beat out 2010 Bing champion Kim Kardashian for the top spot. But don’t feel bad for the soon-to-be-divorced reality star; Kim still nabbed the number two position and was the most searched female of the year on Bing.

President Barack … Continue Reading

Google revamps search for more recent results, affects 35% of all searches

Google has tweaked its basic search algorithm to promote fresher and more relevant content, with 35 percent of searches to be affected, the company announced today. The adjustments will impact searches for recent and reoccurring events, and other fast-changing information.

While it’s easy to focus on evolving Google products like Gmail and Google+, Google still makes most of its revenues on search and advertising. Thus, the company needs to keep you coming back for more … Continue Reading

Microsoft talks turkey on growth, games, Skype & Windows Phone 7

Microsoft executives gave some details and forward-looking statements about the company’s business — both the high points and the struggles — in an earnings call this afternoon. And it looks like Steve Ballmer is still doing a great job.

Microsoft posted record earnings for the most recent quarter — $17.37 billion, a figure that represents 7 percent year-over-year growth. All things considered, you can credit the growth to business tools (including big, boring server tech) … Continue Reading

Google challenges Kayak, Bing Travel with new flight search tool

Google on Tuesday launched a new flight search tool that integrates with Google search and will challenge Bing Travel and ticket-finding sites like Kayak and Orbitz.

The new flight search tool is powered by ITA Software, which Google finished acquiring in April. When Google announced its intention to purchase ITA in July 2010, it said it wanted to “create a new, easier way for users to find better flight information online.” Since that time, travel … Continue Reading

Bing thinks second place is good enough, for now (video)

Microsoft’s director of Bing search, Stefan Weitz doesn’t think being in second place is a bad thing.

He thinks Bing’s progress in the search market should be applauded, especially given the fact that Bing’s only been around for 2 years. You have to consider Microsoft’s history in search: Live Search, Microsoft’s search product before Bing, had less than one percent name recognition when Bing took its place.

As Bing seeks to dominate the search landscape, … Continue Reading

Watch out for botnet-driven Google Dorks, the next automated cyber attacks

Botnets have been taking down web sites for years by overwhelming sites with too much traffic. But now the swarms of compromised computers are being unleashed for the first time on an old kind of vulnerability: Google Dorks.

Google Dorks have been around for a while, as the name for an attack where hackers scan web sites, using commonly used links within company networks, to see if there are any unsecure links that can be … Continue Reading

Baidu adds English search results from Microsoft’s Bing

Chinese search giant Baidu announced on Monday that it would add English results from Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, to its own search engine.

The results from Baidu are currently primarily in Chinese. That includes search queries that users type in English. For example, typing in “Last.fm” will deliver search results in Chinese, even if the link in the search results points to the English version of Last.fm.

The new deal will give Microsoft a foothold … Continue Reading

Nokia throws its Ovi brand out of the door, maps are making their way into Bing

Mobile phone giant Nokia will finally kill its Ovi brand. The company’s mobile services portfolio, including apps, maps, and music, will be re-branded as Nokia Services.

This sounds like a smart move in many ways. Nokia’s smartphones will be using Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system next year, so it will be wise to use Nokia’s brand in it’s own services. Ovi would not be very informative, at least for the new Nokia users.

Ovi is … Continue Reading

Microsoft brings cool Photosynth app to iPhone, but not Windows Phone

Microsoft’s innovative Photosynth technology, which can be used to create and share immersive 360-degree panoramic photos, landed on the iPhone today.

But Windows Phone 7 owners, arguably the users that Microsoft should be bending head over heels to please, are still waiting for their own Photosynth app.

Microsoft’s decision to prioritize iPhone development for Photosynth is indicative of a bigger problem that it’s facing with Windows Phone — is it better to deliver cool technology … Continue Reading

Google takes on Facebook and Bing with +1

After months of speculation about Google building something to challenge Facebook, the search giant has finally unveiled its social product +1. So what is +1? Apparently, it’s Google’s take on the Facebook Like button.

That may seem a bit underwhelming after all the rumors about a rival social network, but this is actually a big deal for Google. Like the company’s executives have been saying for a while, +1 isn’t a standalone site. Instead, it … Continue Reading

Microsoft's Bing sees Twitter backlash for Japan quake campaign

Here’s a great example of how a seemingly noble social media donation campaign can go awry: Microsoft tweeted two hours ago on the Bing search engine’s Twitter account that it would donate up to $100,000 to help victims of Japan’s earthquake — but only if Twitter users retweeted its original post to broadcast it to their followers, at $1 per retweet.

While many Twitter users are retweeting without complaint, others are pointing out that this … Continue Reading

Microsoft’s Bing overtakes Yahoo globally (again)

Chalk up yet another victory for Microsoft’s Bing search engine. It has overtaken Yahoo in search traffic for the month of January 2010, according to web analytics company StatCounter.

The company says this is the first time Bing has ever surpassed Yahoo, but that’s only according to StatCounter data. In September 2010, the research company Nielsen found that Bing ousted Yahoo as the second place search engine worldwide.

It’s not unusual for web analytics companies … Continue Reading

Week in review: Bing wrests share from Google

Here’s our roundup of the week’s top tech business news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:

Microsoft’s Bing wrests search share from Google — Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, now has 27 percent of the search engine market and is quickly gaining on Google, according to Hitwise.

HP unveils a cool reclining touchscreen PC straight out of Star Trek — It seems like there’s no end of uses for the … Continue Reading

Microsoft's Bing wrests search share from Google

Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, now has 27 percent of the search engine market and is quickly gaining on Google, according to Hitwise. Bing’s share rose by 6 percent in the month of January alone.

The bigger news, and perhaps the underlying reason for the rise: Microsoft’s Bing might be the better search engine. Hitwise says that Google’s “success rate” is just 65 percent, compared with an 82 percent score for Bing. The success rate is … Continue Reading

Sibblingz puts social games inside Microsoft's Bing search engine

Sibblingz, a startup that makes it easy to launch an app across different game platforms, is announcing today it can put social games inside Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

The idea is a novel one and it fits with the notion that social games can be played anywhere that users are, whether that’s on Facebook, on the iPhone, or even while searching the internet. With the addition of Bing, Sibblingz becomes more attractive for developers. Essentially, … Continue Reading

Bing exec explains how social can win the search race

Microsoft unveiled a number of updates to its Bing search engine today, most interestingly in how it delivers socially-improved search results through its integration with Facebook.

Back in October, Bing and Facebook unveiled a feature where Bing highlights search results that are endorsed by your Facebook friends (endorsements taking the form of Facebook Likes). So if you’re signed into Facebook and you perform a search for steakhouses on Bing, then if one of your Facebook … Continue Reading

Microsoft and Google's war takes to the skies

Microsoft — along with a number of other new companies — has joined an increasingly large bandwagon trying to keep Google from purchasing ITA, a provider of flight information for search engines, for $700 million.

Google is looking to acquire the flight data provider for around $700 million to improve results for Web users making travel plans. The deal seems innocuous enough — Google said it had no plans to sell plane tickets and would … Continue Reading