Google’s cool new conversational search quietly hits Chrome

With little fanfare, Google has added its cool new conversational search feature to Chrome on desktops, following a demonstration last week at Google I/O.

Who needs databases? Orchestrate closes massive $3M seed round to turn NoSQL into NoDB

Who needs SQL? In fact, who needs databases?

‘OK Google,’ your conversational search is awesome as hell (video)

Normally, when a company claims that it's bringing the helpfulness of a Federation starship's onboard computer to everyday technology, I sort of roll my eyes and prepare to be disappointed -- except this time that didn't really happen.

LucidWorks pulls in $10M to turn open source data into ‘business gold’

Big data startup LucidWorks has raised $10 million to help enterprise companies "turn multi-structured data into business gold."

Husband-wife team launch Zoobean to make searching for kids books smarter

Zoobean launched a curated catalog of children's books today to make it easier for parents to find books that are the most relevant for their children.

Google shuts down SMS search (and barely anyone notices)

Here's some news that will sadden the few hundred tech-savvy people still using feature phones to grab information from the web.

AppsFlyer says social sharing delivers better results for app marketers than search

If you're looking for high volumes of users, mobile ad networks can deliver them.

Facebook explains why it used natural language to compete with Google search

Google has for the past decade or two been training us to search with keywords rather than natural phrases. But Facebook is taking a different approach.

SRCH2 launches ‘Google-like’ tech to fix enterprise search

Newly-launched startup SRCH2 is not focused on standard web search, a space inhabited by Google and Bing, but is offering a new take on 'enterprise search.'

Google finally settles its two-year EU inquisition

Google has proposed a settlement to the European Commission that involves making legally binding changes to its search results in Europe. If this agreement is adopted, Google will change its results page by clearly highlighting search results from its own services and including links to rivals.

Bing delivers five times more malicious sites than Google, says report

Microsoft may knock Google's search results, but its Google that's doing a better job of blocking malicious sites.

How ‘well’ do you use social media? Two brothers built a social analytics platform to tell you

Prollie is a social search platform that tracks how "well" people use social media platforms and makes connections with others who share the same interests and passions.

Foursquare raises $41M as it doubles-down on search and ad ops

We've been saying this for a while now: Foursquare isn't about badges and mayorships anymore. You need only look at the company's latest round of funding for confirmation.

LinkedIn gets new Facebook-like search for jobs, companies, people

The all-new LinkedIn search is more powerful and more productive. It'll also help you find the exact person, article, or job listing to get you what you want at the right time.