Why Google’s new search tools might have Twitter ready to sue

Twitter’s lawyers are taking a long, hard look at Google’s new social search features, and they don’t like what they see.

With Google’s new mode of searching, social media results powered by Google+ show up among regularly ranked links and images.

However, searching for a Twitter handle with these Google+ results included won’t necessarily get you to a Twitter page. Instead, you might be shown Google+ profiles instead — a move that doesn’t seem fair … Continue Reading

New Google social search “bad for the Internet,” says Twitter (updated)

Updated at at 7:38pm with comments from Google representative.

Twitter is not happy with Google‘s new social search features. So unhappy, in fact, that the company is calling it a “bad day for the Internet” and media overall.

“We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone,” the company said in a statement. “We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users.”

Google … Continue Reading

Google search gets its biggest change in a decade with a dose of Google+

Well, it’s finally happened. Google web search has been Google-Plus-ified.

Today, Google is bringing some specific new features to Google web search, its flagship and most widely used product. In addition to the usual assortment of links, pictures, news items and shopping results you’d see in a typical Google search results page, logged-in Google+ users will now also find several kinds of Google+ content sprinkled in among the normal search results. There are even promoted … Continue Reading

Microsoft launches its social network — but it’s not what you think

Microsoft’s anticipated social network So.cl has arrived, but don’t expect it to be the Google+ or Facebook challenger it was widely rumored to be — at least not yet.

So.cl, pronounced social, is being billed as a site for student collaboration and information gathering. For now, Microsoft is calling it just an “experimental research project” and only making it available to students studying information and design at the University of Washington, Syracuse University and New … 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

HeyStaks makes searching social

Search engines don’t seem to have evolved much since the dawn of Google. If Google was the sports car of search engines when it launched, it’s now a rather rusty vintage sport car.

Enter HeyStaks, a new startup launching today which wants to make search more efficient by making it social. HeyStaks revolves around the notion of a Stak, which synthesizes the best shared search results of a group of users on a particular subject.… 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

Is Google scared of Facebook? Depends who you ask

Google executives took slightly contradictory stances this afternoon when asked about Facebook. Perhaps the message was: We’re looking at Facebook, but we’re not, you know, worried or anything.

It seems like a problem for Google is that so much of Facebook’s data is hidden from search engines. As Google’s Marissa Mayer (who previously led the company’s search experience but recently switched to the location team) said at the TechCrunch50 conference last month, “There is a … Continue Reading

Bing and Facebook try to crack social search

Social search, where your Internet search results are shaped by your friends’ activities, has been a buzzword for a while, but none of the previous attempts seem to have taken off. Microsoft’s Bing search engine is taking another stab at it today by integrating more deeply with Facebook.

The two companies were already worked together, with Bing providing search results in Facebook and using public Facebook data to create a “social” area within Bing. Today’s … Continue Reading

Ask.com joins the Q&A party

Search site Ask.com launched a Q&A service today, making it the latest in a host of companies to do so, including Quora, Yahoo and Linkedin. The new version of the site will integrate the company’s search technology with a new feature that routes questions to appropriate members of the Ask.com community. Members are selected based on their interests and areas of knowledge.

Q&A services or “social search” has been a hot topic of late because … Continue Reading

Twitter search queries up 33 percent from April to 800 million per day

Twitter is supporting 800 million queries a day, or 33 percent more than it said it was handling back in April, according to co-founder Biz Stone, who spoke at the Aspen Ideas Festival today.

That means the company, which is trying to brand itself as an “information network” rather than a social network, is handling 24 billion queries a month. The last time the company reported daily search volumes was back in April at its … Continue Reading

Google siphons some Buzz for social search

The personalized search wars are beginning in earnest.

Google started mixing in content shared on Buzz into social search today. For people with friends who are avid users of Buzz, the move should fill out their personalized search results, which have been pretty spartan for the last half-year. Social search has had little more than Google Blogger, Picasa and Reader to grab content from.

First unveiled last fall, social search augments Google results with links … Continue Reading

Bing search engine to include top content shared on Facebook

The personalized search wars are beginning in earnest.

Google started mixing in content shared on Buzz into social search today. For people with friends who are avid users of Buzz, the move should fill out their personalized search results, which have been pretty spartan for the last half-year. Social search has had little more than Google Blogger, Picasa and Reader to grab content from.

First unveiled last fall, social search augments Google results with links … Continue Reading

OneRiot lets you search for Spock in realtime

The personalized search wars are beginning in earnest.

Google started mixing in content shared on Buzz into social search today. For people with friends who are avid users of Buzz, the move should fill out their personalized search results, which have been pretty spartan for the last half-year. Social search has had little more than Google Blogger, Picasa and Reader to grab content from.

First unveiled last fall, social search augments Google results with links … Continue Reading

Social search product Aardvark: Yahoo Answers meets Twitter — but better

The personalized search wars are beginning in earnest.

Google started mixing in content shared on Buzz into social search today. For people with friends who are avid users of Buzz, the move should fill out their personalized search results, which have been pretty spartan for the last half-year. Social search has had little more than Google Blogger, Picasa and Reader to grab content from.

First unveiled last fall, social search augments Google results with links … Continue Reading

TextDigger, Hakia say they can improve search

The personalized search wars are beginning in earnest.

Google started mixing in content shared on Buzz into social search today. For people with friends who are avid users of Buzz, the move should fill out their personalized search results, which have been pretty spartan for the last half-year. Social search has had little more than Google Blogger, Picasa and Reader to grab content from.

First unveiled last fall, social search augments Google results with links … Continue Reading