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China's Baidu Qualifies Partnership with Music Service Qtrax

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 6, 2009 - 10:41am.
Los Angeles - Chinese search giant Baidu (NASD: BIDU) has issued a statement indicating that it will not in fact be directing users searching for music on the site to ad-supported downloads available from U.S.-based Qtrax -- as that company announced earlier this week, IDG News Service reported. "The partnership with Qtrax regards text-based information, such as singer backgrounds; it has nothing to do with the music itself," a Baidu spokesperson told IDG. Qtrax said in its announcement that Baidu would direct users to Qtrax "wherever Qtrax has the queried...song in its catalogue."

tags: Music | China | Search | Qtrax | Baidu |

Report: Microsoft Looks to Extend Yahoo Deal Beyond U.S.

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 5, 2009 - 10:35am.
Tokyo - Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) is looking to expanding its search partnership with Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) beyond the U.S., provided it is able to gain approval from antitrust regulators in other territories, CEO Steve Ballmer said on Thursday, Reuters reported.

Yahoo Testing Real-Time Data in Search Results

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 4, 2009 - 11:28am.
San Francisco - Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) is experimenting with providing real-time search results from services like Twitter, and has partnered with real-time search providers including OneRiot on the trials, Reuters reported.

Web Video Index Blinkx to Raise $8.1 Million in Share Offering

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 3, 2009 - 7:25am.
San Francisco - Blinkx, the provider of a searchable index of Web videos, announced on Tuesday that will raise $8.1 million through an offering of shares representing 10% of the company.

Lala to Offer Artists More Customized Google Music Search

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 2, 2009 - 11:41am.
San Francisco - Artists will eventually be able to use online music service Lala's platform to point users searching Google (NASD: GOOG) to specific content of their choosing, as well as sell products other than MP3s via search results, Lala co-founder Bill Nguyen told CNET News.com. Lala, along with iLike and several other online music services, recently partnered with Google to provide streaming songs and links to their services within Google search results.

tags: Music | Search | Google | Lala |

Qtrax Legal Download Service Inks Deal with China's Baidu

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 2, 2009 - 8:52am.
Los Angeles - Qtrax, the provider of an ad-supported, legal song download service, on Monday announced a deal with Baidu (NASD: BIDU), China's leading search engine, that will see users searching for songs or artists on Baidu directed to Qtrax.

Scoopler Gets Seed Funding for Real-Time Search

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 2, 2009 - 7:22am.
San Francisco - Scoopler, the developer of a real-time search engine, has landed seed funding from investors Ron Conway, Michael Birch, Avalon Ventures and XG-Ventures, PEHub.com reported.

Google Debuts Music Search Feature with Lala, iLike

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 29, 2009 - 8:11am.
Mountain View, Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) announced on Wednesday the launch of a new music-focused search feature, "OneBox," which adds streaming songs via Lala and MySpace's (NYSE: NWS) iLike, along with links to an artist's website. Along with Lala and iLike, Google will also include links to digital music services Pandora, imeem and Rhapsody (NASD: RNWK). The feature will in many cases allow users to listen to the full song they are searching for right there from the search results page; licensing issues mean that some songs will only feature 30-second samples, and that subsequent searches after a song is streamed in full once will only provide a 30-second sample.

Google Introduces "Social Search" Feature

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 28, 2009 - 11:01am.
Mountain View, Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) has introduced a new experimental search feature from its Google Labs, Social Search, which adds relevant public content from a user's friends and contacts to search results.

Google Offers Turn-by-Turn GPS Directions for Android Phones

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 28, 2009 - 10:49am.
Mountain View, Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) on Wednesday announced the release of Google Maps Navigation for Android mobile phones, an update to its popular mapping application that provides turn-by-turn directions, as well as voice-powered search and other features.

Blinkx Launches Music Video Search Feature

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 27, 2009 - 12:12pm.
San Francisco - Blinkx, the provider of a searchable index of Web videos, on Tuesday announced the launch of blinkx Music, a new tool for finding and watching music videos that has indexed over 33,000 hours of music video from over 10,000 artists. The new feature lets users search by artist, album, genre or song, and also features artist information as well as the ability to post comments.

Google to Include Real-time Twitter Data in Search Results

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2009 - 8:57am.
Mountain View, Calif. - Shortly after Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) announced a similar deal, Google (NASD: GOOG) yesterday said that it had signed a deal with Twitter, to include real-time status updates in its search results. "We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months," Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience, wrote in a blog post.

Chango Lands $750,000 for Targeted Web Advertising

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2009 - 7:46am.
Toronto, Canada - Chango, a provider of targeted advertising services, has raised $750,000 in a first round of funding, led by iNovia Capital with participation from Extreme Venture Partners.

Microsoft to Add Facebook, Twitter Data to Bing Search Results

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 21, 2009 - 8:54am.
San Francisco - Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) announced on Wednesday that it has signed separate deals with Facebook and Twitter, to bring real-time status updates from the services to its Bing search engine. While financial terms of the nonexclusive agreements were not disclosed,  PaidContent cited earlier reports pegging Twitter's take as "several million dollars," in addition to a share of ad revenue.

Reports: Google, Lala, iLike Teaming on Music Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 21, 2009 - 8:34am.
San Francisco - Google (NASD: GOOG) is gearing up to launch a new music-related search service, likely called One Box, according to published reports. CNET News.com reports that One Box will organize music-related search query results, to include artist bios, videos and song samples from partners Lala and MySpace-owned iLike -- which have licensing deals with the major labels.
tags: Music | Search | Google | iLike | Lala |

Blog Search Engine Technorati Gets $2 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 16, 2009 - 7:24am.
San Francisco - Technorati, a search engine for blogs, has raised $2 million in new financing from previous backers Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Mobius Venture Capital, TechCrunch reported.

Report: Twitter in Talks with Microsoft, Google on Search Deal

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 8, 2009 - 9:00am.
New York - Twitter is in "advanced" talks with both Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) and Google (NASD: GOOG) to add Twitter results to their search services, All Things D reports. Compensation deals being discussed reportedly include an upfront payment of "several million dollars," "along with various revenue-sharing proposals that would give Twitter a piece of the revenue made from search results."

Bluefin Lab Gets Seed Funding for Video Search Technology

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 5, 2009 - 7:35am.
Somerville, Mass. - Bluefin Lab, a developer of video search technology, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Kepha Partners, the Boston Globe reported.

Compass Labs Gets $1 Million for Search, Social Media Product

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 28, 2009 - 6:09am.
Cupertino, Calif. - Compass Labs, a start-up founded by former Google and Yahoo executive Dilip Venkatachari, has raised $1 million of an expected $1.1 million round of financing, PaidContent reported, citing a regulatory filing.

EU Court Adviser Sides with Google on Keyword Ad Trademarks

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 22, 2009 - 9:42am.
Luxembourg - An adviser to the European Court of Justice has issued an opinion stating that Google's (NASD: GOOG) keyword advertising service does not infringe on the trademark rights of luxury good retailer LVMH, Reuters reported.