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Report: Yahoo Search Share Dips in October; Bing, Google Gain

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 18, 2009 - 12:41pm.
Reston, Va. - Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) lost 0.8% of its share of the U.S. search market in October, while Google (NASD: GOOG) and Microsoft's (NASD: MSFT) Bing both saw increases, according to data from Internet audience measurement firm comScore.

Google Adds World Bank Data to Search Results

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 13, 2009 - 11:36am.
Mountain View, Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) this week added World Bank data to its search results, providing access to statistics for most economies in the world. The data includes 17 of the organization's World Development Indicators, such as GDP, life expectancy, population growth, energy use, CO2 emissions and Internet usage.

tags: Search | Google | World Bank |

Microsoft Folds MSN Video Into Bing Video Search Page

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 11, 2009 - 2:36pm.
Los Angeles - Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) has combined its MSN Video and Bing video search pages, so that now users looking for MSN Video will be redirected to an enhanced Bing video search page, PaidContent reports. The article notes that the 250 million monthly video streams on MSN Video will provide a boost for Bing's traffic numbers.

Wolfram Alpha Search Data Added to Bing Search Results

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 11, 2009 - 2:34pm.
Los Angeles - Wolfram Alpha, a search engine focusing on scientific data that culls results computed from curated data, announced on Wednesday that Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) will incorporate its data in Bing search results. The deal will see Wolfram Alpha data integrated into Bing search results related to nutrition, health and advanced mathematics.

Report: Bing Ups Share of Search Market by 7% in October

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 11, 2009 - 2:06pm.
New York - Microsoft's Bing increased its share of the U.S. search market by 7% in October, according to data from Experian Hitwise.

China's Baidu Qualifies Partnership with Music Service Qtrax

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 6, 2009 - 10:41am.
*A clarification was made to this story.

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."

Clarification: IDG News Service has amended its original story, with input from Qtrax CEO Allan Klepfisz. Qtrax links will appear on artist pages on two of Baidu's entertainment-related portals, but will not feature on Baidu's popular MP3 search engine page. The company maintains that users searching on Baidu's Entertainment Portal and Qian Qian Music Online sites will be directed to Qtrax "when Qtrax has the queried artist or song in its catalogue." The Qtrax service isn't expected to launch in China until next month.

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 |