SEO, Website Content Optimization
& Software Development

Despite Google Latitude having only just been released, it has already come in for a wave of criticism from privacy campaigners.

Critics say that Latitude, which tracks users’ locations via their mobile phone signal, could in theory be abused by employers, suspicious partners or even paedophiles. (more…)

Yahoo has named Carol Bartz, current Chairperson of CAD software provider Autodesk, as its next Chief Executive.

Bartz will be tasked with transforming the fortunes of the beleaguered search giant, whose long-standing CEO Jerry Yang stepped down in November in the fallout of Microsoft’s failed takeover bid. (more…)

One of the most worrying things for any website owner is the thought that it could get hijacked and have Malware installed. This can severely affect visitor numbers as search results get labeled as not being safe due to Malware, which is one form known as Badware.

The most common methods of Badware infecting a site is through a security breach, for example through the attack of a website database, web server or website itself.
Once badware is detected and then removed from a site, the labels will now get removed within 24 hours in most cases, this is a marked improvement and comes as welcome news to webmasters.
(more…)

Chinese search giant Baidu.cn is fighting to save its reputation after state media accused it of selling high rankings to unlicensed medical services; to the detriment of public health.

Several unlicensed providers have taken advantage of Baidu’s ‘Pay for Performance’ (P4P) scheme to buy their way into the rankings for popular search terms, putting the search engine’s users at risk from expensive and often useless medical products and procedures. (more…)

Google has revealed that the company’s search frequency service, Google Trends, can detect flu outbreaks up to two weeks faster than traditional surveillance methods.

For those who have never heard of Google Trends, this is a free facility that allows people to view search trends by keywords or phrases. (more…)

In celebration of its 10th birthday, Google has dusted off its 2001 search index for another outing.

Google 2001 allows users to turn the search clock back to a simpler time, way before the credit crunch and when no-one had heard of Barack Obama or Sarah Palin, to see how Google viewed the web in January 2001. (more…)

A new search engine devised by a group of former Google employees is the latest pretender to the Mountain View company’s search dominance.

Cuil.com (pronounced cool) claims to be the “world’s biggest search engine”, indexing 121 billion pages - reputedly 3 times as many as Google. (more…)

Google are close to a $200 million deal to buy leading social bookmarking site Digg, according to a report from TechCrunch.

Digg, estimated to attract over 230 million visitors annually, has been a longstanding takeover target for companies including Google and Microsoft, and it appears the Mountain View firm are keen to add the brand to their portfolio. (more…)

Google has launched a new service that helps advertisers discover the key visitor demographics of sites they plan to advertise on.

Google Ad Planner, which has been released as an invitation-only beta, will also suggest other sites that fit the advertisers’ criteria. (more…)

Microsoft has begun the fight to stop the recently announced Google-Yahoo ad-serving agreement going ahead, reports Reuters.

The day after the deal was unveiled, Microsoft reportedly emailed political advocacy groups to complain that it would not be in the interests of competition in the search advertising sector. (more…)