• To make its service faster, it will begin to load some webpages in the background before one is done with keying in the URL in the omnibox. If it auto-completes to a website likely to be visited by the user, Chrome will start pre-rendering the page. This is aimed at reducing the time lag to receive a fully-loaded page.
• Chrome claims to have improved its Safe Browsing technology to help surfers guard against certain malware attacks. Previously, it focused more on shielding them from websites that were suspected of exploiting the computer with no user interaction needed. The engineers have noticed a rise in malicious sites trying to lure people into downloading and running a file, masking it as a free anti-virus product at times, which ultimately might harm the machines.
• To prevent such malicious downloads, Chrome now incorporates expanded functionality for analyzing executable files like ‘.msi’ and ‘.exe’ files, which you download. You will get a precautionary message if its found to be malicious in nature.

Meanwhile, Google Chrome has released a new campaign aimed at Indian users; it’s being run both online and offline. The ad revolves around a humble artist from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, who leverages the Web to resurrect the ancient tradition of Tanjore paintings, not only finding buyers for his works but also becoming a successful entrepreneur rather than just being an artist. The artist narrates his Web-driven wonderful success tale in the film, which uses the art to weave it.

The film incidentally is part of a worldwide campaign with a core theme that “the web is what you make of it”. These series of campaigns talk of real life stories of ordinary people with extraordinary success achieved primarily because of the power and reach of the Internet medium. It tells how the course of their lives changed dramatically after taking their skills to a wider audience on the Web.  The country marketing head of Google India, Nikhil Rungta, has been quoted as saying, “The campaign is in keeping the same global thought, and speaks specifically of how a business, which was stagnating, returned to its old glory.”

The campaign has been conceptualized at the global search company’s US headquarters with the help of creative agency BBH, marketed all across the world, customized to accommodate real life stories of the local achievers. The first in this particular series, conceived on a global scale, was ‘Dear Sophie’. In this campaign a father was shown sending multimedia messages to his cute baby daughter. The first ad of the India-centric campaign was about a poor woman from a small town passionate about cooking, and the way she took inspiration to launch a cookery blog, which made her famous. This tale too was apparently devised on a real life narration.

• Facebook, as mentioned above, was the most searched term, taking up more than 3 percent of overall searches in the US, a good 46 percent rise from the previous year. Four variations of the term featured in the top 10 terms list, accounting for over 4 percent of searches overall, around 24 percent rise from 2010.
• YouTube jumped to the 2nd spot from the 3rd spot in 2010. YouTube terms logged 1.36 percent of total searches, representing more than 20 percent rise compared with 2010, whereas other Google terms (comprising YouTube) accounted for over percent and a half – an increase of around 27 percent.
• |‘Facebook login’ emerged as the third most widely searched item, followed by terms ‘craigslist’ and again ‘facebook.com’ that moved up a spot to figure among the top five searched items. The combined percentage of facebook and facebook.com was 3.48 percent among the top 50, a 33 rise.
• Further analysis revealed that terms related to social networking dominated the results, taking up more than 4 percent of the top 50 search terms, an increase of decent 12 percent in comparison to  2010.
• Yahoo terms accounted for 0.59 percent – an increase of 15 percent compared with 2010. Other terms in the top 10 list were ebay and mapquest. Some of the new terms entering the top 50 search terms’ list were addicting games, cnn, chase online, amazon.com, face, facebook sign up, lowes, pandora, twitter and hotmail.
• Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber were the two most most popular public figures in terms of top personality searches.

Analyzing the results, general manager of the research agency, Simon Bradstock, stated:

“Navigational searches dominated the top search results as users typed in terms versus typing in the URL in the browser bar. Hitwise saw 11 percent growth of single-word searches in 2011 as terms like ‘face’ and ‘you’ made the top 50 searches. Marketers need to be particularly brand-savvy when managing their search optimization campaigns because of this behavior, which is a result of predictive search functionality across major search engines.”

Other top searches for 2011 reflect fascination with celebrities online, whereas many of the leading fast-moving search terms revolved around notable personalities passing away or natural disasters.

A bonus to the internet content providing crowd, which is slightly later than had been planned last year, but soon you will be able to access your Google Docs files as the global search engine giant Google over the weekend announced that is all set to revamp Google Docs and… Read More Google Talk Improves Gmail Chat And AIM Interoperability

In an attempt to lure users from other chat service, Google and AOL have advanced their instant messaging partnership to a new level with absolute interoperability among AIM, Gmail and Google Talk… Read More Foursquare To Support Power Location Service For INQ’s “Facebook Phone”

Closing in on 10 million users, Foursquare on Monday announced at the TechCrunch’s Disrupt 2011, that London-based mobile phone manufacturer INQ has selected Foursquare’s location service to complement social media networking-focused phone… Read More Google Acquires “Sparkbuy” A Search Engine For Consumer Electronics

Well, that sure was an intelligent move. Global search engine titan, Google Inc., has acquired a Seattle-based Sparkbuy, a search engine for consumer electronics devices, less than six months after its debut, according to a note on the Sparkbuy website… Read More Yahoo Peels Off Beta Stamp From Revamped Web Mail Service

Prominent Internet pioneer Yahoo, which introduced the beta offering of its online e-mail service in October, on Tuesday announced that it is fully geared up with a final version of its revamped Yahoo Mail service that it will begin to roll out to its 284 million users worldwide in the coming weeks… Read More Google To Unfurl Mobile Payments Platform Thursday: Report

After countless rumors, reporters in New York are dusting off their outdoor clothes for a Google “partner event” which will take the wraps off a mobile payment system on Thursday that will let shoppers wave their smartphones in front of a small reader at the checkout counter to pay instead… Read More Twitter Users Get New Email Notification For Retweets And Favorites

Globally popular microblogging outfit Twitter on its official Twitter account earlier this week tweeted the news that the company will henceforth send an email notification when a users’ tweet is either favorited or retweeted by someone the user follows… Read More Google Maps 5.5 For Android Updated With More Social Options

In it relentless quest to capture the mobile sphere, search engine titan Google has just officially released Google Maps 5.5 for Android, propelling in many more options to play with for people who like “checking in” when they get to places. It is especially for people who go places… Read More Twitter (Officially) Acquires TweetDeck For US$40 Million

After months of rumors and speculation, and what many had already concluded: Twitter has finally announced that it has finalized a US$40 million deal to buy popular third-party client TweetDeck, according to… Read More Facebook Dances To Spotify’s Tune To Launch Streaming Music Service

Users of popular social media service could soon be able to listen Spotify inside Facebook, as the two companies have reportedly endorsed a music-streaming pact that could see the cloud-based music service… Read More Google’s Street View Comes To Silicon Valley Of India “Bangalore”

If you spot a car with a camera on top in front of your house, do not be suspicious, because Google’s infamous ‘Street View’ cars are now intruding the streets of Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India. Search engine behemoth Google Inc. on Thursday sent a fleet of cars to capture street… Read More 3D Game “Margaritaville” Heads To Facebook, iPad

When FarmVille can captivate more than 45 million virtual online farmers, so does Jimmy Buffett fans can hop directly to “Margaritaville Online” now thanks to the musician who is cooperating with game developer THQ on a free-to-play online social game, on Facebook and iOS devices… Read More Google Launches Mobile Wallet — Faces Legal Action By PayPal

It has been months since news started swirling about Google’s NFC payments project, and just last week within hours of the unveiling of Google Wallet, an application utilizing your cell phone like a credit or debit card on the Mastercard’s PayPass system, only available on the Android Smartphones using technology PayPal’s lawsuit says belongs to them… Read More Google Adds “People Widget” To Gmail — Plays Catch-Up With Outlook

Your Gmail inbox will soon become more tidy. Over the next few weeks, Google is rolling out a new feature for the world using one of its strong application: Gmail — Amidst the flurry of activity over the weekend, the search engine giant announced on their Gmail blog that they would be rolling out a new “People Widget” that would neatly display… Read More Google’s New Quick Flight Search Simplifies Your Travel Planning

Going on a vacation or business trip soon? You have five minutes to compare flights from Toronto to Beijing. Which has the quickest route? What airlines will get you there? Well oops… The task of having to crawl through a huge list of different flight times has just been simplified by Google. But, the company has recently unleashed a novel feature called… Read More Twitter To Launch In-House Photo-Sharing App — A Twitpic Competitor

It seems that Twitter’s recent app expansion effort might have just emboldened. In yet another move that stands to put it in direct competition with hordes of third party developers that have become integral to its existence, The rumor mill has been swirling Monday afternoon with reports that microbloging site Twitter is on the verge of unveiling its… Read More

Google has long enabled you to look up for local businesses on its mobile search page, and for those people who are interested in keeping tabs on what is happening in their local area, the search engine giant over the weekend announced the addition of a new mobile feature… Read More Bing Continues To Capture More Search Market Share As Google Dwindles

After examining the data released by comScore just last week, software maker Microsoft’s search arm Bing grabbed a slightly bigger slice of all the U.S. search engine pie in April, while Google sheds a tiny amount or stays flat, according to the latest comScore data, released… Read More AOL Rolling Out New Video Chat Service Aims To Live Up To Competition

Merely days after Microsoft made the biggest gamble in its 36-year history–paying $8.5 billion for Skype — AOL Inc. has decided to dip its toe in the online video chat world with AOL AV, rolled out the first version of a free video chat service for its AIM instant messenger that… Read More Bing Couples Search Results With Facebook Connections Via “Like” Button

In a surprising move of corporate cooperation, Microsoft’s Bing “decision engine” on Monday announced that it has teamed up with Facebook to deeply integrate the social media network “likes” and… Read More Google News Revamped With New Features, Reduce Clutter

Global search engine behemoth Google on Monday introduced a few tweaks to its Google News service that lets users dig deeper on certain stories to help find the most relevant content, in an effort to make the site less cluttered and easier to customize… Read More Beware! Facebook “Dislike” Button A Scam

You may want to express your dislike for something on Facebook but… Be Aware! The social media network outfit seems to be a hotbed for scams of late. Recently, Facebook unveiled its new security features designed to block spam, a new scam is spreading fast on Facebook… Read More Netflix Crowned Video “King” Biggest Source Of Web Traffic In US: Report

“Real-time entertainment” in general transcends web browsing as top activity in peak hours… Netflix Inc. has become the single biggest source of peak downstream Internet traffic in the U.S., accounting for 24.71 percent of aggregate traffic, according to a latest report by Sandvine… Read More Coalition Of Google, Facebook And Twitter Oppose Internet Privacy Bill

Despite the feigned empathy towards those that are worried about the impending threat of a new social networking privacy law is making for strange bedfellows these days. Google, Facebook, Twitter and more than a dozen other Internet companies from around the world of technology and social media have joined a coalition to oppose… Read More Yahoo Acquires Startup 5to1 To Boost Premium Ad Sales For $28 Million

Seeking to beef up its sales of premium online ads, internet pioneer Yahoo on Wednesday announced an agreement to acquire 5to1, an online advertising platform that lets top brand advertisers purchase unsold premium inventory on the sites of 20 major publishers, for $28 million… Read More Twitter Rolls Out New Privacy Restrictions For Third-Party Applications

Twitter Inc., the micro-blogging service, is bolstering its privacy settings on Tuesday announced on its blog that it has added tools that give users more control over how data is accessed with third-party applications… Read More Yahoo Messenger Now Optimized For iPad 2, Supports Video Calling

Fans of the Yahoo Messenger messaging platform can now enjoy video calling on iPad 2. In a bid to lure its vast audience, last night, announced that it has updated the Yahoo Messenger app to work with the iPad, as well as adding voice and video calling features for iPad 2 owners… Read More Google Finally Expands Social Search In 19 Languages Across The Globe

In a bid to elevate its social profile, and just nineteen months after it originally introduced the feature in North America, Google on Thursday unveiled plans via its new official Search Blog that it is rolling out Social Search in 19 more languages, increasing its reach to more… Read More Facebook And Microsoft Forge Alliance To Combat Child Pornography

While much of the social media world is still bustling about LinkedIn’s IPO, but the popular social media Facebook and Microsoft on Friday formally unveiled an alliance to ferret out child porn at the world’s leading online social network, in an attempt to drive pedophiles away from… Read More

Welcome to another weekly edition of Search and Social updates — packed with announcement, alliance, disputes and axing down services or products, from Silicon Valley’s tech leaders like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, Bing and others, as well as many more interesting Search Engine Optimization news from across the web…

Facebook Offering Incentives–Now Pays Users 10 Cents To Watch Video Ads
In an attempt to bolster up its recently launched deals program, popular social media networking giant Facebook over the weekend introduced a new program that will now reward users who watch certain ads with Facebook Credits, the company’s virtual currency, which can be redeemed to purchase goods on Facebook Deals, the company’s new Groupon-like… Read More

Adobe Unveils Creative Suite 5.5 Targets iPad With Photoshop Support
Adobe Inc. is craving to capitalize on the tablet craze, opened a new chapter today as it announced the availability of its mid-cycle upgrade to its development and design software, Creative Suite 5.5., which now includes tools to target the Apple iPad, Android and BlackBerry tablets… Read More

Google Experimenting With Redesigned Search Results Page
Google users are grumbling over what appears to be a part of the test group of users that the Internet search engine giant Google has been using as digital guinea pigs for a redesign of its search results page, which features a new color scheme along with a lot more white space… Read More

Microsoft TV Ads To Target Old PCs — Opens A Store In Skeptic’s House
Well, this is what it takes to convince somebody to upgrade a PC these days? Microsoft is adopting a novel approach to selling its Windows 7 operating system by opening stores in people’s homes, the company’s new campaign is meant to persuade consumers to give up their older Windows PCs in favor of the latest versions running Windows 7… Read More

YouTube Unveils 3,000 Full-Fledge Movie Offerings, Challenging Netflix
After more than a year of rumors that it was on the verge of launching a significant online movie rental service, Google owned popular video sharing site YouTube has moved to bolster the appeal of its outlet by expanding into streaming professionally produced full-length movies through… Read More

Microsoft Shell-Out $8.5 Billion To Grab “Skype” From Google’s Jaws
A week after rumors started swirling that Google and Facebook are vying to get Skype, the Redmond Vole has walked in and scooped away the real-time communications company for a cool $8.5 billion in an all-cash deal. This could be the most expensive call Microsoft Corp. has ever… Read More

Google Introduces Image Search With Sort By Subject Option
Looking for an image but unable to find it on Google? For people who adopt Google’s Image Search to find photos and graphics should now have an easier time zeroing in on just the right ones. The search titan is turning on a new sorting option for Google Images that lets you sort… Read More

Facebook Unveils Page Tagging In Photos — Show Their Love For Brands
Internet’s favorite social media network Facebook on Wednesday, announced a new photo-tagging feature that empowers users identify people or objects that have their own Facebook Pages, this will certainly make brands and celebs happy… Read More

Facebook Forges Alliance With Web Of Trust — To Keep Your Profile Safe
On the heels of a massive PR shitstorm, popular social media outfit Facebook on Thursday announced that they have partnered with the Web of Trust, a community driven warning service provider to help users avoid clicking on dubious internet links to ensure that your profile stays… Read More

Yahoo Debuts Smart Ads On Homepage — In Video Format
Having appropriately beefed up the technology underlying its Smart Ads program, internet pioneer Yahoo is rolling out a refurbished dynamic ads product out on its homepage and is stepping up its sales efforts for a video version of the same platform that can target consumers based on information such as location, age, gender and online behavior… Read More

Welcome to another weekly edition of Search and Social updates — packed with announcement, alliance, disputes and axing down services or products, from Silicon Valley’s tech leaders like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, Bing and others, as well as many more interesting Search Engine Optimization news from across the web…

Yahoo Mail Outage Affects One Million, Users Tweet In Anger
Yahoo Mail, one of the largest web-based email services, which boasts more than 250 million users worldwide, suffered a partial outage, and according to the company, at least one million users may have lost access… Read More

India’s Rediff.com Jumps Into Daily Deals Market With “Deal Ho Jaye!”
In an attempt to tap into the bubbling daily deals market, Rediff.com, India’s oldest Internet portal, last Tuesday jumped into the coupon-based on-line shopping arena by unveiling a group buying site dubbed as “Deal Ho Jaye!,” which works like newspaper classifieds, allowing customers… Read More

Google Talk Debuts Video And Voice Chat On Android Smartphones
Global search engine giant, Google on Thursday unfurled video chatting capabilities into Google Talk for Android smartphones, and unlike Apple’s Face Time, it works over Wi-Fi and 3G/4G, as part of version 2.3.4 of the mobile operating system… Read More

South Korean Police Investigating Google Over Location Data Collection Allegations
In a startling turn of events at Google’s Korean operations, South Korean police on Tuesday raided search engine giants Seoul office under suspicion to probe whether the search firm used its mobile phone advertising platform AdMob to illegally collect private data, officials said… Read More

Yahoo Appoints Jai Singh As Editor-In-Chief Of Yahoo! Media Network
Internet pioneer Yahoo Inc., on Monday announced that it has recruited Jai Singh, whose hiring from CNET Networks benefited The Huffington Post gain journalism credibility, as editor-in-chief for the Yahoo! Media Network, recruiting him from the Huffington Post Media Group… Read More

First Facebook App Coming For BlackBerry PlayBook
Hot on the heels of their BlackBerry Bold Touch announcement, and as Research In Motion’s BlackBerry World conference reeled to life Monday morning in Orlando, RIM announced a forthcoming dedicated Facebook app along with a video chatting application for the BlackBerry PlayBook, both due later this month… Read More

Google Tops Company-Reputation Poll As Facebook, Comcast Flounder
Global search engine behemoth Google, was crowned number one in a US poll measuring the reputations of America’s top companies, conducted by Harris Interactive on Monday. This year, we have a new most reputable company in America – Google… Read More

Microsoft’s Bing To Deliver Default Search, Map On Blackberry Phones
Software monopolists Microsoft has discovered a new tactics of partnering with its competitors–has made yet another friend in the mobile sphere: The Redmond Vole on Tuesday announced that its Bing has been crowned the default search and mapping application provider for RIM… Read More

Google “Voice Search” Feature Coming Soon To Google.com: Report
Are you tired of typing? Cheers! You can now voice in your search query without touching that keyboard! According to tech-site Mashable, search engine behemoth Google is reportedly testing the waters of “voice-activated search” with select users, and may even integrate the feature into the Google.com search engine once the experiment is complete… Read More

Facebook Gobbles Big Slice Of Online Display Ad Pie As Its Nearest Competitor: Report
Facebook, the world’s most popular social media outfit has been capturing endless media attention these days and for good reason–it is viewed as a new destination for marketer’s heaven. In other words, Facebook served up nearly a third of the 1.11 trillion display ads delivered to… Read More

Google Releases New Google Analytics Site Speed Tools
Improving site speed is crucially important, and search engine titan Google, which has an economic interest in making the web better because more time spent online means more ads clicked, has finally announced a new component that has been added to the new Google Analytics… Read More

Twitter Finally Snaps Up TweetDeck For Around $40-$50 Million
After being engaged in hectic negotiations for a few weeks now, it appears that the micro-blogging magnate Twitter has finally acquired TweetDeck, a popular third-party software application for using Internet social networking services, for around $40 — $50 million and an announcement could be made very soon, according to a report in TechCrunch… Read More

Google Gives Your Company Exposure With Free Interior Photography!
Do you own a restaurant, a super-store, but scarcely any customers? Do you wish to showcase your business to million of potential customers? Google has added a novel feature to its Places and Street View service that may deliver the exposure you desire: Google Business Photos… Read More

Back in February, Google embellished Latitude, the search engine giant’s location-sharing mobile app with check-in features, and over the weekend, the company has expanded its Latitude check-in process nationwide for the iPhone and Android devices, giving users the ability to unlock… Read More Facebook Preps Cashing In On User Data To Roll Out New Targeted Ads

Facebook the world’s most popular social media networking site, after seven years of concentrating on the cool the free ride is over, as Facebook is finally ready to cash in — is now gearing up to unveil a new wave of highly targeted adverts using data uploaded onto its users’ pages… Read More Microsoft Unfurls Photosynth Panoramic Photo-Sharing App For iOS

Software major Microsoft in the past has made plenty of apps for Apple’s iOS, but, Redmond Vole on Monday stepped into the mobile photo-sharing ring with the launch of Photosynth for Apple’s iOS — that is, for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches, which takes a collection of regular… Read More Yahoo Extends Personal Search Data Retention From 90 Days To 18 Months

Nearly three years ago, striving to please its vast audience, Yahoo appeared as a defender of privacy by stating it would retain detailed records of its users’ search queries for just 90 days. The company on Friday reversed course on its data retention policy, stating that it will hold on to users’ search engine queries for at least 18 months… Read More Microsoft Unveils Office 365 As Public Beta Worldwide

Software behemoth Microsoft on Monday opened the floodgates on its app store to support its long-gestating cloud-based Office 365 software and is now offering the suite as a public beta for anyone to try out, as the tech titan works to fend off challenges from its arch rival Google… Read More Yahoo Shutting Down Buzz On April 21

In news that should surprise no one–Finally, Yahoo on Monday informed Buzz users that the the company will shut down its ill-fated story-sharing service Buzz on Thursday, April 21… Read More Your New Facebook Phone: Call Your Friends Free With New Voice Chat App

Not content with playing home to more than 500 million-plus of your family barbecue photos or updates about cats, popular social media Facebook fans who have been chatting and friending each other are now able to make live voice calls via Facebook Chat across the world — with a service provided by Natick-based company Vivox Inc… Read More Google Invites Amateur Cartographers For Editing United States Map

Found an error with the placement of your favorite pizza place on Google Maps? Well, now you can fix it yourself, as the search engine giant Google on Tuesday, invited armature cartographers to refine the U.S. map for Google Maps and Google Earth, with its online Google Map Maker,… Read More Twitter Launches Refurbished Homepage—Again

Earlier this month, popular micro-blogging social networking–Twitter, just after posting and then removing a new homepage, Twitter is back at it again with a fresh slick look and strikingly similar to Facebook, but apparently this time comes with fewer bugs… Read More Google’s Daily-Deals Groupon Clone Now Kicks Off In NYC, Bay Area And Portland

Rebuffed by daily-deal site Groupon, Google this week officially commenced a beta test of its daily-deals service for delivering users hugely discounted offers for local businesses, allowing users in New York City, the Bay Area and Portland to sign up for upcoming deals… Read More Facebook Apps For iPhone And Android Now Lets You Add Friends From Your Contacts

Just early this month being updated to version 3.4 — adding the Unfriending option — Facebook for iPhone has been revised once again, this time with a minor version number for iPhone 3.4.1 and Facebook for Android 1.5.3 released this week, both now allows users to… Read More It is Official: Groupon Poaches Google Sales Exec Margo Georgiadis As New COO

While Google was engaged with the recent launch of Google Offers, it looks like Online coupon service Groupon has grabbed the opportunity to poach away one of the search engine giant’s “Margo Georgiadis,” a top sales executive at Google, and making her their new chief operating officer, as the company began rolling out a new service aimed directly at… Read More YouTube Swiftly Converts Popular Videos To WebM Format

In an effort to promote royalty-free video technology as well as to improve the quality of its video streaming service YouTube over the Internet, search engine giant Google plans to help separate the Web from H.264 video, YouTube has begun transcoding all uploaded videos into WebM, the open media file format backed by its parent company, Google… Read More Google News Presents Some More Personalization Features For You

Global search engine behemoth Google has done a lot in the past to make Google News more personalized and constantly strives to stay fresh in age of social media age. For the past few months, the company has been engaged in testing new news layouts in the wild, and over the weekend announced that the home page is now more personalized for those who… Read More Yahoo Ranked Most Visited U.S. Site In March 2011: comScore

In a surprising turn of events, it was business as normal on the Web in March, but more than any other website, around 212 million Americans users/web surfers in the United States swarmed the Internet portal Yahoo, according to comScore discovered in its latest Media Metrix survey… Read More Microsoft Expands Bing Rewards Directly Into Bing Search

In an attempt to bolster the appeal of Bing to users of every stripe, Microsoft’s Bing has announced expanded options for earning credits from its Bing Rewards Program, out of its walled garden and into its homepage on every modern browser in the US… Read More AOL Snaps Up Another Googler For Mapquest

In a bid to spread its innovation, it seems like MapQuest is prepping a massive management shakeup. The wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Inc., over the weekend announced that it has hired an ex-Googler to run Mapquest out in Denver, as a VP of Product Management: Vijay R. Bangaru, who is the third executive hire in the last three months… Read More Yahoo Acquires IntoNow, Creator Of TV “Check-In” App For iOS Devices

Struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo Inc. on Monday took a courageous step, announced that it has acquired IntoNow, a budding Palo Alto start-up that makes an iOS app that enables users to “Check-In” to films or television shows they are watching with their friends, in its continuing drive to boost its social media credentials… Read More Facebook Launched Deals In Five Cities, Taking On Groupon, LivingSocial

As the online daily deals market is becoming crowded by the day, popular social media titan Facebook on Tuesday, finally launched its long-awaited deals service in five cities that will allow Facebook users to buy coupons for everything from a five-person banana split to a… Read More YouTube Founders Scoop Up Delicious From Yahoo For Stealth Startup

The future of social bookmarking service Delicious is no longer in danger. Delicious, whose future had been in question since Yahoo announced its intention to divest itself of it last year, will live on as part of a new Internet company run by YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen… Read More

Back in February, Google embellished Latitude, the search engine giant’s location-sharing mobile app with check-in features, and over the weekend, the company has expanded its Latitude check-in process nationwide for the iPhone and Android devices, giving users the ability to unlock… Read More Google Wins DOJ Approval For $700 Million ITA Purchase With Conditions

The Justice Department last week gave the green light to Google Inc.’s purchase of flight-date company ITA Software with stiff conditions, at the same time left the option open to a larger investigation into whether Google fiddles with search results to hurt rivals… Read More Google Acquires Mobile Music Startup Pushlife For $25 Million To Challenge iTunes

The Googleplex is once again embarked on a shopping spree, and the global search engine titan Google has just acquired Canadian mobile music startup Pushlife for a cool $25 million, buying its third start-up from… Read More Google Mysteriously Abandons Street View In Germany

How do you pronounce “street view” in German? It does not really matter now, as Google has voluntarily pulled the plug on Street View in Germany despite its recent court victory that declared the photo mapping project to be within the laws of the country… Read More YouTube Unfurls Live Streaming Service To Partners

After etching its mark with pre-recorded videos, YouTube, the Google owned popular video-sharing site, has announced the launch of YouTube Live, which consists of a new live-streaming platform to complement its… Read More Bing Nipping At Googles Heels–Snags 30% Of All U.S. Searches In March

Software monopolist Microsoft has hit a milestone in its slow but steady search ascent, as online competitive market researcher, Experian Hitwise, announced that for the first time Bing powered Internet searches captured slightly more than 30% share of the U.S. Web search market in March, stealing a bit of ground from Google, according to Hitwise… Read More Facebook Upgrades Its Comments Box Plugin — Adds Hotmail Login

Just last month, Facebook unveiled its new and improved comments plugin for content sites. On Tuesday, the social media powerhouse Facebook released several updates to the newest version of its Comments Box social plugin for third party, has now been installed on over 50,000 websites, and to mark the milestone the site is releasing a number of new… Read More Twitter Expands Trending Topics To 70 More Locations

Popular micro-blogging site Twitter, on Monday tagged on another 70 new countries and cities around the world to Local Trends, including Vancouver, Montreal, Japan, South Africa, Santiago, Jakarta and… Read More Google, N.Y. Times Introduces New Search Puzzles–Holds A Secret Purpose

As geeks, we all are fans of puzzles, and are proud to be great at search! Google is looking to entertain users by teaming up with the New York Times to put out a daily brain teaser. And that is precisely the premise of A Google a Day, a new crossword puzzle that encourages players to use the search engine in pursuit of the answers… Read More Google Invests $168 Million Into BrightSource Solar Power Tower

Expanding it foothold in to various technological sphere, Google on Monday said it has chipped in $168 million investment in to the world’s largest solar power energy plant that BrightSource Energy is building in the California’s Mojave Desert… Read More Google Docs Delivers Pagination To Combat Microsoft Word

Google continues to spruce-up its cloud-based Microsoft Word competitor-Google Docs more feature rich. The California based Chocolate Factory on Tuesday trumpeted another key upgrade in the shape of pagination, which lets users see visual pages on their screen similar to the way people have been doing via the Microsoft Word word processing app for… Read More TweetBot — Is The Prettiest Twitter Client For iPhone User Interface

Microblogging chatter Twitter is one of those tools that is especially cool when used on your mobile phone. Today, Tapbots highly anticipated Twitter client for iPhone dubbed as Tweetbot, has arrived on the App Store, bringing a level of polish that Pixar would be jealous of… Read More Gmail Gets Smarter With “Bob” Features To Help You Avoid e-Mail Blunders

Are you annoyed of sending an important emails to the wrong person, especially when you have contacts that have identical identities (i.e. boss named Bob and a separate friend named Bob), and do you often forget to include certain people in your email? Well, now you can take a sigh of relief as search engine behemoth Google has just announced the… Read More

Striving to retain its supremacy, global search engine leader Google Inc., on Wednesday expanded its social offerings, taking on Facebook’s “Like” Button with a button of its own, the “+1” Button, empowering users to personally endorse search results and Web pages, its latest attempt to… Read More Twitter Nixes The QuickBar From Its iOS App

Farewell QuickBar, we hardly knew ye. After a rather bumpy beginning, microblogging site Twitter on Thursday said it has abolished the “QuickBar” from its iPhone app, which provided users with updates on trending topics, to the delight of a loud and passionate group of… Read More Google Product Executive Bids Adieu As Page Takes Reins

Global search engine behemoth Google Inc., has confirmed that its senior vice president for product management Jonathan Rosenberg, who has been at the company since 2002 plans to quit, a move that may give freer rein to new CEO as he attempts to reorganize the company… Read More Facebook For iPhone Debuts Event Check-Ins, Maps And Unfriending

A couple weeks ago, the social media network Facebook unfurled Check-Ins To Events, and as promised, the company has released a new version of its application that gives users full capability to check in to events via the iPhone and their mobile-based touch site… Read More Twitter Adds “Who To Follow” — Interest-Based Search Rewards SEO

Thriving with 200 million people on Twitter, there is no dearth of accounts to follow. On Monday, the popular micro-blogging network Twitter announced a new search feature that will help users find accounts that are related to their interests with an updated “Who to Follow” page and a new… Read More Google Declares Free Phone Support For AdWords Customers In US And Canada

For years Google has perfectly made it easy for advertisers to fill-up its popular AdWords treasure chest with money, but, if you ever face a problem with your AdWords account, then you know what a glorious pain there is for advertisers to get answers to their questions. Finally, the search engine giant Google has announced that it is adding free telephone support… Read More Facebook Reaches Out To Journalists With Independent Page

Striving to promote the use of social media network in the newsroom, Facebook has unleashed a new media Page called, Journalists on Facebook, which is intended to be a resource page to help journalists adopt the social media network as a reporting tool and better connect with their… Read More Microsoft Bing Maps “Streetside” To Rival Google Street View In Germany

Advancing cautiously to avoid the blunders that have plagued Google’s Street View service in Germany, Microsoft announced plans to roll-out a similar service via its popular Bing Maps dubbed as “Streetside” in the country next month… Read More Google To Sponsor $100 Million Worth Of Original Contents For YouTube

In its quest to lure its audience to its the world’s most popular video sharing website YouTube, search engine giant Google Inc. is working on a major overhaul of YouTube as it tries to position itself as a more traditional channel-oriented site, and will spend $100 million to create… Read More Twitter Experiences Technical Glitches As It Refreshes Interface — Goes Tweetless

Popular microblogging site Twitter has recently refreshed the look of its website, but apparently seems to be grappling with technical glitches on Tuesday, disabling a new home page as well as a “Trends” feature and the site had to temporary switch to an old version… Read More Google Puts $5 Million In German Solar Power Plant

As far as German competition authorities extend its approval, it seems that Google will soon be in part responsible for powering the lights and computers at a number of German homes. The Silicon Valley Internet powerhouse Google on Thursday announced its very first clean energy plans… Read More Gorgeous Bing App For iPad Makes Searching The Web Pleasing

Software monopolist Microsoft’s latest effort to bring Bing to the masses — today unveiled the new Bing for iPad, the company’s first app for Apple’s tablet. And it is gorgeous and well-designed, which one analyst dubbed it a “killer app” that beats Google’s “hands down.”… Read More

For the Facebook enthusiasts, BlackBerry-maker (RIM) has just rolled out the first beta release for the next major version 2.0 of Facebook for BlackBerry, which is bundled with a refreshed user interface and incorporates a host of new features, including deeper Facebook Chat integration… Read More Google Street View Gets A Massive Facelift

Global search engine leader Google over the weekend announced via micro-blogging site Twitter that it has revamped its panoramic Street View website, a nifty little place on the Web that allows viewers to take a peek at what is going on in the world through 360-degree street-level imagery… Read More Facebook Snaffles Mobile Start-Up “Snaptu” To Expand Into Mobile Arena

World’s most popular social media network Facebook, with more than 500 million members, on Monday made yet another dive into mobile platform seeking to deepen its penetration in the emerging 5 billion-plus global mobile phone market with the acquisition of the UK/Israeli company… Read More Google Latitude Activates Check-Ins On The iPhone App

Barely two months after extending Latitude check-ins for Android devices, search engine giant Google has now launched an updated version of Latitude for iOS that complements support for check-ins feature to the iPhone on Monday… Read More Zynga Lures Obsessed Online Social Gamers With New RewardVille

For gamers who are engrossed with smash hit games like FarmVille and CityVille, hold your breath as the online social gaming phenomenon has reached a new level. Zynga, the company that created those addictive online game, is introducing the gaming world to yet another obsessive series of games to keep on playing called “RewardVille”… Read More US Judge Pronounces Unhappy Ending For Google’s Deal To Digitize Books

In an unfortunate blow to Google’s controversial plans to create the world’s biggest digital library, a bookstore and expand its Internet dominance, has run into the reality of a 300-year-old legal predicament: copyright, which has now been shelved by a federal judge in New York on… Read More Facebook Attaches Check-Ins To Events

Internet’s popular social media network Facebook is reportedly stitching another layer to its location-based features by adding check-ins… Read More Microsoft’s Bing Mobile Browsing Receives Updates On iOS And Android

Software producer Microsoft on Wednesday introduced some nifty features to its mobile browsing for image search, real-time transit and directions, and thanks to enhanced HTML5 support and some other refinements… Read More Yahoo Unfurls Search Direct For Instant Results

Struggling internet pioneer Yahoo, which has relinquished its search engine to Microsoft two years ago as part of a major overhaul of its business, on Wednesday began a US rollout of a feature called… Read More Facebook Boots Out 20,000 Underage User Accounts Every Day

It is shocking to learn that, according to a study conducted by the Pew, nearly half of all 12 year olds in the U.S. are using social networking sites. But, Facebook’s privacy policy, which describes that users must… Read More Google AdWords Unveils More Location Targeting Improvements

In a crowded world, many businesses that only offer a service or product in a localize area, it can be a very good idea to use location-targeting in AdWords. The search engine giant Google has just announced some… Read More Facebook Tweaks Its Questions Service

With competition reaching a flash-point in the Q&A space from Quora and LinkedIn Answers, social media site Facebook on Thursday said that it has refurbished its Questions service and transformed it into a succinct, sleek, poll-taking machine, making brevity the soul of wisdom… Read More Bing Expands Twitter, Facebook Integration To Its News Page

Software monopolist Microsoft’s Bing has just expanded its social search capabilities, displaying real-time Twitter messages on Bing’s News pages, empowering its readers the ability to quickly scan the latest buzz about the biggest events, and simplifying the sharing of Bing… Read More Google Chases Big Media Ad Dollars For AdWords With New Video Player

Adding some innovative Video Marketing thrust to capture more advertising dollars, search engine behemoth Google on Friday launched a new video player option for AdWords, dubbed “Media Ads,” leveraging Google’s new Lightbox video player… Read More Facebook Experiments With Real-Time Instant Advertisements

Advertising agencies already have an abundant of criterion they can apply to target their ads to relevant consumers on social media sites, yet the social networking phenomenon Facebook is experimenting with a new… Read More Google Rolls Out “Think Quarterly” — A Resourceful Online Magazine

Speed-maniac Google has just unveiled its own full-length impressively designed 68-page collection of interviews and articles magazine in the UK, called Think Quarterly, as an extension of the communications for Google U.K. advertisers and partners and online to everybody else… Read More Warner Bros. Adds Harry Potter, Inception And More Movies To Facebook Offering

Warner Bros., the major US film producer that earlier this month introduced a video renting service straight from a movie’s Facebook fanpage, which obviously turned out to be very promising enough to prompt the movie mogul to expand its trial of offering with digital movie… Read More Google Preps Mobile Payment Technology — Teams Up With MasterCard And Citigroup

Making payments for your shopping binges with your mobile phone is one of the great dreams of technophiles, which may have just got hassle-free, with search engine titan Google apparently teaming up with Citigroup and Mastercard to set up a mobile payment system that will turn… Read More MTV To Broadcast “Diary Of Facebook” Wednesday

Unlike many other Facebook TV specials, which has mainly focused on some aspect of Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg’s meteoric rise to world domination — Now, MTV is giving viewers a front row seat as they enter the social media empire Facebook, with “Diary of Facebook,”… Read More Google Appoints Java Guru “James Gosling” Amid Lawsuit With Oracle

Score one for search engine leader in the Silicon Valley recruiting wars: Google Inc., which is squaring off in court over how Oracle’s technology is used in Android, has hired James Gosling, the notable father of the Java programming language at Sun Microsystems, has announced that he will be taking up a new, undisclosed position at Google… Read More Google Talk Guru Answers Simples Question Via Chat And Mobile In Realtime

Striving to keep its Labs application alive in the minds of its audience, search engine behemoth Google has quietly integrated an experimental Q&A service into Gmail chatbot, dubbed as “Talk Guru,” a service that enables you to obtain basic information such as the weather and sport scores by sending queries via instant message… Read More Microsoft Expands “Active View” For LinkedIn, Netflix, Posterous And LivingSocial

Even though Hotmail faring turbulently for holding its ground as an e-mail client to the likes of growing Gmail and ring leader Yahoo, the software monopolist Microsoft product has recently been striving to reinvent its email by placing some formidable new features dubbed as… Read More Google Makes Privacy Settlement With FTC Over Buzz Violations

In an attempt to avoid lengthy legal procedure, search engine giant Google on Wednesday agreed to a historic settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over charges that its Google Buzz social-networking service employed “deceptive tactics” and violated user privacy… Read More Gmail To Showcase Better Ads That Learn From Your Inbox

Google is in the process of showcasing a new ad system for Gmail that it dubbed as “better ads” for its users, which will guess what you are interested in, based on the emails you have read & sent in the past… Read More