Search Engine News Updates: December 13-18-2010

December 21, 2010

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…
	Google Instant Rolled-Out Worldwide For Android And iPhone Last month, Google Instant, a novel feature that delivers search results in real-time as you type was launched on mobile in Beta, which was only for U.S. Today, the search engine titan Google announced that its Google Instant for Mobile (iOS and Android-based devices) is now available in… Read More

	Twitter To Establish Its New European Headquarters In London: Report Popular micro-blogging service Twitter, which has proved a hit with President Barack Obama and Stephen Fry among others, is heading across the pond to establish its first office outside the United States sometime in 2011… Read More

	Google Docs Desktop Version Now Fully Viewable And Editable On iPad Striving to keep its products and services improved up to the minute, search engine behemoth Google recently added new editing capabilities to mobile Google Docs, enabling the writing and editing of text and spreadsheet documents, but a newly-enabled desktop mode now lets any… Read More

	Layoffs Looming Large At Yahoo — May Cut 650 Jobs Soon: Report Yahoo Inc., the beleaguered Web portal is on the brink of slashing between 600 and 650 jobs, or about 5% of its workforce as early as today, in the latest bid by chief executive Carol Bartz to reduce costs and reposition the company in faster-growing markets, according to people familiar with knowledge of the situation… Read More

	Google’s Gmail For Android And iPhone Gets Enhanced Desktop Features Barely two months back, Google separated its Gmail application from its core Android OS, allowing it to update the program without relying on a full system. And of late, the global search engine leader Google has announced that the mobile web version of its Gmail for Android and iPhone is now localizations has been expanded to 44 languages in total… Read More

	Google Gobbles Mobile Payments Company Zetawire Google continues to gobble up start-ups, and ramped up efforts in expanding services once again, acquiring Zetawire, a Toronto-based start-up company on mobile payments, a deal that supports its Near Field Communications (NFC) ambitions… Read More

	Facebook For Android Finally Released, Adds Chat And Push Notifications This is a day many of you have been waiting for. If you have been feeling neglected of the chatty world of Facebook lately, the latest edition of the social networking site’s app should make you warm and fuzzy. The Facebook app for Android has slowly but surely been improving from its formerly awful state, and today it has finally been gifted with features that… Read More

	Google’s Gmail Contacts Now Gets Mulligan Option One of the most pestering problems with synchronizing data between devices is the opportunity it presents for a major foul-up. Recovering contacts is always delightful and almost like meeting an old friend you were not in touch for a while. In a nod to human error, the Gmail software engineering team has added a crucial feature for the Google Contacts… Read More

	Google Adds Personalized Voice Search For Android Google is once again taking a cue from desktop speech recognition software, by adding a new service to the “cool but creepy” category. Voice search is an intriguing technology, but it can also produce some questionable results if you do not speak clearly. Global search engine behemoth Google, on Tuesday moved to improve those odds with the launch of… Read More

	Microsoft’s Bing Battling Google With New Mobile App, Map, Social-Media And Travel Features Software monopolist Microsoft Corp. is making Bing soothing to the eyes, and hopefully easier to use, on Wednesday unveiled a swathe of updates to Bing.com, like integration with GrubHub and OpenTable, and a slew of new mobile, local, travel and social-media features for Bing in an attempt to make the search engine more competitive, hoping that… Read More

	Yahoo Changing Directions — Closing Video Sharing Service March 2011 It seems like Yahoo has changed direction this year under the guidance of CEO, Carol Bartz, which relies in the short-term on cutting costs, making significant changes to its YouTube-like video site, Yahoo Video… Read More

	Twitter Solicits Businesses To Advertise With “Promoted” Tweets Popular micro-blogging site Twitter, on Wednesday unleashed a revamped page for its business efforts, which prominently features its advertising services of Promoted Tweets, Promoted Trends and Promoted Accounts as well as opens the door to any advertiser who wants to appear on Twitter… Read More

	AOL Acquires Digital Display Advertising Startup Pictela Ailing Internet outfit AOL Inc., after making several acquisition during the past few months, on Thursday said it has scooped up New York-based digital advertising company Pictela Inc., the developer of a technology platform for serving and distributing high-definition display ads in an effort to bring magazine-quality photography to banner ads… Read More

	Google Adds New “Follow News” Feature Global search engine behemoth Google has quietly added a fascinating new feature to Google News — “Follow News” option that empowers internet users the chance to bookmark articles from a particular site… Read More