Did Google Get A TSA Subpoena Over Security Directive? It Can’t Say

Many headlines yesterday about two bloggers who received visits — and subpoenas — from the Transportation Security Administration after publishing a security directive that was emailed to them anonymously. The source used a Gmail account. So did Google get a subpoena, too? The company says it can’t comment either way, sending me this statement: We don’t [...]

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Happy New Years 2010 Search Logos & Google’s Surprise

Happy New Years! The Search Engine Land team would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy and successful 2010. Just for fun, I wanted to share the various logos from the search engines and also Google’s surprise. Let’s start with Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” count down to New Years. Remember when [...]

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Google Doesn’t Want Searchers To Find SEOs & Web Designers

If you go to Google.com and type “hamburgers,” “shoes,” “candy,” “grills,” “beer,” and hundreds of other terms of ambiguous local intent, Google will almost always show you local results on a map that’s tied to your IP address. But type in “seo,” “seo company,” “web design company” and several terms related to these two types [...]

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As Verizon Implements Bing Default Search Deal, Company Sees User Backlash

The wide-ranging search and advertising deal between Verizon Wireless and Microsoft reportedly cost Redmond between $550 million to $650 million in revenue guarantees over five years, according to prior reports in the Wall Street Journal. The deal specifically exempts Android handsets, such as Droid, from the provision that Bing become the default search engine on [...]

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Google Updates Toolbar PageRank For New Years 2010

To kick off the 2010, Google is currently exporting the PageRank values to the Google Toolbar. Yes, there are major reports of a Google Toolbar PageRank update taking place right now. This may become a New Years tradition for Google. Last year, Google pushed out a PageRank update for New Years 2009. [...]

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Year In Review: Local Search & Maps

While analysts and practitioners have been prognosticating the imminent arrival of local search for the last several years, 2009 was finally the year that proved us right. A number of innovations and developments in mobile search, such as the widespread adoption of the iPhone, the release of [...]

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Search Month European Edition, December 2009

In Search Month European Edition we bring you a monthly update of European search news, with related links to full coverage. Here’s what happened in December. Google fined $430,000 dollars in France. A Parisian court ruled that Google should be fined over $430,000 dollars because it has broken French copyright laws by displaying snippets of books [...]

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Voice Mobile Search Provider Vlingo Shares Most Searched List for 2009

The 2009 most searched lists just keep coming, this time from voice mobile search provider, Vlingo:

1. YouTube
2. Facebook
3. MySpace
4. Weather
5. Movie Times
6. Twitter
7. Yellow Pages
8. MapQuest
9. craigslist
10. White Pages

So where are the Michael Jackson searches? Vlingo president and CEO Dave Grannan explains:

Unlike traditional Web searches that focus on specific search terms such as 'Michael Jackson' or 'Twilight,' our data shows that on mobile phones, people tend to search for specific destinations sites and resources. Mobile Web search is very popular on Vlingo, accounting for over 20% of all usage. Based on our users' top searches, we are seeing mobile extending far beyond SMS and voice communications to encompass multimedia and social networking.

Now That Everything Is Known, Will The Google Nexus One Phone Launch Generate A Collective Yawn?

The way that the “Google Phone” rumors and later Nexus One blogging played out probably mean that when Google finally announces the device on January 5 (in all likelihood) there won’t be much news. I could be quite wrong of course. Regardless, I imagine the event will be interesting — something like “a year of [...]

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StumbleUpon Unveils Most Stumbled Sites for 2009

StumbleUpon has had quite a year. They bought themselves back from eBay and launched a URL shortening service, among other things. Now, they're revealing the most stumbled sites for their historic year that was 2009.

Here they are, broken down by category:

Arts

Jim Jarmusch Quote - 278K Stumbles
Aled Lewis Illustrations - 253K Stumbles
Pepsi Logo Response - 229K Stumbles

Bizarre/Oddities

99 Things You Should Have Seen On The Internet - 471K Stumbles
Scary Good Facepaint - 374K Stumbles
Slightly Warped Curiosities: Gibraltar Airport - 352K Stumbles

Food/Cooking

26 Cakes Perfect for Geeks - 290K Stumbles
Pasta Pie Recipe - 231K Stumbles
Hasselback Potatoes Recipe - 231K Stumbles

Environment

Air Traffic in 24 Hours - 130K Stumbles
Free Heat from Old Window and Soda Cans - 113K Stumbles
Think About Your Morning Latte - 112K Stumbles

Humor

Cheat Sheet for Travelling Back in Time - 472K Stumbles
Life Summarized in 4 Bottles - 439K Stumbles
As Luck Would Have It... - 369K Stumbles

Music

8 Tracks Mix: Songs that Make You Feel Better - 368K Stumbles
Gizmodo: Proof That Birds are Secret Composers - 313K Stumbles
Fun With Rap Music - 298K Stumbles

Photography

Peter Funch Street Photography - 410K Stumbles
Stunning Wildlife Camouflage - 356K Stumbles
14 Rare Color Photos From the FSA-OWI - 341K Stumbles

Science

Robot/People Art by Kacie Kinzer - 230K Stumbles
Photographs of and from the Hubble Space Telescope - 219K Stumbles
Default Password for Roadside Led Signs - 184K Stumbles

Travel

12 Most Amazing Pools in the World - 196K Stumbles
9 best Train Journeys in the World - 172K Stumbles
Anderson Cooper's Blog: 28 things I wish I'd known before I started traveling - 165K Stumbles

Video Games

Ball Droppings - 292K Stumbles
Amazing Mario Level - 214K Stumbles
Canabalt - 192K Stumbles