Comments from Microsoft execs during Google’s antitrust case last week have, if nothing else, shone a light on the failings of Bing in recent years. 

The Department of Justice (DoJ) alleges Google has abused its market dominance in the marketplace and created a restrictive environment for other industry players, such as Microsoft, or DuckDuckGo. This has supposedly prevented competitors from reaching their full potential. Microsoft, unsurprisingly, agrees with the DoJ’s view. 

Supporting this argument is the fact Google has been accused of paying roughly $10 billion annually to smartphone manufacturers such as Apple, as well as wireless carriers, to ensure Google Search is the default. 

Jonathan Tinter, a VP at Microsoft, told lawmakers Bing’s efforts to secure default states on smartphones in the US have consistently fallen flat, which has, in turn, resulted in a poorer quality of product for search users. 

Microsoft is willing to take a hit on Bing

It’s natural for Microsoft to be frustrated at its current search engine market position given Google’s long-standing dominance, with Google enjoying a massive 83% market share as of July 2023, according to Statista. 

This marks a decrease from 89% three years ago, however, suggesting promising signs for Bing, which increased its share from 4% to nearly 9% during that period. But, broadly speaking, it's still a minnow nibbling up the scraps while Google cashes in on its dominance. To suggest that Bing’s woes lie solely at Google’s door is wrong, though. The reality is that it’s just not as mature or robust a platform. 

Microsoft throwing its toys out of the pram amid claims of anti-competitive practices is also rather hypocritical given its well-publicized spat with European lawmakers over Microsoft Teams in recent months. 

Microsoft has thrown a lot of money at Bing over the years, so logic would tell us something must’ve budged in that time. But it’s not quite as simple as you’d assume. Tinter told the inquiry Microsoft has gone so far as to offer lucrative revenue-sharing agreements with manufacturers and carriers, all of which were turned down.

Bloomberg also reported Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella meeting with Apple chief exec Tim Cook to lobby on the matter. This deal would have resulted in a multi-billion-dollar loss for Microsoft, but one it was willing to accept providing it improved its market share. Instead, Apple chose to continue with Google as the default search platform for Safari.

Apple executive Eddy Cue told the inquiry “there wasn’t a valid alternative to Google” at the time of the talks, and Apple is said to have had “concerns about Bing’s ability to compete with Google in quality and capabilities”. It appears the penny just hasn’t dropped for Microsoft after all these years.

Why Bing is caught in a doom spiral

It’s hard not to empathize with Microsoft’s predicament. During recent testimony at the Google antitrust hearings, CEO Satya Nadella painted a grim picture for the firm in its fight to expand its footprint in the search space.

Targeting a lucrative deal with Apple could have been a silver bullet it needed to improve its standing, Nadella hinted. Had this deal gone through, Bing would have experienced a marked improvement in usage, which, in turn, would have prompted an increase in what he described as “query flow”. This refers to the volume of queries made on the search engine.

With the might of Apple’s userbase behind it, Bing would likely have witnessed a rapid surge in activity, meaning the team behind the platform would have a broader pool of data to draw from when improving it. This increase in user traffic would also have had advertisers flocking to Bing more readily. 

Nadella described the lack of traffic as a "vicious cycle” in which the platform has been unable to attract traffic, and thereby unable to generate revenue and improve its capabilities. In this sense, it’s easy to see how Bing has wallowed in relative obscurity compared to its major league competitor for so many years. 

Why we should cut Bing some slack

Bing has many redeeming features and attributes that make it a viable option in the search engine market. Not least of all the fact that alternative search engines such as Yahoo or DuckDuckGo rely on Bing results. For more privacy-conscious users of the latter, Bing is the foundation on which their safety rests. 

Similarly, the advent of generative AI over the last year represents a prime opportunity for Bing to differentiate itself in terms of features and functionalities – and it's something that Microsoft has been keen to emphasize in recent months. Earlier this year, Nadella said its multi-billion-dollar generative AI push could be Microsoft’s ticket to breaking Google dominance in the space. He also told The Verge that ChatGPT would let Microsoft “make Google dance” and up the stakes in the market.

The integration of ChatGPT in Bing Search could, in the long term, give Microsoft an opportunity to provide richer, more detailed answers to user search queries. This is something it’s traditionally lacked when compared to Google Search.

Nadella’s recent testimony appears to have hit the nail on the head, however. Google makes it exceedingly difficult for upstarts or rivals to compete by virtue of the fact it’s the default search engine on billions of devices worldwide.

Breaking that barrier is no easy task, especially when one considers how unlikely users are to change their default settings. Without it, it’s unlikely Bing will make positive strides. Without the influx of users, too, it’s destined to be locked in the “vicious cycle” that Nadella bemoans. Unless, that is, US regulators do something about it.

Search-powered solutions provider Elastic has announced an expansion of its collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The pair will work together to build, market, and deliver seamless access to Elastic Cloud on AWS, while leveraging the cloud giant’s global footprint and wide range of services.

Elastic said the collaboration will enable easier migration to Elastic Cloud through expanded competencies, as well as simplified onboarding and new joint go-to-market initiatives.

“Through our collaboration, customers can take advantage of simplified data collection from AWS services, and cloud-optimised features that optimise their Enterprise Search, Observability, and Security solutions with Elastic Cloud on AWS," explained Steve Kearns, vice president of Elastic Platform at Elastic.

"Elastic is committed to delivering a proven subscription experience for our Elasticsearch service through the AWS Marketplace, and we look forward to continuing to work with AWS to help organisations get the most value out of their deployment and focus on what is critical to their business.”

In terms of expanded competencies, Elastic has been certified as an AWS ISV Workload Migration Program (WMP) Partner to support the migration of customers to Elastic Cloud on AWS. The firm has also earned multiple new AWS validated technical qualifications.

Elastic said it is also aiming to simplify onboarding to Elastic Cloud on AWS and will focus on offering enhanced integration for account creation and setup – reducing the initial setup time “from hours to minutes".

In fact, the pair have already completed more than 20 integrations to streamline data ingestion into Elastic Cloud on AWS, including integrations with AWS FireLens, Amazon S3 Storage Lens, AWS WAF, and AWS Network Firewall, along with the Elastic serverless forwarder.

Additionally, the two companies have committed to investing in joint go-to-market initiatives, which include a free seven-day trial via the AWS Marketplace.

Stephen Orban, vice president of AWS Marketplace, Partner Engineering, and ISVs at AWS, said the companies’ relationship is “rooted in listening to customers".

“Enabling frictionless migration and operation of Elastic Cloud on AWS and a streamlined subscription experience is just the beginning,” he said. “Through our expanded efforts, we are ensuring our joint customers have easier access to Elastic Cloud on AWS so they can focus on solving their most complex challenges.”

Yext has announced a suite of artificial intelligence (AI) search solutions to help government agencies optimize their digital presence.

New public sector solutions feature the same search technology the company initially implemented for the World Health Organization (WHO), the US State Department, and New Jersey and Alabama at the height of the pandemic.

“The signing of the 21st Century IDEA put the public sector's need for improved digital experiences into full view," explained Laurie Cook, VP of public sector at Yext.

"Now more than ever, government agencies are looking for technology that will quickly and easily set them up to serve constituents more effectively online. Our growing team is so excited to show them the potential they can unlock with Yext's powerful Public Sector AI search solution set, a one-stop shop for all of their CX needs."

Yext highlighted four key offerings from its new solution set: self-service portal, site search, reputation management, and SEO.

Yext's self-service portal offers a one-click customer service experience, allowing constituents to receive direct answers to their questions.

In addition, agencies can limit support costs and enable constituents to better navigate their websites with Yext's Marketing Answers site search solution. Through natural language processing (NLP) technology, this solution provides comprehensive answers to questions without the need for costly, time-consuming technical support.

Yext's reputation management solution allows agencies to maximize their online reputation by monitoring, responding, and generating reviews from one central location.

Furthermore, Yext's SEO-optimized FAQ pages feature in search results, allowing agencies to help constituents before they arrive at their website via extended customer support.

The firm also announced new additions to its public sector sales team.

Nextech AR Solutions has joined the Google 3D AR Search Program as an early access partner.

Threedy.ai, Nextech’s scalable model-creation platform, is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and helps customers create 3D product catalogs from 2D images. Its integrated visualization widgets assist businesses in strategizing immersive customer experiences.

Threedy.ai can also stream thousands of 3D visualizations to Google Search, Google Ad Network, and Web AR for Ecommerce.

Per reports, Nextech AR will grant its current Threedy.ai customers exclusive access to Google's 3D AR Search Program. Notable beneficiaries include Kohl’s, Pier 1, Lighting Plus, and Kmart Australia.

Google dominates the search engine space with a 90% market share. With Nextech's 3D models appearing in Google's search program, Threedy.ai partner brands will soon see their products in organic search results.

“3D is becoming an integral part of the online customer journey. 3D/AR experiences are now powering search and discovery, and immersive shopping experiences like virtual try-ons for fashion. 'See it in Your Space' with AR for home furnishing are taking product engagement to the next level,” explained Nima Sarshar, Visual Computing & AI CTO.

Sarshar added: “Threedy.ai is an essential 3D creation platform that automates and scales 3D asset creation. Working with Nextech AR customers, we will be able to build a significant catalog of 3D products that will be indexed for Google Search, and will power our own WebAR/3D and Ad Networks,”

Designed to enhance search and shopping experiences, Google’s AR search program will allow users to map 3D digital objects in their own space while viewing mobile search results.

“Nextech AR is building solutions that connect our customers to billions of people around the world through our AI technology and special partnerships with Google. We are thrilled to work with innovative brands who are focused on the digital transformation of their e-Commerce business with AR shopping. The building blocks for mass adoption of Augmented Reality are taking place,” stated Evan Gappleberg, Nextech AR CEO.

Google is developing a new alternative to the tech industry’s standard method for classifying skin tones, which some critics say is inadequate for determining if tech products are biased against people of color, according to Reuters.

Many tech companies use a standard six-color scale known as Fitzpatrick Skin Type (FST), which dermatologists have used since the 1970s. Tech companies use it to test whether products, like facial recognition systems or smartwatch heart-rate sensors, perform equally well for various skin tones.

Google has occasionally grappled with these issues. Last year, the search giant announced an app that it said could recognize over 200 skin conditions, but it drew criticism from dermatologists who accused it of a “cavalier attitude” by not issuing a bias and accuracy study.

Google, which later published an accuracy study in Nature magazine, focused on ethnicity rather than skin color in its training dataset. As a result, subjects with brown skin were underrepresented in the dataset, while dark brown skin was absent.

As for FST, some tech researchers and even dermatologists are now saying it disregards diversity among people of color. For example, FST has four categories for “white” skin and one apiece for “black” and “brown.”

Last year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recommended organizations stop using it to evaluate facial recognition systems because it doesn’t accurately represent the color range in diverse populations.

Google told Reuters that it’s pursuing better alternatives.

“We are working on alternative, more inclusive, measures that could be useful in the development of our products, and will collaborate with scientific and medical experts, as well as groups working with communities of color,” the company said.

Google recently came under fire from a group of senators who accused it of dealing poorly with racial issues.

Earlier this month, Senate Democrats Cory Booker, Edward Markey, Mark Warner, and Ron Wyden wrote to Alphabet and its subsidiaries Google and YouTube, urging them to audit their racial equality. The lawmakers warned the companies are falling behind in racial inclusion in their workplaces and in the technologies they develop.

Addressing Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and Google’s chief marketing and legal officers, the senators’ letter warned that a racial equality audit was “long overdue.”

“We are concerned, after hearing reports about your company and its products, about harmful bias at Alphabet,” the letter said, warning of ethical issues with its use of AI. “Issues with Google search algorithms returning non-diverse image sets for basic searches and the more recent dermatology diagnosis algorithm that was not trained on dark skin tones are troubling.”

Google effectively invented the search engine and has long reigned supreme as the top-dog. Many in the industry recognize Google as the superior search engine, leading to its overall brand dominance in the tech space. Google now offers cloud storage, navigation, smartphone operating systems, and so much more -- a far cry from its roots as an early way to make it easier to find things on the internet.

Google's dominance has been under fire a lot recently, as more and more search engines continue cropping up every year. Most search engines realize they can't compete with Google in terms of search quality and popularity, so they offer other benefits. One of the benefits many of them latch to is security and privacy. Enter in DuckDuckGo.

For many years, DuckDuckGo has been one of those competitors vying for the crumbs Google leaves behind. Unlike Google, DuckDuckGo prides itself on no user or search tracking. DuckDuckGo doesn’t participate in or advocate for any of that pesky ad targeting either. Naturally, those aren’t the only differences between the two.

Google’s rise to fame in the world of search

You’ve heard the story. Larry Page and Sergey Brin met on the Stanford University campus. They didn’t quite get along but were able to tolerate one another just enough to build a search engine using links to rank individual pages across the web.

Over the next few years, the pair picked up an array of cash-positive investors, all of which were more than willing to back their search-engine-related endeavors.

Today, Google makes hundreds of products used by millions worldwide. The company’s success is truly startling. Not only does Google process over 3.5 billion searches per day, but its search volume grows by 10-15% per year.

Of course, Google’s had its fair share of issues. When it comes to the user privacy, Google’s faced some well-deserved criticisms.

In 2013, Microsoft took aim at Google, launching an advertising campaign attacking the company for scanning user’s email messages so it could deliver targeted ads. Microsoft argued most users were unaware their email messages were being monitored.

Well-meaning features, such as Google's online map service, have also come under fire. Google has been accused of taking photos that unknowingly encroach on people’s private homes. It isn’t until a photo is uploaded to Street View that a person might learn they or their home was photographed and used in Street View.

Despite the backlash, Google continues to rule in the world of search. For those concerned with user privacy, there are other options.

Getting Acquainted with DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo prides itself on, “setting the new standard of trust online, [by] empowering people to take control of their information.” According to the company’s Privacy Policy, it doesn’t use cookies to follow its users and claims it collects no personal information on its users.

Taking things one step further, DuckDuckGo has also developed a feature to tackle what it calls “search leakage.” For instance, when you click on links from Google, those search terms are sent to the site you’re visiting in the HTTP referer header. Then, when you visit that site, your computer automatically shares information, such as your IP address, with the site.

Unlike Google, DuckDuckGo leverages a default setting to prevent search leakage. Instead, when you click on a link, DuckDuckGo redirects that request in a way that doesn’t share your search terms with other sites. While other sites will know you’ve visited it, it won’t have access to what search you entered beforehand.

DuckDuckGo also offers an encrypted version of its search that automatically changes links from a number of major sites, like Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon, and points to encrypted versions instead.

For users concerned with privacy and how their data is shared, DuckDuckGo is a worthy contender compared to Google.

The largest search index vs. useful search features

When it comes to search, Google has established itself as the reigning king. It’s no mystery why Google is so popular, as it’s remarkably reliable and can decode everything from misspelled words to disorderly sentences to return the exact results that you expect.

Google also boasts one of the largest search indexes. The company claims “the Google Search index contains hundreds of billions of web pages and is well over 100,000,000 gigabytes in size.”

Google also makes consistent updates to its algorithms and even leverages new-age tech, including artificial intelligence via RankBrain.

Unfortunately for DuckDuckGo, its search index isn’t quite as vast.

DuckDuckGo says it, “gets its results from over four hundred sources. These include hundreds of vertical sources delivering niche Instant Answers, DuckDuckBot (our crawler) and crowd-sourced sites (like Wikipedia, stored in our answer indexes). We also of course have more traditional links in the search results, which we also source from multiple partners, though most commonly from Bing (and none from Google).”

On the other hand, though, DuckDuckGo has some quality search features worth mentioning.

Bangs has grown to be one of its best features. Named for the bang that typically proceeds an exclamation point, bangs are shortcuts that quickly and seamlessly take you to search results on other sites.

For instance, if you wanted to search for a new movie on IMDb, simply type “!imdb bang” and the movie name. That search takes you directly to IMDb search page using the exact search phrase.

Two different approaches to user privacy

There’s no denying online privacy is becoming harder and harder to come by. While Facebook is known for selling its user data to third parties, Google is similarly well-known for tracking user searches.

Today, many internet users are becoming increasingly aware of the lack of security the web affords them. According to the Pew Research Center, 60% adults in the U.S. say they don’t think it’s possible to go through their day-to-day life without having their data collected by companies or government groups. Further, 81% of Americans believe the potential risk of companies collecting data about them outweighs the benefit of what they’re collecting and how they’re using it.

When it comes to data collection and privacy as it relates to DuckDuckGo and Google, you’ll find that both companies handle things very differently.

Take a gander at DuckDuckGo’s Privacy Policy, and the company sums it up as, “DuckDuckGo does not collect or share personal information. That is our privacy policy in a nutshell.”

DuckDuckGo doesn't attach your searches to any persistent identifier, and no cookies are set by default. Further, there's no method for identifying unique users when using DuckDuckGo.

Google, on the other hand, saves and tracks all of its users’ search results. That’s not all the tech giant is tracking either. Google also tracks your location, browsing history and ads you might find useful.

While Google claims it tracks user information only to improve and build upon its current services, such extensive tracking can bring about some questionable feelings. While customized search recommendations are nice, are they worth compromising your privacy?

Choosing between Google and DuckDuckGo

Google is like an old, familiar pair of shoes. Sure, they may not be the cleanest option on the shoe rack, but they're comfortable and familiar, so you wear them again and again. On average, most Google users employ its search tool 3-4 times per day. With that type of usage, it’s easy to become acquainted with Google.

Not to mention, Google also has plenty of other products to offer its users. Whether that’s Gmail or YouTube, you’re likely using a number of Google tools.

Even if you’re used to Google, DuckDuckGo is worth taking for a spin. Either access it directly from your browser, or add DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials to Chrome and experience a bit of both worlds. As DuckDuckGo so flawlessly puts it, this “extension provides the privacy essentials you need to seamlessly take control of your personal information, no matter where the Internet takes you.”

One of the jewels in the Windows 10 crown is the new default browser, Microsoft Edge.

Internet Explorer's replacement has a hell of a lot to recommend it, but as a new entrant to the scene, it's going to take many people a while to get to grips with the ins and outs of it.

As a case in point, changing the default search engine is something of a hassle in Edge. That's likely to be a top priority, as Edge default's to Microsoft's own search engine Bing, rather than the much more popular Google.

Not to worry though. Here's a step-by-step guide detailing how to change your default search engine in Microsoft Edge.

How to change your search engine in Microsoft Edge: Step One

Microsoft Edge features a combo search/address bar, but it's set to use Microsoft Bing by default. In order to switch it to something else, you'll need to change it in the settings.

Open Edge's settings via the ellipsis menu, rather than the hamburger menu and navigate to Advanced Settings'. Here, you'll find an option to change the default search engine.

How to change your search engine in Microsoft Edge: Step Two

It's not quite that simple, however. Unlike other browsers, there is no predefined list of alternatives to choose from. The selection is initially bare, and has to be added to manually.

Navigate to your chosen search engine, and reopen the advanced settings. Now, activate the drop-down menu to choose a default provider, and click Add new'.

How to change your search engine in Microsoft Edge: Step Three

Your chosen search provider should now appear as an option. Select Add as default', and you're all set. One caveat, though; only sites that use the OpenSearch standard can be set as an option.

This covers a wide range of engines, including Google and also allows users to set up sites like Wikipedia as their default search engine.

Yahoo is breaking up its exclusive partnership to outsource search to Microsoft, in a bid to re-engage with the technology.

CEO Marissa Mayer has rewritten the terms of her firm's contract with Redmond, which for the last five years has seen all Yahoo search queries carried out by Microsoft's Bing engine, with Yahoo taking the bulk of ad revenue in return.

But now Yahoo can do what it likes with 49 per cent of its search enquiries, with Microsoft still carrying out the remaining 51 per cent.

Satya Nadella's company benefits too, by becoming the single advertising partner for all search results provided to Yahoo by Bing.

Mayer said: "Over the past few months, Satya and I have worked closely together to establish a revised search agreement that allows us to enhance our user experience and innovate more in our search business.

"This renewed agreement opens up significant opportunities in our partnership that I'm very excited to explore."

Yahoo will be able to tweak the search experience it provides on any platform, as the revamped partnership, covering desktop and mobile search, is non-exclusive.

That means the tech giant could send some search enquiries out to Google, but Yahoo might want to redevelop its own expertise in the field, too.

It marks a huge change from the previous shape of the partnership with Microsoft, signed by ex-Redmond boss Steve Ballmer and former Yahoo chief Carol Bartz in 2009.

The deal saw Microsoft pay Yahoo 88 per cent of the ad revenue it made from ads displayed alongside the Bing results Yahoo would present users with.

The original agreement would have seen this rise to 90 per cent for the remaining five years of the deal, but Mayer has chosen to take a different tack presumably to keep Yahoo's hand in the search business.

However, Microsoft doesn't seem too unhappy with the reworked agreement.

Nadella said in a statement: "Our global partnership with Yahoo has benefited our shared customers over the past five years and I look forward to building on what we've already accomplished together.

"Our partnership with Yahoo is one example of the diverse partnerships we'll continue to cultivate in order to have the greatest impact for our customers."

Google could face formal charges under the EU's antitrust investigation into whether the tech giant has abused its dominant search position in Europe.

The case has been running for five years already, with investigators looking at whether the search giant may be taking advantage of its overwhelming market share to benefit its own products and services.

Now, as reported by the New York Times, it is expected that Europe's antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager will file formal charges against Google.

This could result in a huge penalty for the search engine firm of up to 4.4 billion, after the case was initially brought by Michael Weber, owner of Hot-Map.com, which saw traffic drop 80 per cent - something Weber blames on Google.

Former competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia didn't file formal charges against Google, despite the EU rejecting three attempts at settlements from the tech giant.

And the NYT claimed his successor, Vestager, is close to making a statement of objections (formal charges) to pressure Google into making bigger commitments to reform its practices.

But Liza Lovdahl-Gormsen, director of the Competition Law Forum at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, told the NYT: "Google might try to buy themselves time by offering commitments that are unlikely to be accepted by the commission, and that it knows won't be accepted by the market, simply because it does not want to be faced with the intrument of torture - the statement of objections."

However, she added that Vestager is unlikely to proceed without filing the charges, simply because that approach failed under Almunia.

The news comes as EU digital commissoner, Gunther Oettinger, told German publication Die Welt that the European Commission would make a ruling in the case "very soon".

IT Pro contacted Google for a comment but had received no response at the time of publication.

Google has released a list of 2014's top trends, detailing what users of its search service were talking about this year and why. Ranging from technology launches and major sporting events to the Ebola outbreak, here's what we were talking about and searching for information on this year.

Science & Tech: Wearable tech, Rosetta probe and more

- Five global trends in the top 100 of 2014 were related to phones, with Apple top of the list following the release of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in the summer.

- Wearable tech was also a big winner, with new launches and general buzz leading it to become one of the most searched for topics of 2014. Fitness apps took the lead, as searches for Strava went up 1.5x compared to 2013.

- There was an increase in interest for Drones, also, with the social network TravelByDrone becoming the eighth-highest search term related to the devices.

- The Rosetta probe became a huge topic of conversation this year, with searches rising 29x as the spacecraft reached Comet 67P. Tweets and selfies followed, making the mission an internet phenomenon.

- Searches for goldilocks zone exoplanet', primordial gravitational waves', new species 2014, mars one indiegogo', Japanese stem cell' and paralysis breakthrough' also dominated.

- Two lunar eclipses, blood moons, the release of Christopher Nolan's Interstellar and the anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing in 2014 led us to search for moon', nasa', interstellar black hole' and how to become an astronaut' more than ever, Google's stats revealed.

Sporting: 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, Winter Olympic Games and more

- In June/July, the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil was all anyone was chatting about, with several notable incidents confirming it as one to remember. The most searched sporting event in history, the tournament also boasts the highest-scoring semi-final ever.

James Rodriguez was the top trending player, while the total number of searches related to the event reached over 2.2 billion.

- The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics weren't quite as popular as the World Cup in search terms, but they were the second most searched for sporting event of the year.

Hockey was the most searched for event, while wheelchair curling was the most popular Paralympic sport. In fact, searches for curling' went up by 6x, and searches for the Paralympic iteration doubled in March while the games were going on.

Then there was the controversy over some of Russia's politics, with Channel 4, The Guardian and Google all sporting rainbow flags/logos and searches for russia gay rights' multiplying 43x in global search a week into the games.

- Around the world, other sporting events dominated the online conversation, with the Super Bowl at the beginning of 2014, Real Madrid's triumph at the Champions League Final and the Indian Premiere League.

- The most searched for extreme sports were BMX, parkour, motocross, skydiving and Bungee jumping, and Australia's fire surfing' was one of the top new trends of 2014.

- There were also a number of more downbeat searches with schumacher update' spiking following his skiing accident at the beginning of the year. Jules Bianchi's accident in Japan and the death of a pilot after the explosion of a Virgin Galactic test flight were also among the most searched terms in 2014.

- FC Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova tragically succumbed to cancer in April, and fans searched for his name throughout his treatment.

Headlines: Ebola, Malaysia Airlines, Ice Bucket Challenge and more

- The Ebola outbreak was one of the top stories of the year for obvious reasons, starting in Guinea before spreading to other countries and becoming one of the most searched for topics of 2014.

Related searches included ebola symptoms', Hazmat suit', ebola spread', ebola cure' and world health organization' as well as Ebola bats' thought to be the natural hosts of the illness and the 1995 movie Outbreak.

- More than 200 million people searched for mh370', the Malaysia Airlines flight that went missing in March. The term Malaysia airlines' became 2014's ninth-highest spike globally.

- Other conflicts around the world occupied Google's most searched lists, including those in Nigeria, Ukraine and Gaza following their respective crises. The Islamic State (ISIS), Ukraine's president Viktor Yanukovych and the kidnapping of 273 Nigerian girls were also among the most popular stories.

- Following the overwhelming popularity of the ASL (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) Ice Bucket Challenge videos from celebrities and the general public alike, the term now has more than 90 million search results and was a huge part of raising awareness for the condition.

Entertainment & culture: Conchita Wurst, Frozen, Game of Thrones and more

- Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto dominated entertainment search terms this year, with Leto beating out his Dallas Buyers Club co-star following the pair's dual wins at the Oscars. Searches for his acceptance speech reportedly soared, along with memes related to the actor and musician.

Searches for the film also jumped 8x after the awards ceremony in March and McConaughey gained popularity with searchers with Interstellar and True Detective, though many of them also searched for interstellar explained'.

- Idina Menzel's popularity rose massively in 2014 following her role in Frozen and the accompanying song, Let it Go, but one of the most searched terms related to the actress was actually travoltify your name', after John Travolta bungled his speech at the Oscars and called her by the wrong name.

- Jennifer Lawrence beat out other actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Angelina Jolie in searches during 2014, in which she won a Golden Globe. The Oscars also caused us to search for the subject of 12 Years a Slave, Solomon Northup more than actor portraying him, Chiwetel Ejiofor.

- The 59th Eurovision Song Contest also got a boost from Austria's Conchita Wurst, who helped the event inspire over 120 million searches a new record. After the win, she became one of the most searched stars of 2014, with LGBT rights' also spiking following the performance.

- Game of Thrones was the most searched for TV show, followed closely by Sherlock, Orange is the New Black and True Detective. Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper and Game of Thrones' Jon Snow were among the most searched for characters.

- Destiny, the most expensive game ever made, was beaten by both 2048 and Flappy Bird in searches. Card games rose in popularity this year also, beating mobile games the winners of 2013 in searches.

- Loom bands dominated the year, with loom band designs' and loom band tutorial' both rising 3x. We also searched for games for girls' more than games for kids', highlighting the ongoing disparity.

- Serial, a true crime podcast, became a phenomenon towards the end of the year, with the names of the accuser and convicted both swelling.

- Pharrel, his huge hit Happy and his unique Vivienne Westwood-designed headgear were all popular searches this year, with plenty of tributes, homages and parodies hitting the web.

- Robin Williams, who passed way in August, inspired searches such as depression', depression symptoms' and depression test' following his tragic death.

Searches for Shirley Temple and Joan Rivers spiked 14x following their deaths, with famous phrases and event in their lives rising to the top of search terms in 2014. Famous quotes from Maya Angelou also rose 21x in May after her death.

The deaths of cultural icons such as musicians Frankie Knuckles, Pete Seeger and Bobby Womack, fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, painter and sculptor H R Giger, voiceover artist Hal Douglas and journalist and model Peaches Geldof led us to search for their past works and tributes.

Lifestyle: Cronuts, the meaning of life, funny cats and more

- Health foods like chia seeds and goji berries were popular across the year, though pizza was still searched for more than other huge search terms such as the World Cup.

- Cronuts the cross between a doughnut and croissant came to our collective attention with the term what is a cronut.'

- In an interesting twist, the Japanese searched for French cuisine more than France, and those of us in the UK searched for Indian food more than India. In general, restaurant' was Googled more than recipes', suggesting we're still relatively kitchen-shy.

- Terms such as how many calories should I eat in a day' and how to lose weight' prevailed in 2014.

- We searched for what is love' 5x more than what is science', proving that we're still perplexed by our most basic emotions, and we were also intrigued by how to kiss' in 2014.

- Philosophical queries like what is life' and who am I' were balanced out with social media concerns such as who unfollowed me'. Turns out we're a worried bunch when it comes to our place in the world.

- Continuing the trend of mass naval-gazing, Selfies were a huge phenomenon in 2014, with what is a selfie' rising 3x and better selfie' up 6x. Cancer Research UK got in on the act, launching the "no makeup selfie" campaign and boosted search volumes even more.

- NEWS FLASH we quite like cats, and thus we spent some of 2014 searching for terms related to our feline friends. Searches for funny cats' far outnumbered funny dogs' and the Savannah cat recently recognised as a registered breed was the most searched around the world.

We didn't leave dogs out completely though, with do dogs dream' among the year's top searches.

Google has named e-commerce company Amazon as its biggest competition, ahead of its more traditional search engine rivals.

As reported by BBC News, Google boss Eric Schmidt has hit back at claims the search engine does not struggle with opposition from other search engines, naming the e-commerce site as its main competition.

He said: "Many people think our main competition is Bing or Yahoo. But, really, our biggest search competitor is Amazon... People don't think of Amazon as search, but if you are looking for something to buy, you are more often than not looking for it on Amazon."

While Amazon targets consumers with its mind on commerce, Schmidt pointed out that search results fulfil the same need in terms of "answering users' questions and searches".

"Someone, somewhere in a garage is gunning for us," he continued. "I know, because not long ago we were in that garage... Change comes from where you least expect it. The next Google won't do what Google does, just as Google didn't do what AOL did."

It was recently reported that Google could face being charged formally for abusing' its position in the sector, after outgoing European Competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia warned the company would be struck with a financial penalty if equal prominence was not offered to its rivals.

"Regardless of the course this case will take, the European Commission and in particular the Commissioner for Competition must stand firm to preserve the independence, impartiality and objectivity of our procedures and decisions," Almunia said at the time.

"The reality is that Google works very differently from other companies that have been called gatekeepers, and regulated as such," Eric Schmidt said.

"We aren't a telecommunications network or an electricity grid, with only one line going to your home, and competitors allowed. No one is stuck using Google."

The EU has ordered Google to come up with "fresh solutions" to meet competitor complains about the firm's dominance in search and advertising.

The European Commission and Google came to terms back in February over the investigation in a bid to draw a line under the saga and move on. However, The Commission has received a number of criticisms from competitors on the settlement proposals.

"Some of these replies are very, very negative. And in some of those replies, some complainants have introduced new arguments, new data, new considerations," said Joaqun Almunia, Commission vice president in charge of competition policy, in an interview with Bloomberg.

"So we now need to analyse this and to see if we can find solutions, if Google can find solutions, to some of these concerns we find justified, and we are in this process," he said. "So it's a long investigation, it's a complex issue."

This marks the third time Google has improved its offer in response to claims from rival firms that it dominates online search and hinders advertisers from moving to other platforms. Google controls over 80 per cent of the European search market.

Should talks fail between the Commission and Google, the company could be fined up to 10 per cent of its revenues of $60 billion.

Almunia said he was now looking into a similar case with Google's mobile operating system Android. Rivals have complained that Google favours its own services, such as Google Maps and Search, on the OS.

In a blog post Google chairman Eric Schmidt claimed Google isn't promoting its products at the expense of others.

"We're trying to get you direct answers to your queries because it's quicker and less hassle than the ten blue links Google used to show. This is especially important on mobile where screens are smaller and typing is harder," he said.

Microsoft's Bing search engine now displays information from a wide range of academic sources to assist researchers.

While other search engines, such as Google and Yahoo display academic sources in separate services, Bing will include results related to a search term in the same place as generic search results.

The company made it clear it was adding the feature to get ahead of its competitors who treat scholarly information as a separate search engine.

Microsoft said it "will be able to point the way to a wealth of information from the academic community...with academic data tightly integrated and prominently featured on its search pages."

As part of Microsoft's Academic Search service, which has been a testing ground for a number of studies including data mining, named-entity disambiguation, and visualisation for some years, it is hoped the search engine will be a key destination for researchers.

Kuansan Wang, director of the Internet Services Research Center, said: "Microsoft Academic Search is evolving from a research project to a production effort that will leverage the full capability of Microsoft's flagship search engine, Bing. Since the academic audience is an important user segment and a source of innovative suggestions and feedback, we are announcing the new development during the Faculty Summit to broaden our engagements with this community."

Microsoft's Cortana personal assistant will also get access to these academic sources, as it draws in information from the search engine. When the Cortana Notebook is activated, users can select the Academic Theme to find and alert users to academic events such as conference agendas and paper due dates, all of which will be tailored to a user's preferences.

"By growing Microsoft Academic Search from a research effort to production," Wang says, "our goal is to make Bing-powered Cortana the best personal research assistant for our users while augmenting the previous site as Microsoft Research's social and outreach portal for the research community."

The UK government has requested the Right to be Forgotten law be dropped from the European Union's data protection legislation.

The Right to be Forgotten ruling, which allows search results deemed to be "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant", or those that infringe an individual's privacy to be deleted from search engines including Google at the request of individuals, should not be administered by the EU.

Since May when the ruling was put in place, 70,000 people have requested Google delete links to articles from its search results.

Justice minister Simon Hughes told the House of Lords: "The government is currently negotiating with our 27 partners to get a new law, which is the new directive and we, the UK, would not want what is currently in the draft, which is the Right to be Forgotten, to remain. We want it to be removed, we think it is the wrong position," he said.

"I don't think as an individual and as a minister that we want the law to develop in the way that is implied by this judgment that you close down access to information in the EU, which is open in the rest of the world."

Since the directive has been announced, many media outlets including the BBC and The Guardian have voiced concerns and argued that content which is outdated still has relevancy and this ruling is one step towards media censorship.

The European Court of Justice has said that people should be able to ask for certain information about themselves to be removed from search engines, but according to some critics, Google has spun this to mean it doesn't need to tell users if certain search results have been omitted as it previously did.

Last week, Google responded to criticisms regarding its rush to implement the right to be forgotten ruling after a BBC writer objected to one of his posts being removed from the search engine.

The BBC's economics editor, Robert Peston, claimed the removal of his 2007 blog post was effectively Google casting him "into oblivion" after a commenter ask that it be removed from search.

Google has received over 1,000 requests by people asking to have links to information about them removed.

The influx of demand comes after a European Court of Justice ruling on Tuesday. According to reports from Sky News, the search company has had demands to take down information from "a man who tried to kill his family" to a convicted cyber stalker requesting a story about him to be removed.

Also asking to be forgotten have been a paedophile, a scandal-hit former politician and a business wanting to remove posts about it cheating its customers.

Other requests have been from someone "who committed fraud on a technicality" and another who got a negative and unfounded review that nearly ruined her business.

The ruling came in response to Spaniard Mario Costeja who complained that an auction notice of his repossessed house on Google's search results infringed his privacy. The court's decision is binding with no recourse to appeal the decision. The ruling means that people can legally force search engines to remove links to information about them.

Earlier this week, Google chairman Eric Schmidt criticised the ruling, saying it was "wrong".

"A simple way of understanding what happened here is that you have a collision between a right to be forgotten and a right to know. From Google's perspective that's a balance," said Schmidt during an annual shareholders meeting.

"Google believes, having looked at the decision which is binding, that the balance that was struck was wrong."

Google will be required to remove all personal information that appears on its search engine following a landmark court loss in Europe.

The decision, by the European Court of Justice, found that search engines like Google were "controllers" of personal data, responsible for the results and information that is presented to its users. The company had argued that it simply hosts content, rather than endorsing it.

The ruling means that Google will have to respond to any and all requests to remove private information that plaintiffs consider to be harmful. Even if the Menlo Park, California-based firm refuses a request, it will be obliged to employ data protection methods if ordered to by a court.

Exemptions to the rule include persons considered prominent in the public eye, like politicians or celebrities. Due to the European Court of Justice being the highest court in Europe, Google is unable to appeal the decision.

The fallout from the decision may turn out to be far-reaching. Other search engine operators like Microsoft and Yahoo might have to significantly overhaul their search practices in Europe to avoid similar court troubles.

The case's origins lie in Spain, where a citizen asked Google to delete links related to his house's auction. Spain's highest authority held up the complaint and Google moved it to the ECJ, arguing that it was not responsible for data published legally elsewhere.

Google has to face up to a number of legal challenges across the continent over its policies on data protection.

"This is a disappointing ruling for search engines and online publishers in general," Google said in a statement.

"We are very surprised that it differs so dramatically from the advocate-general's opinion and the warnings and consequences that he spelled out. We now need to take time to analyse the implications."

Google has agreed to a settlement with European competition regulators after the search giant agreed to make "significant" alterations to how rival companies appear in search results.

Google proposed the changes to avoid a potential five billion Euro fine. The firm has been accused of favouring its own products in search results to the detriment of others.

The latest proposal sees Google displaying results from three rival search firms in a similar manner whenever it promotes its own search services. This is in addition to Google's previous concession that included giving content providers the ability to opt-out of its search services.

It will also remove exclusivity requirements in its agreements with publishers for the provision of search advertisements; and will lift restrictions on the ability for search advertising campaigns to be run on competing search advertising platforms.

It was hoped the concessions would be sufficient to secure a settlement in the long-running antitrust case, and it now appears they have.

The company has escaped a fine, and the Commission has acknowledged that no other antitrust authority in the world has obtained the number of concessions it has.

The deal does, however, require formal approval by the European Commission.

Joaqun Almunia, European Commission vice president in charge of competition policy, said: "My mission is to protect competition to the benefit of consumers, not competitors. I believe that the new proposal obtained from Google after long and difficult talks can now address the Commission's concerns.

"Without preventing Google from improving its own services, it provides users with real choice between competing services presented in a comparable way; it is then up to them to choose the best alternative. This way, both Google and its rivals will be able and encouraged to innovate and improve their offerings.

"Turning this proposal into a legally binding obligation for Google would ensure that competitive conditions are both restored quickly and maintained over the next years."

Google's General Counsel, Kent Walker, said in statement: "We will be making significant changes to the way Google operates in Europe. We have been working with the European Commission to address issues they raised and look forward to resolving this matter."

The EC said Google's compliance with these commitments would be supervised by an independent monitoring trustee. It will also inform complainants about the new terms before the issue is finally settled.

Microsoft has set out plans to offer schools access to an ad-free version of its Bing search engine that will automatically filter out adult content too.

The Bing for Schools initiative is being piloted in the US, and is designed to allow students to take advantage of its search technology in a safer and more secure way.

The vendor announced the move in a Bing blog post. In it Microsoft revealed that several US schools have already signed up to the service, before going on to encourage others to follow suit.

Those that do will be offered access to a reworked version of the Microsoft search engine, which will be free of adverts, feature enhanced privacy controls and will boast filters to help block adult content.

In the past, the firm has criticised rival search giant Google for including adverts in the online services it provides to schools, and has backed legislation to ban the use of Google Apps in schools for this reason.

Matt Wallaert, a Bing behavioral scientist at Microsoft, said the programme is being introduced because of how reliant children are on the internet to complete their school work.

"Bing for Schools isn't just about giving schools the choice to have an ad-free, safer, privacy-enhanced search experience," Wallaert wrote in a blog post.

"The internet has become a vital part of our society and...91 per cent of educators believe that content focusing on digital literacy should be incorporated into every school's curriculum," he added.

Participating schools may also be able to take advantage of the Microsoft Bing Rewards programme to acquire a Surface RT for every 30,000 credits they accrue.

The programme was set up by Microsoft to reward users with points every time they use Bing to search the web and for trying out new features the firm rolls out.

"Any schools can receive Bing Rewards credits they don't have to be enrolled in the official Bing for Schools ad-free search programme," Wallaert advised.

"We'll aggregate the credits for everyone supporting each school and when they reach 30,000 credits, we'll convert those into a Microsoft Surface RT tablet with Touch Cover that will be sent directly to the school."

The company said only a limited number of schools will be admitted to the pilot programme, but the firm said it intends to expand the initiative as time goes on.

Microsoft-owned search engine Bing has become the first in the UK to introduce pop-up notifications for people who try to use the service to find child abuse images.

The notifications are designed to alert users to the fact the content they are trying to view is illegal, and are triggered when users enter search terms that have been blacklisted by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).

The pop-ups only apply to UK searches, and are designed to stop people "drifting towards" trying to find illegal content on the internet using search engines, a Microsoft spokesperson told the BBC.

"This is in addition to Microsoft's existing and longstanding policy of removing any verified links to illegal content of this sort from Bing as quickly as possible," the spokesperson continued.

"Microsoft has been, and remains, a strong proponent of proactive action in reasonable and scalable ways by the technology industry in the fight against technology-facilitated child exploitation.

"We have teams dedicated globally to abuse reporting on our services and the development of new innovations to combat child exploitation more broadly."

The introduction of the pop-ups follows on from an announcement made last week by the Prime Minister David Cameron about a series of anti-online pornography measures the Government is planning to introduce.

They include the rollout of online pornography blocks to every internet connected household in the UK, which will be automatically switched on unless users ask for them not to be.

In a separate measure, search engines will also be asked to block access to illegal content by October, as well as introduce similar pop-up notifications to the ones Microsoft has now rolled out.

IT Pro contacted Google to find out if it plans to follow Microsoft's lead on pop-up notifications, and received a statement reiterating the firm's "zero-tolerance" stance on child abuse imagery.

"We use purpose built technology and work with child safety organisations like the Internet Watch Foundation to find, remove and report it, because we never want this material to appear in our search results. We are working with experts on effective ways to deter anyone tempted to look for this sickening material," the statement concluded.

*This story was published on the morning of 29 July, before being updated later in the afternoon with a statement from Google.*

Social networking giant Facebook is ushering in an overhaul of its site's search capabilities to make it easier for members to retrieve pictures and information about their friends.

The new service is called Graph Search and a beta version is being rolled out slowly across the firm's one billion-strong user base.

At the launch event for the new service in California earlier today, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said the product will be made available to "hundreds and thousands" of users to test in due course.

You can only search for content that people have shared with you.

The new service expands on Facebook's existing search capabilities, which let people search for people, places and fan pages, by allowing them to submit strings of queries that can be used to delve into their friends' interests, photos and checked-in places.

For instance, members can use the tool to find photos from a specific date, search for friends who like the same films as them or scour the site for friends of friends that could be single for dating purposes.

From a business perspective, the firm's director of project management, Tom Stocky, said the functionality could also be used to recruit staff by letting members search for people who work in specific industries or at certain companies.

Digging deep

The company's decision to branch into search will come as no surprise to many industry watchers, as the firm's chief told a Tech Crunch conference back in September that it was a serious area of focus for the firm.

Speaking at the event, he is reported to have claimed that Facebook is already handling one billion search queries a day, prompting speculation that the firm may be planning a more formal foray into the market.

The coupling of social networking to web searches is nothing new, as Google has been pushing something similar with its Google+ service for some time, while Yahoo has offered users the chance to set up profiles and engage in group discussions with its services since the 1990s.

However, Zuckerberg was keen to stress the aim of Graph Search was not for Facebook to go toe-to-toe with these other web giants.

"It is not web search. We're not indexing the web, we're indexing our map of the graph [of our users' data]," he said.

Facebook has partnered up with Microsoft to fill in Graph Search's knowledge gaps with data from the Bing search engine.

He also hinted that his firm had approached Google about a similar search-related technology tie-up, but had been unable to agree on privacy terms.

"I'd love to work with Google...When we did our web search interaction, we want to make search social [and open] in general," he said.

Continues over page

On the topic of privacy, he said the firm has taken steps to ensure that only data users have made public will be available for people to view through Graph Search.

The company has tried to make it easier for users to review exactly what content is publicly available about them, through the privacy measures it introduced at the end of last year.

Zuckerberg added that, before the service is rolled out to all users, members will see a prompt on the Facebook home page, encouraging them to review the information Graph Search may throw up about them.

These allow users to bulk un-tag embarrassing photos or posts or lock down other types of data they'd rather other people couldn't see.

Lars Rasmussen, director of product development at Facebook, explained: "You can only search for content that people have shared with you.

"You can only see the content you could already see on Facebook before," he added.

The company was unable to give a firm date as to when the service will be rolled out to all users, mainly because of the sheer amount of user data it has to wade through first.

"There's more than one billion people on this with 240 billion photos and trillions of connections," explained Zuckerberg.

The hype surrounding the announcement has caused Facebook's share price to rocket passed the $31 per share mark in recent days for the first time since July.

To put that into context, shares in the company hit a high of $45 in the wake of its controversial IPO in May 2012.

This was on the back of reports the firm might be planning to launch a Facebook-branded smartphone or announce an overhaul of its mobile platforms.

Facebook is holding an event in California later today, where the social networking giant is set to reveal details about a mysterious new offering.

There have been few clues about what the firm is planning to showcase, aside from a short sentence on the event's invitation that asks reporters to "come and see what we're building."

As a result, speculation about what the firm will unveil has been rife, with industry watchers predicting that a new Facebook smartphone, search engine or a revamped mobile site could be in the offing this evening.

A Facebook smartphone would have to offer more than just access to the social networking site.

Here, we take a look at some of the rumours currently doing the rounds ahead of tonight's Facebook launch, and hedge our bets at how likely they are to come off.

IT Pro is going to be bringing you all the news from tonight's event, so make sure you check back later to see whether or not our predictions were right.

Facebook phone

A foray into the mobile device market wouldn't be a massive surprise for Facebook, considering how popular the site is with smartphone and tablet users.

According to figures obtained by analyst Benedict Evans, as of September 2012, around 470 million of the company's 1.07 billion users accessed the social networking site via a Facebook smartphone app.

In total, the company is reported to have 604 million mobile users (which include those that use a browser to view the site), although Evans points out that many of them are likely to use desktop version, too.

In light of these figures, a smartphone might seem like a safe bet, but the device would have to offer more than access to the social networking site to make users switch from their incumbent devices.

Especially in light of how tightly integrated Facebook already is with the photo and messaging capabilities of most smartphones these days.

Further to this, the company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly denied reports about bringing a Facebook smartphone to market.

During the firm's first ever earnings call back in July, Zuckerberg said the launch of a Facebook-built phone "wouldn't really make that much sense."

He echoed this sentiment again several months later during a conference in San Francisco, where according to a report in the Daily Telegraph he said the venture is unlikely to attract enough users to make it worthwhile.

Chances: Given Zuckerberg's constant rebuttals, and the challenge the firm will face in trying to get smartphone users to switch to its device, we think the chances of a Facebook phone making its debut tonight are slim.

A revamped Facebook mobile experience

The company has made no secret of the fact that it has some work to do to make Facebook a smoother and more enjoyable experience for mobile users.

To this end, the firm announced a mobile development push back in September, with the launch of a new Covent Garden-based engineering hub.

Speaking at the event, Philip Su, head of UK engineering at Facebook, said the firm's new UK engineering team would be focusing on "server-side enhancements" and new products to give mobile users a better experience.

"Everyone knows Facebook can make great improvements in [the] responsiveness of its mobile applications," said Su.

Mike Schroepfer, vice president of infrastructure at Facebook, backed Su's assertion, adding that users had expressed disappointment about the firm's mobile platforms because they lacked the "polish and performance" they have come to expect from the brand.

We provide a free product that people are under no obligation to use, so our primary aim is to add value.

"We provide a free product that people are under no obligation to use, so our primary aim is to add value [to encourage people to] use our products," he added.

Meanwhile, the firm is under pressure to make more money from its mobile operations, which has prompted some to speculate that Facebook could be planning to debut a new mobile ad platform or a service that would let users take part in intra-ecosystem calls.

Chances: In light of Su and Schroepfer' comments, it seems a new and improved mobile Facebook experience would be welcomed by users, but considering how publicly the firm has already spoken about this in the past would it really be worth holding a top secret press conference about?

As for the calling capability, that would make sense given the work Facebook has done to bolster its private messaging service in recent years, and would pit the firm against the likes of Skype and Whatsapp.

It would also ensure users spend even more of their free time on Facebook, which is sure to please advertisers.

Facebook search

Given the amount of data Facebook holds about its users and their habits, there is no denying the site represents a fantastic information source. This might explain why rumours have surfaced about the firm launching its own search engine.

The company has got into hot water in the past with privacy groups for the way it has reportedly tried to mine its users' data for advertising purposes, so it would have to tread carefully to prevent this happening again.

That aside, the potential for a Facebook search engine is huge. For example, it could allow users to tap into a collective "hive mind" in the same way Twitter does by letting them search for information about breaking news or events happening in their local area in real-time or simply pose questions to people they may not have a prior connection with.

Alternatively, it could simply involve a tweak of the site's current search capabilities, allowing users to scavenge for information beyond contacts, fan pages and local businesses to bring them content from areas of the web that are unaffiliated with Facebook.

Zuckerberg recently flagged search as an area of interest for the firm, which has only served to fuel rumours that Facebook might be planning to take on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft with a foray into search.

Chances:Tying social networking into search is something Google has been attempting for a while with its Google+ service, and would give Facebook users even less of an incentive to leave the site. Again, this is sure to delight its advertisers.

As mentioned, it would also pit the site against some pretty established rivals in the search space, (few of which have a user base to rival Facebook's, mind you) and a high-profile press event would be a good way of laying down the gauntlet to them.

Google has been given a public warning by EC competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia to respond to accusations from competitors that it is abusing its dominant position in the internet search marketplace.

The Competition Commission has been investigating Google over claims its search engine ranks its own property, such as YouTube, higher than its rivals'.

The Commission is also looking into accusations that Google's advertising breaks rules by blocking its competitors' ads.

The firm has also been accused of copying competitors' travel and restaurant reviews.

"If effective solutions were found quickly and tested successfully, competition could be restored at an early stage by means of a commitment decision," EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in the text of a speech to be delivered at Fordham University in New York.

"However, we are not there yet, and it must be clear that - in the absence of satisfactory proposals in the short term - I will be obliged to continue with our formal proceedings," he said.

The speech puts pressure on Google by making public the Commission's readiness to take a more aggressive line in negotiations.

The talks between the search giant and the Commission have been ongoing since July. The speech hints that very little progress has been made in talks to resolve the dispute and that few concessions have been made by Google.

If the case gets brought before the courts and the Commission is successful in showing a breach of competition law, Google may be fined 10 per cent of its worldwide revenues which for 2011 amounts to 2.9 billion (2.3 billion).

Almunia said proposals have to be valid worldwide and not just restricted to the EU. Google said it is currently working on meeting the Commission's demands.

"We continue to work cooperatively with the Commission," said Google spokesman Al Verney in a statement.

Microsoft has overhauled its Bing search engine to improve the site's user experience, as it fights to wrest share from arch rival Google.

The software giant said the makeover will make Bing "slicker" and "cleaner" to use, with a new front page featuring a much larger image.

Within the search results, information on the left has been removed to decrease the size of the header, explained Micrososft.

"[This]raises the level of consistency and predictability while making it easier for you to scan the page and quickly find the information you want," said the firm in a post on the Bing UK site.

We want to make your search experience quicker and easier so you can get on with the important stuff.

"Increasing the space between lines improves readability and optimises the page for touch devices," it added.

The team said that the new experience is "more than skin-deep". It added that users would also notice faster page-load times and more relevant search results.

"Most of us would like to spend less time searching for information online, as, let's face it, there is more to life than search," said Peter Maxmin, head of Bing UK.

"We want to make your search experience quicker and easier so you can get on with the important stuff."

The move comes a couple of months after Microsoft revealed "The New Bing," as a completely redesigned social search interface for US audiences.

While the UK homepage matches the look of the US, social search has yet to make an appearance on these shores.

According to figures from StatCounter Bing has 3.27 per cent of the global search queries compared with Google's 91.75 per cent.

University of Glasgow computer scientists are developing a search engine that will give people real-time information about the city they are in.

The European-funded project, known as SMART, intends to develop and apply a system to allow users to search and analyse data from designated sensors.

Standard search engines, such as Google and Bing, are unable to answer search queries of this type.

By matching search queries with information from physical sensors across a city and cross-referencing data from social networks, such as Twitter, users will receive detailed responses to questions they ask.

The engine intends to help users find events that friends have been to and ascertain how busy a city centre is.

The researchers said that standard search engines, such as Google and Bing, are unable to answer search queries of this type.

The SMART project will be built upon an open-source search engine technology called Terrier, which has been under development at the university since 2004.

Dr Iadh Ounis from the University of Glasgow's School of Computing Science, said the search engine would answer high-level queries by automatically identifying cameras, microphones and other sensors.

The results will then be created based on the feedback given by these distributed sources in an intelligent way.

"SMART builds upon the existing concept of smart cities'; physical spaces which are covered in an array of intelligent sensors that communicate with each other and can be searched for information," said Dr. Ounis.

The search results sourced from these smart cities could be reused across multiple applications, he added, to make them more effective.

The University of Glasgow has been working on the project alongside nine other partners.

They include Atos, Athens Information Technology, IBM's Haifa Research Lab, Imperial College London, the City of Santander, PRISA Digital, Telesto and Consorzio S3 Log.

Ounis said he expects to test the system out in a real city before 2014.

Brussels competition regulators have offered Google the opportunity to settle an investigation into whether the company abused it dominance of its search engine business.

EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a press conference that he was giving Google an opportunity to offer remedies to address concerns that we have identified". He added that he would be sending a letter to Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, outlining four specific areas that Google must rectify or face financial penalties.

He said that the company had "some weeks" to propose remedies to the European Commission's issues. Should the Commission accept Google's proposals after a market test, it will end the 18-month investigation into its business practices, said Almunia.

"If Google comes up with an outline of remedies which are capable of addressing our concerns, I will instruct my staff to initiate the discussions in order to finalise a remedies package," said Almunia. "This would allow us to solve our concerns by means of a commitment decision, instead of having to pursue the formal proceedings with a statement of objections and to adopt a decision imposing fines and remedies."

The main concerns for the European Commission revolve around how the search engine company deals with search results and how it gives preference to its own products, how content from rivals is used and how advertising is handled on its main search website.

He said in a press conference that "these fast moving markets would particularly benefit from a quick resolution of the competition issues identified."

Al Verney, head of Communications at Google Brussels said in a press statement that while the company disagrees with the conclusions of the Commission, it was "happy to discuss any concerns they might have."

The Commission has powers to fine companies up to 10 per cent of their global revenues should they be found guilty of breaching EU competition laws. The commission has fined Intel and Microsoft in the past, among others.

Detailed documents about Google's plan to expand outside the search business were revealed in its patent infringement trial against Oracle.

Google projected in 2010 it would get more than 35 per cent of its 2013 revenue from outside its flagship search operation, anticipating three non-search businesses, including commerce, would generate more than $5 billion each, according to internal company documents filed in court.

The documents provide a rare insight into Google's mindset and reflect the web giant's ambitious plans to expand into new markets, underscoring the challenges it has faced in its efforts to break its reliance on its search business.

Online commerce and an initiative to bring Google services to television were important pillars of Google's growth plans at the time, the documents show. But analysts say neither appear to be on track to deliver the kind of pay-off Google expected.

"Google TV and commerce ambitions look aggressive compared to what we believe they are today," said Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Herman Leung, who reviewed the Google documents.

The projections for Google's various businesses were part of a presentation to Google's board of directors compiled by company staffers in October 2010. They were revealed during the high-stakes trial of Oracle Corp against Google over smartphone technology.

Google attempted to convince US District Judge William Alsup to keep the internal documents secret, but Alsup denied the request in court last week.

Google spokesman Jim Prosser said on Wednesday the documents do not represent current thinking about its business operations.

"Our industry continues to evolve incredibly fast and so do our aspirations for our various products and services," he said.

Still, the presentation provides a window into Google's strategic thinking at a time when the Web's dominant search engine was facing competitive pressure on numerous fronts.

Google highlighted the emerging threat from an alliance between social networking service Facebook and Microsoft's Bing search engine, noting that "Facebook-Bing users may bypass Google." Google also said revenue from its business selling software to companies was "disappointing."

Oracle has accused Google's Android mobile operating system of violating its intellectual property rights. An Oracle spokeswoman declined to comment on the internal Google projections.

Oracle attorney David Boies briefly referred to the documents on Wednesday while questioning Android mobile software chief Andy Rubin, but Boies did not delve into the projections. However, a full copy of the internal documents has been formally admitted into evidence in the case.

FAILED TO CATCH ON

Google's YouTube business was estimated to generate $5 billion by 2013, thanks to a $3 billion contribution from Google TV, a then-new product that allows consumers to access Google services such as search and YouTube videos on their television screens.

But analysts say Google TV has failed to catch on with consumers. Logitech, one of Google's initial partners that developed a set-top box offering the service, said in November it would cease making Google TV devices. In January, Google announced plans for new devices from LG and Samsung.

Google projected that commerce, a category that includes sales of digital content and mobile payments as well as product ads, would deliver $5 billion in revenue in 2013.

Google had forecast its total revenue in 2013 would be $55 billion, according to the documents, with $34 billion in revenue from its search business.

Eric Schmidt was Google's CEO at the time the documents were created. In April 2011, Schmidt handed the reins to Google co-founder Larry Page, who has moved swiftly to pull the plug on projects that are not paying off while focusing efforts on opportunities including mobile, social networking and display advertising.

Google's efforts to tap new revenue have been closely watched by investors, eager for new growth as the search business matures yet wary of initiatives that threaten margins. Shares of Google, which closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $609.72, are down roughly 6.6 percent in 2012.

Google was also optimistic about its plans to enter the music business. In a separate set of documents in the case, the company forecast music sales would drive Android revenue to $3.7 billion in 2013.

The 2010 documents show Google's search business generated $19.2 billion in 2009, while the display business brought in $3.2 billion that year. YouTube made $300 million, while e-commerce brought in no revenue.

The case in US District Court, Northern District of California, is Oracle America, Inc v. Google Inc, 10-3561.

Google has announced three features designed to make search more personal.

The first is Personal Results, which presents users with contacts' Google+ posts and photos for whatever terms they search.

"This is search that truly knows me, and gives me a result page that only I can see," said Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, in a blog post.

"And while I get a nice mix of personal results with results from the web, I can also click the link at the top of the results page (red arrow) for the option to search only within my world."

This is search that truly knows me, and gives me a result page that only I can see.

The second major addition is Profiles in Search, which means when users search for a friend's name, Google will bring up a personalised profile prediction in autocomplete.

The new People and Pages feature links the other two additions by finding people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic.

"Starting today, if you search for a topic like [music] or [baseball], you might see prominent people who frequently discuss this topic on Google+ appearing on the right-hand side of the results page," Singhal added.

"You can connect with them on Google+, strike up meaningful conversations and discover entire communities in a way that simply wasn't possible before."

In a bid to maintain privacy for users, Google has provided "interface elements and control settings" similar to those found on Google+.

A toggle on the upper right of the results page, meanwhile, will let users see what their search results look like without personal content.

The "Search plus Your World" changes will roll out to signed-in English users on Google.com in the next few days. See below for a video explaining the new features.

Google has launched a revamped search page designed to promote more of the its services.

For the limited number of users who can see the changes from this week, a new side panel includes links to Google products like Gmail, Maps, YouTube and Google News.

The black bar running horizontally across the top of the page has been shifted to the side.

The changes were announced in 2011, revealing some of the most significant aesthetic changes to the search service thus far.

Making navigation and sharing super simple for people is a key part of our efforts to transform the overall Google experience.

At the time, Google said it was making the changes to help users "navigate quickly between our services, as well as share the right stuff with the right people on Google+.

"Making navigation and sharing super simple for people is a key part of our efforts to transform the overall Google experience, which is why we're very excited about this redesign," said Eddie Kessler, technical lead at Google, in a blog post last year.

The move comes at a time when Google is facing scrutiny from regulators over alleged breaches of competition rules in the search market.

The Federal Trade Commission has been called on to probe Google over whether it was steering users to run Google services rather than those of competitors.

In September last year, Google chairman Eric Schmidt said the company had not "cooked" its results to favour its own products.

The Financial Times reported in December that the European Commission had narrowed its investigation into Google practices, in what may mark a build up to a formal complaint.

Google has announced search improvements to help users find exactly what they're searching for.

Google offers services that help make search results more accurate for users. For example, the '+' operator helped search for specific terms.

But a few weeks ago, Google announced the termination of the '+' operator, finding it was being used incorrectly two-thirds of the time.

Since then, Google has reviewed requests for a better way to search using exact terms for users typing into the search bar.

A new search tool, called verbatim, will expand searches to request the actual words users searched for, instead of Google filling in what it thinks you might be searching for, based on previous search results.

When the feature is switched on, Google will search without making usual improvements such as automatic spelling corrections, including synonyms of the items being searched, finding results that match similar terms, searching for words with the same stem, or making terms optional.

"We're also applying similar ideas directly to our algorithms, such as tuning the accuracy of when our query broadening search improvements trigger," Google added in a blog post.

Users can switch on the verbatim search tool under the "more search tools" on the left hand side of the screen from today.

Google has made improvements to its search algorithm to provide "more up-to-date" results.

The changes will touch around 35 per cent of searches and will ensure searches for certain topics receive more timely web pages.

Google has sought to differentiate between certain searches' time sensitivity. There are those that relate to hot topics where users typically want the most current information, and there are those for regularly occurring events like an FA Cup Final or Christmas.

Different searches have different freshness needs.

There are also searches which relate to topics for which information changes regularly, but the issue isn't a major one, according to Google.

"There are plenty of cases where results that are a few years old might still be useful for you," added Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, in a blog post.

"Different searches have different freshness needs. This algorithmic improvement is designed to better understand how to differentiate between these kinds of searches and the level of freshness you need, and make sure you get the most up to the minute answers."

Google is still far ahead of its closest rival Bing in the search wars.

Yet the search giant hasn't always made the right moves. Earlier this week, the company announced a new Gmail iPad app, which went up on the App Store before being removed on the same day.

A bug in the software broke notifications and caused users to see an error message when first opening the app. It has not yet reappeared on the App Store.

Yahoo rarely seems to be in the news for good reasons. Back in 2009, the company failed to cement a deal that would have seen Microsoft buy the web portal. The failure cost Yahoo founder and CEO, Jerry Yang, his job.

Yahoo did manage to sign a smaller deal with Microsoft over search, but it was not enough to restore the company's fortunes. And this week, Ms Bartz learned by phone that she too was out of a job.

Yahoo, though, remains one of the internet's iconic brands. The trouble for the web-directory-to-search site is that, although most people have heard of Yahoo, fewer people can say what it does, or what it is good at.

In technology, you neglect your core business at your peril.

Yes, Yahoo owns Flickr, and Yahoo Finance is a useful tool, and some people do use Yahoo email and messaging. The company does a lot of things reasonably well, but most internet users would struggle to pinpoint one area where Yahoo excels.

Other web services whether it is the search giant Google, or micro-blogging service Twitter, or social buying site Groupon, or the e-tailer Amazon are successful largely because they have one, very successful core business. For Google it is search, for Amazon selling books.

These brands have branched out - Amazon into a general purpose online commerce site selling electronics and entertainment as well as books, Google into YouTube, mail services and more. But each company has continued to tend its core business well. Yahoo, on the other hand, has seen its original core business an online directory overtaken by the search engines, leaving it with a set of add-on apps and sites that all work well enough in their own right, but without that strong core.

According to Allen Weiner, a Gartner analyst who follows Yahoo, the company still styles itself as a media company, but lacks leaders who really understand that business. And Weiner describes Yahoo's social media strategy as "a work in progress." That might be too kind.

Today's online consumers are far more savvy than when Yahoo launched, and they are quite happy to use one site for search, another for social networking, another for micro-blogging and another still for storing their photos.

Yahoo is not alone in suffering by being a jack of all trades: AOL, for example, has struggled to replace its core, dial-up internet access business with content, despite high-profile media acquisitions such as TechCrunch and the Huffington Post. There are even rumours that AOL and Yahoo might merge.

With Yahoo said to be up for sale, now that Bartz has left, anything is possible. But if there is a lesson to learn from Yahoo's recent history it is this: in technology, you neglect your core business at your peril. A strong brand alone is not enough.

Stephen Pritchard is a contributing editor at IT PRO.

Comments? Questions? You can email him here

The latest analysis of search engine and social network use in the UK found July was a good month for Microsoft.

The software giant's Bing search engine grew its share of the UK search engine market by 0.96 per cent last month to overtake the 3 per cent market share of Yahoo!

This growth also means Bing regains the second place it lost on its second birthday only last month to Yahoo! for the first time this year, accounting for 3.84 per cent of share of all UK Internet searches during the month, according to figures published by Experian Hitwise today.

The data intelligence firm said Microsoft was, in fact, the only firm to have achieved "notable growth" in the search market during July and mostly at the expense of Google.

Robin Goad, Experian Hitwise research director, stated: "The gains made by Microsoft sites this month are almost exactly equal to the losses suffered by Google, which means that some of the searches that were being conducted on Google engines last month are now being typed into Bing."

He said it was important for brands to understand where people were searching for products and, crucially, how rankings, paid rates and search success rates vary across the competitive search engine market.

"The key for Bing now is to hold on to its gains in the search market and build on its strengths which differentiate it from Google and the other engines," Goad added.

Despite the gains made by Microsoft, and even Yahoo! (which grew its July market share by 0.3 per cent), they were minor in comparison to Google's ongoing dominance.

Even though its share of searches declined by 0.98 per cent in July and 0.56 per cent year-on-year, it still accounted for over 91 per cent on searches conducted by UK Internet users.

The social network analysis revealed Facebook's dominance of the UK social market dipped to its lowest level since October 2009, when the network accounted for 50.5 per cent of all visits to the category.

The July Hitwise figures found the social network suffered a significant loss of market share this month, dropping from 53.7 to 50.1 per cent of all UK Internet visits to social networks.

By contrast, YouTube continued to be the fastest moving social network for the fifth consecutive month. One in every 35 visits to a website by UK Internet users now goes to YouTube, and the video site now accounts for 22.54% of all visits to social networks its highest market share of the UK social landscape recorded to date.

Goad added: "The growth of YouTube over the last year has been outstanding. Now firmly entrenched as the UK's third most visited website after Google UK and Facebook, YouTube's growth has come from usage on mobile devices."

One in 20 visits to YouTube now comes from a mobile device used on a home Wi-Fi network, he said.

Google has made some significant changes to its search business, making it faster to access results and adding speech recognition.

The Silicon Valley giant yesterday announced Instant Pages, which prepares the top search result in the background whilst the user chooses which website to visit.

This will save users another two to five seconds on typical searches, Google said.

"Instant Pages will pre-render results when we're confident you're going to click them," said Google Fellow, Amit Singhal, in a blog post.

"The good news is that we've been working for years to develop our relevance technology, and we can fairly accurately predict when to pre-render."

Instant Pages will feature first in the next beta release of Chrome, although the developer version has been made available today.

Google has also brought the voice search capability it introduced to mobiles into the desktop.

"If you're using Chrome, you'll start to see a little microphone in every Google search box. Simply click the microphone, and you can speak your search," Singhal said.

Speech recognition on desktop is rolling out now on Google.com in English, he confirmed, claiming Google's voice search traffic has grown six-fold in the last year alone.

Google also introduced Search by Image, which lets users upload any picture or plug in an image URL to figure out what it is.

The feature is also rolling out from today. It can be accessed via a button next to the microphone on images.google.com.

A poisoned search engine optimisation (SEO) campaign has duped over 100 million web users into visiting malicious web pages, a security firm has warned.

The campaign, run by a well-known blackhat SEO operator, has used Google image search to redirect users to fake anti-virus downloads in a bid to compromise users' systems.

"In just one month, this campaign was able to redirect nearly 300 million hits from 113 million visitors to the malicious landing pages," Trend Micro explained in a blog post.

"In addition to generating pages full of bad links and keywords to boost search engine results ranking, the operator also embedded images taken from legitimate sites so its pages can get a high Google Image Search index."

To date, Trend Micro said it had identified 4,586 compromised servers connecting to the blackhat SEO command server.

Using these servers, the hackers have implanted two kinds of pages inside various websites, one being a standard fake anti-virus scanning page, the other a Traffic Direction System (TDS) page.

"TDS pages are used as landing pages to direct traffic to malicious content based on a variety of criteria such as OS, browser version, and geographic location," the security firm explained.

"This particular campaign uses the well-known SUTRA TDS to redirect users to [fake anti-virus] landing pages or to pages that host the Black Hole Exploit pack."

In the past 30 days, that TDS redirected 220,175,652 hits from 82,568,468 visitors.

This campaign targeted Mac users in particular by using landing pages designed to imitate the appearance of the Mac OS.

"This campaign again demonstrates how effective blackhat SEO techniques are in driving traffic to malicious websites," Trend Micro added.

"Despite low conversion rates in terms of exploitation and [fake anti-virus] downloads or purchases, this operation is still likely generating a considerable amount of money for its operators."

EMC today revealed it has been working with Google to integrate search capabilities into its storage products.

The company made the announcement at its annual EMC World conference as it continued to warn customers of the deluge of data' hitting the industry right now.

"You have such a tsunami of data, how do you find anything?" asked Rich Napolitano, "So, we looked in the industry for who was the best partner in search [and] it was just clear."

An engineer on the project told IT PRO the new integration of Google's Search Appliance (GSA) only started development in the last quarter, but it had quickly turned it around to offer the new capability early in the second half of this year.

It comes as an optional connector on EMC's VNX products and is not compatible with other vendor's storage. It can also be bought as a separate software add-on for current systems.

"This integration accelerates from a factor of 10 to 100 the search capabilities and we are very excited about this partnership," added Napolitano.

"The partnership with Google search allows you to search and quickly index vast amount of data with what previously took you minutes or hours now happening in seconds."

The search capabilities allow for users to index targeted content with a more granular approach to specific data sets. The VNX will automatically send notifications to the GSA when changes are made to the storage, ensuring it keeps up to date.

"Companies are pack ratsthey hang onto a lot of data, in every nook and cranny of an IT infrastructure," said Benjamin Woo, programme vice president of worldwide storage systems research at IDC. "If they can't find that information, it becomes less valuable to them and their employees and customers."

"Together, Google and EMC are empowering employees with information. Faster access to information equals faster time to value creation [and] this is a powerful combination for any organisation."

Microsoft has filed a formal complaint against Google with the European Commission (EC), accusing its rival of anti-competitive behaviour.

It marks the first time Microsoft has filed an antitrust complaint with the EC and comes as Google is being investigated by the same body over whether it broke European competition law.

Google has faced a number of investigations into its competitive actions in the US, where it has less of a market share than in Europe.

In its EC filing, the Redmond giant claimed Google was guilty of engaging "in a broadening pattern of walling off access to content and data" which rivals needed to compete in the market and attract advertisers.

Microsoft gave a number of examples where it believed Google had impeded competition, including the 2006 acquisition of YouTube.

According to Microsoft, Google implemented "a growing number of technical measures" to prevent other search engines from including YouTube videos in results.

Google was also accused of blocking Windows Phone 7 devices from using YouTube properly, preventing access to extra services, such as the ability to find favourites and see ratings.

"Microsoft is ready to release a high quality YouTube app for Windows Phone," said Brad Smith, vice president and general counsel for Microsoft, on a blog.

"We just need permission to access YouTube in the way that other phones already do, permission Google has refused to provide."

Microsoft claimed Google also sought to prevent others from offering so-called "orphan books" those publications without a copyright holder.

The Redmond firm then moved on to advertisers, alleging Google "contractually prohibits advertisers from using their data in an interoperable way with other search advertising platforms, such as Microsoft's adCenter."

"This makes it much more costly for Google's advertisers to run portions of their campaigns with any competitor, and thus less likely that they will do so," Smith said.

"That is a significant problem because most advertisers figure that they have to advertise first with Google."

Microsoft also suggested Google had got its claws into search boxes within websites by contractually blocking "leading websites in Europe from distributing competing search boxes."

"Finally, we share the concerns expressed by many others that Google discriminates against would-be competitors by making it more costly for them to attain prominent placement for their advertisements."

"Microsoft has provided the Commission with a considerable body of expert analysis concerning how search engine algorithms work and the competitive significance of promoting or demoting various advertisements."

In a statement sent to IT PRO, a Google spokesperson said the firm was not surprised Microsoft had taken the step as a subsidiary - Ciao.de - was one of the original complainants which sparked the EU investigation.

"For our part, we continue to discuss the case with the European Commission and we're happy to explain to anyone how our business works," the spokesperson added.

The search spat between Microsoft and Google stepped up a notch earlier this year, when the Redmond giant was accused of copying Google results.

Google claimed it saw various URLs from its own search results appear in Bing "with increasing frequency for all kinds of queries."

Microsoft denied the claims, saying it used "multiple signals and approaches in ranking search results."

Google has added a feature to search allowing users to block websites from results.

All users need to do is click a link next to cached in Google after clicking through to any site and confirm they want to block it from future results.

For the blocking to work, users will need to be signed in as the blocked domains are connected with their Google Account.

A new settings page has been added to assist in managing blocked sites, where it is possible to unblock domains.

When in search, Google will alert the user when pages have been prevented from appearing.

"We're adding this feature because we believe giving you control over the results you find will provide an even more personalised and enjoyable experience on Google," the search giant said in a blog post.

"In addition, while we're not currently using the domains people block as a signal in ranking, we'll look at the data and see whether it would be useful as we continue to evaluate and improve our search results in the future."

The feature is available now in English for Chrome 9 or above, Internet Explorer versions 8 and 9, and Firefox 3.5 or above.

Google said it would be bringing the feature to more browsers and other languages soon.

While some of the world's biggest brainiacs were left reeling following a Jeopardy! defeat by IBM"s Watson supercomputer, tech rivals in the search space can rest easy.

For Big Blue has no plans to use its supercomputing prowess to take on the likes of Google, according to Steve Mills,

"The Watson [project] had some unique challenges," he told a press conference at IBM's Pulse 2011 event in Las Vegas.

"How do you create mini Watsons, baby Watsons? We learned a lot as to what it would take to make it commercial."

IBM's Watson is clearly a computing behemoth - it is comprised of some 90 blade servers and boasts 15 terrabytes of storage - whose usefulness spans a wide variety of potential applications and sectors. One area it doesn't plan to tap into, however, is Google territory.

"IBM is out to make money on its technology...We're not interested in competing with Google in the business they're in," Mills said.

"It doesn't make sense to spend a massive amount of money to do some sort of super web crawling system. You've been watching what's going on with Bing," Mills was reported as saying by eWEEK.

Mills added: "Your brain is part of the Google experience. There's a market for that, obviously."

But it's clearly a market IBM isn't looking at right now.

One area Big Blue is looking at as far as Watson is concerned though is healthcare. The company confirmed it is already in talks with both US and European chemists and healthcare departments to see how a smaller-scale Watson could help them provide a better service.

The news follows a recent deal IBM signed with voice recognition giant Nuance, which aims to make use of Watson's hefty analytical capabilities in the healthcare space.

The partnership will bring together Big Blue's Deep Question Answering (QA), natural language processing, and machine learning expertise capabilities and Nuance's speech recognition and clinical language understanding (CLU) tools to aid the diagnostic and treatment of patients.

"Combining our analytics expertise with the experience and technology of Nuance, we can transform the way that healthcare professionals accomplish everyday tasks by enabling them to work smarter and more efficiently," IBM Research's Dr. John Kelly last month when the announcement was made.

"This initiative demonstrates how we plan to apply Watson's capabilities into new areas, such as healthcare with Nuance."

The first fruits of the deal are expected within the next two years.

Microsoft has denied claims Bing results were directly copied from Google, as the two tech giants came to blows.

Google claimed it had seen various URLs from its own search results appear in Bing "with increasing frequency for all kinds of queries."

These included popular, rare, unusual and misspelled queries, Google claimed.

"Even search results that we would consider mistakes of our algorithms started showing up on Bing," Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, said in a blog post.

"We couldn't shake the feeling that something was going on, and our suspicions became much stronger in late October 2010 when we noticed a significant increase in how often Google's top search result appeared at the top of Bing's ranking for a variety of queries."

Google then carried out an experiment, creating around 100 "synthetic queries" searches users would not be expected to carry out, like random word jumbles.

Google gave 20 engineers laptops installed with Microsoft Windows running Internet Explorer 8 with the Bing Toolbar added.

Furthermore, the IE8's 'Suggested Sites' feature was added and default options for the Bing Toolbar were used.

"We asked these engineers to enter the synthetic queries into the search box on the Google home page, and click on the results, i.e., the results we inserted," Singhal explained.

"We were surprised that within a couple weeks of starting this experiment, our inserted results started appearing in Bing."

He claimed that some Bing results increasingly appeared "like an incomplete, stale version of Google results - a cheap imitation."

Microsoft has fobbed off Google's claims, offering its own blog post from Harry Shum, corporate vice president of Bing.

He explained the firm receives clickstream data from some users who opt-in to sharing anonymous data which will then go into improving search results.

Shum said Google had not accurately portrayed how Microsoft uses opt-in customer data "as one of many inputs to help improve our user experience."

"We use multiple signals and approaches in ranking search results," said Stefan Weitz, Microsoft director of Bing, in a statement sent to IT PRO.

"The overarching goal is to do a better job determining the intent of the search so we can provide the most relevant answer to a given query. Opt-in programs like the toolbar help us with clickstream data, one of many input signals we and other search engines use to help rank sites."

Microsoft also had a mini-spat with Yahoo this week, after it said the latter's mail offering was to blame for Windows Phone 7 'phantom data' leakage.

Now Yahoo has responded by saying the problem had not affected any other devices on which its mail service runs and was specific to Windows Phone 7.

Google has announced a new feature to help fight against webspam, where sites cheat their way up search rankings.

Whilst English-language webspam in Google results was less than half what it was five years ago, there has been a slight increase in the past few months.

To counteract this, Google has introduced a redesigned document-level classifier, making it harder for so-called "webspam" content to rank highly.

"The new classifier is better at detecting spam on individual web pages, e.g, repeated spammy words - the sort of phrases you tend to see in junky, automated, self-promoting blog comments," said Google principal engineer Matt Cutts, in a blog.

"We've also radically improved our ability to detect hacked sites, which were a major source of spam in 2010. And we're evaluating multiple changes that should help drive spam levels even lower, including one change that primarily affects sites that copy others' content and sites with low levels of original content."

Google wanted to put to bed the idea the search giant did not take strong action against spammy content if those sites contained Google ads.

Cutts stressed adding Google ads to sites would not boost their search rankings and Google would take action on any site violating the company's quality guidelines.

"The fact is that we're not perfect, and combined with users' skyrocketing expectations of Google, these imperfections get magnified in perception," Cutts added.

"However, we can and should do better."

In another recent move to shore up security, the search firm bolstered its email authentication for Google Apps users.

Yell.com, the online directories business, is mining its unstructured data to help consumers find local businesses.

The company has installed new search servers to scan through unstructured information to speed up searches of its business listings.

Yell.com is currently using the search servers for its web-based directories and will use it to run its mobile channels from January.

The company picked the search technology from vendor MarkLogic after an evaluation process. Alternatives considered included the open source tool Lucene, according to Daniel Booth, search development manager for Yell in the UK.

"MarkLogic has given us more flexibility in search and product development, enabling Yell.com to evolve to meet the changing needs of both advertisers and consumers," said Booth.

"We have been able to hit site performance targets as well as introducing new features especially in geo-spatial search."

According to John Pomeroy, vice president for Europe at MarkLogic, technologies that can scan through unstructured data - rather than relying on relational databases - are growing in importance due to their flexibility and speed of deployment.

MarkLogic's search server can scan through any XML document, said Pomeroy, removing the need for data owners to add metadata to documents or copy them to a content or knowledge management system.

In some cases, customers were able to reduce the number of servers used for data mining significantly - in one case from 35 to just three.

The technology is gaining ground in science and medicine as well as in publishing. MarkLogic provides the technology behind with Wiley Custom Select, a custom publishing tool for academic course texts, and recently won a deal with Kopinor, which manages copyright for the publishing arms across Norway's universities.

Gartner, the research firm, argued in a recent report businesses should invest more in data management.

Google has announced four new measures to take on copyright infringers, including changes to how its search function works.

Firstly, Google has pledged to take action on "reliable copyright takedown requests" within 24 hours and will create tools to make the submission process easier.

The search giant will also alter its autocomplete function so it does not show up terms closely related to piracy.

Thirdly, Google said it would improve its AdSense anti-piracy review and would collaborate with rights holders to find and expel violators from the AdSense programme when the firm deems it appropriate.

Finally, Google will try to make authorised preview content "more readily accessible."

This could mean users would be presented with more sites previewing material within search results, such as songs or video, before they enter that website.

"As the web grows, and the number of requests grows with it, we are working to develop new ways to better address the underlying problem," said Kent Walker, Google's general counsel, in a blog post.

"We look forward to further refining and improving our processes in ways that help both rights holders and users."

Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, said the campaigning body would ask Google to explain how the copyright enforcement tools would work.

"Copyright owners have a right for infringing material to be taken down," Killock said.

"But there is a potential and very significant cost to freedom of speech if legitimate uses are impeded, such as quotation for news reporting or review, and automated procedures can be none-too-subtle."

Google itself has been accused of copyright infringement and is currently in a court case with Oracle.

The dispute is attempting to decide whether Google stole Oracle's copyrighted Java code when creating Android.

Google has called on the West to encourage a loosening of web restrictions in China and in other countries, warning such constraints may harm commercial interests in the offending nations.

In a policy brief seen by Reuters, Google said internet restrictions pose a threat to free trade and the situation will only worsen if Western nations do not step in.

"More than 40 governments now engage in broad-scale restriction of online information, a tenfold increase from just a decade ago," Google said.

"These actions unnecessarily restrict trade, and left unchecked, they will almost certainly get worse."

The move will potentially further exacerbate the rift between the US corporation and the emerging superpower.

Earlier this year, Google had threatened to leave China altogether over censorship issues and a hack attack on the search giant, which Google believed came from the Asian nation.

Following the initial spat, Google started rerouting Chinese users to its Hong Kong service for uncensored search results.

Despite anxieties about Google being forced out of the country, its ICP licence was renewed by the Chinese government in July.

Users who head to Google.cn now will have the choice of either going to Google.com.hk to carry out a normal web search or using a small number of services running on the Chinese version, such as music and text translate.

ANALYSIS Google is rapidly becoming the latest bte noir of the IT industry. Its quest to make access to information easier is giving privacy guardians many a sleepless night. The internet is becoming a cupboard where personal skeletons lurk and Google holds the key.

The company's chief executive (CEO) Eric Schmidt is well aware of the dangers, but seems to see this as someone else's problem. Last year, he told CNBC: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."

Schmidt is fond of giving quotes that makes the Google motto of "Don't be evil" sound like a warning to the world at large, rather than a rule for Google employees to live by.

His TV interview echoes the liberal ethos if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear, a tenet that has proved particularly unwise in repressive societies.

Even in the free world, an unguarded moment can have catastrophic repercussions. You meet an attractive someone in a bar who turns out to be all looks and no brain. A quick Tweet to friend saying, "I scored with some dope in the bar last night," taken out of context could label you as a potential drug fiend.

It is becoming common practice for HR departments to turn to the web and research job applicants in their final stage of selection. As time goes by, the growth of social messaging services is making this job easier.

The careless Tweet, therefore, could cost someone a job opportunity or present them with a glass ceiling to their promotion hopes. Even before social media appeared, people in high places found past misdemeanours came back to bite them. The internet has just democratised the process.

Ex-US president, Bill Clinton, narrowly escaped condemnation when he was accused of smoking a joint in his college days. He was only saved by his comically unfeasible answer: "I did but didn't inhale".

For many people, the teen-to-twenties stage of life is one of rebellion, tinged with naivety and boastfulness a heady but dangerous combination.

In later life, many of the exploits of youth are left behind, best forgotten. In the social media age, the indiscretions of youth are painted indelibly on messaging walls like well-tagged digital graffiti for all to see. And this will prove true throughout our lives. Just ask HP's disgraced CEO Mark Hurd.

Schmidt has been quoted saying he believes the digital society is teaching us two key lessons: "People can be falsely charged and be innocent," and "we'll all have to learn to live with an historical record".

Just this week in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he said: "I don't believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time."

He moved on to predict every young person will one day be entitled to automatically change their name on reaching adulthood in order to disown youthful high jinks stored on their friends' social media sites.

To paraphrase the World War Two poster: Careless talk costs livelihoods.

Yahoo snatched nearly a whole per cent out of search leader Google's market share lead for the month of July, according to analyst comScore.

The latest figures for the US market sees Yahoo with a 17.1 per cent share of the 15.6 billion searches logged during July, up from 16.7 per cent in June. Yahoo's gain is mirrored by Google's fall from 66.2 per cent to 65.8 per cent for the month.

Third-placed Bing from Microsoft remained steady on 11 per cent, effectively losing ground in its bid to close the gap on Yahoo.

For the first time, comScore's analysis restricted search results to what it calls "explicit core search", where users have actively sought results for a search term, and ignored contextual search, which delivers search results through the automated delivery of related content such as in a photo slideshow.

Both Yahoo and Bing had made what appeared to be significant gains over Google in recent months through contextual search methods.

The pair are also set to begin the process of transferring Yahoo's back-end search operations in the US and Canada from its own Search Monkey platform over to Bing this week as part of the 10-year agreement between Microsoft and Yahoo to share strategic resources to compete more competitively against Google.

"Keep an eye out for the 'Powered by Bing' indicator at the bottom of our search results page, which will indicate that you are viewing listings from Microsoft," Yahoo search product operations vice president Shashi Seth said in a blog post.

Yahoo claims it will retain control of how the results are presented, and promises to provide users with added-value contextual information customised to their preferences on top of the raw search data.

The full transition to Bing-powered search is expected to happen later this year, while Microsoft has agreed to provide Yahoo with the benefit of its exclusive global sales force for premium advertisers.

Social networking giant Facebook has made its first serious foray into the world of search with its Questions feature a social search tool that allows individuals to pose questions to other users on the site.

The feature sees an Ask Question' link added to users' homepages, which opens up an interface where users can type their query text, add a poll or upload a photo for added relevance.

Once posted, the question will be accessible to anyone on the internet, though users can target groups more specifically by tagging their question with a topic.

At present, the feature is being trialled by a select group of Facebook users, with the intention to roll the facility out to the entire user base in the coming months.

With Facebook's member count now standing at upwards of 500 million, the move to start leveraging those numbers through the likes of search has been seen as all but inevitable.

However, the service as it stands is less a threat to the likes of Google as it is to targeted search sites such as Yahoo Answers and Ask Jeeves.

Facebook director of product management, Blake Ross, wrote on the Facebook blog: "Facebook Questions helps you tap into the collective knowledge of the more than 500 million people on Facebook."

"For example, if you're vacationing in Costa Rica and want to know the best places to surf, you can use Facebook Questions to get answers from nearby surfing enthusiasts. Because questions will also appear to your friends and their friends, you'll receive answers that are more personalised to you."

He went on to explain using the topic-tagging facility meant over time users would be able to browse an ever-increasing knowledge base of information on topics of interest to them.

Tagging themes also help others benefit from the knowledge of everyone on Facebook. For instance, if you've always wanted to learn more about cooking, politics or even how to train for a marathon, Facebook Questions lets you see what others are asking about those subjects, Ross wrote.

It will go head-to-head with other services such as Yahoo Answers, Twitter and search engines such as ask.com.

Microsoft's Bing will be the only default search engine on all Windows Phone 7 handsets when they appear later this year with rival search products only available through app downloads.

Despite its chief rivals iPhone OS 4.0 and Android appearing to go in the opposite direction by opening up their handsets to multiple search options, Microsoft has decided to go the other way and lock down handsets to its own search product only, even for OEMs.

Explaining the decision, Microsoft senior product manager Greg Sullivan told technology site Pocket-Lint that because "the search engine has been heavily integrated into the OS... it would be hard to offer an alternative".

It was previously thought that while Bing was always likely to be the default search choice on Windows Phone 7 devices, there would at least be some flexibility in being able to change it.

That's the approach taken by Google with Android, with handset makers and carriers able to substitute or add other search products instead of the default Google search engine before releasing devices to consumers.

Apple, meanwhile, allows consumers to choose between Google, Yahoo and Bing as the default search choice on products running its iPhone OS 4.0 operating system to Yahoo and Bing alongside the existing Google offering.

Sullivan went on to elaborate that the Bing integration was heavily linked to the Tell Me feature in Windows Phone 7 a voice-command system along the lines of Apple's Voice Control or Google's voice recognition system on the Nexus One.

Tell Me will allow users to control their handsets extensively through vocal commands, and search the internet using Bing. Sullivan confirmed that alternative search providers would be free to submit apps or hubs for Windows Phone 7, though wasn't saying if they would be able to integrate with Tell Me on any level.

The latest comScore figures show Bing with a 12.7 per cent share of the search market, some six per cent adrift of Yahoo and well short of Google's near-two thirds market majority.

Google has given its search engine a major speed boost with Caffeine, a new indexing system that it claims delivers search results "up to 50 per cent fresher".

In development for around a year, Caffeine doesn't affect how search results look, but it completely changes how they work, with Google saying the switch to the new system opens up the "largest collection of web content we've offered".

Google first lifted the lid on the Caffeine project in August last year, calling the set of under-the-hood tweaks "the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions".

In rolling out the technology to its live search engine, Google has now revealed more on how exactly it is going about that process. Key to the increase in speed and "freshness" is a removal of the linear process of updating search results in layers. With Caffeine, the updating process is far more dynamic, with content being added continually.

"To refresh a layer of the old index, we would analyse the entire web, which meant there was a significant delay between when we found a page and made it available to you," Google software engineer Carrie Grimes explained. "With Caffeine, we analyse the web in small portions and update our search index on a continuous basis, globally. As we find new pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these straight to the index."

What this means in practical terms is that real-time feeds and updates an increasingly important part of Google's search strategy can be better integrated into search results from the likes of blogs and social networks.

While Google's hold on the search engine market remains a strong one it still holds a near-85 per cent global share it has seen Microsoft's Bing take up the slack from many of its rivals to become an increasingly strong rival, largely on the size and comprehensiveness of its search index.

Whether Google's speed claims are borne out will only become clear in time social news blog Mashable claims side-by-side tests showed negligible differences between old and new systems. One clear difference the site did point out was in how SEO rules were implemented.

"SEO professionals, your job just got a lot harder," Mashable says. "The algorithm's definitely different. It has more reliance on keyword strings to produce better results."

Google says it will continue to update its search engine in the coming months.

BP has bought up oil spill-related search terms as the environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico nears its tenth week.

Anyone attempting to find out more information on the leak by typing "oil spill" or "oil disaster" into Google, for example, will be faced not by the strongly worded rebuke from US president Barack Obama over the company's handling of the disaster, or details of the devastating environmental impact it is having, but instead a link to a page on the BP website alongside the message "learn more about how BP is helping".

The company has bought the top ad space for a number of spill-related search terms on not just Google but Bing and Yahoo too, which between them hold a near-universal majority of the global search market. The practice is believed to be costing BP as much as $10,000 per day.

The BP page contains details on the measures BP is taking to counter the damage, including links to the press releases and video clips from top BP executives.

Spokesman Toby Odone told ABC News that buying search terms simply made it easier for the company to share news about its efforts in the Gulf amid the overwhelming attention currently being focused on the subject.

He added that the page also helped those looking for information on filing claims against the company, reporting oil on the beach and signing up to volunteer.

In many ways buying up search terms is the digital equivalent of a company taking out a full page advert in a newspaper to print a letter of apology.

But however understandable or well-meaning BP's online charm offensive is, it's not having the desired effect. Indeed, with one of the world's worst ecological disasters in history close to entering its third month, objections are likely to be as much about the move's timing as its ethics.

The ads have already been met with a barrage of criticism across the various Twitter groups set up in opposition to BP's handling of the situation. Spoof feed BPGlobalPR, with around 150,000 followers, mocked: "We're paying Google a lot of money to make sure you only have access to the best possible info on the oil spill: our info."

Earlier this week US president Barack Obama said he was looking for some "ass to kick" over an environmental disaster that has left 20,000 barrels of oil gushing out of the well each day since it was damaged in late April.

MEPs are backing a controversial ruling that would make search engines store details of all web searches in order to track child abusers.

Written Declaration 29, which was formed by two MEPs in the European Union as an "early warning system" against paedophiles and sex offenders, would require the likes of Google and Bing to keep track of search terms for even longer than the two years currently required.

It has gained support of 324 MEPs and only needs 45 more to enforce an examination by the European Commission.

The new declaration has drawn criticism from civil liberties groups, questioning the impact it will have on privacy.

"It is not acceptable or appropriate to dissolve the fundamental right to privacy on the basis of an utterly incoherent argument that it will protect our children - when clearly it will ultimately fail to meet such a mandate," said Privacy International in a statement.

"Our representatives should focus on solutions that are credible and viable rather than supporting ideas that we might have expected from North Korea."

This latest move from MEPs is contradicts to one made two weeks ago by the EU's Article 29 Data Protection Working Party.

The party's chairman, Jacob Kohnstamm, wrote a letter to Google, Microsoft and Yahoo telling them to cut down the time they held IP addresses from search terms from nine to six months, due to privacy concerns.

He wrote: "Fair and lawful processing of personal data by search engines is becoming more and more crucial due to the explosion and proliferation of audiovisual data (digital images, audio and video content) and the increasing use of geolocation on the internet."

"Given the predominant role of the Google search engine in the daily lives of all citizens of the European information society, the apparent lack of focus on privacy in this area is concerning."

Google responded by saying its current policy provided "the best experience for users both in terms of respect for their privacy and the quality and security of our services," whilst Microsoft said it was happy to adhere to the party's recommendation.