Search engines

Google honours Sesame Street with doodle

Google has put up another "Doodle" on its homepage above the iconic search box, depicting both Cookie Monster and Big Bird - depending on where in the world you're located.

Clicking the image links through to a search for Sesame Street, marking the 40th anniversary...

Google doodle celebrates Wallace & Gromit's birthday

Google has posted another of its infamous homepage "doodles" today celebrating the birthday of Wallace and Gromit.

Created by Nick Park, it seems the plasticine pair debuted on this day back in 1989 at an animation festival in Bristol.

20 years...

VIDEO: Google search by voice launches for Nokia S60 phones

Google has announced its search by voice service is available as a free download for Nokia S60 phones such as Nseries or Eseries handsets.

Google explains: "The new version of Google Mobile App places a shortcut to Google search on your Nokia phone's home...

Who'll be the casualties of Google Music?

Not content with crashing down hard on the satnav industry yesterday, today Google put the willies up the music industry too with the launch of a Google music search feature. Just before you go diving off to try it, it's only available in the US at the moment, but so...

VIDEO: Google demos Music Search

In response to the millions of search queries about music that Google gets every day it has beefed up its music search service.

Users can now use Google to find tracks by searching artist, song title and even lyrics with links to online retailers to buy.

While...

Google adds music search; foretells the death of another industry

Google has added music search to its growing search offering as it attempts to help people find what they are looking for quicker.

"Every day we get millions of search queries about music. You want to know more about your favorite artists, find that new album...

Google "Similar Images" becomes permanent feature

Google has announced that its Similar Images feature "is graduating from Google Labs" and becoming a permanent feature in Google Images.

Designed to help narrow down image search results for more successful searches, one example given for how Similar Images...

VIDEO: Google demos Social Search

Google's new "Social Search" Labs feature that looks to your contacts for relevant results during searches is being rolled out now. You'll find a neat demo video above that does a good job of explaining the changes, while Google says:

"Your friends and contacts...

Google Social Search brings your friends to the search engine

While Google waits to implement Twitter search functionality into its organic search it is testing yet another social element; Social Search.

The new offering, which will launch in Google Labs shortly, promises to allow users to see results for queries from people...

Twitter comes to Bing

Microsoft's digital head Qi Lu has confirmed, as rumoured earlier today, that it has signed a non-exclusive deal with Twitter and Facebook to provide status updates to its Bing search engine.

The two new services will allow users to use Bing to search tweets in...

Twitter and Facebook Status updates coming to Bing

Microsoft is about to sign up both Twitter and Facebook in a non-exclusive deal to help improve the Bing search engine.

The deal, which will see both sites integrate their real-time feed of status updates into the Bing search engine is, if true, expected to give...

Wolfram Alpha announces Webservice API

Computational knowledge engine Wolfram Alpha has announced the launch of the Wolfram Alpha Webservice API.

The paid-for release will mean that developers can now stick Wolfram Alpha results and data into websites and online publishing, desktop applications,...

Twitter in talks with Microsoft, Google

It's being reported that Twitter is currently in mega-money talks with Microsoft and Google, discussing using Twitter content in searches separately with each search giant.

All Things D reports: "According to sources familiar with the situation - Twitter is...

VIDEO: Yahoo's Y!ou goes live

Yahoo's new Y!ou branding has gone live and brings with it a new TV campaign from the online company. One of those global village type efforts that Microsoft went through a phase of producing, showing how big and diverse the world is, but how you - yes y!ou - can personalise...

Google makes real-time move with Hot Trends

In the States and in Japan, Google users can take advantage of a new Google search feature that the search engine says "will help you stay in touch with the latest trends on the web".

Google's "Hot Trends", which lists the fastest rising searches on the web...

Googlle celebrates 11th birthday

As is its custom, search engine giant Google has celebrated its birthday by altering its home page with a special design.

On 27 September, users landing on the site would have seen Google spelled with two "ls" to signify the anniversary.

The celebration...

Bing takes 10% of US search market

Microsoft's Bing search engine has taken 10% of the US search market since it launched in May. Latest stats released by Nielsen suggest that Google is still growing, though, and that Bing is cannibalising other small search engines.

The big G's share of search...

Bing visual search declares war on Cooliris

Bing, Microsoft's search engine, has demoed a new "Visual search" tool which it hopes will help people find what they are looking for even when they are lost for the right words.

Called Visual Search, the new service allows you to "formulate and refine your...

Which search engine is top of the pile?

With the news earlier of Google's improvements to its search engine, we thought it best to put it through its paces up against the rival pack in the shape of the current Google, Microsoft's Bing, Mr Wolfram's Wolfram Alpha, Facebook's new search offering and the real-time...

Google Caffeine: New version of Google search inbound

Google has announced that it has been working on a "secret project" to improve the company's core product: its search engine.

"The new infrastructure sits "under the hood" of Google's search engine, which means that most users won't notice a difference in search...

COMMENT: Microsoft will swallow Yahoo in the end

The deal is done, Microsoft and Yahoo have finally created a merger of sorts, but what does it really mean?

While the business press will claim that someone has sold out to someone else and the markets will probably dip because no hard cash has actually been...

VIDEO: Microsoft and Yahoo announce search deal

Microsoft and Yahoo have finally announced an agreement that will see the two giants team up against Google on web and search.

"In simple terms" the companies say Microsoft will now power Yahoo search via Bing, while Yahoo will become the exclusive worldwide...

Microsoft launches "Page Hunt" game

Microsoft has announced a little game that it's created to try and improve the search results on its Google competitor Bing. It's called Page Hunt, and asks you to guess what searches would lead you to a displayed page.

If the query you search for has the website...

Wolfram Alpha offers Morse code translation

Computational knowledge engine Wolfram Alpha has added another string to its bow with the news it can now "translate" Morse code.

In a blog post, the site says: "Although Morse code is no longer used for mainstream communication, many people continue to tap...

Google Creative Commons images search has major problems

Google's recently launched tool on its image search that identifies images and can be re-used for free under the Creative Commons (and similar) licence appears to be grossly inaccurate.

The search engine is currently returning image results of many obviously...