Yahoo has always seemed like such a nice place. The sort of place where, if you happened upon it by chance, the inhabitants would sit you down, give you a cup of tea and a cookie, and ask you what brought you to its parts. They’d even ask you how to pronounce your name. So [...]

Google is experimenting with a search results box that inserts major brands atop regular search results for product-related queries. They’re not ads, and they’re not regular search results. Search Engine Land spotted the branded results, which I was able to reproduce for several queries including “digital cameras,” “notebook PCs,” “cars,” and “mobile phones.” In each [...]

Google is teaming up with a service provider for user-generated product reviews to add those reviews to search results and ads. Bazaarvoice, a start-up that counts major shopping sites like Macy’s and Best Buy among its clients, announced Wednesday that it has struck a partnership with Google to allow its roster of clients in the [...]

Google is rebranding its Google Maps listing service for local businesses as it continues to try to organize–as well as sell ads against–a seemingly inexhaustible supply of local search results. Google’s Local Business Center will henceforth be known as Google Places, the search giant plans to announce late Monday. All in all, it’s mostly just [...]

Google has published a detailed, 49-page report that rates the search engine optimization (SEO) on its various properties including the Google search home page. The result? It’s failing in a number of categories. On the bright side, the company says it plans to use this information to better its own SEO, and that to help [...]

More tweaks are on the way for Google Buzz amid reports that the company is considering building a Gmail-free version. In response to the angry missive directed Google’s way Thursday by blogger Harriet Jacobs, Google has made additional changes to the way Buzz interacts with Google Reader, according to Silicon Alley Insider. Buzz users who [...]

Google isn’t marching into consumer electronics; it’s tentatively dipping its toes. When word of the Nexus One smartphone broke, the consensus was that Google was about to challenge Apple for the high end of the mobile phone market. One month after its launch, it’s clear that an awful lot will have to change before Google [...]

How has Apple’s launch of the iPad made other companies feel? Has it brought sneaking admiration or steaming ire? I fear that Google might not be leaping for joy like leprechauns.

People behind the China-based online attacks of Google and other companies looked up key employees on social networks and contacted them pretending to be their friends to get the workers to click on links leading to malware, according to a published report on Monday. “The most significant discovery is that the attackers had selected employees [...]

Some of you who have been basking in the beauty of your new Nexus One Googlephone may not have tried out all of its delightful features. And what I am about to tell you may lead you to utter some naughty words. Please, go ahead. I have heard them all, in several different languages. And [...]