Less than 48 hours after news of the killing of Osama bin Laden, related searches are still trending on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Details of bin Laden’s death, news coverage, and even conspiracy theories have dominated on the search engines. Here’s a roundup.
Google Trends
Geronimo — the code name of the Navy SEAL operation that killed bin Laden — was the top search on Google earlier today, and remains on the list at fourth as if this writing. Jon Stewart checked in on the hot searches at number 13, likely related to his “To Kill a Mockingturd” coverage from last night.
Yahoo, which announced plans to anonymize search logs, page views, page clicks, ad views, and ad click data it collected after 90 days in 2008, is reversing course and plans to begin storing search logs for 18 months — as well as potentially storing other types of user information for longer periods of time. After notifying users, Yahoo says this new policy will be in effect sometime after mid-July.
The move at the time set Yahoo apart from Google and Microsoft, which both retained records for 18 months. Yahoo’s self-regulation action, which saw the company reduce the length of time it kept raw data from 13 months to three months, was in part prompted by growing privacy concerns.
The Italian court had recently “found that Yahoo was liable for contributory copyright infringement for listing links to websites that hosted the film “About Elly” by director Asghar Farhadi.” PCWorld reported. But Yahoo has stated they will appeal the decision.
and won’t remove the links unless the company loses the case.
The Italian courts seem to be chasing the search engines out of their country. As we reported yesterday:
Google and Yahoo have felt the sting of the Italian courts recently and the numerous problems the engines seem to be having in the country almost suggests search engines are not welcome. Or maybe the search engines will just decide the effort is not worth the return and filter Italy like Google did to the search results in China.
Google was found liable for defamation of a person from their autocomplete – which is a reflection of what people are searching for, but as the case stated, Google had already filtered the autocomplete for copyright terms – so the court determined they could filter these too.
So Yahoo is still in search. We found that out last week as they hyped the arrival of their latest search “innovation” that they call Search Direct. Or, as Yahoo puts it: a “simpler way to find answers fast” and the “first fundamental shift in search in more than a decade.”
Guess it depends what the questions are, and which search company you’re referring to.
And to get it out of the way, Yahoo Search Direct is not like Google Instant. Yahoo even tells us so in a blog post.
Meet Yahoo Search Direct
Beverly Stayart is now 0-3 trying to sue search engines for vanity search results. Last week her case against Google for the search suggestion [bev stayart levitra] was dismissed in U.S. District Court – Eastern District of Wisconsin.
According to Eric Goldman:
The court rejects Stayart’s publicity rights claim because she didn’t show her name has any commercial value or that Google made any use of it (commercial or not). Instead, “Google enables internet users to access publically available materials connected to plaintiff’s name.” The court also says Google isn’t impermissibly selling the phrase “bev stayart levitra” because clearly any resulting ads are broad-matched to “levitra.”
Bing overtook Yahoo globally for the first time in January, and further expanded its lead in February, StatCounter announced today.
While Bing hit 4.37 percent and Yahoo dropped to 3.93 percent, Google still dominates worldwide with 89.94 percent of the search engine market share, the web analytics company reported. Google dipped below 90 percent globally for the first time since August 2009.
In the U.S., Yahoo is clinging to its lead on Bing (9.74 vs. 9.03 percent), well behind Google’s 79.63 percent.
Bing powers Yahoo search in the U.S. Canada, Australia, Brazil and Mexico.
It’s that time of year again! The lists are out and the voting has begun.
No, I’m not talking about the Academy, I’m talking about the search engines. For the past few years, speculation about Oscar winners and search trends have grown.
Last year, Google noted all the hot search trends that occurred during the annual awards show. This year, Google created an entire Oscar Search Trends Web site to help people track the would-be winners.
But Google isn’t the only one. Yahoo has their own Academy Awards search trend list. While it’s not based on search trends, Yahoo offers a predicted winners site of their own based on Yahoo user input.
After announcing what they called the sunset of various properties, Yahoo today announced the end date of MyBlogLog is May 24, 2011 and recommended users move to Yahoo Pulse.
Yahoo made the announcement to its users via an email to their user base and by a giant yellow notice at the top of users’ profiles. Those who paid for premium services will no longer be charged “after May 24, 2011″ and Yahoo will refund “the unused portion of your subscription, if any.”
Interestingly enough, it is still possible to create a new MyBlogLog account.
Not to be outdone by Rupert Murdoch’s The Daily, Yahoo is launching Livestand, “a digital newsstand that continually offers new content to consumers, based on their interests,” the Yahoo News Center reported.
Slated for release in the first half of 2011, and “launching first for tablets, Livestand from Yahoo! will enable publishers and advertisers to seamlessly distribute content across tablets and mobile phones in an experience that is elegant and personalized to the individual.”
Livestand from Yahoo! offers consumers, publishers, and advertisers these benefits:
