Google Is Experimenting With Special Ranking For Mobile-Friendly Sites

Google already penalizes sites that provide a bad experience to mobile searchers. Now the company has confirmed that it’s testing with what seems like a boost for those providing a great experience. Google said today that it is experimenting with giving sites that have earned its…

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Another Court Affirms Google’s First Amendment Control Of Search Results

Europe and the US continue to drift further apart on Google. Even as European parliamentarians and regulators seek ways to restrain Google’s discretion over search results, US courts continue to affirm Google’s right to do whatever it wants with search results — paid and organic….

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Target App Now Features In-Store Product Search And Inventory Maps

Just in time for the frenzied holiday shopping season Target is introducing product inventory search into its mobile app. The functionality is powered by PointInside but doesn’t rely on beacons or other indoor location technologies. Following a 40-store trial earlier this year, PointInside…

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French Court Trying To Impose Right-To-Be-Forgotten Decision On Google Worldwide

Google is facing daily fines of €1,000 in France, under a punitive ruling tied to the Right-to-Be-Forgotten (RTBF), unless it removes links to an article from its index globally, according to The Guardian. Several politicians in Europe have recently suggested that the RTBF should extend to all…

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Google Debuts New Look For Hotel Booking Ads As The Carousel Disappears

The grand, awkward Carousel experiment appears to be coming to an end — for local listings at least. Google is abandoning the Carousel of horizontal listings that appeared at the top of local search results for hotels, restaurants and a few other verticals. With the changes, Google is now…

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Google Drops Local Carousel For Hotels, Restaurants & Other Local Listings

Google is dropping its horizontal Carousel display of local search results in several categories: restaurants, nightlife, entertainment and hotels. It’s being replaced by a 3-pack of organic listings and some new secondary pages. The Local Carousel rolled out in June, 2013 for the PC in the…

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Facebook Launches New Places Directory

Facebook has launched a new Places Directory, which is really an emerging local search site. Right now, it’s more accurately like “guided browsing.” It was first brought to our attention by Matteo Gamba. The new Places mixes up Graph Search, the Page Locations API and other…

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Facebook Launches New Places Directory

Facebook has launched a new Places Directory, which is really an emerging local search site. Right now, it’s more accurately like “guided browsing.” It was first brought to our attention by Matteo Gamba. The new Places mixes up Graph Search, the Page Locations API and other…

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

In A Big Shift, Google’s Latest Ad Test Drives Users To Google Shopping, Not Advertisers’ Sites

Google is experimenting with a new format for Google Shopping ads, this time on brand searches. The example shown above showcases products from jeweler David Yurman by category — rings, bracelets, necklaces and earrings — on a search for the brand. This screen shot was sent to Search…

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MapQuest Brings Roadside Assistance Service To Mobile App

MapQuest has integrated “Uber for roadside assistance” service Urgent.ly into its updated app. What this means is that consumers are able to summon a tow truck or other service provider directly through the app. Roadside assistance through MaqQuest is available 24 hours a day. Service…

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DuckDuckGo Added To Firefox As Part Of Enhanced Privacy Options

Firefox is celebrating its 10th anniversary. A new version of the browser includes two new privacy features. The first is the availability of DuckDuckGo as a new pre-installed search engine choice. The second is a “forget” feature that allows users to delete recent history. Forget…

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Pinterest Evolving Into A Personalized Search Substitute

This evening, at its San Francisco headquarters, Pinterest hosted a talk and Q&A session with the company’s head of engineering, Michael Lopp. No one from Search Engine Land was able to attend on short notice; however the company shared a number of updated stats. Much more than a…

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Sweden The Latest To Consider Google “Link Tax” For Newspapers

A member of the Swedish parliament, Niclas Malmberg, wants Google to help fund Swedish news publications along the lines of the French model established last year. Threatened with a “link tax,” Google agreed “to create a €60 million Digital Publishing Innovation Fund to help…

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Apple Webcrawler: More Potential Evidence Of Search Ambitions

Apple Insider reports on the discovery of a web-crawling bot originating from Apple’s servers. It was first “outed” by developer Jan Moesen. This is what Moesen saw: Moesen reports that the bot is only crawling HTML, “not the CSS, JavaScript or image files.” Then he…

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Bing: It’s Unlikely That We’ll Take Search Share Away From Google

Microsoft’s Director of Search admitted this week that Bing isn’t likely to put a significant dent in Google’s search market share. Stefan Weitz appeared Tuesday at the Web Summit conference in Ireland, where he told attendees that Bing instead wants to focus on making its search…

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German Publisher Axel Springer: Loss Of Snippets Caused 80 Percent Traffic Drop

Axel Springer, Germany’s largest publisher and the owner of Europe’s largest newspaper, has said it wants back in to snippets. According to Reuters the German publishing giant revealed that traffic to its four largest online properties from Google search results “had fallen by 40…

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Google Redesigns Maps, Adds OpenTable Reservations, Uber Estimates

Google continues to evolve its Maps for mobile. It has gone well beyond the rudimentary local search and navigation product it once was and become an increasingly sophisticated local discovery tool with and array of content types and improved functionality. Now Google has made Maps more…

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Google: We Acted Quickly On RTBF Requests To Avoid Litigation

Although there was little guidance on how to handle “Right To Be Forgotten” (RTBF) requests, Google’s PR Chief in Europe says the company acted quickly to process those requests and remove some URLs out of a fear of being sued. Peter Barron, the head of Google’s European…

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Walmart Brings Product Search To The In-Store Experience

Walmart has updated its Android app (and soon iOS app) to offer an improved in-store experience with search at the center. The new Walmart “Search My Store” feature offers a view into the future of in-store app usage. The combination of real-time online inventory and indoor location is…

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