Guess Who Is 15 Years Old Today: Happy Birthday, Google

The world’s most popular search engine turns 15 years old today. Started in 1998 by Stanford PhD students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google has grown to be the leader in search, owning more than 70 percent of the worldwide desktop search market share. To celebrate its 15th birthday,…

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Google Reveals “Hummingbird” Search Algorithm, Other Changes At 15th Birthday Event

At a special event in the garage where Google was born, the company announced a new “Hummingbird” search algorithm is live and especially designed to handle complex queries. Google also announced a new design for tablets and phones, richer direct answers with comparison, a new song…

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For Google’s 15th Birthday, Search “Google In 1998″ For A Flashback

Google turns 15 this week — celebrating its official birthday on Friday. But it already is gearing up for the celebrations with a special easter egg. Search for “google in 1998,” and you’ll see how Google used to look back then, in the year of its birth. The head of…

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Bing’s Page Zero Offers Deep Links & Shortcuts To Relevant Information Straight From The Search Box

Today, Bing released a detailed overview of its Page Zero experience, a new search feature that delivers deep links directly from the search box with shortcuts to relevant information associated with the search term. According to the announcement, the new feature gives “best”…

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When It Comes To Google, Microsoft’s Ballmer Is Still Fighting Old Battles With Old Tactics

I’ve watched Microsoft fight Google in search for a very long time. Bing has come a long way, and I’ve been pleased to see a strong competitor emerge. But Microsoft hasn’t actually hurt Google’s share. It’s only robbed from its partner, Yahoo. So how’s Microsoft…

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Lily Collins: 2013′s Most Dangerous Celebrity To Search For

Move over Emma Watson. Actress Lily Collins has taken the title as 2013′s most dangerous celebrity to search for online. McAfee, the security technology company, is out with its seventh annual most dangerous celebrities survey, which uses the company’s SiteAdvisor site ratings to…

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Léon Foucault Honored With A Google Logo To Mark His 194th Birthday

Today’s Google logo is an interactive image of Foucault’s Pendulum, a device created by French physicist Léon Foucault who was born on this date 194 years ago in Paris, France. The Foucault Pendulum was the first experimental demonstration of the Earth’s rotation on its axis….

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Google Logo Celebrates Hull House Founder & Nobel Peace Prize Winner Jane Addams

Today’s Google logo celebrates Jane Addams, a woman of many disciplines, including social worker, peace activist, settlement house founder, suffragist and author. Included in her extensive list of accomplishments, Addams was the first American woman awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. The Google…

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Google Maps Launches Ground Truth Initiative In Russia & Hong Kong

Google Maps announced new updates to their Russia and Hong Kong maps today, launching a “Ground Truth” initiative to build more thorough maps for Hong Kong and a number of Russian cities, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg. According to Google’s…

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Google Recognizes 50th Anniversary Of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” Speech

Today’s Google logo is a tribute to Martin Luther Kings Jr.’s historic “I Have a Dream Speech” that was given on August 28, 1963 to a crowd of 250,000 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. King’s speech was a call for racial justice and harmony, and became a defining…

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Chrome Getting Closer To Releasing New Tab Page

It looks like Chrome’s New Tab Page (NTP) may be available to everyone soon. While an experimental version was launched last December to a small selection of users, Chrome announced yesterday that they are continuing to test the new feature, and extending the number of beta users. In their…

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Bing: Here’s 7 Ways Our Image Search Is Better Than Google

Microsoft’s Meenaz Merchant, Senior Program Manager at Bing, posted a behind the scenes look at why Bing is a better image search engine than Google. Here are the seven examples on scenarios on why Bing is better than Google with image search, as described on the Bing blog. (1) Entity…

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Starting Today Bing For Schools Is Giving More Than 800,000 Students An Ad-Free Search Experience

Bing For Schools officially launched today, a program created by Bing to promote digital literacy to students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The  program was initially announced in June, inviting school administrators to register for the free service that gives participating schools ad-free…

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Bing Asks Users To Submit Photos For Their Hometown Homepage Photo Contest

In partnership with Discovery Communications, Bing is honoring World Photography Day with a Hometown Homepage Photo Contest. According to the announcement, Bing wants, “Images that highlight and capture the beauty of your hometown.” Starting today through September 3, Bing is asking…

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Google Brings More “Now” To Search With New Quick Answers

Google is bringing more of the capabilities of Google Now to the search box and providing a range of personalized “quick answers” regardless of platform. These new search capabilities focus on “travel and logistics” use cases: reservations, flights, package tracking and…

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Google Pays Homage To Nobel Prize Winning Physicist Erwin Schrödinger

Today’s Google logo marks the 126th birthday of Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger. Awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1933 while at the University of Oxford in England, Schrödinger is considered a founding father of quantum physics. Google’s logo honors Schrödinger by highlighting…

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Bing: We Added A Border To Our Ads To Make Them More Visible

In response to our post yesterday about the often-invisible background shading on ads in the search engine results, Derrick Connel, Corporate Vice President of Bing Program Management at Microsoft, followed up with Danny Sullivan on Facebook to say: As a small comment on Bing — the ads have 2…

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The Great Fade Out? How The Search Engines Stack Up On Ad Backgrounds In SERPs

A few weeks ago, Barry Schwartz reported that Yahoo was testing ad background colors – a pale green instead of pale blue. The search engines frequently test ad background colors in the SERPs. Google has tested blue, green, purple, and yellow variations.  What struck me in looking at the Yahoo…

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