Retailers got a taste of the power of Google this month, as the search site changed the way it combs through the Web, knocking some companies in its rankings – and in the wallet. Google’s November update tries to crack down on some ways that companies game the search engine – for example, by embedding [...]

Microsoft is experimenting with different search technologies that will, among other tasks, conduct Google-like searches on an individual’s hard drive or categorize query results in different ways intended to make the data easier to digest. In many ways, the research seems geared toward finding a user interface for the storage and database functions in Longhorn, [...]

Barry Lloyd explores the new Google Update (which he dubs “Florida”) and why some sites have been dropped from their multi-year rankings: With the huge number of postings on all the various forums, concerning this update, most people don’t know where to start looking for information about the recent Google update. The following is an [...]

In a independent study of millions of visits to Web sites selling consumer electronics and gift items, WebSideStory, Inc. ( www.WebSideStory.com ), today announced that from May-October 2003, visitors from CNET.com’s search engine had the best visit-to-order conversion ratio. CNET’s conversion ratio was 28% higher than the conversion rate from the next most efficient search [...]

An upcoming cover story in FORTUNE magazine reveals internal disarray at Google, and raises troubling questions about the company’s future. The story comes out as talk continues to swirl about Google’s expected IPO next spring, which could raise as much as $2 billion. The story, “Can Google Grow Up?” appears in the December 8 issue [...]

Google recently introduced a new keyword phrase filter during its most recent update. Some phrases were unchanged, but many highly optimized and highly competitive phrases were drastically altered. Some webmasters saw their sites drop from top listings to not being in the top 1,000 sites. Unlike other filters, this spam penalty does not affect a [...]