Bing

Google takes flight software company

Google enters yet another information space, picking up Cambridge, Massachusetts-based flight booking software company ITA.

Announced on the Official Google Blog, the $700 million deal will give Google (GOOG) access to the back end of many of the bigger flight search engines that power web travel search around the web.

ITA's software powers major booking engines like Orbitz, Kayak and Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing amongst many others.

Clearly, there will be some regulatory issues to overcome.

Google MORE

Google's next search foe: Facebook

Facebook's search engine is now venturing beyond the walled gardens of Facebook.com to the greater web.  Will its user-generated results give it an advantage over Google?

AllFacebook is reporting that Facebook is now displaying some 'outside' webpages with in its Facebook search results.  For instance, if you Search for the Annapolis Marriott hotel in Facebook, one of the results is the TripAdvisor page which has been favorited by five 'Facebookers.'

To make matters worse MORE

Bill Gates' very full life after Microsoft

How does the world's most famous entrepreneur now fill his days? Saving the world, helping startups -- and dropping kids off at school.

By Brent Schlender, contributor

When Bill Gates formally stepped away from an active role at Microsoft (MSFT) in July of 2008,  he also hung up his golf clubs. His explanation was as simple as it was revealing: "It takes up too much time to get any good at MORE

Google celebrates 'Bing day' (updated)

For today only (update: they've killed it early!), Google is implanting a default background on its search page to make users aware this new 'feature'.

Google, I get it.  You want people to know that you can do a background image on your search page just as well as Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing.  Got it.

Now how do I turn it off?

The 'remove background link' in the lower left hand corner just changes MORE

Google 'caffeinates' its search engine

Google updates it bread and butter product with a new data gathering front end that updates far more frequently.

For those of us who played with the Caffeine Search engine that Google beta tested last year, today's news isn't wholly unexpected.  The Beta program was a new search engine, dubbed Caffeine, which constantly reindexes the web rather than doing it a bi-weekly intervals.  This led to more, more recent and more relevant results.

Inexplicably, Google closed MORE

Bing-ify your Google Search page with wallpaper

For those who like to personalize your search page with background images, Google now gives you the option.

In a post by Marissa Mayer on the Official Google Blog, Google (GOOG) says that over the next few days users will see an option on lower left hand side of their Google.com page giving them the option of using pictures as backgrounds.  Users will be able to upload from their computers or MORE

Yahoo! gooses search share with slideshow trick

Taken at face value, it appears that Yahoo increased its search market share last month. However there is some trickery involved.

Yahoo has changed its gallery sites to "search for" images rather than just browse them as they had before.  In doing so, Yahoo's comScore numbers went up significantly last month; Google's went down.

Notice in the image below the navigation items now become "searches."

10 Apple vs. Google battles to watch for

Silicon Alley Insider peers into the future and sees nothing but conflict

Google and Apple have already butted heads, first in mobile phones with Google's (GOOG) release of the Nexus One, then in online advertising with Apple's (AAPL) announcement of the iAd platform.

But those conflicts are just a prelude to bigger brawls to come, says Silicon Alley Insider's Jay Yarow. In a slideshow posted Wednesday, he ticks off what he sees MORE

Could mobile search be Bing's big breakthrough?

Google dominates search on the Web, but on mobile phones -- where distribution matters and where the lessons of Google's ways are well understood -- Microsoft just might have an edge.

The escalating rivalry between Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL) might be the best thing that happens to Bing this year. Microsoft's  little decision-engine-that-can has yet to make much headway on mobile browsers. Ever since the iPhone launched with MORE

Why Bing Loves Farmville

Microsoft learns a lesson on how to win Facebook fans and influence people

Bing may have a much smaller share of the search market than Google (GOOG), but it now has more fans on Faceboook. After offering Farmville players free currency in exchange for becoming Facebook fans last Tuesday, Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing page gained 425,000 fans, more than tripling its fan base.

The early success of the campaign, which was designed MORE