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A-Google-a-Day quiz includes a helpful tool

The introduction of the Google game also adds a search tool to the Googler's arsenal.

Yesterday, Google (GOOG) introduced "A Google A Day" –a game that produces a question a day and encourages users to solve the puzzle using Google's search engine.  I'm not a crossword puzzle type but I imagine some people find this interesting.  Obviously, it encourages people to use Google's search engine -which is clearly beneficial to Google both in MORE

Google's Admob turns to Adsense

Keeping it all in the Google ad family...

Today, Google (GOOG) is sending some of its Admob mobile app developers some good news.  The search giant will start placing Adsense ads inside of  apps that use Google's Admob advertising.  That means fill rate will skyrocket toward 100% and developers will get paid much more, across the board.

The move may also pull some of Apple's (AAPL) iAds user-developers away, especially those who MORE

Google Instant previews going mobile

In November, Google introduced the ability to preview web pages within the search results to the desktop.  Now they've gone mobile.

Some mobile users are now seeing the ability to view those visual search results on their mobile devices.  Below is a screenshot of how it works.

Clicking on the magnifying glass to the right of the results brings up a new browser window which allows you to navigate visually the search MORE

Is Google really interested in ridding its results of spam?

Spam sites are mostly benefiting from Adsense advertising...and so is Google.

Today, Google's (GOOG)  Matt Cutts blogged that they were aware of the recent complaints about spammy search results and were taking actions to correct them.  But complaints aren't just that Google is showing spammy sites in the search results.  There is concern that the reason those spam sites are showing up higher than the original content they are reproducing is MORE

Want 10 million uniques/day? Put a link on Google's homepage

By announcing their most popular blogposts of the year, Google also showed the power of their homepage.

Here's the info from Google's (GOOG) 2010 wrapup:

The top posts this year run the gamut from policy changes to product arrivals:

A different kind of company name - 10,604,183 unique pageviews, more than 30 percent of the year's total. Our April Fools' Day post about changing our company name to "Topeka" had a crazy-high number MORE

Google's enterprise search box gets Cloud smarts

The updated Google Mini Box now searches Microsoft Sharepoint data as well.

The only piece of hardware that Google (GOOG) sells is a rebranded Dell (DELL) yellow box (or Blue) called the Google Search Appliance. Google sells these to businesses that have content behind a firewall which can't be indexed by Google's normal spiders.  These businesses want to privately catalogue Intranet and back-office data using Google's integrated search features  without sending data to MORE

Google continues to gain search market share

Data from comScore indicates that Google's core search saw a positive impact from Google Instant.

While search queries were up 4% overall in September from August , Google (GOOG) doubled the industry's gain as a whole, comScore said in a report yesterday.  Google's share was likely bolstered by the new Google Instant which shows results as the user types.

In September, Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing grew 2% while Yahoo (YHOO) lost 5%.  Microsoft now MORE

Bing and Facebook, connected

But there is no meat to the deal.

At a joint press event today, Microsoft (MSFT) and Facebook unveiled the new Bing search engine that uses social information from Facebook to make decisions. The two companies offered a variety of places where the Facebook results would be integrated into Bings results, just like Bing's results appear at the bottom of a Facebook search.  And it all seems to be beneficial.

For instance, MORE

Google posts Instant event and commercial

The commercial uses Bob Dylan's 1965 classic, Subterranean Homesick Blues.

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcm0rG8EKXI&w=600&h=375]

Google also posted (below)the whole hour-plus of the Google Instant presentation which gets pretty technical at times.  Still, good to watch...especially the phrase "Google is the third half of your brain" by Brin which seems to be catching on.

Google Instant announcement coverage

The event stats at 12:30 ET.  I'll be updating live.

Google announced an anticipated new search service, Google Instant, today. The service which will rapidly replace Google's default search engine and update the page as you type.  Some initial thoughts:

- Google will now serve an order of magnitude more ads but most companies only pay for clicks so there won't necessarily be a growth in clicks/revenue.

- Most people now search with MORE