Search Engines

With negotiations over censorship at an impasse, Google Inc. shut down its search engine operation in China on Monday and redirected users to uncensored results -- a move certain to anger the Chinese government and jeopardize Google's future in the world's most populous country. In taking the extraordinary action, Google said it was making good on a promise it made two months ago, when it said it would not self-censor the site as demanded by Chinese officials. At the time, Google also complained that it had been a victim of a sophisticated cyber attack originating from China.

In a bid to pull more users away from rival Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. said Thursday it is rolling out the most significant revamp of Bing since its search engine's 2009 launch. "Over the coming weeks, we will be introducing a brand new way to search designed to help you take action and interact with friends and experts without compromising the core search experience," Microsoft's Bing Team said in a blog post. Leveraging its relationship with Facebook, Microsoft said the new features will personalize the search experience to make it more relevant to users.

Plenty of companies have tried to make better Internet search engines by mimicking the way the human brain works. Now an Ojai start-up is taking a different approach: Its search engine is patterned after the brain of a dolphin. Instead of simply looking for keywords, the search engines being developed by DolphinSearch look for patterns, a skill at which dolphins excel.

Bolstered by a rise in paid advertising clicks, search engine giant Google Inc. posted a 61% jump in first-quarter profit. The Mountain View, Calif., company also announced a new stock structure that will keep its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in control of the company. Page, who is in his second stint as Google's chief executive after taking over from Eric Schmidt a year ago, said Google "saw tremendous momentum from the big bets we've made in products like Android, Chrome and YouTube.

America Online Inc. on Thursday announced an improved Internet search engine designed to help it attract nonsubscribers and tap into the roaring online advertising market. The nation's biggest Internet service provider, which has seen its membership numbers dwindle, is gradually giving the general public access to content and services it once reserved for paying AOL members. The search engine's new features, due to appear on AOL.

Microsoft Corp. unveiled its long-anticipated search engine in an attempt to keep customers from leaving its websites when they seek information online. Microsoft's search engine, which replaced technology licensed from rival Yahoo Inc., includes such features as localized results and articles from its Encarta encyclopedia. The Redmond, Wash.

The Internet's leading search engines are teaming with an advertising trade group to find a better way to identify and measure "click fraud," a scam that has raised doubts about the Web's trustworthiness as a marketing vehicle. The initiative, announced by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, will draw upon the expertise of Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. -- the owners of the top online search engines -- to attack a problem threatening to erode profits.

When it comes to search engines--the Internet tool that helps viewers skim the Web for sites of interest--Norwegian company Fast Search & Transfer is betting that size does matter. Today, the company will unveil what it is marketing as the "world's biggest search engine" (http://www.alltheweb.com), which it says will scan 200 million of the Web's estimated 800 million pages. Fast Search is entering a field dominated by San Mateo, Calif.-based Inktomi Corp.

The search engine wars are heating up again with the public launch tonight of Cuil (pronounced "cool"). The Menlo Park start-up behind the website, at www.cuil.com, isn't trying to be a Google killer -- it's trying to reinvent search, said Anna Patterson, president and co-founder of Cuil. She's an ex-Googler, the architect of the Web giant's TeraGoogle search index that launched in 2006.

Michael Ovitz and his technology investment partner, Yucaipa Cos., are expanding their Internet holdings by taking a controlling interest in Beverly Hills-based Scour.net, which operates a search engine for finding multimedia content on the World Wide Web. The investment, said to be in the millions of dollars, is expected to be announced today.

Privacy, schmivacy -- though not entirely without jitters. Google still reigns supreme as the go-to search engine, even if people are bit nervous about how it collects data and targets ads. A survey from Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 83% of people who use search engines in the U.S. prefer Google, up from 47% in 2004. Yahoo came in second at 6%. Nine in 10 Americans who use search engines say they find the information they are seeking and nearly as many say they learn something new or important that increased their knowledge.

The Internet can be a cruel mistress. Demand Media Inc. found that out the hard way. A year ago the Web company, awash in traffic, was the darling of Wall Street, valued at $1 billion in a Jan. 26 initial public offering. Three months later,Google Inc., which had sent millions of visitors a day to Demand's websites, modified its search results to de-emphasize destinations deemed to have lower-quality content. The change throttled the Santa Monica company's traffic nearly 25% between January and July.

Wikipedia went dark for a day. Google hid its logo under a black shroud. And hundreds of other websites darkened their pages temporarily in a massive, coordinated protest against a pair of bills that would step up enforcement of copyrights and trademarks. Wednesday's demonstration provoked such an intense backlash against the Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act (better known as PIPA and SOPA) that by the end of the week, more than 100 lawmakers had declared their opposition and both bills had been placed on hold.

Film director Penelope Spheeris' new comedy, "Balls to the Wall," had barely premiered in Europe when bootleg copies started popping up on the Internet, throwing its U.S. release into jeopardy. A Spheeris assistant sent out as many as 30 cease-and-desist notices a day in a desperate, but failed, attempt to halt the piracy. "It's like putting out a forest fire with your bare feet," she said. That helps explain why Spheeris and other filmmakers are backing tough new legislation making its way through Congress that would give the Justice Department broad powers to shut down websites that host pirated material and would open the door for movie studios, music companies and other copyright holders to seek court injunctions against Internet companies they believe are aiding in copyright theft, which amounts to $58 billion a year.

Ruff! Those traveling with canine companions no longer have to stay at down-at-the-heels motels. This hotel search engine, specifically for dog owners, includes upscale lodgings you might not know accept pets. Name: DogWonderful.com What it does: Pairs pet-friendly advice and travel deals with a hotel database tailored for those who travel with the furry members of the family. What's hot: I was pleasantly surprised by the number of hotels that I like that accept dogs: Trump International in Las Vegas, the Peninsula Chicago, Hotel Teatro in Denver and Le Pavillon Hotel in New Orleans.

A guide to consumer devices and services, and the types of data they collect. •PERSONAL COMPUTERS Web browsers create records of sites you've visited. Google, Bing and other search engines can record the types of searches you're performing, sometimes keeping them for many years. Commerce websites like Amazon.com often keep detailed records of past purchases to be able to recommend items you might like. Many online advertisements, when clicked, make a note of the types of products you might be likely to buy. Social networking sites like Facebook record usage patterns such as the photos you've looked at and whose profile you've viewed.

Google Inc. Chairman Eric Schmidt, defending his company on Capitol Hill for the first time as it faces increased scrutiny of its operations, bluntly denied that his company "cooked" its search engine results to send users to its growing stable of online services. Schmidt faced tough questions Wednesday from members of the Senate antitrust subcommittee, who have been investigating complaints by competitors that Google is abusing its dominance in the online search market to harm competition.

If you scour the Web looking for travel deals, don't stop once you find a cheap flight or hotel. BiteHunter.com points you in the right direction to score meal-time discounts. Name: BiteHunter What it does: This real-time search engine scours the Web, newspapers, Twitter, magazines and social media outlets for great meal deals, events and activities. So far, there are more than 16,000 deals for happy hour, brunch, prix fixe and more in Chicago, San Francisco and New York.