Looks like it’s not the best of times for Facebook. There is another potential blow headed towards the company now, thanks to Google.

Google is allowing some Android users to download apps directly from search results without the need to visit the App Store. Though these downloads are available only through organic searches and not ads yet, but we can hope to see this extension soon as well.

Now these downloads mean some not-so-good-news for Facebook which had begun advertising apps on its website a few years ago. Since then users have been able to download apps from these ads. However, since Google is allowing for direct downloads of its apps from search [...]

Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman announced how his company is taking a big step to block child pornography from appearing in search results.

Eric says that he has broke down the measures in various categories, of which one is cleaning up and will clean out more than 100,000 search results. And will generate a warning that will appear on more than 13000 results that are on the same topic. The Google chairman said he hired a 200-strong team to work out a solution over the last three months and that their work has already fixed up to 100,000 potential queries.

Eric Schmidt [...]

Google said it has updated the way its search engine functions so that it can respond better to more complicated and human-like queries, as it faces competition from services like Apple’s Siri, that seek to simplify searching for information.

The new algorithm which is codenamed as Hummingbird, is the first major upgrade in the last three years. It has already been in use for about a month, and affects about 90% of Google searches.

Google stressed that a new algorithm is important as users expect more natural and conversational interactions with a search engine, Hummingbird is focused [...]

Google just updated Chrome for iPhone and iPad, this new update Chrome 29.0.1547.11 contains some new features which include:

Never thought that day would come honestly, when Apple allows direct Siri replacements in Apps. The new Google Search App for iOS brings expanded voice search alongside the iPhone 5 compatibility. 

While at first glance it seems quite responsive and does a good job of understanding the Indian accent. Download it for yourself and see if you like the UI refresh.

[quote]Improved Voice Search

Google says it will introduce changes to its search engine that will discourage piracy by placing legitimate copyrighted content higher in online queries.

The change was viewed as a concession to movie studios, music labels and television companies that have tried to lobby, cajole and, in some cases, sue Google into helping them shut down online piracy.

This week, the company will begin using algorithms that push potentially pirated material to a lower position in search results, it said in a blog posting on its website.

Google is creating an information bridge between its influential Internet search engine and its widely used Gmail service in its latest attempt to deliver more personal responses more quickly.

The experimental feature unveiled Wednesday will enable Google’s search engine to mine the correspondence stored within a user’s Gmail account for any data tied to a search request. For example, a query containing the word “Amazon” would pull emails with shipping information sent by the online retailer.

Such Gmail results will [...]

Google has fancied up some search fun for everyone by adding a full featured Scientific Calculator to the Search results. Simply perform a mathematical search and poof! A full fledged Scientific Calculator pops right up.

Users that input the beginnings of an equation from either the desktop site or mobile version (landscape only) will instantly see a 32-button layout appear in the space below, mapped for all the mathematical functions you can handle.

[Google]

Twitter said on Friday that it was upgrading its search functions to include ‘autocomplete’ and spelling correction features.

The new Twitter search will also anticipate when users are looking for posts by people they follow, and offer related suggestions. The search will also see improvements when it comes to related terms, hashtags and accounts. “If you search for a topic for which people use multiple terms,” says engineer Frost Li, “we will provide relevant suggestions for terms where the majority of that conversation is happening on Twitter.”

And finally, once [...]

The deal would ensure better search results for users.

Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, signed a deal with Britannica Encyclopedia to add more content to its search results. The deal was announced by Microsoft through a blogpost which also said that when information from Britannica was relevant to a search, Bing users would see a small box summarising salient facts about a topic or subject.

[quote]We are excited about how new instant answers from Britannica Online delivers relevant information in a more organized way that helps people find information more quickly, a Microsoft spokeswoman [...]

The three biggest names in the search engine industry have joined hands to launch a new project called schema.org which will help improve search results. The site consists of a common set of HTML tags that webmasters would use to mark up structured data on their sites.

“We are announcing schema.org, a new initiative from Google, Bing and Yahoo to create and support a common vocabulary for structured data markup on web pages,” Google said in its blog yesterday.

Site owners can now learn about structured data and improve how their sites appear in major search engines. The [...]