Google is constantly on the lookout for spammy websites that don't add "sufficient value" to its users. For free web hosting services that don't want to see all of their sites removed from Google's index,

Encrypted search is expanding internationally for signed in Google users, Google announced yesterday. That means you can expect to find less search query data thanks to the default secure socket layer )SSL( Google has enabled on searches.

Google Street View has often been the subject of controversy. The latest: Google and Apple are facing a patent lawsuit for Street View technology used on the iPhone and iPad, while an urination image is causing legal troubles for Google in France.

Changes to local search results topped Google's monthly recap of search and algorithmic updates from February, but there were nearly 40 new updates revealed, including changes to link evaluation, freshness, Panda, page detection, and more.

Happy St. David's Day to our friends in the UK! To mark the occasion, a new Google Doodle appears on Google's UK homepage today in celebration of the patron saint of Wales. The logo features a red dragon sitting in a field of daffodils.

The frogs are back, and this time it's musical. Today's leap year Google Doodle on Google's homepage marks two occasions: the extra day that shows up almost every four years on February 29, and the birthday of composer Gioachino Rossini.

Even as users remain ignorantly blissful, last-ditch efforts continue to prevent Google's new privacy policy from being implemented this Thursday, March 1. French regulators call the policy unlawful while privacy group EPIC continues its fight.

Even as users remain ignorantly blissful, last-ditch efforts continue to prevent Google's new privacy policy from being implemented this Thursday, March 1. French regulators call the policy unlawful while privacy group EPIC continues its fight.

As smartphone ownership continues to grow, going mobile and mobile optimization are becoming a business necessity. To coincide with the annual Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Google has revealed smartphone usage stats and 2012 predictions.

Google will reportedly promote one of its own executives to CEO of Motorola. Meanwhile, Google has hired a veteran lobbyist and lost a pair of ad execs to Twiter. And Bing is for leaving. Here's a rundown of the latest industry comings and goings.

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL are on board with a new White House "Do Not Track" technology plan that will give more control to users and more power to the Federal Trade Commission. A new Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights was also introduced.

Day 2 of SES London 2012 has come to a close. The day, much like Day 1, was packed full of great tips and strategies on SEO tools and metrics, PPC architecture, and more. Here's a roundup of today's live blogging and coverage of SES London 2012.

The wavy blue, red, yellow, and green logo on Google's homepage today is in honor of Heinrich Rudolph Hertz. The German physicist, who was instrumental in the discovery of electromagnetic and radio waves, was born on this date 155 years ago.

Is a new version of Google's mortgage comparison service in the works? After scaling back the service in November, mortgage comparison went offline earlier this month. Mortgage comparison search is also gone from the Google Advisor site.

Avinash Kaushik's keynote kicked off SES London 2012 today, and what followed was a day filled with tips on landing page optimization, PPC, link building, and more. Here's a roundup of today's live blogging and coverage of SES London 2011.

Russia's top search engine Yandex has made two big moves on the social search front. In addition to incorporating content from popular social networks into its search results, Yandex has partnered with Twitter to make tweets searchable in real time.

The world's most popular search engine was falsely identified by Microsoft as malware for four hours on Valentine's Day due to a faulty software security update, leaving many frustrated Internet Explorer users unable to access Google.

DuckDuckGo has good reason to quack. The small startup search engine announced that it received more than 1 million searches for the first time on the eve of Valentine's Day. More than a million searches were also conducted on Valentine's Day.

Google is adding a new health search results feature. Whenever you search for a symptom or multiple symptoms of an illness, Google will show you a list of possibly related health conditions related to your query to get you to answers more quickly.

All the major search engines are celebrating Valentine's Day this year with special logos or pictures on their home pages. In addition to Google's Valentine's Day Doodle featuring Tony Bennett, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu and others are sharing the love.