A Panda refresh will be rolling out over the next few days, Google today announced via Twitter. Google warned website owners to "expect some flux" during that time, also noting that less than 0.7 percent of queries will be affected.

A new version of Google's human rater handbook has hit the web. The 161-page General Guidelines document, version 3.27 dated June 22, 2012, is largely unchanged from last year, but has added a section instructing reviewers how to rate page quality.

Maria Montessori, the Italian educator best known for creating an educational model that essentially allows children freedom to learn and create independently, is the subject of today's Google Doodle. She was born on this date 142 years ago.

Apparently Google jumped the shark this week, punched some nuns in the face, and clubbed some baby seals by introducing an obtrusive new element to their home page. No, not the new Google+ birthday reminders. That ad for the Google Nexus 7 tablet.

Search engine users overwhelmingly click on organic results on Google and Bing by a margin of 94 percent to 6 percent. That's according to new research based on a sample of 28 million UK citizens and 1.4 billion searches conducted in June 2011.

A big change seems to be underway on Google, most likely designed to give brands more control of the search results associated with their brand names. Google is now showing three less results on searches for brand names )7, rather than 10(.

For the second straight month Bing saw its U.S. search engine market share on the rise. Meanwhile, Google held steady, duplicating its record share of the search market, while Yahoo held steady after 10 months of declines, comScore reported.

Day 2, or "Wow Wednesday" lived up to its billing, highlighted by Matt Cutts and an all-star "super hero" search panel. The wows kept coming for attendees on Day 3. Here's a roundup of live coverage of Day 2 and Day 3 of SES San Francisco.

Google's Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts was the headline attraction this morning as SES San Francisco 2012 Day 2 kicked off. Cutts joined Mike Grehan for a discussion on all things Google, spam, and SEO.

Matt Cutts is returning to SES. Avinash Kaushik taught everyone how to make lots of money. All that, plus a day filled with takeaways. If you missed a session or couldn't attend, catch up with this recap of the highlights of SES San Francisco Day 1.

Not feeling lucky? Maybe you're feeling stellar? Maybe hungry or perhaps puzzled? Google has added a few new options to its I'm Feeling Lucky button. Simply hover over the button and Google will send you to one of Google's various other properties.

Google has been celebrating the London 2012 Olympics every day with a unique Olympic-themed Doodle. However, today's interactive Google Doodle is easily the best and most fun so far, letting everyone compete for their own virtual gold medal.

Facebook is working to improve internal search for the social network. Also, don't expect Facebook to become a direct web search competitor to Google any time soon. That's the official word from Facebook engineer and former Googler Lars Rasmussen.

Google Webmaster Tools will now let you know how many pages of your website are currently included in Google's index. The new feature can be found by visiting the Health menu. Once there, you'll find a graph with a year's worth of data.

If the last few days haven't been chaotic enough for you, brace yourself for some more fun. Google announced tonight via Twitter that a "New data refresh of Panda starts rolling out tonight. ~1% of search results change enough to notice.

Facebook's search box could become home to a new form of advertising - Sponsored Results - alongside its organic results when users conduct searches for specific pages or places on the social network. No word yet on if or when the ads will launch.

Google sent out a pair of confusing messages alerting webmasters to the fact that other websites are linking to theirs, and as a result, their site may )or may not( be penalized. But don't panic, says Google's Matt Cutts. Confused? Join the club.

The search for U.S. aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart has yet to turn up any evidence in the 75 years since she vanished somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. Earhart, who was born on this date 115 years ago, is the subject of the latest Google Doodle.

Marissa Mayer's arrival as Yahoo's new CEO has Yahoos hopeful. Literally. One Yahoo was inspired to create a "Hope" poster reminiscent of the iconic Shepard Fairey posters created during the 2008 presidential campaign for candidate Barack Obama.

Google further increased its already dominant share of the U.S. search engine market in June, topping its own record set in May, according to comScore. Bing also saw its market share increase, while Yahoo's decline extended to 10 months.