After Google+ was launched, I wrote a long post in which I detailed the features of the new service and discussed the real barriers between Google and success. The biggest one, I noted, was that Facebook had a user-base of 750 million, and could easily play copycat to anything Google+ did that users praised. It seems that Facebook followed exactly that predicted trajectory,

Google released their +1 button for websites back in June, and since that time webmasters have eagerly been adopting the new social sharing button. Despite a fairly low user response when compared to Twitter or Facebook, Google has seen adoption of the button on more than a million websites. Those sites get more than 4 billion total daily views. Now that button is even more valuable. Google has added two key features: sharing on Google+ and "+snippets.

Those who've been involved in search engine optimization for any real duration know that there's no one Google algorithm to keep up with. In addition to having a couple world-breaking changes per year )Google Instant and Panda being the most recent(, there are constant minor changes that change how search works. However, Google recently discussed how those many minor changes are created, tested, and implemented.

We previously discussed the Motorola Mobility purchase and the implications it had on patents, but we only just touched on the implications for hardware control. Now, in the aftermath of the announcement, analysts in a variety of tech industries have speculated what the move may signal for Android's future. Most notably, some are pointing to the possibility of free or subsidized hardware. This isn't the first time this rumor has circulated; when the Nexus One was released,

When it comes to Google+, one of Google's strongest advantages is its ability to integrate the service with other key services. Considering the immense success of Plus so far )it's the fastest growing website of all time(, it's unsurprising that Google is starting to move that integration into place. YouTube is one of the first services that's seeing a Plus-based feature. The specific feature? The option to start a Google Hangout directly from the YouTube video.

We first reported on Google making a Hulu bid back in July, and speculated on those possibilities as far back as June. While the exact details of Google's bid haven't been released, the Wall Street Journal has indicated that Google is officially part of the bidding war that will close this week. Final bids are due in by Wednesday. At that time we'll see how the landscape will change. Potential bidders include Google, Yahoo, Amazon, and DirectTV,

Google has been hard at work adding rich markup options for webmasters since 2009. This year, the addition of the schema.org markup standardization project raised the bar even further. The most recent additions are a limited sports markup that Google recently paired with ESPN to provide and a music markup. The Sports Microdata Chris Jason at ESPN calls microdata "a way to describe something - for example a person, event, place, etc.

Microsoft is systematically killing off the mystery of Bing-Yahoo optimization. In addition to a post on quality content that we covered previously, Bing has now told us the 18 fundamental things that webmasters need to know about search engine optimization. Here's the basic breakdown: Make sure your site is crawlable by using an XML sitemap, a robots.txt file, and well-structured on-site navigation.

Google is definitely feeling music lately. In addition to the launch of the new YouTube music platform , Google is launching a service called "Magnifier." Magnifier is a place where Google Music )Beta( users can find new artists, check out interviews and live performances, and get free songs. The site also serves as a marketing opportunity for musicians.

Google is adding a useful new feature to Google Maps: current weather reports. Users can now access a weather layer that shows highly location-specific reports provided by Weather.com. The layer can be opened in the "layers" in the top-right section of Google Maps. Google Committing to Travel Google Maps is one of the most frequently used map services in the world, largely thanks to its popularity on the Android smartphone platform.

YouTube has long been a place to turn for music, but that's been no small source of headaches for Google when it comes to licensing. Now YouTube has re-launched their music page - possibly as a way to celebrate a recent arrangement with licensing groups who Google has been struggling with since 2007. YouTube's Music Emphasis The new music page includes a new layout and a variety of new features.

Yahoo is still one of the most powerful search front-ends in the world, but in most regions, Bing now takes care of every back-end concern - including both the search algorithm and the search ads. Yahoo is continuing to transition its services to Bing today with the official migration of seven additional region-specific versions of Yahoo, The Bing-Powered Areas The seven additional countries where Bing is powering Yahoo are Austria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands Norway,

Google and MIT have worked together on multiple projects in the past, and each collaborative project has given a good idea of Google's mid- to long-term priorities. Their most recent investment is in the "MIT Center for Mobile Learning," which is researching ways to "transform learning and education through innovation in mobile computing." Google Android will be the starting point for much of this innovation.

As far as search engine optimizers and marketers are concerned, Bing and Yahoo search are the same thing. Since the Bing-Yahoo search alliance was made official last year, Yahoo sites around the world have migrated both their search ads and results to a Bing-powered back-end. Now webmasters can take advantage of the combined information through their Bing Webmaster Tools. Bing Webmaster Tools now provides users with traffic data from both Bing and Yahoo.

The search engine results page has evolved dramatically over the last few years, and now includes media items, quick-info widgets, local listings, and a variety of different formats for websites. One feature on Google is known as "sitelinks." For those unfamiliar with the term, sitelinks are the navigation links nested under the top entry of the search page. Google has just announced a dramatic expansion of the sitelinks feature.

Google is continuing to promote Map Maker, an open-source map-making tool. Their most recent advance is a "crowdsourced guide for Google Map Maker" that lets users create guides in a wiki-like fashion. The Recent Push for Google Map Maker Google Map Maker was first launched in 2008, but this year has seen a strong push of new projects and promotions. Google holds up Map Maker as a tool designed to help users help their communities,

Google's doodles, the re-imaginings of the Google logo, have became a famed part of how the world's biggest search site operates. Google is continuing to expand its list of tributes today with a celebration of Pierre de Fermat. The Unproven Doodle The doodle gives just the G and then a representation of Fermat's last theorem. Unlike most doodles of the past, Google has decided to add hover text to the Fermat tribute. When users hover over the post,

The Bing Webmaster Tools have become a more important resource for webmasters over the last year, largely thanks to the tool's absorption of Yahoo's similar toolkit. Bing has now created an additional level of security by allowing webmasters to restrict levels of access to any other person who is able to access the account. Securing Against Index Removals To Bing, the big precaution here is against the possibility of accidentally removing pages or sites from the index.

Google and Firefox have been playing buddy-buddy nearly since Mozzila brought their browser to the stage. The collaboration could come to an end this November, however, when the Google-Mozilla search contract is slated to lapse. This contract has Google set as the default browser in Firefox. In turn, Firefox gets a share of revenue generated with a searcher uses the Firefox toolbar to conduct a Google search.

In May, when Eli Parser first gave his TED talk about what he called the "filter bubble," many technology analysts started talking about the subject - yours truly included . The points raised by Parser were intriguing: Was it possible the automatic personalization of technology, including search, were substantially lowering our chances of seeing contradicting viewpoints? A recent experiment contradicts that idea; it seems Google's filter bubble can burst pretty easily.