Today, Satya Nadella Senior Vice President, Online Services at Microsoft unveiled new Bing features at an event in San Francisco . The updates involve Bing Maps, the Bing Mobile App and a new Bing Toolbar. There was also Maps Streetside imaging - yes, that's Microsoft's version of Google's Street View. It's smart for Bing to compete with the Google monster on this one.

As I reported a few weeks back, News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch said his company was considering blocking Google from being able to search its Web sites. I used my tabloid headline generator to create " Murdoch to Google: Drop Dead ." Today, the Google News Blog announced " Same Protocol, More Options for News Publishers ." If we run this through my tabloid translator, I think we'd get the following headline: "Google to Murdoch: Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry?

Yahoo! really does want you to make their homepage the center of your web-browsing universe. Next year, they're going to make that easier by integrating Facebook . Not only will you be able to see your network's activity directly on Yahoo!, you'll be able to easily share content on Yahoo! - including answers, news, sports, etc. 500 people visit Yahoo! every month while 350 million people are members of Facebook. Looking at the numbers alone, this is a no-brainer. BTW,

Google is attempting to appease paid content providers with a couple of new updates to news search features. First up, they've added restrictions to the First Click Free program . This has allowed publishers of paid content sites to let users gain access to an article without shelling out a dime. Google is only allowing users 5 free accesses per day. Previously, it was easy to game the system and access a bunch of pages on a site without paying. )Call me crazy,

Google is rolling out a new format for displaying images in universal results when they appear in the main search. The new format shows one image larger than the rest. This will only happen when Google is feeling confident that they have the right image. Here's a sample,

Google has released their annual Zeitgeist and yes, Michael Jackson was the fastest rising search term globally. Here's the full list: michael jackson facebook tuenti twitter sanalika new moon lady gaga windows 7 dantri.com.

Millions of people had a big case of the Mondays on the first day back to work after the Thanksgiving holiday. That's why you spent your day shopping - on Cyber Monday - instead of working. Don't worry, we won't tell your boss. )S/he was shopping too, anyway.( Coremetrics released data on what is thought to be the biggest online shopping day of the year )it's not(. Here's what they found: Cyber Monday 2009 sales were up 24.1 percent compared to Black Friday 2009.

Ask.com gets a lot of their search queries in the form of a question - more so than any other search engine. So, it makes sense that their end-of-the-year list features questions instead of keywords. The questions are a refreshing departure from the usual fare seen on the end-of-year lists from other search engines. They're also humorous, curious - and yes, existential. How much should I weigh? How do I get out of debt fast? How do I get pregnant? What is Twitter?

Today is the first day that bloggers and others who write online reviews or endorse products using new media must disclose it when they receive free merchandise or payment for writing about an item. The Federal Trade Commission )FTC( expects the blogosphere to add a little sentence - in undersize italics at the bottom of a post - that reads: A Girl Must Shop Disclosure : As a Twisted Insider, A Girl Must Shop receives a new,

Advertise.com and SEMPO are releasing the results of a survey about underutilized online marketing technologies. The survey was conducted in August and apparently some of you marketers out there are itching for a chance to remarket your products. Remarketing, also known as retargeting, topped the list of most under-utilized marketing technologies. Here's what else made the list: Remarketing/Retargeting - 46.3% Geo-targeting - 18.3% Traffic source optimization-15.

Bing is launching a new photo contest today and the theme is "Hometown Pride." Those who wish to enter should submit their photos at Bing's Facebook page, which can be accessed at facebook.com/bing . Entrants' photos will be voted on by the Facebook community. The winning photograph will appear on the Bing homepage on January 6, 2010. Bing ran a similar contest this past summer. The winning photo, a gorgeous shot of Sydney, was featured on Bing's homepage in August .

Yesterday, we learned Michael Jackson was Bing's most popular search term of 2009 . Today, Yahoo! revealed that the deceased pop star topped their list as well. Unlike Bing's list, which featured several other deceased celebrities, Yahoo! searchers were apparently jonesin' for Vampires, Wrasslers, and tabloid starlets. Michael Jackson Twilight WWE Megan Fox Britney Spears Naruto American Idol Kim Kardashian NASCAR Runescape For top searches on mobile devices,

SHOP.com has added a bunch of new features to enhance and encourage social sharing on the comparison shopping site. The biggest announcement is a new social hub. It's called SHOP.com Community and it features their Facebook and Twitter updates. Shoppers can already share searches with their social networks, but now SHOP.com is making it rewarding to do so with their new SHOPstar networking program. Members of the program get a little kickback when they refer sales.

I'm back at my desk after an excellent SES conference in Berlin last week. This was the first time in Berlin and the feedback has been tremendous. But now it's time to focus on SES, Chicago December 7 - 11. Fondly known as the freeze-your-ass-off SES, Chicago always attracts a great crowd ready for the final annual gathering of the search community. The great thing about the show, is that, it's not about reflecting on the past year,

Keywords related to "black friday" increased by more than 20% on Google last week . The data was culled over a two-day period - Thanksgiving and Black Friday - and compared to the same two days last year. Two terms, "black friday sales" and "black friday ads," were up by over 50%. Searchers narrowed their queries by adding a brand name to the keyword phrase.

At SES Chicago 2009 on Wednesday, December 9, at 12:30 p.m., there will be a drawing to give away the "largest marketing library." Attendees of Search Engine Strategies Chicago can enter their business cards up until just before the drawing. The drawing will take place in the Exhibition Hall, and the lucky winner must be present to claim the prize. )If you are a twin or triplet, use the canonical tag to show that you are the original winner, not a duplicate.

eZanga is spreading holiday cheer in a big way this year. So far they've donated thousands to the following: M.O.T. Big Ball M.O.T. Senior Center Toys for Tots Fulfilling wishlists for local kids and seniors Do you have a "Search Gives Back" story to share? Contact me here and let me know.

Bing has released its top queries for 2009 . The late King of Pop tops the list, followed by a popular social network and a pandemic disease.

Over at Focus.com, they've graphed out some juicy data collected by the National Retail Federation and comScore showing that Cyber Monday is not the biggest online shopping day of the year. Not yet, at least. Every year, the biggest online shopping day of the year becomes earlier and earlier. In 2000, it was December 18. Last year, it was December 9, a Tuesday. Most of the biggest days of the past 9 years have landed on Mondays. If this trend keeps up,

Google has launched a new Deals page , almost two months after Ask.com unveiled their new Deals site. Google's Deals page features the 900 retailers included in Google Checkout. The Deals site ain't pretty either: You can access the Google Deals site at www.google.com/checkout/deals.html Meanwhile, Google is taking on Yahoo! in Times Square. You might remember Yahoo! is offering free Wifi in Times Square .