If over the past few months you’ve noticed your social news, press releases and local listings lagging, you probably thought that Google was asleep at the wheel. The world’s most used search engine has officially rolled out the Google Caffeine update.

According to Google, however, this update is not an algorithm change. Caffeine is able to find, index and rank newsworthy pages plus other new pages more quickly than before. Non-competitive pages that a person had to wait weeks to show up in the rankings before are now fast-tracked through the system at a much faster pace.

The Mountain View, CA search giant says that this architectural change is basically in the crawling and handling of data. There is not as much “page chewing” as before as the new “decision engine” (sorry Bing) has decided on fast digestion of data and delivery of results.

Google Caffeine will not only be a wakeup call to website owners but to the other search engines (you know who you are) that are struggling to deliver results in a timely manner.

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Because of a WiFi privacy breach search giant Google has decided to start encrypting data in the coming weeks. The problem was revealed in Ireland as part of the Street View service.

According to the Official Google Blog, “This incident highlights just how publicly accessible open, non-password-protected WiFi networks are today. Earlier this year, we encrypted Gmail for all our users, and next week we will start offering an encrypted version of Google Search. For other services users can check that pages are encrypted by looking to see whether the URL begins with “https”, rather than just “http”; browsers will generally show a lock icon when the connection is secure.”

Google has been encrypting all sorts of data for a while now, including Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Talk to name a few. This privacy and security breach in Ireland was due to a little snippet of code that a programmer put in back in 2006, when Street View was first being tested.

At least now there is a solution and the world’s largest search engine is moving quickly not only to correct this problem but to offer a more private experience in search in general.

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Microsoft and Yahoo have done the dirty deal, so to speak, last summer and decided to join forces in search. The Microsoft buyout of Yahoo search means more competition at least according to the U. S. Department of Justice.

Do you trust antitrust? In this case, yes. Not, that Google is some giant “do no evil” monster stumbling around like the Incredible Hunk in a China closet, but when one gets that big, then serious competition is needed in order to give people in general, choices.

Neither Yahoo nor Bing (MSN) has been serious contenders in the past couple of years, which have limited choices for searchers and online advertisers. Google can see the Microsoft Yahoo search alliance as a positive as well.

No more whining about how Google is being unfair by being too good at what they do. Now Microsoft will have access to Yahoo’s vast databases, search technology and brilliant minds that should speed up the competitive process.

But, the problem for Microsoft may in the end, not be technological, but marketing. Surveys have shown that searchers prefer the Google logo and brand to that of either of the other two companies.

Here is some more info about the search alliance between Microsoft and Yahoo that will explain the goals and benefits of such collaboration.

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Lately, I’ve been putting a great deal of emphasis on security for my PC and websites. Adware, spyware, viruses and hackers abound on the Internet so it only makes sense to at least have a firewall and good virus software on one’s PC. Data encryption is also something may people consider to order to make their computers more secure.

But, websites can also have security breaches and this can be aided by the info on your PC. Storing cookies, history, IP addresses, logons and passwords in your email software and FTP software can also open a door for these breaches.

So, as an experiment I decided to use Internet Explorer’s InPrivate Browsing feature. It can be found under the Safety tab on the toolbar. But, when I started using this feature I noticed something. That something is that Google would like to access your location.

In fact, sometimes during private browsing, which doesn’t store cookies, history, logons and passwords, a message will pop up on the Google Toolbar that states, “Google would like to access your location. The Google Toolbar will periodically use the network to keep your location up to date.” Of course on the toolbar you can allow or disallow the Google toolbar to have your IP address.

According to Google, “When My Location is active, Toolbar will automatically send local network information (including, but not limited to, visible WiFi access points) to Google Location Services in order to determine your location. This information is not tied to your Google Account, and you can disable the My Location feature at any time by clicking the My Location icon.”

The benefits of letting Google and other websites know your location are several. First, Google Maps can serve up businesses in your area and second, location specific ads can also be served up. Localize results are also a benefit of knowing the IP location.

As for other websites knowing your location, they can track statistics used to enhance their websites and your experience on their site. The downside is that not all websites are friendly and can use your geo location, cookies, history, stored logons and passwords against you.

You’ll have to decide for yourself whether or not private browsing is for you. For me, I bounce back and forth between the two and let my best judgment decide whether I would like to keep my info private or not on a website by website basis.

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Google ain’t no fool, to put it mildly. Where there is advertising money to be made, they’ll find it. And, the mobile phone market is a wide open space right now.

This is why Google Click-to-Call service is now being employed across the Adwords network for mobile devices. A person in a certain location can do a Google search and business ads will pop up in the usual Adwords spaces.

The person with the mobile phone simply has to click and their phone will dial into that business. Pretty slick, huh? The advertiser will pay the same for the call as they will for clicks on the ads from people on PC’s and laptops.

The advantage to this type of advertising is that people on cell phones, roaming around their communities or traveling to different communities can find restaurants, hotels, hardware stores, and you name it quickly and easily on the move.

Google piloted this Click-to-Call program back in 2006 in the Maps section. Recently the search giant has also rolled out Goog-411 where people can call toll free for information locally about businesses in their location.

The Google Click to Call program gives local advertisers one more method in which to reach out to potential customers who are roaming in their community right now.

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On September 28, 2009, Y!OU And Yahoo will be officially unveiled to the public. The theme of the new worldwide marketing campaign is to put you, the web surfer in the middle of Yahoo’s new offering.

Simplification and personal relevance are the keywords that Yahoo is using to describe its new offering. More relevant search, simpler photo sharing, high quality video calling for Yahoo Messenger and a new mobile Yahoo homepage are what will be leading the marketing campaign.

According to comScore Yahoo properties took second place behind Google properties in regard to unique visitors in August 2009. But, Yahoo search has dropped dramatically and Microsoft Bing has come on strong since the end of July to surpass it as the number 2 search engine.

One wonders whether Y!OU And Yahoo will be enough to keep the company growing and keep another Microsoft deal at bay? You or Y!ou’ll find out in just a few days whether the hype is all about you or not.

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Since Microsoft’s revamped MSN search, now named Bing, was launched in June 2009, the search engine has slowly gained market share in search and shopping. For several years now, MSN search has hung around the 5-percent market share point, with Yahoo over 20-percent and Google between 60 – 70 percent.

After the two month honeymoon phase is over, Bing search has gained a percentage point in the market from 8.23 in June to 9.41 this month. Now, this may not sound like a lot but it makes a Bing / Yahoo partnership more understandable.

Consider that last year Yahoo search was over 20-percent in market share and now its numbers are half of that. Also, consider that Google is around 77.5, so with Bing and Yahoo combining forces, there will once again be some semblance of competition.

Bing has also made significant strides in another area as well. Bing Shopping has increased 169-percent since its debut in June. Bing Shopping is now the 4th largest shopping comparison site (with Yahoo Shopping in 1st place).

And, just this week, Microsoft has announced Bing Shopping’s Double Cashback promotion. By purchasing from merchants enrolled in the Cashback promotion, Microsoft will send you a direct check.

In the Bing interface, you sign up under the Extras pull down in the top right corner and then any store that displays the Cashback logo will qualify you for a Microsoft check. Now, for years Microsoft has been lackadaisical about search.

Bill Gates a couple of years ago even commented about how Microsoft underestimated the value of search from the very beginning. But, in 2 months time, Bing has made some serious headway as a tool to search for both information and products.

It may take a while before Bing takes a ding out of Google and gives us a bang for our buck. Google followers are a loyal bunch. But, building a better mousetrap will always turn people in your direction and so let’s see in the weeks and months to come if Bing becomes such a mousetrap.

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As things heat up this Spring heading into Summer so its these tweeting season courtesy Twitter.com. As you know, Myspace and Facebook have their loyal following but there is something about Twitter with its 150 character limit and drive-by, drive-thru mentality that is quite an attraction to many.

It’s so attractive in fact that Larry King is a tweeting fool as well as Barbara Wa-Wa (Walters to you and me). In fact, Twitter is now so popular that neither could get their own names on the social media site and had to opt for something less brandable.

But, the big news perhaps is that AOL is rumored to have an interest in acquiring Twitter. Now the Wall Street Journal has pooh-poohed this idea but its really not that far-fetched. Right now Twitter doesn’t monetize itself through ads, so it makes sense that someone will want a payday with this large Internet property.

Google, where are you? If anything one would think the Big G would want to spread its domination to one of the hottest social media sites for now and sometime to come.

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There is an article on CNET that speculates that Microsoft may be interested in acquiring Powerset, which is close to publicly rolling out its semantic search engine. The early reviews of the Powerset semantic search have been favorable.

Instead of basing its search results on keyword as Google does, Powerset uses word relationships, concepts and meanings plus other linguistic aids in order to deliver more meaningful results. For instance, if a user types in a phrase or question, they may be directed to part of page where the answer appears and not just the page itself.

During user testing of Powerset, the Powerlabs testers will be able to give search results a thumbs up or down, which will help the developers in refining their algorithms. Google has also experimented with this feature on a limited scale.

But, Powerset may change more than how a search engine delivers results. It may change user behavior in those searches. When Ask.com was AskJeeves.com users were encouraged to type in questions that affable butler would try to answer.

Powerset semantic search may be similar in that it may urge users to type in longer search strings, sentences or questions in order to achieve optimal results. Perhaps if Microsoft passes on this technology, then Ask.com would then be interested since it would take them back to their roots in search.

If user behavior does change in this new semantic world of search, then this will also affect the SEO community. Will SEO’s optimize pages based upon keywords or semantics? Ten years from now, keyword searches may be a thing of the past.

Powerset may not be a Google Killer, but it may start changing the tide as to how searches are performed and results delivered on the Web. And, this changing tide may help Web surfers get their information more quickly and more accurately than ever before.

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