Melanie’s RoundUp

Amazon Clicks Away from Google

As we covered earlier, Amazon and A9 (in addition to Alexa) are no longer serving Google results, deferring to Microsoft’s Windows Live Search, after the expiration of the Amazon-Google contract on Sunday. Today, HitWise notes that the diversion from Amazon will be the bigger loss, highlighting that 10% of Amazon clicks veer to Google whereas only 1.8% for A9. SEW ruminated on the bandwagon of “Google dumpers” earlier. Citing a WashPost article –“Asked whether Microsoft’s search engine is better than Google’s, Tennenhouse said, “It will be up to users to try that out.”–SEW quips, “So more a business move than a relevancy issue, fair to say :)”

Eying the Enemy’s Enemy

John noted earlier today the WSJ framing the scene as Microsoft and Yahoo circle each other. More from the blogosphere on the dubious courtship:

SEW: Microsoft is behind with the core search technology. Yahoo’s been struggling to upgrade its paid search service. Let’s get these two kids together!

Kedrosky says: The two companies could hardly be less well suited to one another, with Microsoft having negative savvy in Yahoo’s consumer media markets — which is why if I were Brin/Page/Schmidt I’d do everything I could to convince supposed tie-up promoter Henry Vigil to get off his ass and make it happen. After all, there are few things better for your business than thoroughly distracting your two largest competitors.

And, notes from the peanut gallery: MSN may seek Yahoo’s broad audience, but wait, what would Yahoo gain again? Canadian MSN users would say unhappy users. On Sunday, for a several hours, they were greeted by gibberish and non-functionality (screen shots here and here).

Spotback Launches

Spotback provides personalized search suggestions based on individual user ratings, rather than cached article views like Google and MSN. You don’t have to register to start using Spotback, TechCrunch’s favorite feature, but if you do you can start sharing ratings with other members. Geeking with Greg notes that the results are still off the mark, probably due to limited tracking dat, as well as continued algorithm tweaking.

Rumoritis: Google Health emerging next week?

Melissa Mayer suggested in a USA Today interview, “Health is an interesting one — keep your eye out for that next week.” Health has been rumored for sometime as an obvious Google vertical.

Via SEW, which earlier pointed to an interesting, older article from BMJ.com that has a cute anecdote on How Google is (Already) Changing Medicine (insertion mine).

Brazil Peering into Orkut’s Social Circle

Adding to Google’s pile of government entanglements, the Brazilian government is again pressing the search giant to share users’ private information. Apparently rival soccer fans used Orkut’s social networking features to organize a fight, and now Brazil—which is probably the only place Orkut matters — wants legal rights to user data to prevent crimes. Brazil’s Human rights prosecutor stated “authorities had received more than 14,000 complaints against Orkut for threats, racism and drug trafficking in March alone, the report further said.”

Google Comic Book Search?

Lenssen visualizes…”Google already has a book search – wouldn’t it be nice if they expand this program to search comic books as well?”

Fraud Lawsuit Filed Against Yahoo

From the AP: A Yahoo Inc. advertiser has accused the Internet search engine of fraud, saying its ads have been appearing in spyware and “typosquatter” Web sites that take advantage of misspelled trademarks….The lawsuit said Yahoo failed to protect advertisers from a practice known as “click fraud,” in which competitors click on an advertiser’s ad hundreds of times to run up their rival’s advertising costs. Update: Gary at Resource Shelf posted the full text of the lawsuit.

Persistent Search, the Next Turf War?

A couple weeks ago Burnham speculated that persistent search (always on queries, basically) is the future direction for advertising potential and SEO obsession. Along the way he names the infant PS technology and stacks that against some improvements he sees as necessary before the fight can break out. Russell Mettie disagrees, saying Yahoo! API can already do it all, and to prove it he whips up an API combining PS and Yahoo search over the weekend. “Simply combine our Search RSS feeds with our Feed Alert system and you can get an IM, Email or an SMS (in the US) when the search changes.” Though, it seems Burnham is looking for “an end-to-end Persistent Search offering that enables consumer-friendly, comprehensive, real-time, automatic updates across multiple distribution channels at a viable cost. ”