marissa-mayer

Google beefs up local offering with Zagat purchase

Google’s made yet another addition to the ever-expanding Mountain View empire, this time in the form of Zagat, a heralded restaurant review service established over 20 years before Google became a household name. Marissa Mayer, vice president of local, maps and location services for the search seraph, announced the acquisition on the Official Google Blog today. “I’m thrilled that Google has acquired Zagat,” Mayer said. “Moving forward, Zagat will be a cornerstone of our local offering – delighting people with their impressive array of reviews, ratings and insights, while enabling people everywhere to find extraordinary (and ordinary) experiences around the corner and around the world.” Meanwhile, Zagat posted its enthusiasm directly to its front page. The “dynamic duo” hopes to “optimise the potential of the Zagat brand while offering new ways for consumers to express their opinions and make informed decisions.” Zagat began its history of collecting and publishing consumer reviews in 1979, which the company said has empowered consumers. In the digital age, the company started dedicated websites for US cities such as New York, LA and Chicago, but also international cities such as London and Paris. Google’s long been on the lookout for consumer reviews to add to its repertoire, as evidenced by its stunted takeover bid for Yelp at the tail-end of 2009. Such an acquisition in 2011 could potentially bulk up the firm’s new social service, Google+, for check-ins, recommendations and more – ramping up competition with arch-rival Facebook

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Google beefs up local offering with Zagat purchase

marissa-mayer

On Tuesday, Google launched the latest version of its Google Image Search.

In a press conference at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco, Google vice president of search products Marissa Mayer said that the new version of Google Image Search would be even more powerful and leverage more tools to help users find the images they want.

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On Tuesday, Google launched the latest version of its Google Image Search.

marissa-mayer

Google plans UI changes for 2010

While Google has been criticized recently for being slow to update their UI, Search Engine Land reports that there are some changes planned for 2010. Google vice president of search product and user experience Marissa Mayer outlined several changes that are being planned to the UI, including adding a permanent left-hand column for search options, allowing the user to switch between All Results, Images, News and more.

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Google plans UI changes for 2010

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Factery Labs gives Web surfers "just the facts"

A new search engine has emerged as a challenger to Google’s throne, but this one is taking a radically different approach to Internet searches. ReadWriteWeb reports that a new API service called Factery Labs is launching today, and as its name indicates, what it cares most about is “just the facts.”

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Factery Labs gives Web surfers "just the facts"

marissa-mayer

Nielsen numbers released for U.S. searches in October

According to data from The Nielsen Company, Americans conducted more than 10.2 billion searches on the top search engines in October 2009 with the majority (66.1 percent) of them taking place on Google.

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Nielsen numbers released for U.S. searches in October

marissa-mayer

Yahoo! Introduces Mobile en Español

Yahoo! announced today the launch of Yahoo! Mobile en Espa