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Google makes subtle home page changes

Google has introduced changes to the homepage to simplify it more. The Google search box has been super-sized and features larger text that allows users to type easily and quickly. The new box uses a larger text size for the suggestions below the search box to help you refine your search.

'Google Internet Stats' launched

Google has created a landing page named Google Internet Stats. The page is a collection of statistics from various sources about technology, consumer trends, media consumption and so on. You can get random stats, search for stats and submit your own statistic.

Bing’s US Search Market Increases to 10%

August figures from Neilson online show that Bing’s US market share increased to 10.7% in August, making it the fastest growing search engine. Google’s US market share also increased over the period, rising to 65% (in the UK Google has over 90% market share). Bing appears to be taking market share away from Yahoo and the other search engines.

Twitter is more popular with over-50s than under-24s

Research from Neilsen online shows that 50-64 year olds make up 22% of the entire UK Twitter audience, whilst 18-24 year olds make up just 11%. The largest share of the UK audience is 35-49 year olds who make up 33%, with 25-34 year olds making up 22%.

Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking

Google has recently confirmed on the Google Webmaster Central blog for the first time that it no longer uses meta keywords as a factor in its search algorithm.  Yahoo and Ask still use the tag in their search engines; however its influence is minimal, so the meta keyword tag could soon be a thing of the past.