Microsoft Says Don’t Get Scroogled This Holiday Season, but Bing Is Not So Scot-Free

Bing zings: “Don’t get Scroogled this holiday season.”
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What Will Marissa Do?: Yahoo CEO Zeroes in on Search, While Her Ad Team Eyes Tech Upgrade Options

Free food and iPhones do not a turnaround make. Now it’s time for the hard part of remaking the Silicon Valley giant.

News Byte

After Chrome Ads Flap, Google Puts Itself in the Penalty Box

Google, which says it had no idea it was paying bloggers to promote its Chrome browser, is punishing itself for doing so. The search giant tells Danny Sullivan it will penalize the “pagerank” of www.google.com/chrome for “at least 60 days.” Google has blamed the pay-per-post campaign on ad network Unruly Media, but says “Google should be held to a higher standard, so we have taken stricter action than we would against a typical site.”

Google’s Ad Company (Which Isn’t Google) Explains What’s Up With Those Chrome Ads

No big deal, says Unruly Media CEO Scott Button — we do this stuff all the time.

Nerd Out With Google’s Search Gurus (Video)

In a rare joint public appearance, Google’s Amit Singhal, Ben Gomes and Matt Cutts dove deeply into the big issues facing search.

A White-Knuckle Ride In Google-Driven Car (Video)

What’s it like to be a passenger in one of Google’s self-driving cars? Pretty cool! Also, kinda scary! (Plus: Bonus Gene Hackman video!)

"Beyond the Search Box": The White Pleather Honeypot Smackdown

Perusing AOL’s leaked damn-the-journalism-full-speed-ahead business plan, BoomTown was a little late to the Microsoft Bing event this morning called “Farsight: Beyond the Search Box.” But things had certainly been cooking with gas when I walked into the meeting room at the University of San Francisco, including allegations of cheating, honeypot stings and a whole lot of insulting of the hosts. Schweeet!

Google Pushing Chrome So Hard It's Buying…Print Ads?

Google has so much money and is so intent on pushing its Chrome browser that it’s willing to put marketing dollars into the weirdest places. Like a print newspaper.

News Byte

Promoted Tweets Graduate to Google

Quite the week for the paid ads that Twitter calls Promoted Tweets. First they start showing up uninvited in some users’ timelines in a test ahead of a broader rollout. And over the next couple of days, they’ll start to appear along with certain query results in Google’s Realtime Search. This is the first time that ads from an outside network will appear on Google, reports Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land, and the revenue will be split 50-50.

No Nudes For You: Google Instant's Erratic Prudish Streak

Google’s new “Instant” search feature can read your mind. But if you’re thinking about something dirty, it doesn’t want to know. Or, more accurately, it doesn’t want to tell you about it. What happens when you match it up against George Carlin and the infamous seven words?

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