Google has launched a new feature in its search results, which displays results that are deemed "similar" to the query. If you search for eBay, for example, you may get results for Craigslist, uBid, Buy.com, and ebayanuncios.es.

Basically, if someone searches for a brand, there is a good chance Google will inject links to the competition on that results page by default (though at the bottom).

It’s actually not a new feature entirely. "We’ve offered a ‘Similar’ feature on results for a while now as a way to discover new, useful sites, but it hasn’t been too visible," says Google software engineer Doantam Phan. "Since we’ve been continuously improving this feature and we think it’s really useful, we’re now going to start showing these alternative sites more prominently."

I thought it would be interesting to see what pages Google thinks are similar to Google itself and some of its competitors. When I searched "google" I didn’t get any similar pages. When I searched "bing", I got the following:

For "facebook" I got the following:

For Yahoo, I got the following:

I find it interesting that Google deems Bing to be more like Dogpile than Google or even Yahoo. It’s also worth noting that Gmail is in the mix for Facebook, with Buzz presumably being the connecting factor, which is interesting in itself since Buzz is more like FriendFeed than Facebook, and Facebook actually owns FriendFeed, but that’s not listed (while Microsoft.com is listed as similar to Bing).

Google has launched a new feature in its search results, which displays results that are deemed "similar" to the query. If you search for eBay, for example, you may get results for Craigslist, uBid, Buy.com, and ebayanuncios.es.

Basically, if someone searches for a brand, there is a good chance Google will inject links to the competition on that results page by default (though at the bottom).

It’s actually not a new feature entirely. "We’ve offered a ‘Similar’ feature on results for a while now as a way to discover new, useful sites, but it hasn’t been too visible," says Google software engineer Doantam Phan. "Since we’ve been continuously improving this feature and we think it’s really useful, we’re now going to start showing these alternative sites more prominently."

I thought it would be interesting to see what pages Google thinks are similar to Google itself and some of its competitors. When I searched "google" I didn’t get any similar pages. When I searched "bing", I got the following:

For "facebook" I got the following:

For Yahoo, I got the following:

I find it interesting that Google deems Bing to be more like Dogpile than Google or even Yahoo. It’s also worth noting that Gmail is in the mix for Facebook, with Buzz presumably being the connecting factor, which is interesting in itself since Buzz is more like FriendFeed than Facebook, and Facebook actually owns FriendFeed, but that’s not listed (while Microsoft.com is listed as similar to Bing).

Two months ago, Xerox sued Google and Yahoo for patent infringement, and the two defendants haven’t responded by pulling out their checkbooks.  They’ve instead taken the interesting (though not unexpected) step of making counterclaims.

Apparently Google and Yahoo are willing to accept either of a couple explanations for why they’re not guilty of infringement.  Reuters reported, "In filings in Delaware federal court on Thursday, the defendants sought declarations that they did not infringe the two patents at issue, or variantly that the patents are invalid and thus cannot be enforced by Xerox."

That’s a rather interesting approach, but one that’s hard to argue with.  It’ll allow Google and Yahoo’s lawyers to look for loopholes even as they claim that the patents are too broad (one covers generating queries based on keyword searches, while the other relates to updating pages based on user reviews).

Also, even if the tactic seems a little unrefined, a whole lot of products – including AdSense, AdWords, Google Maps, Google Video, YouTube, the Yahoo Publisher Network, Yahoo Search Marketing, Yahoo Shopping, and the Y!Q Contextual Search tool – might be affected by the outcome of this case, so it’s natural that Google and Yahoo would explore all possibilities.

We’ll continue to keep you updated on how these cases progress, although there’s no reason to believe that the matter will be resolved in the near future.

Quite often, a Yahoo loss works out to be a Google win, and it would come as no surprise to see the second company make the first fight its own legal battles.  But Google – along with several other organizations – is attempting to help Yahoo, now, as the Department of Justice is pressing for access to certain Yahoo Mail messages.

Late last year, Yahoo was ordered to turn over some emails, with the idea being that emails in "electronic storage" weren’t as protected as messages on people’s computers.  The company declined to share everything, and a fight with the DOJ erupted as a result.

Yahoo, Google, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Progress and Freedom Foundation, and TRUSTe believe Yahoo took the correct approach, though.

So as reported by Declan McCullagh, these organizations stated yesterday in a friend-of-the-court brief, "Society expects and relies on the privacy of e-mail messages just as it relies on the privacy of the telephone system.  Indeed, the largest e-mail services are popular precisely because they offer users huge amounts of computer disk space in the Internet ‘cloud’ within which users can warehouse their e-mails for perpetual storage."

A win or loss here could have a significant effect on the reputation of cloud computing, then.

Two important legal decisions were made this week that could have significant impact on technology startups.

On Tuesday, a U.S. Federal Appeals Court determined that the FCC had overstepped its regulatory authority in demanding that Comcast cease its “throttling” of peer-to-peer service users. And on Wednesday, the U.K. House of Commons approved the “Digital Economy Bill“, which grants sweeping regulatory power to the British government, including the ability to block websites and punish consumers and companies who are found to violate copyright law.

Sponsor

The Federal Appeals Court decision calls into question the reach of the FCC, and raises questions about the future of a number of policy plans for the Obama Administration, including the National Broadband Plan. Austin Schlick writes on the broadband plan’s official blog that several recommendations from the plan may be impacted, including “supporting robust use of broadband by small businesses to drive productivity, growth and ongoing innovation; lowering barriers that hinder broadband deployment; strengthening public safety communications; cybersecurity; consumer protection, including transparency and disclosure; and consumer privacy.”

The British bill has seen widespread opposition from numerous sectors, including Facebook, Google, and Yahoo, and some are contending that it will have a chilling effect on startups in the UK.

Both of these decisions point to the high stakes involved with securing “net neutrality” – both for consumers and businesses alike. Although there is by no means unanimity on what, if any, role governments should have in regulating technology ideas and infrastructure, few would disagree that startups benefit from a climate that fosters technological and business innovation. Furthermore, all businesses, not merely ones in the technology sector, are becoming dependent on quick access to the Internet for their ability to develop, deliver and distribute their services to customers.

Fred Wilson argues in a post on his blog today that perhaps it is time to reframe the terms of the debate, moving away from the phrase “net neutrality” and instead to argue on behalf of “internet freedom.” He writes “Internet Freedom is about sustaining the era of permissionless innovation that has characterized the first fifteen years of the commercial Internet in this country and brought us thousands of new big profitable companies, millions of jobs, and a vast array of new services and devices that have changed our lives and made them better.”

As courts, legislatures, and agencies try to create policies around digital technologies, how will new startups be effected?

Discuss

The Center for Digital Democracy, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), and the World Privacy Forum may have just created some problems for Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other companies that deal in online ads.  Together, they submitted a complaint about the companies to the Federal Trade Commission today.

The first part of a 32-page letter stated, "Recent developments in online profiling and behavioral targeting . . . have all contributed to what is now standard practice online.  A vast ecosystem of online advertising and data auctions and exchanges, demand- and supply-side platforms, and the increasing use of third-party data providers that bring offline information to Internet profiling and targeting, operates without the awareness or consent of users."

The complaint then continued, "This massive and stealth data collection apparatus threatens user privacy.  It also robs individual users of the ability to reap the financial benefits of their own data – while publishers, ad exchangers and information brokers (so-called ‘ad optimizers’) profitably cash in on this information."

So the three organizations behind the letter would like to see certain procedures only allowed on an opt-in basis.  There’s a mention of financial compensation for consumers, too, and a few other requests that relate to openness and transparency.

This may not get too far; the manner in which online ads work is indeed standard practice, and regulators don’t seem likely to flip the system on its head after all this time.  Still, all of the companies named in the complaint – and perhaps Google in particular – aren’t liable to enjoy the extra attention from the FTC.

About one month ago, Google and Yahoo joined the Australian Library and Information Association and the Inspire Foundation in protesting an Internet filter that’s meant to affect all of Australia.  Now, the country’s government has processed their submissions, and the situation has started to receive a lot more attention.

The Sydney Morning Herald published an article today titled "Google, Yahoo slam web filtering plan."  The article quoted Google as stating, "[M]oving to a mandatory ISP level filtering regime with a scope that goes well beyond such material is heavy-handed and can raise genuine questions about restrictions on access to information."

Of course, Google didn’t go on to deliver any ultimatums (we’d have reported that in February), and the word "China" is nowhere to be found in the 24-page document.

Still, it’s hard to ignore such language given what’s happened in China, and the Australian government may now feel compelled to take Google’s complaints more seriously.  Even if there’s no chance that Google would do something like redirect searchers to Google.com.hk, the search giant could use an unbuilt data center as a bargaining chip.

Australia’s elected officials should hardly want to get lumped in with China’s leaders, anyway.

Internet users who click on links posted on Facebook that lead to news and media websites are more loyal to those portals than those coming from Google News, according to new data from Hitwise.

Among the most popular top 5 print media websites for the week ending March 6, 78 percent of Facebook users were returning visitors compared to 67 percent from Google news. The same was true for broadcast media, with 77 percent returning for Facebook compared to 64 percent for Google News.

Heather Hopkins, Senior Online Analyst, Hitwise, collected the numbers using clickstream data. The metric reports the percentage of visits by source (i.e. Google, Yahoo! Google News, Facebook, etc) that were new versus returning. New visitors are defined as those that haven’t visited the site within the past 30 days.

"Interestingly, visitors from Google are less likely to be returning visitors than average for either Google News or Facebook," said Hopkins.

"This reinforces the long term value to News and Media organizations of working with the likes of Google News and Facebook."
 

A Google exec recently said, "In three years’ time, desktops will be irrelevant." That’s debatable, but there’s no question that mobile use will have grown much more than it already has. Based on comments in a recent keynote, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer doesn’t seem to think PC use is going to drop too much, but he did say, "Mobile queries are just going to keep going up and up and up."

Do you think desktops will be irrelevant in 3 years? Share your thoughts here.

A study released last month found that the number of mobile phone subscribers is on track to increase from 4.6 billion to 5 billion globally by the end of 2010. Another study found that consumers are getting more comfortable with mobile shopping.

Mobile Search

Google has dominated the search market for a long time, and while this still continues to be the case, it’s important to note that search in general changes with mobile. People are searching in different ways than just using their favorite search engines. They’re using different apps. They’re using their voices. They’re scanning barcodes for instant access to product information. The number of ways people are finding information with their phones is only going to keep increasing. On mobile, it’s not just about Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

That’s not to say these three aren’t still incredibly important to mobile. In fact, the search share among these top search engines may even become more greatly divided as time goes on. We’re seeing different mobile carriers and manufacturers making deals with these companies, which affect the default search options for various devices. As we discussed before, mobile search engine use may be largely dictated by device popularity, which is (in my opinion) one of the biggest things Bing will have going in its favor in terms of market share – Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 phones will come with Bing hardware keys, meaning the most convenient way to search on these devices will likely be to hit a single button taking the user to Bing. If these devices become popular, it could be huge for Microsoft in search.

As far as Google indexing and mobile sites goes, Google’s Matt Cutts says, "If you can find a way where your existing site will work well in mobile browsers, we’re not worrying about supporting two completely different sites."

To learn about this subject in more detail, read the Google Webmaster Central Blog posts: Help Google Index Your Mobile Site, and Running Desktop and Mobile Versions of Your Site.

Mobile Search Advertising

When it comes to AdWords, Google says to create separate, mobile-focused campaigns so you can optimize keywords, ad text, and landing pages for people using mobile devices. Google shared an interesting case study this week looking at Razorfish’s mobile AdWords approach. They shared the following details:

- The Razorfish team started by duplicating the existing desktop campaigns and switching the settings to target mobile devices with full internet browsers.

- Since their client had a well-known brand name, they focused on branded keyword terms with enough traffic to help them learn quickly about what was working best for their campaigns.

- To measure performance, they tracked several conversion metrics including whether a mobile user looked up the brick and mortar store location or downloaded a coupon from the website. Right away, they saw a 7.5% lower cost per conversion on mobile devices, encouraging them to test ways to optimize their mobile campaigns.

- Razorfish tested whether variations in the campaign’s landing page would affect conversion rates. The team hypothesized that mobile users might be looking to take a specific action, and by starting the user’s experience closer to that action, the client would see better results. As it turned out, for this client, they saw much higher conversion rates when the user was directed to a landing page that showed nearby store locations.

- Finally, they tested variations in the ad text. Four versions of ad text were tested, including the original copy used in desktop campaigns. Each of the three new versions provided over 9.3% lift in conversion rate over the strongest performing copy in their desktop campaigns.

When it comes to Yahoo and Microsoft search advertising, things are about to get more appealing here in general, and presumably, that includes mobile. Microsoft and Yahoo advertisers will have the audiences of both search engines to view ads once Yahoo and Bing get their integration done.

Wrapping Up

One of the most important things any search marketer can do with regards to a mobile strategy, is to simply keep up with the latest mobile trends and innovations. This space is rapidly evolving, and new apps are released frequently. Pay attention to hot apps, and how your target audience is engaging with them. What devices, operating systems, and browsers are hot? Monitor studies and surveys that delve into demographics. Try to stay ahead of the curve.

Do you have a mobile search strategy? What suggestions do you have for improving in this area? Comment.

Watch the Keynote live at live.webpronews.com.

At SMX West in Santa Clara, the State of the Search Union keynote is taking place today. It’s moderated by Chris Sherman, Executive Editor of Search Engine Land, and features SEL Contributing Editor Vanessa Fox, Google Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik, Yahoo Director of Search Marketing David Roth, and Misty Locke, President, Range Online Media and Chief Strategy Officer of iProspect. The official description for this keynote says:

We’ve just come through the most turbulent period in history for search marketers. Economic disruption, massive algorithm updates, the disappearance of a major player through consolidation with one of its former competitors… these events and others have reshaped the search landscape, creating both challenges and opportunities for search marketers. On this panel we’ve assembled some of the sharpest minds in search to discuss where things stand and where we’re going – you won’t want to miss the insights and recommendations from this group of super-savvy panelists.

I will liveblog the event below, when it starts 9:00am Pacific/12:00pm Eastern (please forgive typos):

Liveblogging starts:

12:00 EST: should be starting anytime now…

12:03 People are taking the stage…getting set up with audio…

12:04

Although Google’s undoubtedly best known for dominating the traditional search market, the company’s no slouch when it comes to mobile.  New stats from Opera indicate that Google has a huge lead over its closest rival, and that its other well-funded competitor barely enters the equation.

According to the latest Opera State of the Mobile Report, Google’s search portal accounts "for more than 9% of all page views on the mobile Web."  Obviously, that’s impressive.

Moving on, things take a turn for the ho-hum.  Yahoo can only claim 4.3 percent of page views, which isn’t bad, just kind of embarrassing next to Google’s twice-as-large share.

Finally, we arrive at something shameful.  To quantify Bing’s share, Opera had to consider an extra place to the right of the decimal point.  The final number: 0.03 percent, which is one three-hundredth of Google’s share.

Google hasn’t quite taken over the world, however.  Jon von Tetzchner, Opera’s cofounder, said in a statement, "While Google performs well globally, we also see several local search engines, such as Yandex in Russia and Ukraine, and Baidu in China, have impressive results in their key markets."

Yahoo said early Wednesday it has entered into a partnership with Twitter that will integrate real-time tweets across the Yahoo network.

Users will be able to access their personal Twitter feeds on the Yahoo homepage, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Sports, and other areas. Yahoo users will also be able to update their Twitter status from Yahoo and share content in their Twitter feed.

"The information in one single tweet can travel light-years farther with this Yahoo! integration," said Twitter cofounder, Biz Stone. "Tweets in more places brings relevance where and when you need it most."

While Twitter seemingly wants to be everywhere on the Web as it has search deals with Microsoft’s Bing and Google, Yahoo is trying to dive deeper into the social realm and become the go-to property for all things social.

Yahoo reached a similar deal with Facebook in December that is expected to roll out in the first half of this year. Users will be able to connect with Facebook friends on Yahoo, view a feed of their friends’ activity, and share content such as photos from Flickr or comment on news stories.

The move by Yahoo is also part of its Open Strategy which Jim Stoneham, vice president of Communities for Yahoo said is "aimed at making experiences dramatically more open and personally relevant for the more than 600 million people that visit Yahoo each month."

"Let me try to capture the enormity of this integration in 140 characters or less: We’re turning the key to the online social universe – you will find the most personally relevant experiences through Yahoo!," said Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president, consumer products group, Yahoo!.

"We’re also simplifying people’s lives by bringing their social worlds – and the world — together for easy access."

Who do you think will see the most benefit from this partnership? Yahoo or Twitter?
 

Google and Yahoo get sued on a regular basis, often by tiny outfits with no chance of winning.  But now, the two companies are facing a much more serious lawsuit, as Xerox, which has a market cap of almost $8 billion and a genuine legal team, is taking them to court.

Xerox claims that Google and Yahoo have infringed on two patents it holds.  Susan Decker explained earlier this morning, "One patent, issued in 2004, is for a way to automatically generate a query based on keyword searches. . . .  The second patent, issued in 2001, is for a way of updating pages based on user reviews."

Xerox would like to be compensated for Google and Yahoo’s alleged infringement, and also wants to bar them from using the tech again without its consent (which could probably be obtained via a licensing agreement).

Of course, Google and Yahoo aren’t liable to hand Xerox a blank check.  One of Google’s lawyers has already described Xerox’s claims as being "without merit," and Carol Bartz isn’t the type to shy from a fight.

This could turn into quite a legal battle, then, and the operation of AdSense, AdWords, Google Maps, Google Video, YouTube, the Yahoo Publisher Network, Yahoo Search Marketing, Yahoo Shopping, and the Y!Q Contextual Search tool might be affected by the outcome.

Google and Yahoo get sued on a regular basis, often by tiny outfits with no chance of winning.  But now, the two companies are facing a much more serious lawsuit, as Xerox, which has a market cap of almost $8 billion and a genuine legal team, is taking them to court.

Xerox claims that Google and Yahoo have infringed on two patents it holds.  Susan Decker explained earlier this morning, "One patent, issued in 2004, is for a way to automatically generate a query based on keyword searches. . . .  The second patent, issued in 2001, is for a way of updating pages based on user reviews."

Xerox would like to be compensated for Google and Yahoo’s alleged infringement, and also wants to bar them from using the tech again without its consent (which could probably be obtained via a licensing agreement).

Of course, Google and Yahoo aren’t liable to hand Xerox a blank check.  One of Google’s lawyers has already described Xerox’s claims as being "without merit," and Carol Bartz isn’t the type to shy from a fight.

This could turn into quite a legal battle, then, and the operation of AdSense, AdWords, Google Maps, Google Video, YouTube, the Yahoo Publisher Network, Yahoo Search Marketing, Yahoo Shopping, and the Y!Q Contextual Search tool might be affected by the outcome.