Relevant Results

Google is ready to unveil a feature that lets you check out a site on its search-results page before clicking through.

Search previews are scheduled to go live later today around the world, although it may take some time to roll out on a computer screen near you. Google tipped its hand a few weeks ago when it started testing the feature, but enough testing has taken place for it to formally go live, said Jeremy Silber, tech lead and manager of Web search features.

Google is calling this instant preview, Silber said. At some point today, Google searchers will … Read more

It didn't take very long for 70 Holdings--and a similar site tied to a Los Angeles-based search-engine optimization company--to start spamming Google News again.

Last week, after CNET pointed out that a company called 70 Holdings Inc. was spamming Google News under the moniker of Red Label News, Google pulled that content from its site. However, over the weekend 70 Holdings popped back up using one of the 44 domains it owns to once again flood Google News with the same type of nearly empty stories tied to search-friendly keywords and advertising.

Brooke Crothers, our chip correspondent, spotted a … Read more

Google is putting its data liberation philosophy to work in a direct slap at Facebook.

Techcrunch noticed last night that Google made a subtle change to a paragraph in the guidelines that govern how external services can let their users import contacts data from Google. Now those services will have to allow their users to export that data in a manner similar to how Google handles data export, which means Facebook will have to change its policy if it wants to allow users to morph Gmail contacts with Facebook friends.

Facebook has long resisted the notion of allowing people to … Read more

Google Instant has made its way to the mobile phone--at least two of them.

Google searchers in the U.S. using the iPhone and Android phones will start seeing Google Instant show up on their devices over the course of today, Google said in a blog post. It's a beta release, meaning Google doesn't want you to get mad at them if it doesn't work exactly right, and unlike the desktop version, you have to turn it on in order to see results as you type. It only works at Google.com in your mobile browser, but … Read more

Red Label News is not exactly a household name. But yesterday afternoon, it was one of the top news sources on Google News for stories about Apple's iTunes song previews.

How'd that happen? Red Label News, it appears, is a cleverly designed collection of links and headlines meant to game Google News rankings.

CNET stumbled upon Red Label News after doing one of the most basic Google searches: the vanity search. In this case, we were attempting to figure out how many news outlets were writing about Apple's decision to extend iTunes song previews to 90 seconds, … Read more

Twitter has scored some of the most prime advertising real estate on the Internet: Google's search pages.

In what Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan called a first, Google has agreed to show Twitter's promoted tweets on its real-time search results page. The companies will share revenue from clicks on those ads, Sullivan confirmed with Google, although the nature of the split wasn't disclosed.

Twitter allows businesses to purchase ads in the form of tweets that show up at the top of search results for a given topic. Those ads will also now appear in Google search … Read more

Symbian, the mobile operating system that's huge in Europe but an afterthought elsewhere, has received a boost from its friends at home.

Symbian has been declared "The Embedded Operating System for Europe" by a consortium of European countries and companies, who have agreed to invest a total of 22 million euros (about $31 million at last count), 11 million euros of which will come directly from the European Commission. The idea is the "development of next generation technologies for the Symbian platform," wrote Richard Collins, technology manager for the Symbian Foundation, in a blog post.… Read more

Google's Chrome OS project is almost ready for the masses, according to a report.

Digitimes said today that hardware companies in Asia are putting the finishing touches on smartbooks running Chrome OS, with the intention of shipping them later this month. Acer and Hewlett Packard are expected to launch Chrome OS systems in December, Digitimes said.

One interesting tidbit is that Google reportedly plans on selling a Chrome OS smartbook (an ill-defined term that seems to reflect an improved Netbook) under its own brand, similar to what it tried to do with the Nexus One. CEO Eric Schmidt hinted earlier in the year … Read more

Google likes to think of itself as the world's information barometer, the most complete repository of human intent as measured by the Internet search query. Around every hour it updates a list of the queries it has determined are spiking disproportionately due to breaking news, seasonal holidays, or pop culture phenomena.

Google has recently started to promote this list more prominently than in the past, with a weekly Google Beat YouTube series and frequent references to trending topics on its official blog. But how does something become a trend on Google? We spent yesterday monitoring the U.S. version … Read more