This week’s search engine scene, as mapped by Pandia:

• ComScore: YouTube Now 25 Percent Of All Google Searches

  Video search on YouTube accounts for a quarter of all Google search queries in the U.S. (TechCrunch Dec 18 2008)

• A Look-See at Yahoo’s New Open and Social Launch!

  A lot of the new open and social elements that Yahoo has long said it was injecting into its most popular products. (BoomTown Dec 16 2008)

• Google Webmaster Tools Now In 40 Languages!

  Google Webmaster Tools has announced, the addition of 14 more languages, taking the count to 40 languages! (PageTraffic Dec 17 2008)

• What the Economic Times Mean for Link Building

  We’re seeing stories about how to get the most out of your search campaigns right now, looking for SEO opportunities in tough economic situations, and big brand SEM strategies. (SEO Speedwagon Dec 17 2008)

• What Is BlackHat SEO? 5 Definitions

  SEOrefugee thread opened up a great discussion on what BlackHat SEO literally is. (SE Journal Dec 17 2008)

• SearchBiz: Microsoft Search General Manager Brad Goldberg Leaving, Twitter Gets Serious About Revenue & Google Gives Good License

  There is much speculation about what Microsoft may do with its Kumo domain/brand (SE Land Dec 17 2008)

• Yahoo One-Ups Google With 90 Day Data Retention Policy

  Yahoo has announced they will be anonymizing their user log data to 90 days, compared to Google’s policy of 9 months. (SE Land Dec 17 2008)

• How to Protect Your Online Privacy and/or Access Blocked Sites

  Many sites are blocked in some countries. SE Journal tells you how to get around the barriers (Dec 18 2008)

• Images in Search Engine Results

  SEO by the Sea looks at a Microsoft patent on what images to present in search results (Dec 19 2008)

• Matt Cutts Take On SEM & 2009

  In a recent interview Matt Cutts of Google elaborated on every possible query that was related to everything expected from Google in the coming years! (PageTraffic Dec 19 2008)

• Google Optimizes Search Results for iPhone & Android Users

  Google has improved mobile search results for iPhone and Android users (MarketingPilgrim Dec 19 2008)

• Black Googlers Network: building community

  Google has more than a dozen employee-driven resource groups, from Gayglers to GWE (Google Women Engineers) (Google Blog Dec 19 2008)

• Microsoft Fast Says Google Not a Threat

  Microsoft Fast does not see Google’s enterprise initiatives as a threat. Beyond Search does not agree. (Dec 17 2008)

• Windows Live drops the ball on support

  Getting help from Microsoft is close to impossible, Ed Bott argues (Dec 17 2008)

• Top 10 Alternative Search Engines of 2008

  2008 is the year that the ubiquitous white homepage with a rectangular search box in the middle finally jumped the shark. (AltSearchEngines Dec 19 2008)

• comScore Releases November 2008 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

  Google Sites led the U.S. core search market in November with 63.5 percent of the searches conducted (chron.com Dec 19 2008)

• Digg: A Case Study in Cost Control

  My hope is that the losses or negative cash flow that Digg is experiencing will focus more attention on the challenge of Internet economics. (BeyondSearch Dec 20 2008)

• Google Image Search adds new functionality

  It’s now possible to use Google Image Search to search for line drawings and clip art. (Phil Bradley Dec 20 2008)