There are a large number of great search engine oriented sites out there and you should really follow them all, right?

But who has the time?

Well, we do (sort of), and we love to give you the most essential search engine news headlines.

This is the most interesting search buzz we found this week:

• Google ready to pursue its agenda in Washington

  Another inauguration took place in Washington this week — Google Inc. officially became a political power player. (LA Times Jan 24 2009)

• Google Earth 2.0: Google Ocean?

  Google plans to host a press conference on San Francisco on Feb. 2, for a special announcement about Google Earth. (AppScout Jan 23 2009)

• Wikipedia May Restrict Public’s Ability to Change Entries

  Wikipedia appears ready to introduce a system that prevents new and anonymous users from instantly publishing changes to the online encyclopedia. (NYT Jan 23 2009)

• What’s New in Google World

  New products from Google (Google Tutor Jan 21 2009)

• Mednar is rated the #1 Health search engine

  Mednar (still in beta) debuted in November 2008, as a one-stop federated search engine designed for professional medical researchers. (AltSearchEngines Jan 21 2009)

• Fast Changes: Ancient Norse Myth Becomes Reality

  As Google rose after yesterday’s financial results, Microsoft Fast’s prospects appear to have dipped down. (Beyond Search Jan 23 2009)

• Global hotel search engine launched by iXiGO

  India’s largest travel search engine just announced the launch of the world’s biggest hotel search engine (AltSearchEngines Jan 24 2009)

• Google Web Drive and Cosmo Discussed in Deleted Document

  Google Blogoscoped has found a large number of documents referring to the mysterious Platypus GDrive (Jan 20 2009)

• The Hyves Hype!

  Peculiar method for finding out whether a domain has been penalized by Google (Mediadonis Jan 20 2009)

• Cost-cutting Google scraps newspaper ad program

  Google Inc. is giving up on selling print ads for the ailing newspaper industry (AP Jan 21 2009)

• Optimizing your very large site for search — Part 1

  One way to control the growth of URLs is to ensure that you are only exposing one URL per piece of content. (Live Search Webmaster Center Blog Jan 19 2009)

• Britannica 2.0 Adapts Wikipedia Model, Attacks Google SERPs

  Britannica online 2.0 is ready to roll out, and among its new features would allow users to edit, enhance, and contribute to the online encylopedia. (SE Journal Jan 22 2009)

• Steve Ballmer’s Entire Memo to the Microsoft Troops About Layoffs and Weak Results

  BoomTown Jan 22 2009

• Why your SEO toolbar sucks big time

  Why most search engine optimization metrics are totally useless (SEO Theory Jan 22 2009)

• Google Announced Q4 Earnings; Getting Back to its Fighting Weight

  Google has released its Q4 numbers–beating Wall Street expectations–and in the process has admitted that it can no longer continue to milk its fat search engine cow. (MP Jan 23 2009)

• Facebook Twice as Big as MySpace?

  comScore’s latest report claims that not only is Facebook bigger than MySpace, it’s twice as big! (Marketing Pilgrim Jan 23 2009)

• Google Puts The Squeeze On Free Apps

  Google Apps is a suite of online applications like gmail, Google calendar, Google Docs, etc. that are packaged and tailored for business use. (TechCrunch Jan 23 2009)

• Google CEO Hints at Semantic, Contextual Search

  May Google use XML and RDF data from semantic networks to disambiguate search queries and Web text to improve search results. (Google Watch Jan 23 2009)

• No Surprise: Google Is No. 1 Internet Property Worldwide

  comScore says Google is the most popular Internet property in the world, with its sites reaching 77% of the online population that’s 15-years-old and up in December, 2008. (SE Land Jan 23 2009)

• Microsoft Still Wants Yahoo Search

  Yeah, we need someone to give Google competition. But ultimately, it may not be Yahoo, Microsoft or any combination thereof that can stave off a complete Google monopoly. (Marketing Pilgrim Jan 23 2009)

• Yahoo! To Freeze Wages: Is It A Blunder?

  Yahoo! is already losing talented people (Page Traffic Jan 24 2009)

• Google Testing Site Fav Icons in Search Results?

  Captures of Google possibly adding favorite icons on the left hand side of the display URL in the search results (SE Roundtable Jan 25 2009)

• Publishers using Ask.com ads to get around AdSense rules

  Publishers booted out of the AdSense network use Ask.com branded Google ads to display ads on their website. (JenSense Jan 24 2009)

• How Google Is Making Us Smarter

  Your mind is more than your brain: Google is part of your extende mind (Discover Jan 15 2009)