Is Google’s Social Search as creepy as Halloween? That’s one of the topics found in this week’s search engine news. You will get our response on Tuesday. While waiting you may like to take a look at these stories:

• Google’s Creepy Social Search

  Google released Social Search, which prioritizes results from your friends’ Twitter feeds, FriendFeed updates, Facebook pages, LinkedIn profiles, and Picasa libraries. (PCMag Oct 10 2009)

• Bing loses users faster than impressions, says Chitika

  Users’ share down to 5.44% in October from 6.7% in August (CBR Oct 30 2009)

• Google quashes rumours it’s making an Android handset

  Google’s Android chief has put the kibosh on rumours that the search giant is creating its own phone. (cnet UK Oct 31 2009)

• Chinese Newspaper Accuses Google of ‘Malicious Revenge’

  The official newspaper of the Chinese communist party has accused Google of intentionally blocking access to its website by displaying an allegedly unnecessary malware warning (ISE db Oct 30 2009)

• Revisiting Google Squared

  The idea is simple – you tell it what you want to find, it creates a matrix filled with goodies based on what it discovers. (Phil Bradley Oct 30 2009)

• Social Media Accounts for 18% of Information Search Market

  Social media sites such as Wikipedia, blogs, and social networks account for 18% of where searches begin (PR 2.0 Oct 28 2009)

• Google Sidewiki Now Available on Google Chrome, Apple Safari

  With the Sidewiki bookmarklet, you can utilize Google Sidewiki on any browser, even if you don’t have the Google Toolbar installed. (Google Watch Oct 29 2009)

• 4 New Google Docs Features Rock Document Management!

  This week, Google Docs introduced a cool new way to download a large number of documents out of Google Docs, onto your hard drive. (Google Tutor Oct 29 2009)

• The Risks of Personalized Social Search

  The clueless searcher will get results and assume that their search expertise has returned exactly what the user wanted. Wrong. (Beyond Search Oct 28 2009)

• Bing fiascos continue

  I really want to like Bing. Really I do. However, they insist on ensuring that I can regard them as nothing more than also rans in the search game. (Phil Bradley Oct 24 2009)

• Twitter Job search engine & Biosearch

  On the basis of semantic filtering-techniques jobtweet.de enables you to search twitter-posts (”tweets”) for job openings. (AltSearchEngines Oct 23 2009)

• Media search engine Spezify – a Rising Star of the North!

  In addition to more media types, more useful functions has been added, such as better search result filtering, zooming, ability to save and send favourites and more. (AltSearchEngines Oct 23 2009)

• Google’s Halloween-Themed Robots.txt

  User-agent: Kids Disallow: /tricks Allow: /treats (Google Blogoscoped Oct 31 2009)

• Despite PageRank Dropping In Webmaster Tools, Google Pushes Toolbar PageRank Update

  Google has updated the PageRank values in the Google Toolbar sending a mixed message to webmasters and SEOs. (SE Land Oct 30 2009)

• Google Flu Trends Intense in Canada, High in United States

  Google has found that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity. (SE Watch Oct 30 2009)

• Twitter Lists Goes Live

  Lists are basically a way for Twitter users to create groups of Twitter users into categories. (SE Land Oct 30 2009)

• The Deal Implementation Between Microsoft and Yahoo! Delayed

  Yahoo! has filed a document with SEC saying that Microsoft failed to finalize the deal by October 27, 2009. (PageTraffic Oct 30 2009)

• What’s coming for Live.com?

  The Live.com URL will redirect to Bing.com for 45 days after launch. After this period it becomes the front door for all Live services including Office Live and Windows Live. (LiveSide.net Oct 30 2009)

• Using RSS/Atom feeds to discover new URLs

  Google: In order for us to use your RSS/Atom feeds for discovery, it’s important that crawling these files is not disallowed by your robots.txt. (Google Webmaster Central Oct 29 2009)

• StumbleUpon Updates Design Again (Abandoning Social Search?)

  The homepage, same as the beta featured earlier this month, highlights recent activity from Mutual Subscribers (Oct 29 2009)

• Google Launches Comparison Ads, Starting With Mortgages

  In the new system, those search for “mortgage” or “refinance” or related terms may see an special ad from Google itself inviting them to view offers (SE Land Oct 29 2009)

• Yandex and Google good for 96% share in Russia

  Yandex takes the biggest share with 54,4% of all searches. (SearchCowboys Oct 29 2009)

• Google Maps GPS Navigation: The New Feature for Android 2.0

  With the recent addition, the Google Map will give turn-by-turn directions, automatic rerouting and 3D views. (PageTraffic Oct 29 2009)

• Yahoo’s Time on Homepage Up 20% Since Redesign

  The two biggest differences were the ability to personalize apps to add content to the homepage, and ditching dozens of links to less popular Yahoo services. (Marketing Pilgrim Oct 28 2009)

• Tweet This: 19 Percent of Internet Users Use Twitter

  19 percent of Internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others. (SE Watch Oct 28 2009)

• Beware Google: Bing Is Going to Suck Your Blood, Um, Market Share: The New Commercial

  The software giant taps into vampire mania, playing into Halloween and the next chapter in the “Twilight” movie series, “New Moon.”(BoomTown Oct 28 2009)

• Bing Twitter search launched in the UK

  Search Cowboys Oct 28 2009.

• Similar Images graduates from Google Labs

  For example, if you search for jaguar, you can use the “Find similar images” link to find more pictures of the car or the animal. (Google Blog Oct 27 2009)

• Does Google PageRank Count Anymore?

  Obtaining a high PR7 or PR8 simply means more business and revenues… regardless of how Google is or is not using PageRank. (SiteProNews Oct 28 2009)

• Diller Says He’s Willing To Sell Ask.com

  Diller also called the future of Ask.com “speculative” during today’s call, citing the “fierce” competition in search. (SE Land Oct 27 2009)

• Google Custom Search Celebrates Birthday with Updates Galore

  Now you can customize the look of Custom Search on your site with themes, which can be tweaked for color, font, background and feature adjustments. (SE Watch Oct 27 2009)

• The End is Here: Yahoo Closes Geocities

  Life will go on, of course, but early web adopters will no longer be able to amuse themselves by looking back at their earliest web creations. (SEJ Oct 27 2009)

• Introducing Google Social Search: I finally found my friend’s New York blog!

  Most people on the web today make social connections and publish web content in many different ways, including blogs, status updates and tweets. (Google Blog Oct 26 2009)

• Google Wave gets its own app store

  Where the application now seems kind of ‘empty’, successful apps can help users get the most out of the possibilities of Wave. (Search Cowboys Oct 27 2009)

• DMOZ: A Solid Directory Or The Great Pumpkin Of Search?

  Love it or hate it, the Open Directory Project (ODP or “DMOZ”) always seems to creep into the conversation when we’re discussing links and/or SEO. (SE Land Oct 27 2009)

• 4 Reasons Why Including Social Networking Results is Smart

  Because information is what search engines are all about, it’s only logical that they want to include that information in their search results. (SE Journal Oct 26 2009)

• Champagne Pops at Yahoo as Carl Icahn Resigns Board Position

  It appears that Carl Icahn isn’t happy unless he’s getting his way, and for all intents and purposes, he’s had his way with Yahoo. (Marketing Pilgrim Oct 26 2009)

• Bing for mobile now live at m.bing.com

  In addition to being a great resource for local searches, quick answers, and maps, we have some new features to tell you about (Bing Community Oct 30 2009)

As this week’s video we have selected a new ad from Microsoft. It is one in a series based on a horror theme, which is perfect for Halloween.

By the way, all Twitter users should now have access to the lists feature, meaning that you can subscribe to sets of selected twitterers focusing on specific topics. If you want to keep track of the tweets of some of the major names in the search and search engine marketing fields, go to twitter.com/perkoch/searchengineintelligence

photo credit: peasap