Here are some of the most important search engine news headlines of the week:

• Google eyes China as Baidu fumbles

  Baidu’s switch to a new advertising system, Phoenix Nest, may be the catalyst that boosts Google’s market share. (Economic Times Nov 15 2009)



• Google makes concessions on digital book deal

  Internet search leader Google will ease its control over millions of copyright-protected books earmarked for its digital library (SFgate Nov 15 2009)

• Google aims to double Web speed

  Google is hoping to make Web pages download up to twice as quickly using SPDY, a new application-layer protocol in Chrome (MacWorld Nov 13 2009)

• Switzerland Drops Legal Hammer on Google Street View

  Hanspeter Thuer, the Swiss Data Protection Authority commissioner wants Google to ensure that all faces and car plates are blurred and that Google erase images of walled gardens and private streets (Google Watch Nov 14 2009)

• WolframAlpha Makes It to Popular Science

  Popular Science, the world’s largest science and technology magazine, has released its 22nd annual list of the best 100 innovations, and named Wolfram|Alpha as the “Best of What’s New” Grand Award winner (Beyond Search Nov 14 2009)

• In recent weeks I have been impressed by leapfish.com and duckduckgo.com (Victor Keegan, Guardian, Nov 11 2009)”>Why I’m searching beyond Google

  In recent weeks I have been impressed by leapfish.com and duckduckgo.com (Victor Keegan, Guardian, Nov 11 2009)

• SearchFreeFonts – over 13,000 Free Fonts on the Web

  SearchFreeFonts’ collection contains over 13,000 free fonts and over 91,000 commercial fonts. (Alt Search Engines Nov 12 2009)

• Search for rare comics with relaunched ComicSeeker!

  Collectors of vintage Gold, Silver and Bronze Age comic books can search for their desired comics on the Internet, from a single web page. (Alt Search Engines Nov 9 2009)

• Revised Google Book Settlement Filed & Live Blogging The Press Call

  It formally grants retailers who license out-of-print books covered by the settlement — including Google competitors — a 37% share of sales. (SE Land Nov 14 2009)

• Google Acquires VoIP Company, Gizmo5

  Google has acquired Gizmo5, a Voice over the Internet Protocol network and software provider. (SE Watch Nov 13 2009)

• “Look kids! Big Ben…House of Parliament…”and Bing in the UK!

  We are excited to announce today that Bing in the UK is shedding its beta tag. (Bing Community Nov 12 2009)

• Yandex still biggest in Russia

  The latest numbers show Yandex takes up more than half of all searches in Russia. Considering that Mail.ru is also part of the Yandex network in total they take over 60%. (SearchCowboys Nov 13 2009)

• PubCon 2009 Vegas Coverage Recap

  SE Roundtable covered just under 40 sessions at the 2009 PubCon. Here are the links (Nov 12 2009)

• Gone Google at EDUCAUSE 2009

  Last week the Google Apps for Education team headed to Denver for EDUCAUSE 2009 where the higher education community meets annually. (Google Blog Nov 12 2009)

• Bing Searches Increase 7 Percent in October 2009

  Experian® Hitwise® announced today that Google accounted for 70.60 percent of all U.S. searches conducted in the four weeks ending Oct. 31, 2009. (Press release Nov 11 2009)

• Google China Music Player Gets Makeover

  Google launched a redesign of their Chinese music player (partnered with Top100.cn), which pops up in a new window when you perform a search at the Music base site. (Blogoscoped Nov 12 2009)

• Bing fall update announced: Wolfram|Alpha, weather, more

  Most noticeable is the announcement of a partnership with Wolfram|Alpha to use their APIs and include nutritional information searches and math searches as part of Bing (LiveSide Nov 11 2009)

• Google Adds SafeSearch Locking

  Using the new feature requires users to enter a Google account password, and when the feature is in effect, Google-colored balls will show at the top of the search results page. (SE Land Nov 11 2009)

• Times Online pay wall erected next spring?

  It is full steam ahead for Murdoch’s plans to turn his UK newspaper websites into subscription site (TechRadar Nov 11 2009)

• Google Latitude Rolls Out Location History and Alerts

  Location Alerts notifies you whenever you are near a friends location – that way you can easily contact that friend and perhaps arrange a meet-up at a designated place. (SE Journal Nov 11 2009)

• Bing Integrates MSN Videos and Video Search

  The new Bing Video site combines Bing’s video search engine and MSN video site. (SE Journal Nov 11 2009)

• Does Marissa Mayer’s “Perfect Search Engine” Already Exist In Siri?

  What Mayer may have unknowingly described is Siri, a “virtual personal assistant” that uses artificial intelligence to determine user intent and then match data or applications that can fulfill that intent. (SE Land Nov 10 2009)

• Google, Bing & Yahoo Bribe Users With Free WiFi

  Google, which previously said it would provide free WiFi on all Virgin America flights through early next year, is now going to provide it at 47 US airports through the end of the year. (SE Land Nov 10 2009)

• Google To Murdoch: Use No Index Or Just Ask

  News Corp. Founder and CEO Rupert Murdoch claims Google is stealing their content - the “content kleptomaniacs” as he has termed them. (SE Watch Nov 10 2009)

• Google To Deliver New “Caffeine” Search After The Holidays

  The Google Caffeine Sandbox, where people have been invited since the summer to test Google’s next generation search infrastructure, has been closed (SE Land Nov 10 2009)

• 3 Actual Uses of Twitter Lists

  Create a Group Tweet Widget; Subscribe to Lists by RSS; Monitor Popular Lists, Promote Lists (SE Journal Nov 10 2009)

Video of the week:

Greg Sterling drew our attention to the following video presenting Sixth Sense, an innovation developed by MIT students. They try to liberate us from the limitations of the PC and cell phone interface. Looks a bit rough at the moment, but the implications for search on the run can be enormous!

See also Wire: TED: MIT Students Turn Internet Into a Sixth Human Sense