We are still experimenting with the new design of our search engine news wrap-up column, trying to turn it into an even more informative microblog. Here are this week’s headlines.

3 Free Online Alternatives to Google Calendar
If you start looking for good web based Google calendar alternatives that are free, you won’t find a lot of them. (Google Tutor)

The Google Beat: New Vlog to Showcase Google’s Hottest Search Trends
Every week the videos on Google Beat will talk about what is bringing users to the search engine using data compiled from Google Insights for Search, Google Trends and other tools so now you can finally know if you and the millions of other Googlers are all wondering the same things. (SE Journal)

How Google May Rank Blogs
Interested in finding a blog about a particular topic or place, rather than individual blog posts? A recent change with Google’s blog search is intended to make it easier to do so. It now adds a list of “related blogs” at the top of the blog search result page. (SEO by the Sea)

Google Public Data Explorer Lets You Visualize Public Datasets
Google Public Data Explorer, a part of Google Labs experiments, is a tool that helps you explore through and visualize public datasets that are made available by government and other agencies that track stats, from around the world. (Google Tutor)

Yahoo! Search Serves Suggestions Closer to You
Yahoo Search Blog introduces an enhanced Yahoo! Search Assist, providing suggestions geographically closer to you as you type your query.

iTunes Ping Has No Zing
Marketing Pilgrim is not impressed about the new social network

New Oxford English Dictionary may be online only
Talk of foregoing print edition of OED (TechCrunch)

Google and AOL Renew and Expand Long-Time Search Partnership
Google will continue to power AOL’s searches in addition to providing mobile search. Also, YouTube has agreed to to bring AOL videos to its site as part of the expansion. (SE Journal) See also Search Engine Land.

Sphinn Drops Voting & SEO Community Revolts
Danny Sullivan announced in a Sphinn thread that Sphinn will be going the editorial route and be removing voting. Instead, editors will decide what should be on the front page and not users. (SE Roundtable)

Kurrently – A real-time search engine for Facebook and Twitter.
Very quick – in my tests it found content within seconds. Results page is very basic, with the name of the poster, link to their Twitter/Facebook account and the posting. (P Bradley)

More Google Improvements Made Last Week
More Local Results in Maps & Markers, Blog Search Just Got Better (Google Tutor)

Apple to Take on Google in Showing Immediate Search Results?
About ten days ago, Rob Ousbey posted a video on his blog showing Google streaming updates to search results as he typed letters into a search box. As he typed out his query, not only did he see a dropdown of suggested queries, but the search results themselves actually changed as he added letters. (SEO by the Sea)

The Big Paid Search Merge Begins: Yahoo to Microsoft adCenter
So Yahoo web search, the organic results, are now powered by Bing, Microsoft search. The next to fall is the paid search side of things. (SE Roundtable)

Neal Stephenson develops new e-publishing model
Subutai is developing what it calls the PULP platform for creating digital novels, offering authors the ability to augment their core text with images, video, music and background articles. (techradar)

SVG Files and Documents Are Now Indexed by Google
SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is an XML-based graphics format specifically for vector graphic, both dynamic and static and graphics can be made and edited in any text editor since they are XML files.(SE Journal)

Yedda Is Now AOL Answers (SE Watch)
The Isreali start-up AOL bought three years ago to compete in the Q&A market has been rebranded as AOL Answers this week. The site is similar to Answer.com, Yahoo Answers and Ask Answers.

Twitter Usage on the Rise
Twitter is reporting some serious numbers. 145 million registered users and 300,000 registered apps for those users just to name a few.According to research from Royal Pingdom the increase in number of accounts is translating to usage rates climbing as well. (Marketing Pilgrim)

Reddit Prospers From Digg v4 Debacle
Since the release of the newest version of Digg, v4, launched last week, the less-than-warm reception has caused a massive influx of traffic to their rival – Redditt. Launched less than a year after Digg, Redditt hasn’t been as popular, but they did have very loyal users. However, starting Sunday night, the four-person team has seen the amount of new users, uniques, and page views increase in staggering numbers. (SE Journal Sep 3 2010)

Facebook Adds Popular News Articles To Search Results
Facebook is now showing news articles in its search results and ranking them by how many “likes” and “shares” the articles have received from Facebook users. The All Facebook blog says the number of friends who liked/shared an item also impacts the ranking. (SE Land)

Ping Averts Its Gaze: Apple’s New Social Network Doesn’t Really Want to Know Much About You
Steve Jobs says Ping is supposed to be a “social music discovery” service: You share your musical taste with friends and vice versa. But if you really want to share, you’re going to find it harder than you think. (MediaMemo)

Google overhauls Google Translate
Google Translate Blog: With today’s functional and visual changes we wanted to make it simpler for you to discover and make the most of Google Translate’s many features and integrations. For example, did you know that you can search across languages on Google using Google Translate? We’ve added all these tips on the new Do more with Google Translate page.

Google launches ‘Priority Inbox’ for Gmail
Gmail’s Priority Inbox attempts to learn your e-mail habits and then decides which messages are most important to you, and thus bumps them up the list for you to check them first. (techradar)

Technology Aside, Most People Still Decline to Be Located
Just 4 percent of Americans have tried location-based services, and 1 percent use them weekly, according to Forrester Research. Eighty percent of those who have tried them are men, and 70 percent are between 19 and 35. (New York Times)

Watch Out Twitter & Facebook, the Viagra Generation is Taking Over!
If you watch a lot of TV–and TV ads– you’d think that those over 50 are interested in nothing more than popping a Viagra and making a little bowm-chicka-bowm-bowm. But, according to a new Pew study, those between the ages of 50 and 64 are getting just as excited about social networking. (Marketing Pilgrim)

Bubble Blinders: The Untold Story of the Search Business Model
Ali Partovi, Techcrunch: Earlier this month, Paul Graham wrote a terrific article, “What Happened to Yahoo,” blaming Yahoo’s demise on two factors. First, “easy money” from banner ads led Yahoo to ignore search in the late ‘90s. Second, ambivalence about being a technology company meant Yahoo hired sub-par engineers and didn’t empower them to innovate. While I agree with Graham’s points, there’s a broader story to be told.

SpaceTime 3D for visual search
SpaceTime 3D displays pages in an arc, and you can flick through them, clicking on any that interest you. Spacetime has search options for Google, Images, Wikipedia and YouTube. (P Bradley)

Consumer Watchdog’s new Times Square video: Don’t Be Evil?
Pandia have nothing against NGO going after Google and the fact that what they do may threaten our privacy, but Comsumer Watchdog is going overboard with the video below. Google may be naïve when it comes to the social effects of their various tools and services, but they are not peeping toms deliberately trying to map as much of our secret lives as possible.

Consumer Watchdog’s Inside Google site says: “This avatar-style animation video was created to draw attention to Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s lack of regard for our online privacy. Consumer Watchdog is promoting the video right now, 36 times per day, on a jumbotron in Times Square — the most highly-trafficked public square in the nation.”