After checking out Bing’s explanation of how it handles reference searches, it got me thinking how big of a role Wikipedia plays in search. Wikipedia entries are often among the top results in Google, and clearly they are a big part of Bing’s strategy as well.
Botnets Driving Spam Volume
Spam volumes have risen 141 percent since March, continuing the longest streak of increasing spam volumes ever, according to McAfee’s Q2 Threats Report, released today.
More that 14 million computers have been hit by botnets, a 16 percent increase over last quarter.
McAfee researchers also found that, over the course of 30 days, Auto-Run malware had infected more than 27 million files. Auto-Run malware, which exploits Windows’ Auto-Run capabilities, does not require any user clicks to activate, and is most often spread through portable USB and storage devices.
Microhoo Deal Not the Only Piece of Significant Search News
Yahoo and Microsoft intend for their freshly announced search advertising deal to be completed in early 2010. That’s not too far away, and in that deal, Bing will become the algorithmic search used by Yahoo. At that point, Bing becomes the clear competitor to Google in straight up search.
Microsoft and Yahoo Finally Announce Deal
Well, they’ve finally gone and done it. Microsoft and Yahoo have partnered to "change the search landscape." The two companies today announced a long-awaited deal, in which Microsoft will power Yahoo search while Yahoo will become the exclusive search advertising provider for Microsoft’s search engine, Bing.
You know this history by now. Here’s what the companies have to say:
Visits To Career Sites Jump In June
More than 65 million Americans visited career sites in June, representing a 10-percent increase over the previous year, according to a new report from comScore.
CareerBuilder was the most popular site with 21.7 million unique visitors, followed by Yahoo HotJobs with 17.9 million visitors (up 23% over a year ago), and Monster with 14.5 million visitors (up 6%).
Opera Mini Mobile Browser Reaches Milestone
Mobile web browser Opera Mini has reached a significant milestone. Opera announced that Opera Mini users viewed more than 10 billion pages in one month.
The company released its "State of the Mobile Web" report(pdf) this week, and it reveals some other interesting findings as well:
TwitViewer A Possible Phishing Scam
Want to see the last 200 visitors on your Twitter page? Sounds pretty intriguing doesn’t it? But as the old saying goes… "If it looks too good to be true, it probably is".
CAUTION: TwitViewer is a possible phishing scam.
Blip.tv Partners With YouTube, Roku
Online video company blip.tv has announced distribution partnerships with YouTube, Vimeo, NBC Local Media New York and Roku, makers of the Roku digital video player.
The new partnership with YouTube allows shows creators to send content to YouTube. Blip.tv will also serve its own ads on shows syndicated on YouTube sharing revenue with creators after giving YouTube a slice of the ad profit.
Chicago Resident Sued Over Moldy Tweet
UPDATE: Horizon Realty, the company suing their former tenant over a tweet, is now a trending topic on Twitter. Some Twitterers feel the company has effectively killed their reputation. What do you think?
Yahoo Syncs the New Homepage to Mobile
Today Yahoo announced that PC to mobile sync of the new Yahoo homepage is available on over 400 devices in 17 countries. This means if you set up your customized version of the new Yahoo homepage on your computer, you can easily set it up to be the same way on your phone.