Microsoft says it has had a lot of questions lately about access to adCenter API tokens, and the company has addressed these issues on the adCenter API blog. The API program is still in the "pilot" phase, so API tokens are not available to everybody.
Wolfram Alpha Provides Financial Answers Based on Xignite Info
Xignite, which provides global financial market data, is working with Wolfram Alpha, so that Wolfram Alpha users can get such data when performing a query.
Google Answers Privacy Questions Over Google Books
Google signed a settlement agreement with authors and publishers last year over Google Books. Google says that if it is approved by the court, it will unlock access to millions of books for anyone in the United States.
Today, Google has addressed privacy concerns that users and potential users have voiced with regards to Google Books.
Matt Cutts Answers Questions About Directories and Ranking
As you may know, Google’s Matt Cutts frequently answers questions from Google users on the Google Webmaster Central YouTube channel. There are a couple recent ones in which he addresses questions about directories and how they contribute to a site’s rankings.
The first question is:
Will Google consider Yahoo! Directory and BOTW (Best of the Web) as sources of paid links? If no, why is this different from another site that sells links?
Ask Gets More Serious About Answers
Ask.com has released a database of 300 million Q&A pairs available to users in the US and the UK.
"Delivering the best answers though innovations in semantic search technology is the direction in which the search industry is headed, and Ask is best-placed to lead the industry in this regard given our database of hundreds of millions of questions, and our core search technologies," said Scott Kim, Ask.com’s EVP of Technology.
Carol Bartz Answers User-Submitted Questions
Two weeks ago, readers of the official Yahoo blog (creatively titled Yodel Anecdotal) were asked to submit questions for Carol Bartz, the company’s still-newish CEO, to answer. Those answers came back today, and they include several interesting tidbits.
Matt Cutts Answers Canonicalization Tag Question
Google’s Matt Cutts continues to post helpful videos at Google’s Webmaster Central YouTube channel, in which he answers user questions. The latest question he tackles comes from a guy in Chicago who asks:
Does the new canonicalization tag make it safe to add tracking arguments to some of my internal links without fear that Google will split the quality signals between the two addresses?
Searching for Answers Google Doesn’t Have
A new way of searching is on the way, and will come under the label Wolfram Alpha. This is a "knowledge engine" built by Stephen Wolfram, which allows users to ask questions and receive a single definitive answer rather than a page of results pointing to pages that may or may not have the answers they are looking for.
OVGuide Founder Answers Video Search Questions
January marked the first operational month for video search engine OVGuide as a profit-making entity. Now it has received $5 million in funding from Baroda Ventures.
Wikipedia Founder Has the Answers
Have you heard of Wikianswers? No, not Wiki Answers, Wikianswers. Yes it’s a little confusing, but I’m not just babbling incoherently. Wikianswers is a recently (re)launched site from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.