After months of saying that improvements were coming to its search engine, Twitter has announced a critical upgrade. In a blog post, Twitter says it has started an experiment that will “show higher quality results for trend queries by returning tweets that are more useful.” No details on how that will be determined, but it suggests that Twitter will incorporate the relevancy of a Tweet when users search for a term; right now, Twitter only returns a list of Tweets based on when they were sent.
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Google (NSDQ: GOOG) “sort of temporary detente” with the Associated Press is progressing: now new AP stories have started showing up on Google News—this one, for example, about AP itself—as first noticed by WSJ.
Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU), the Chinese search giant which stands to gain the most if Google (NSDQ: GOOG) goes ahead and pulls out of China, had a standout fourth quarter, as it completed the roll-out of its new Phoenix Nest ad system and benefited from an uptick in online ad spending.
The groundwork has already been laid and now it’s official: RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) is spinning off music service Rhapsody in the hopes of giving both companies a better chance at success.
SpinVox’s CEO Christina Domecq had to pay back £125,000 to the company after an investigation in to her use of corporate finances, according to a detailed 70-page filing made by new owner Nuance to the SEC.
Ryan O’Hara, who stepped down as TV Guide Network president Feb. 5, has been named president and CEO of Topps, the trading card and media company owned by former Disney (NYSE: DIS) CEO Michael Eisner and Madison Dearborn Partners.
» What the ad revenue generated from SI swimsuit edition means fiscally for the rest of the year.
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is trying once again to make a social play with the introduction of a new service that makes it easy for users of its products to post and share updates online.
With Facebook’s Beacon ad targeting debacle a distant memory for most, Tim Kendall, Facebook’s director of monetization, tried a soft sell on publishers and marketers at Borrell Associates’ Local Online Advertising Conference.
Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) is closing yet another of its properties down. The company is shutting down Yahoo Tech, the consumer-focused tech site it launched four years ago.
In case you didn’t get it the first few times, yes, IAC (NSDQ: IACI) Chairman and CEO Barry Diller still believes the search market will consolidate—and no, he isn’t trying to make it happen.