The European Commission in Brussels is at the end of its seven-year investigation of Google and preparing to issue a record-breaking fine, expected to be about 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion). To date, the toughest fine the Commission has issued was 1.1 billion euros, levied at Intel. Inside sources say the announcement will likely come before the summer break, possibly as early as next week, and that the final amount hasn’t been decided upon, with the maximum possible at around 6.6 billion euros, or a tenth of Google’s total annual sales. Continue reading European Commission Poised to Issue Major Fine to Google

Yahoo is making a personal assistant and mobile search app that will compete with Apple’s Siri, Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana. The app, codenamed “Index,” will be able to pull information from a user’s email to provide the most relevant search results. It will most likely be ad-supported and the company is aiming to complete a pilot version of the app this year. Yahoo executives hopes this app will be able to take some share of the mobile search market from Google. Continue reading Yahoo is Developing a Mobile Search App to Take On Google

While Google is best known for its powerful Web search engine, Android mobile operating system and acquisition of YouTube in 2006, it also offers lesser-known, but impressive services. From exploration to academia to art and much more, Google’s online products and services aim to inform users, improve lives and make them more secure. Business Insider lists 11 Google initiatives you may never knew existed. Continue reading Google is About More Than Just Search and Smartphones

As we reported earlier this week, Facebook’s new Graph Search allows users to find answers to questions by searching their own connections and personal network instead of going the route of a traditional open Web search a la Google. According to Variety, the new search tool has the potential to “give media companies more firepower to leverage the social network for content discovery.” Continue reading Facebook Graph Search to Open New Doors for Media Companies

On Tuesday, Facebook announced its new feature called Graph Search, which “promises to transform its user experience, threaten its competitors, and torment privacy activists,” according to Wired. It allows users to “dive into the vast trove of stored information about them and their network of friends.” While it is fundamentally different from Web search, it also has the potential to transform it. Continue reading What the New Facebook Graph Feature Means For Web Search