search engines

Yahoo is introducing a new browser this week: Axis, a bold attempt at simplifying search for mobile devices and desktops. Its streamlined approach drops all those annoying links you don't want -- even though that's where most search engines make their money.

With all the sturm und drang surrounding Facebook's upcoming May IPO, few media outlets are giving much oxygen to the IPO of online review hub Yelp, due March 2. It will give Yelp a market cap of around $800 million -- and the company isn't even profitable.

On Wednesday, Yahoo named Scott Thompson as CEO. He's a former PayPal president and veteran technologist -- and that's the trouble: Yahoo is following the same strategy that led it to hire Carol Bartz, who was ousted for failing to turn the company around.

Everyone seems anxious to hook up Yahoo! these days. The dot-com pioneer has become that single aunt in every family whom everyone thinks sorely needs a soul mate. But what if Yahoo! is happy to be single? After all, it just spent $270 million on a acquisition of its own to beef up its online advertising.

On Thursday morning, the announcement went out across the land: Google, the undisputed master of search, had acquired Zagat, America's best-known and most highly-regarded restaurant review company. The companies presented the merger in rosy terms, but it didn't take long for the snarky critiques to begin.

Research studies by Betsy Sparrow of Columbia University "support a growing belief that people are using the Internet as a personal memory bank: the so-called Google effect." Yes, the awareness that we can look things up easily later makes our memories worse. But when it comes to retrieving that online data, she notes, "We're remarkably efficient."

Alibaba Group CEO Jack Ma told the the AllThingsD D9 conference that Yahoo should be broken into pieces. Ma may be in the midst of a beef with the search company, which holds a major stake in his firm, but despite the idea's source, a break-up could make sense financially.

Google's shares have fallen 15% in the last three months while the S&P 500 has traded flat. This share price decline seems odd when contrasted with the spectacular success Google has been experiencing with its Android mobile OS. But there are good reasons Wall Street isn't impressed.

Russian search engine Yandex saw its IPO soar more than 55% on its first day of trading Tuesday. But while this Russian beauty managed to lure in investors with its ability to crush Google in the former USSR, some analysts are cautioning investors to temper their enthusiasm.

Google co-founder Larry Page is set to take over as the search giant's new CEO on Monday. But some worry he may not have the management skills to steer the Internet's most powerful company. After all, early investors made him step down as Google's first CEO in 2001. Will he fare better the second time around?