If you were sick last week or on vacation or in a coma you missed A LOT of Google news.

A two-year study has found that for every $1 of ecommerce revenue generated from paid search, retailers could expect another $6 of in-store revenue.

When Google’s new search feature “Search Plus” started favoring Google+ results several weeks ago, the change was immediately resisted by competing social networks like Twitter and Facebook. In addition to receiving negative publicity regarding the new Search Plus feature, an ongoing FTC investigation was expanded to further research the potential antitrust and privacy concerns of the Follow SEJ on Twitter @sejournal

Google has updated its search results for queries involving punctuation marks and symbols. Though not perfect, searching for the symbol equivalent of a period, comma, carat, percent sign and more punctuation marks now will return search results

Early bird rates for Search Marketing Expo – SMX West expire this Saturday, January 28.

On Google’s Q3 2011 earnings call CEO Larry Page casually mentioned that Google had a mobile revenue “run rate” of more than $2.5 billion. On the Q4 earnings call, just last week, Google announced a $5 billion annualized “run rate” for display advertising (including… Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Back in September, Google began testing a new iGoogle design and now it seems more are seeing that test. A Google Web Search Help thread has one person stating he sees the new design

For all of Digg’s efforts, it has really had no luck in trying to get back to its glory days, when it dominated the social aggregation space completely. Starting years ago with changes to limit the power their top users had, it has been one failed release after another, with version 4’s release really marking Follow SEJ on Twitter @sejournal

How does Google make money? A new analysis by Wordstream looks at who contributed the most to Google’s 2011 revenues, based on keyword, search query, and CPC data, and reveals which industries and businesses spent the most on advertising.

January 23 is Chinese New Year, and heralds the Lunar New Year of the Water Dragon. The dragon is perceived as a mystical and auspicious creature in Chinese cultures and this year is expected to bring prosperity and transformational change.