Google flipped the switch this morning on a new design for its Google Alerts emails. The change brings Google Alerts closer in line with Google’s general aesthetic.

Yesterday,  we got an early preview of the first case study Google will publish on the use of estimated cross-device conversions in AdWords. It features 1-800-Flowers and also addresses the company’s use of click-to-call.

Google is really stepping up their transparency about sites spamming them. A Google Webmaster Help thread has a site owner upset his site no longer ranks for [maternity jeans] in Google…

Facebook’s new personalized trending future is designed to get people talking about interesting things that are happening in the world, as well as to keep Facebook users informed of the news and other trending topics.

In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. Seattle Seahawks Bing Towels: Source: Twitter YouTube Emmy: Source: Google+… Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Regardless of which page or organic position your site appears in Google’s search results pages, specific positions on the page aren’t isolated or reserved for different weightings of the algorithm to give different signals different priority.

If you’ve been thinking about updating your blog for the New Year, but are worried that it might be overwhelming (or expensive), I’ve got some good news! There are eight super simple things you can do to update your blog to help you work more efficiently and make your blog more effective at bringing in […] Author information Jim Belosic Jim Belosic is the CEO of ShortStack, a self-service custom app design tool used to create apps for Facebook Pages, websites and mobile web browsing. ShortStack provides the tools for small businesses, graphic designers, agencies and corporations to create apps with contests and forms, fan gates, product lines and more. Twitter Facebook Google+ LinkedIn The post 8 Simple Steps That Will Give Your WordPress Blog an Efficiency Makeover For 2014 by @shortstackjim appeared first on Search Engine Journal

Personal assistant Google Now, which monitors your web searches and alerts you about things such as the weather, flights, and traffic as well as providing various event reminders, has previously been available only on Android devices.

In the ongoing battle to keep its ads ecosystem free of scammers and malware, Google says it pulled more than 350 million bad ads from its systems last year, up 59 percent from the 224 million it struck down in 2012.

This week in search, we are still tracking a Google update. Google had a major hack in their hotel listings in Google Maps, they apologized and swept it under the rug. Bing is testing SSL search…