search box

Google on Thursday launched visually optimized search results for the iPhone and T-Mobile G1 Android devices. Whether users are using Google search through the search widget on the G1's home screen, the search box in the iPhone's Safari browser, or Google.com on either device, the search results are optimized for their particular device.

Users won't have to scroll back and forth or zoom in, and Google said the pages load more quickly.

Google has relaunched an SMS text-messaging feature for Gmail, having worked out the kinks in the technology it launched -- and then pulled -- on Oct. 31.

"We ran into a few snags when we first started rolling this out, but starting today you can turn on text messaging for chat," said Product Director Leo Dirac at Gmail Labs. "We're just trying it out for cell phones in the United States right now, but you can send texts to your friends with U.S. phone numbers from anywhere in the world."

In a move to compete against Google, search engine Ask.com on Monday launched a new version of its site. The latest iteration claims significant boosts in relevance, user interface, and speed.

Ask.com is betting on proprietary technologies like DADS, DAFS and AnswerFarm to break new ground in semantic search, Web extraction, and ranking. The company said Monday's announcement marks the first of several new search-technology innovations it will introduce in the coming months.

It's a product four years in the making: Google Suggest debuted on Tuesday to help users formulate queries and get better results.

Google began developing the search-suggestion product in 2004. The feature started as a "20-percent project" (a Google philosophy that allows employees to spend one day a week working on something not in the regular job description). But now, the tool has expanded and is included on Google Labs, the Google Toolbar, the Firefox search box, Google Maps and Web Search for select countries, the iPhone and BlackBerry, YouTube, and now Google.com.

Microsoft on Monday revealed some new privacy features for Internet Explorer 8, the next version of its market-leading Web browser. The features address the concerns of consumers and privacy advocates, who called the plans a positive step.

The new features will let users control their history, cookies and other information that IE8 stores. Other features aim to help users control how their browsing history is shared by Web sites. By default, IE8 browses the Web the same way IE7 does.

The search box is everywhere online these days. It's built into Web browsers. It's incorporated into Web sites of all sorts. And it's a major driver of traffic and revenue for Google Inc. and the like.

So it should come as no surprise that nearly half of Internet users conduct a search on a typical day, up from about a third in 2002, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said Wednesday. Search is approaching e-mail as the most popular thing to do on the Internet; about 60 percent use e-mail on any given day.

Google's online filing cabinet for medical records opened to the public Monday, giving users instant electronic access to their health histories and worrying a privacy advocate.

Called Google Health, the service lets users link information from a handful of pharmacies and care providers, including Quest Diagnostics labs. Google plans to add more.

Similar offerings include Microsoft Corp.'s HealthVault and Revolution Health, which is backed by AOL co-founder Steve Case.