search capabilities

For people who worry that it's impossible to escape from Google's amazing search capabilities, the ability to hide just got harder. Last month, Google helped sponsor the launch of the high-resolution GeoEye-1 satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. After a month of calibration and testing, the satellite's first image was released Friday by Satellite Imaging, a Houston-based remote sensing and survey company.

Microsoft said Thursday that it would set up research centers in France, Germany and Britain to improve its Internet search technology, describing the move as a vote of confidence in the European economy and in the company's ability to close the gap with Google.

Steven Ballmer, the Microsoft chief executive, said at a news conference here that the three "centers of excellence," to be based near Paris, in London and in Munich, would employ several hundred people all together.

According to a report in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, Verizon is on the verge of a deal with Google to provide Web-search services on its wireless network. The ubiquitous Google search bar is already on the iPhone and on a number of Sprint PCS phones.

The deal would give Verizon users a one-stop search screen rather than the layered searches they have today. The state of mobile search is chaotic, as each carrier has implemented its own structure and service. Many users already bypass the carrier search interfaces and log onto Google and Yahoo with phone browsers.

Investors will be able to access financial disclosures from all U.S. public companies and mutual funds in an interactive format within two years, as regulators replace a 1980s-vintage, text-based reporting system with an Internet-based platform.

The new system, called Interactive Data Electronic Applications, or IDEA, was introduced at a news conference Tuesday by Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox.

IDEA is "a fundamental change in the way the SEC manages, collects and distributes information" that make it more accessible and reliable for investors, Cox said.

On Tuesday, Google launched Google Site Search, a rebranded version of Google Custom Search Business Edition. Site Search makes it possible for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) to offer Google search capabilities on their Web sites.