The ever-expanding Google corporation doesn't seem to care very much if people regard it as a creepy, evil monopolizer. The Wall Street Journal reports that the company has talked to "at least two" private equity firms about helping them buy Yahoo, one of its major competitors.

MC Hammer just launched his search engine "WireDoo" at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. The singer-turned-investor says WiredDoo goes "beyond just the keywords" into "relationship search" and "deep search." Sounds intense. Time to sample Marvin Gaye again.

Finally getting hip to the fact that it is the world's sexual barometer, Google has introduced its own sort of gaydar, which will tell you which celebrities are gay and which are straight. But how reliable is it?

Why does mean Google allow Rick Santorum's name to be linked to a messy anal sex byproduct? Rick Santorum wants to know! He called out the search engine yesterday over his well-known "Google problem."

Due to some mystifying computer error, the computer programmer who told police that a comically evil Casey Anthony googled "chloroform" 84 times now says she only googled it once. John Bradley also says he alerted the authorities to the staggering error, but they went ahead and pretended Casey (or whoever was using…

In January, Demand Media looked like the "future of journalism," as CJR put it. Flush after a soaring IPO, the content farm planned an acquisition spree. Now, thanks to some Google tweaks, Demand Media's stock is plunging.

If you've never gotten excited about an algorithm before, now's your chance. Yesterday Google unveiled changes in their magical search formula designed specifically to weed out results from annoying content farms that churn out dumb articles like "How to Boil Water." Google says the change should affect around 11…

The Times today has a fascinating account of the lengths some companies go to game Google's search algorithm and get their websites listed higher on results. Times reporter David Segal looked into why J.C. Penney was ranked No. 1 in a suspiciously high number of searches. Turns out they, or someone working on their…

A Google engineer suggests Bing may be pilfering the search giant's results, and has showed the results of Google's digital sting as proof. Bing says the results offer little more than a lesson in "click fraud." Shots fired!

What did the world care about in 2010? According to Google, which just released its annual Zeitgeist video—highlighting the year's top search terms—we were interested in money, politics, tragedy, war, the dearly departed, and... Antoine Dodson. Watch inside.

This morning on the Early Show Heather Cabot, Yahoo.com's Web Life Editor, stopped by to announce the website's Top 10 Searches of 2010, begging the question, "Who the hell uses Yahoo! for internet searches?"

When searching for something online, are you disturbed by some of the trash that Google dredges up from the depths of the internet? Rest easy, because there are religious search engines to keep your mind pure. Let's take a look!

The new Google Instant guesses what you're searching for while you're typing, and retrieves results before you finish. It's the T-9 of search engines. And it means buying an "erector set" will make everyone think you have "erectile dysfunction."

We like to make fun of old people because they don't know how to use the Internet. But a new study suggests young people don't really know how the damn Google machine works, either.

In your cheery Wednesday media column: our nemesis Martha Stewart's magazine implicated in decoration-for-prestige scheme, iTunes for magazines is coming, your weekly layoff roundup, and the Search Engine Media Wars heat up.

News Corp, ever the online contrarian, is considering pulling all of its news content off of Google and doing an exclusive deal with Microsoft's Bing. For this, Rupert Murdoch would receive a pittance. Welcome to the future of paid media.