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Windows 8.1 users will eventually start seeing ads along with their usual search results.

Microsoft will begin to incorporate thumbnail images of the Web pages of Bing advertisers as part of the Windows 8.1 Smart Search, David Pann, general manager of Microsoft's Advertising Search Group, revealed in a blog post Tuesday.

The Windows 8.1 Smart Search improves on the search feature found in Windows 8. Smart Search can dig up results across a variety of sources, including your PC or tablet, your apps, your SkyDrive cloud storage, and the Web. Your results are also grouped together, … Read more

This is what happens after a series of bumbling owners fail to keep a once terrific product relevant in a dynamic market: You get a cold PR send-off that doesn't even fill the screen.

"Please visit Yahoo! Search for all of your searching needs."

That's all Yahoo wrote Friday afternoon as it lumped in the news that it was killing off AltaVista on July 8 with word that it will also ax 11 other products that no longer matter to the company.

Jay Rossiter, the vice president in charge of platforms, said the moves will free … Read more

Summer cleaning starts today at Yahoo which revealed a dozen projects that are shutting down. In a note announcing the list, Jay Rossiter, the vice president in charge of platforms, said the moves will free Yahoo to sharpen its focus and thus "continue to focus on creating beautiful products that are essential to you every day." (Did you know Alta Vista was still kicking around? Well, no longer.)

From Rossiter's memo:

Yahoo! Axis (June 28, 2013)

If you installed the browser plug-in, it will no longer work. If you downloaded the app, it will continue to work, … Read more

Continuing to spruce up its offerings, Yahoo on Friday added Flickr integration into its e-mail service and notifications for Yahoo search results for images and video.

Adding Flickr, the popular photo-sharing service acquired by Yahoo, to e-mail means it will be easier for users to send individual photos and sets from their Flickr accounts, according to a blog post from Yahoo. Just click on the arrow next to the paperclip and choose "Share from Flickr," to access the feature.

For Yahoo search, users can now set up alerts for keywords for a Web, video, or image search. Yahoo … Read more

Microsoft will gather thousands of developers in San Francisco this week for its Build conference, with much of this year's event focused on generating excitement about updates to its Windows 8 operating system.

CNET will be there live on Wednesday, giving you the blow by blow of the opening keynote, with photos and running commentary as well. The keynote, which will offer a look at the Windows 8.1 update, starts at 9 a.m. PT at the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco.

You can tune in here:

In letters to Google, Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft's Bing, and several other search engines, the FTC updated its guidance from 2002 about the need to distinguish between advertisements and search results. Since that original letter in 2002, the FTC has seen a decline in compliance with its guidelines.

"The letters note that in recent years, paid search results have become less distinguishable as advertising, and the FTC is urging the search industry to make sure the … Read more

After tinkering and perfecting, Rockmelt has finally released its app for Android.

The company announced Wednesday that to get this app ready for the public, it had to make sure it was "the right experience for Android users and not merely a port of an iOS app."

So, what are the differences between the social browser's Android and iOS app? A lot.

First of all, the Android app is tooled for bigger screens, which means navigation is at the bottom of the screen in portrait mode and on the right in landscape mode. Also, as users scroll … Read more

Squrl, the app that surfaces video recommendations for users, rolled out its redesigned iOS app on Monday with promises of a smoother viewing and browsing experience, private messaging, and even better recommendations.

The updated app, which also works on Apple TV, features a new home screen with bigger text and larger icons to display Squrl's functions, which include creating video playlists and viewing channels that are organized by subject matter.

It's all about the content, said Squrl CEO Mark Gray. That content can range from full-length movies on Netflix to Internet clips on YouTube.

The new recommendations take … Read more

Facebook is removing sponsored results from search less than a year after the ad unit's introduction.

"In keeping with the goal of streamlining our ad products, starting in July advertisers will no longer be able to buy sponsored results," a Facebook spokesperson told CNET.

The failed unit, which let marketers target users during the search process, suggests that the company is still struggling to understand how best to monetize search attention, something that competitor Google mastered long ago. Sponsored results seemed to be modeled after Google's sponsored search ads. As a user typed in a query … Read more