Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Search Biz: Where's Eurekster?, Grab Google's Gazillions?, WiFi "On Steriods," & Yahoo Readies For Proxy Battle
  Google’s recent decision to make its UK keyword bidding policy conform with the US practice of allowing competitors to bid on each other’s brands has drawn ire and threats of legal action. Today brings more such news of potential legal action against Google from a range of travel companies...
• Search Share Compared: Ratings Service Faceoff, June 2007 To April 2008
  With the latest search popularity stats now in from Hitwise, Nielsen, comScore, and Compete, it's time to pit them against each other and see what they agree -- and don't agree -- about in terms of search engine popularity....
• Compete: Yes, Google Hits New Search Share High
  Compete makes it a quadfecta! No real surprise, the latest search engine share stats out from Compete show Google has hit a new high -- just as did previous stats out this month from Hitwise, Nielsen and comScore. Plus, an interesting look at how much search traffic Microsoft's Live...
• Search in Pictures: Google Branded Disposable Cups, Yahoo Chef Training, & A Personal Googleplex
  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....
• Microsoft Burns Book Search - Lacks "High Consumer Intent"
  Wow. Earlier this month, I heard Microsoft execs highlight Live Search Books as a key advance they were doing in search. Today, news that the site along with Live Search Academic are being closed next week, since they lack the "high consumer intent" that Microsoft is now focusing on. So...
• AOL's Leaked Searches Get Turned Into Play: USER 927
  Remember when AOL Proudly Releases Massive Amounts of Private Data back in August of 2006? Well, that story is now back in the news, after a two-year hiatus. Ars Technica reports that a play has been created around one of those searches, specifically searcher number 927. The play is named...
• Google's Safe Browsing Diagnostic Tool
  A week ago Google announced the release of a safe browsing diagnostic tool. To use the tool, just append a URL to the end of http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=. For example, to test this site, you would enter http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http://searchengineland.com/. Google will then return four sets of security information about that page....
• SEM News, "Google Tools, Part 3" & Microsoft's "Engagement Mapping" Tool
  In The Trenches is a weekly spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition. Today: News from the search engines, today's in-depth look, "Google Tools, Part 3" and this week's free tips/resources....

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google online backup 'coming soon' - Calacanis, News.com.au
• NewsGator RSS Readers to help you find the "Right Stuff", Download Squad

Business Issues

• A Conversation With Secretary Rice at Google Headquarters, State.gov
• Down on the server farm, Economist.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• In their own words, Google LatLong
• Why Google WiFi Matters, beu blog
• Love Google Maps? Help Improve It With Your Suggestions, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Universal Search Local Results Adds "Change Location", Search Engine Roundtable
• How long does it take you to type?, Official Google Mobile Blog

Paid Search & Contextual

• Make the move...to Google Accounts, Inside AdSense
• PPC Management - A User's Review of Google AdWords, Stepforth
• Keyword Research Tips From Tor Crockatt - adCenter Advertiser, adcentercommunity.com
• Paid Search Industry Boom Quickly Becoming Haven for Scams, SEM Geek
• Publishers Upset with Poor Google AdSense Quality Targeting, Search Engine Roundtable
• Smart and funny use of Google Adwords, Royal Pingdom
• Seeking Approval, Yahoo Publisher Network Blog

Searching

• hakia Toolbar Combines Search and Social Networking, Hakia Blog
• A Brand New Searchblog, John Battelle's Searchblog
• Bill Gates Speakes Up For Semantics, Hakia Blog
• Danny Sullivan Debates The Rest Of Us On Microsoft Cashback, TechCrunch
• Microsoft Ends Book Search and Live Academic Search; Where Else to Turn, ResourceShelf

SEM Industry

• How to Take on a Major SEO Client, Search Engine Watch
• Most SEOs Don't Report Competitors To Google, Search Engine Roundtable
• Reporting SEO Competition to Google : Conflicting Reports, Search Engine Journal
• SEOmoz has Teamed with Distilled, SEOmoz

SEO & SEM

• Google, Yahoo & Microsoft : SEO Influence of Keywords in Domain Names, Search Engine Journal
• Review: e-Marketing & SEO Conference CeBIT Australia 2008, Rambling Thoughts
• Google Is On My Site! Will I Be Penalized Soon?, Search Engine Roundtable

Social Media

• FriendFeed Adds Rooms, Google Blogoscoped
• Do Social Networks Bring Out the Animal in Us?, Search Engine Watch
• Tumblr and SEO: A Case Study in Rapid Response, SEO Speedwagon
• Whiteboard Friday - Adopting Twitter, SEOmoz

Other Items

• Condoleezza Rice and British dignitary tour Google 5/22/08, abc7news.com
• Daily SearchCast, May 22, 2008: Live Search Tries Cashback To Tempt Searchers; Yahoo , Daily SearchCast

Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• Doing A Fake Story For Linkbait? Disclose -- Or Face The Wrath Of Google
• The Gray Area Between SEO Consulting & SEO Implementing
• Googlebot Creates Pages Instead of Simply Indexing Them: New FORM Crawling Algo Goes Bad
• Going Mobile - Ah, So This Is How My Site Looks
• Beating Google ? Can It Be Done Using This Technique
• Google Is Not the Government, Nor My Mother
• 40 Days, 40 Nights, and 140 Characters Later (David Mihm's Thoughts after a Month+ on Twitter)
• Google Analytics Now Tracks AJAX and Flash Actions
• BunSpace is my space!
• Not Even a Little Evil
• Rand Fishkin Interview On Social Media Marketing
• Know Your Playing Field: The Real Top 100 Domains
• High Gas Prices Are Driving Relationships To The Web
• Representing Your Business on the Social Web
• How to Get in Google News (And Receive 8,000 visitors for One Article)
• How Papa John's averted a WOM disaster
• Social proof: The key to web 2.0 marketing success