Newsflash

Google has created the Google Webmaster Tools Quick Start Guide to help webmasters learn the features and reasons to use the tool. The ten step guide displays details on the dashboard, the overview section, the diagnostics section, the top search queries screen, crawl stats page, the "What the Googlebot Sees" page, the links page, the Sitemaps section, and the tools page.

The Google Online Marketing challenge seeks to turn college and business school students into search marketers (in most cases local). Google says that there are now 724 teams in the US (two weeks before the competition begins) and there appear to be many around the globe as well.

Microsoft and EDGAR Online have formed an alliance to provide content and ads to one another's sites. According to a press release just out: "Microsoft will be the exclusive third-party provider of display, contextual and video advertising for EDGAR Online and its global audience of more than 2 million unique visitors per month, and EDGAR Online will provide content, such as Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing documents, to MSN Money."

The introduction of satellite images into map search interfaces has excited both virtual sightseers and local app developers. Further innovations like Google's Street View have caused consternation from privacy advocates while further pumping up the buzz about online mapping. Visit http://searchengineland.com/080114-124703.php, you will find 20 awesome images  in Google maps.

TechCrunch is reporting comScore data that shows AOL's new finance site (which we wrote about here) passing Yahoo Finance and MSN Money to become the internet's top finance destination. If these traffic numbers are accurate, it would be a very striking development -- especially beating out Yahoo, which has held the top finance position seemingly forever.

The Google LatLong Blog announced they have updated Sky in Google Earth with new content, features, and API integrations.

LiveSide reports on a deal that provides access to Live Search Maps/Local content via MSN Direct to the Garmin nüvi 780 personal navigation device (PND). Users can get maps, news, weather, local events and other content. One can also plan trips on Windows Live Local and then "send to GPS." The latter capability works on more PNDs that just the Garmin devices.

AOL-owned video search engine Truveo announced yesterday that its video index had reached 100 million videos and predicted that number would climb to a billion by 2009. The company also said that its search index grew in 2007 from a base of just five million videos at relaunch in August, 2007. Truveo has also been aggressively pushing out internationally.By the end of the year, Truveo intends to be in 15 countries, including Russia and Turkey. Starting today it will be available outside the U.S. in France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and the UK.

Kevin Fox, Google's user experience designer responsible for helping design Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Reader 2.0, has announced he is leaving Google to join a "very small start-up." Today is his last day at Google, after being with Google for over four years. Kevin did not say the name of the new company , but he did express his love for Google.