So you dump a ton of money into optimizing your Web site to guarantee specific keywords rank at the top of search query results. But there's one problem. Google wants to tell you how to spell, especially if you're in the U.K. Well, not really, but sort of. And it could cost companies thousands of dollars to correct. Let me explain.

Mathew McDougall tells me it will become "disastrous" for American firms to reach a Chinese audience once Google.cn shuts down. SinoTech Group's chief executive officer and executive chairman says establishing a paid search account on Baidu isn't easy for Western companies wanting to advertise in China. His search firm, along with others, will need to spend more time brokering deals between advertisers and search engines, and less time optimizing campaigns.

Pulling operations from China would mean Google sacrifices an already semi-strong position in a growing market, though its main rival in the country, Baidu, holds nearly 60% market share. The decision will clearly "limit options" for U.S. advertisers, Broadpoint AmTech analyst Ben Schachter told MediaPost.

The goal to better understand what people seek on search engines has two Cornell University professors working on an alternative to Google's personalized search technology. Search engines serve up query data based on rankings. But what if you could change the ranking function based on the person running the query? The technology will allow search engines to automatically tune and tweak themselves by learning how people interact with them. Engines will learn that certain tags and keywords hold different weights.

It appears Rupert Murdoch has begun to make good on his promise to block search engines from indexing news and serving the headline and the link on its Web site. Last year, Murdoch vowed to stop "content kleptomaniacs and plagiarists" that "simply pick up everything and run with it" by "stealing stories without payment."

If you were on vacation, similar to me, during the end of December you might have missed Twitter's big announcement. The company acquired Mixer Labs, the creator of GeoAPI, which provides developers with the ability to query data. That data can come from about 16 million businesses and thousands of points of interest. The technology also offers developers a layer on which to handle complex geographical queries and location-based services.

Similar to the way a delicate strand of pearls too tightly strung on a strand can buckle and appear out of place, Google may have begun to piece together too many services. Each pearl in the analogy aims to represent another service, from Google Content Network to Nexus One, all strung together by an advertising model (the string.) If the pearls get strung too tightly on the strand, they tend to become crowded and lose their beauty and potential.

Within the past month, two tech leaders have made investments in mobile to the tune of more than $1 billion. these investments will likely support search and display advertising. Patrick Moorhead, vice president and director of mobile platforms at agency Draftcb, says if he hears one more client say "I don't think mobile is a real opportunity" for search and display advertising, he will ask them to pull their head out of the sand.

Hold on. Get ready. If the first five days into 2010 provide any indication of things to come this year, I'm expecting a wild ride in mobile search and ad targeting. It appears a new battle has emerged between two Silicon Valley companies. One company resides in Mountain View, Calif., and the other in Cupertino, Calif. Both originally started by technology innovators.

Here's the big question for 2010. Can Yahoo turn around its business? And, does anyone care? J.P. Morgan Analyst Imran Khan during a conference call Monday told investors the company sits on its top ten pick for the first time in years. While Yahoo faces many challenges, and management has made lots of mistakes in recent years, often times the company's story is misunderstood.