Tom Henderson vows to leave Google in every "possible personal way." He chronicles a seven-day trek away from the Mountain View, Calif. search engine because he simply doesn't trust it. Fed up with the free content subsidized by advertisements, Henderson began making a list of how to delete data. He began by deleting information on phone calls, interactions with more than 3,000 friends on Google+, and clearing out GMail data. "You can't use Google products," he writes. 

Google released Tuesday new social reports in AdWords aimed at bridging the gap between social media, metrics, and paid-search ads. The features should help marketers identify the value of traffic coming from social sites and measure how they lead or assist in conversions. They also will give marketers insight into social activities on and off a company's Web site to help optimize engagement and increase social key performance indicators.

Google had been testing the ability to integrate Google+ posts and member names in the right rail of search results for weeks, and last week began making it visible to more searchers. As Ruben Sanchez tells us, this addition, now visible to more people, pushes ads down the page for some brand and general search queries.

Kenneth C. Wisnefski has a plan to save the U.S. Postal Service. Given the reputation of the government agency, perhaps it should start a marketing arm, he wrote in a post. Making his point, he refers readers to a report from Borrell Associates suggesting that this year, e-mail marketing will represent 17.4%, search engine marketing 15.1%, and social media marketing 13.7% of online advertising expenditures by businesses.

Rand Fishkin examines how Google determines what to recommend in query results and the factors that influence them. He tells us about the search signals in Search Suggest and how to use instant recommendations in the search query as a branding tool, and points out that companies can identify negative or potentially illegal activity that target a brand that is otherwise unknown.

Aaron Wall spoke with Jonah Stein to get the lowdown on Panda, the change to Google's ranking algorithm in organic search results. The two discuss clients with Web sites that have been negatively influenced by the Panda update. Wall tells us that both sites dropped about 35% in Google traffic, falling in the ranking between three and seven spots. Stein provides tips and feedback on SEO tactics when taking Panda into consideration.

Google's Flight Search using the technology from its acquisition of ITA Software, which signed on more than 500 airports outside the U.S., is now included in results. Eric Zimmerman tells us the tool now enables consumers to find flights -- including international destinations -- from the U.S., but Google will continue to work to provide information from international flights into the United States. For those with flexible travel dates and times, the platform can suggest the day to fly for the best price. 

Is LinkedIn advertising reminiscent of the early days of Facebook? Managing paid-search campaigns and search engine optimization strategies in LinkedIn isn't easy -- but the site offers tools and services that allow marketers to target specific consumers based on businesses, according to marketers. Kayla Kurtz tells us about some "seriously legit stats" from LinkedIn, and reveals how to mine them.

The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Chief Regina Dugan will take a senior position at Google. She is not the only person with a DARPA background to work at Google. Deborah Netburn reminds us that Vinton Cerf, known as one of the founding fathers of the Internet, worked there as a program director. Dugan recently spoke at the TED conference in February, where James Duncan Davidson highlights her statement: "What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?" While Google encourages success, the company's business culture also encourages failure. Without failure, success doesn't exist -- …

Rich snippets help identify information on specific sites without clicking on a link, explains Selena Narayanasamy. She describes a few benefits -- such as drawing someone's attention to a result, providing instant information to the query, and increasing click-through rates while lessening the bounce rate  -- and takes us through the basics, fundamental types, implementation, and benefits for using them.