Google last week released a customizable toolkit for building real-time bidding applications that the company calls Open Bidder. It combines Google Cloud Platform with DoubleClick's expertise in RTB. The company has been working on the tool for more than one year.    

Sean Quadlin hosts Wordstream Founder Larry Kim in a video Webinar on how long-term data, ad testing, and copy strategies take time and thoughtful examination. The two discuss 10 simple tips that marketers can do today to increase click-through rates. View the video here.

New pages with fresh, relevent content typically rank higher in search engine query results. Making adjustments to existing, quality content can help increase the visibility of a site in search engine results pages. Rand Fishkin takes us through tactics that marketers can use to boost older page rankings. View the video here.

I recently found and bought a porch swing through Google Shopping on ThePorchSwingCompany.com. The five-person Tampa, Fla.-based company feeds about 200 product descriptions to create product listing ads (PLAs). Chad tells me that since they began paying for the ads, conversions have increased -- not only on Google, but Amazon, too. Rimm-Kaufman Group Product Manager Todd Bowman tells us how to keep up with the latest feed specs. Last week Google announced several -- such as Image Specs, Unique Product Identifiers, and Merchant-Defined Multipacks. Read the article here.

Google introduced a new look for Maps this week. The company plans to place great emphasis on location, so Maps will play a major role in mobile content in the future. Maps got a new look and feel for the JavaScript and Static Maps APIs. This will become the default in Google's experimental branch on August 15, followed by Maps for Business customers in November. Read the article here.

Google and NASA will partner on a project focused on machine learning and study how quantum computing might advance machine learning. The Google-NASA Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab will support facial or voice recognition, biological behavior and the management of complex number systems. The lab will open to scientists and researchers from around the world who can contribute.

Google continues to crack down on those selling links. Jennifer Slegg tells us that Google took "manual action" against "link sellers." She points to Google Engineer Matt Cutts as reporting that he has taken action "against several thousand link sellers that were passing PageRank." Read the post here.

A WebpageFX study tracking more than 1,000 providers in Google Analystics found that Bing owns 8.3724% of the search queries across the U.S., mostly in the northern Great Plains states, as well as the Rust Belt. The company analyzed use for both engines across the United States and found California has the lowest Bing market share with 5.28%, while North Dakota with 14.68% holds the most. The analysis also looks at Yahoo, as well as correlations to obesity, religion, temperature, unemployment rate, and more.

comScore released April 2013 search engine rankings Wednesday. As usual, Google sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in April with 66.5% market share, followed by Microsoft gaining 0.4 percenage points reaching 17.3%, and Yahoo sites gaining 0.2 percentage points reaching 12% of the market share.

The rumors that Google will launch a subscription music service should not come as a surprise to anyone -- especially for those following the movement on YouTube related to movies and content. The New York Times reports that the news could come as early as Wednesday during the company's I/O annual developers conference. The subscription will connect to Play, Google's online media hub, complementing its download store cloud features.