Google announced the launch of an official search blog, acknowledging the importance of search engine marketing and search activities across its portfolio of Web sites. So, the Mountain View, Calif., tech company on Thursday rolled out Inside Search to help brands, marketers and others find regular updates on the nuances of search and its engineering team. "We have more engineers working on search than any other product, and each one of us has stories to tell," Amit Singhal, Google Fellow wrote. Nice!

Looks like American consumers may be weathering high gas prices better than many expected. "Both the improving job market and strengthening economy are helping consumers cope better now than during the recent economic downturn," writes Todd Hale, SVP/ Consumer & Shopper Insights at The Nielsen Company, in his latest blog. It's not that they are not reacting, he writes, "it's just that 2011 is not 2008." Some 67% of the 27,000 consumers surveyed say they are combining errands to reduce their driving and control their gas spending, making trip compression the No. 1 consumer response to pricey gasoline. Back …

As home-improvement stores continue to wade through choppy economic waters, Americans are turning their DIY determination to lawn care and landscaping projects. New research from Scarborough shows that 50 million homeowners, or 29%, are currently working on a landscaping project, making it the top DIY priority around the country. Painting/wallpapering is next, with 28%, followed by carpet/flooring projects, with 14%. More than half in the Scarborough sample (51%) say they have shopped at The Home Depot during the past year, and 47% have shopped at Lowe's. Walmart, Ace Hardware, and Target came next, with Sears, K mart, True …

Yahoo today unveiled "Trending Now," its latest original video program, delivering the day's top headlines and trending stories based on Yahoo search data and social media buzz. The two- to three-minute newscast will air daily at 9 a.m. PST and will be the first show to be featured on the Yahoo home page. Think of it as a video version of the "Trending Now" section that already appears in the right corner of the home page. Dodge is sponsoring the program at launch, to be followed by TNT. Yahoo says that its original programming lineup, which includes shows …

How is ABC's iPad app working? Geri Wang, president of advertising sales and marketing at ABC Network, says soon the network will release its first user study of consumers using its popular video app. Wang made the announcement during ABC upfront presentation to advertisers on Tuesday in New York. ABC will also release a five screen study that focuses on user performance of its video and other content via television, mobile, iPad, Internet, and video-on-demand.

While Wal-Mart Stores posted an increase in both sales and earnings for the first quarter, same-store sales in the U.S. dipped 1.1%, marking the behemoth's eighth consecutive quarter of declines. Although that slip is "within our guidance range, we recognize that we still have to work to do, and it remains our greatest priority," Mike Duke, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. president/CEO says in a recorded conference call. "The good news is that the plan ... is gaining traction, and customers are responding favorably to every day low prices and our wider assortment. In grocery, we are further along. But the …

Google said it has teamed up with Publicis Groupe agency Digitas to deliver mobile marketing insights and usage research. On the Google Mobile Ads Blog, Torrence Boone, managing director of Google Agency Business Development said the initiative will “combine original Google and Digitas search and marketing data to forecast trends, inform investment strategies, and drive the creation of mobile optimized websites.”

Google Monday said it has launched expandable sections and other changes to Google News. The features MediaPost spotted and covered last month include click-to-expand sections, sliding bar of videos and photos, features to personalize sections, and more. It's always nice to be among the first to stumble across changes.

Donald Trump is not running for President. The host of "Celebrity Apprentice" will be back in January hosting another season of the NBC hit. Trump said at the NBC upfront event he has raised loads of money for charity by hosting "Celebrity Apprentice" and intends to keep doing it. Trump's legacy as a Presidential candidate won't be much more this his ability to nudge President Obama to release his long-form birth certificate. It would have been hard, of course, to envision the slick New Yorker with silk ties campaigning on Iowa farms, so he may have felt …

Ari Balogh, the former CTO and executive vice president of Products of Yahoo, has joined social recommendation service StumbleUpon as the company's vice president of engineering. Starting next month, Balogh will report to CEO Garrett Camp and oversee all of the company's engineering functions including product development, science, infrastructure and internal IT support. He will also become a part of the company's executive management team, StumbleUpon announced Monday. Balogh left Yahoo in April 2010, citing personal reasons for his departure. Before joining the Web portal in 2008, he had been CTO and head of global product design …