While I don't find myself searching more or less or any different as a result of Google Instant, a study by Marin software, a paid search platform company, suggests something different.

Today, we Google things on our computers and on mobile phones, but in the future you might Google something in your head through an implant.

WebVisible released interesting statistics Thursday in its State of the Small Online Advertising report that suggests small businesses are ready to experiment with new media and have begun to better understand search marketing. The average small business search advertiser spent $2,373 in Q3 2010, up 6.4%, sequentially, and 43% compared with the year-ago quarter.

Some real-time search engines have been throwing in the towel or trying to find a different business model that doesn't compete with Google, Bing, Yahoo and Twitter. Last week real-time search startup OneRiot revealed it would shutter its search portal. Thursday, the company reported transitioning search partners to real-time engine Topsy, which makes the feeds available to Web sites through an API.

Will the Yahoo and Microsoft search alliance do the Sunnyvale, Calif., company more harm than good, or more good than harm in the long run? The alliance seems to have reignited an identity crisis. I thought the company had extinguished the fire, but earnings clearly show that's not the case.

Steve Jobs showed up during a routine earnings call Monday to gloat about the company's first $20.3 billion quarter. Apple's CEO also trashed Google's Android mobile operating system and defended the company from criticism related to the Apple platform running on a closed proprietary system as being a disadvantage when compared to open-source systems like Google's Android.

Online advertising is going through a Frankenstein phase. A bold statement, yes, but let me explain how the modern Prometheus will become the social network. I'll preface the following by saying that by no means do I view online advertising as being destructive. But it will become more disruptive. It will continue to create questions about privacy. And, it will spark a variety of new industries supporting online advertising.

During the past month Google executives talked about wind power, cars, Google TV and an economic indicator known as the Google Price Index, but analysts on Thursday's third-quarter earnings call really wanted to know if any have a dependable revenue stream, what's going on in its core search business and how it would capitalize on value-added services in mobile.

What will search look like five years from now? Most marketers and search experts don't want to venture a guess because of the speed at which engineers innovate at Google, Microsoft Bing, Yahoo and Facebook is just too fast. Others going out on a limb to express their thoughts had mixed opinions.

The idea that search queries appear as they get typed generates more query traffic, and it seems people tend to interact with queries more. That's according to data released late Tuesday.