Ask.com turned the "Search" button into an "Ask" button Wednesday after tests showed that changing the word encouraged people to ask more questions, which also serve up paid-search ads and sponsored links. For now, the button will remain the color blue, but Doug Leeds, Ask.com CEO, told MediaPost the team has been testing a variety of colors and features across the site.

Some might call it search -- and others, asking for answers. Even before Ask.com moved from a Q&A to a search engine business model, and then transitioned back again, many seeking answers continued to rely on the site to ask questions. Searchers apparently know where to go for answers. But in a list of the top five destinations, the order of the names might surprise many.

Remember the political activist Wael Ghonim who took a role in overthrowing Egypt's government earlier this year? The 30-year old Google executive on Saturday said he would take a sabbatical from the search engine to start something new. In a tweet on Twitter he wrote: "Decided to take a long term sabbatical from @Google & start a technology focused NGO to help fight poverty & foster education in #Egypt."

Timing is everything. With Earth Day on April 22, the anniversary of the environmental movement that began in the 1970s, Google announced Thursday it agreed to buy electricity from a wind generator facility in Oklahoma. The Mountain View, Calif. company bought 100 megawatts of wind energy production from NextEra Energy Resources in Minco, Oklahoma, to power its new data center in nearby Mayes County. The agreement boosts the use of renewable power on the electric grid to support the servers.

Trust continues to impact search engine marketing campaigns. There has been a lot of talk lately by analysts and experts around using paid search as a branding channel. How can marketers convince consumers to trust the paid search ad appearing alongside or above organic listings enough to click on them?

There have been numerous startups in the semantic search space. Microsoft acquired one -- Powerset, which now powers Bing. Meet Pragmatech, founded in 2009 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the United Development Company (UDC), based in Doha, Qatar. It has since opened a research and development branch in Jounieh, Lebanon, just outside the capital, Beirut.

How do marketers put a price on the volume and the quality of buzz? These predictors and influencers of brand performance can go a long way when attempting to brand a product or service. It turns out the Q1 Top Global Brands Report from General Sentiment released Tuesday provides the latest analysis. The top five spots go to three of the world's largest companies focused on search engines, along with one device maker and content provider, and another to an automotive manufacturer.

In an ongoing debate that began in February when Google tweaked its search algorithm to demote "low-quality" content," Demand Media posted a blog Monday explaining that its first-quarter results remain on track and second-quarter page-view growth will come in equally strong as year-ago results.

Two years from now, if someone googles "when did mobile search and display advertising become a reality for Google," the year "2011" will likely return in the search query. "The mobile Web is growing eight times faster than the desktop Web did 10 years ago," says Karim Temsamani, global head of mobile at Google.

Google bounced back in March, gaining U.S. search market share, according to comScore. Some view it as a sign the search giant has begun to regain its footing after weeding out irrelevant search results and finally getting regulatory approval to close on its $700 million offer to buy ITA Software, a travel data company.