Some 64% of adults have searched for something they would like to keep private, with men and younger adults more likely to become secretive about their searches. People might hide searches from others, but engines keep track. I'm really not sure how secretive queries can be when engines rely on historic searches, among other signals, to serve-up paid-search ads.

Yahoo's traffic trends continue to show improvement, but not yet quite enough to make a long-term impact for search marketers.The biggest obstacle is the momentum of Google's innovation.

Imagine a world where search engines pull videos, images, text and more from repositories through technology similar to ad platforms that serve content in query results. It would reduce the need for Google and Bing to crawl the Web and verify content contributors.

Some 48% of marketers participating in a study about card-linked marketing believe CLM can replace traditional marketing strategies. About 48% said the media can easily replace email offers; 48%, coupons; 30%, newspaper advertising; 29%, search advertising; and 24%, TV advertising.

Plan to see plenty of Minions, Minnies, Wonder Womans, and "The Great Gatsby" flappers this Halloween when kids come knocking at the door. That's if you follow searches on engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Google has added features to its Maps software that allow people to personalize routes to multiple destinations and search tools to manage flight, hotel, restaurant reservations, and events. Some of these features were rolled into its search engine in August. The features began rolling out Wednesday.

Do the latest Internet Advertising Bureau numbers released Wednesday related to search and mobile come as a surprise? They shouldn't.

The typical small business spends $1,200 monthly on paid-search campaigns, but wastes 25% of the budget because it doesn't follow best practices, which leads it to make too many strategic errors. WordStream research released on Tuesday provides tips on increasing click-through rates and Google Quality Scores. It also tells marketers how they can win $25,000 to improve campaigns.

Local Product availability will become the most profound update to Product Listing Ads. The company announced the feature Monday, along with something they call "local storefront."

Brands and companies struggle with scale. Each want to build campaigns that grow, as as fast or as slow as potential or existing customers are added. The Harvard Business Review describes challenges around scale as "the difficulty of spreading something good from those who have it to those that don't - or at least don't yet." The HBR calls it "the problem of more."