Google:
Eric Schmidt lecture at University of Washington
Google may be in the S&P 500 within 12 months

China:
Google to open a new R&D development location - the timing of this news perhaps trying to lower the IPO value of Baidu
Baidu remove links to thousands of MP3s - perhaps trying to look more legal and investor friendly to have greater IPO value

Yahoo!:
reported earnings:

Yahoo (YHOO) said it earned $755 million, or 51 cents a share. This compares to earnings of $113 million, or 8 cents a share in the year-ago period. Excluding $563 million in profit related to a sale, Yahoo earned 13 cents a share, in line with expectations. Yahoo also generated sales of $1.253 billion, up 51% from a year ago. Excluding the cost Yahoo pays to Web distribution partners, revenue grew to $875 million, below expectations of $881 million. Shares of Yahoo rose 3% to $37.73 in regular trading, but fell sharply in late trading.

Yahoo! opened a research & development lab at Berkeley

MSN Search:
a while ago they posted about some of their new advanced search operators on their blog.

IAC / Ask:
today IAC completed the Ask acquisition
Expedia spinoff to occur week of August 8th.

Snap:
Bill Gross, founder of pay per click marketing, now loudly toots the click fraud horn:

Gross is among those who believe click fraud is a big problem. He aims to change things with a "cost per action" system that only charges ad commission when a purchase is actually completed.

"I believe the commercial side of search will evolve toward cost-per-action in the next five to 10 years," Gross said.

If people realize the cost per action would it make them question the relevancy or purpose of the engine?