A snowy start to April - can Google freeze out the competition?

Well it's been a cold start to spring, but while April's showers have turned to snow the news agenda has been running red hot - so take a few moments out of your busy morning and let the bigmouthmedia newsletter bring you up to date on the ins and outs of a pulsating week in search.

The story on everyone's lips is the announcement that search engine colossus Google will be introducing open keyword bidding on all terms in the UK and Ireland. The policy, which rolled out across the US and Canada in 2004, is coming to our shores on May 5 and is sure to cause an industry-wide shake up. However companies with extensive experience in the US, like globetrotting bigmouthmedia, will be well equipped to handle the changes.

Are Google on a money spinning rampage? The Mountain View mob certainly grabbed plenty of headlines for themselves over the course of the week as the company's plans to sell Performics were revealed and rumours surfaced that the search giant may be also be in discussions with eBay over Skype - a partnership or acquisition that would dovetail nicely with any ambitions the operation may have to dominate the VoiP space.

Meanwhile, in a galaxy not so far away, the mobile web wars have stepped up a gear. It's been suggested that Google's Android is intended to create fragmentation in the mobile application market, while Yahoo! opened up oneSearch 2.0, and expanded mobile email availability on Zimbra in the space of a few days. Is that fighting talk we hear? Certainly looks like it.

This week also saw yet more speculation - and not all that much action - in the ongoing saga of offers and rebuttals between Microsoft and Yahoo - everybody's favourite will they/won't they couple. First we heard reports that the two web giants had met to discuss the possible takeover, then we were led to believe that Microsoft is threatening to cut their bid in three weeks. Hold onto your seats folks - we're anticipating some hurt feelings and ruffled feathers in the months to come.

In other news, social networking scamp Facebook is rumoured to be settling with ConnectU, Yahoo! intends to release advertising management platform AMP! and a preview version of Google's App Engine has been opened to public view.

Our favourite search engine providers have certainly given us a lot to chew over this week - sink your teeth into the bigmouthmedia newsletter, where juicy search news is delivered to you in handy, bite-sized chunks.

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