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An update was announced and implemented in the US by Google earlier this year that helps to boost the rank of big brands in search results. The update was implemented in the UK this weekend.

After the Google update, the search results will rank authority websites better in regards to the keywords that are included in the websites.

Previously, if a company or brand wanted to gain a good rank for a frequently used key term the only thing it could do was to undertake immense link building along with advanced on page SEO. But now, after the update has been implemented, Google is improving the ability of authority websites to rank depending on internal linking as well as their external target links.

This implies that from now it will be much easier to get a good rank in the search results for relevant websites. Large brands and popular companies will benefit immensely from this new inclusion in Google.

The internet is never safe. Hackers and malware are continuously trying to target new victims. The targets of these attacks are websites that are becoming increasingly popular. The latest news is that hackers have got access to ‘Britney Spears’ Twitter account and have sent false twits to her two million followers.

This Saturday, the hackers were successful in their attempt to hack into the star’s Twitter account. After hacking into Britney’s account, they sent a twit to all her followers that said that Britney Spears had “passed away”.

The prank twit started a shockwave amongst the star’s fans. However, the situation was brought under control as Spear’s staff started sending genuine messages confirming the star’s sound health and stating that the previous twit was a prank message sent by some hackers.

The executives of Twitter had to shut down the service partially in order to detect the method by which the hackers infiltrated the system. This is not the first time that Britney’s account has been hacked. According to TMZ, in January 2009, hackers posted some vulgar messages from Britney’s account. Hopefully, security measures will be taken by the authorities to prevent such occurrences in the future.

Marketers are aware of how much business potential there is in conversations of internet users and they are now beginning to pay close attention to the profiles of Facebook users. The social networking site began testing a feature on the 24th of June which allows users to share their updates not only with friends, but with the public as well.

Every time Facebook users provide an answer to the question- “What’s on your mind?” on their profile page, the company’s software also asks who should be allowed to see it. For example, if ‘everyone’ is selected, the third party companies which are working on that software will be allowed to analyse the information to find out the services and products that Facebook users are interested in.

The company said that it was modifying its search engine in order to find these real time feeds. Chief executive of Radian6, Marcel LeBurn said that it opens up another kind of content realm for companies that want to engage their customers. Radian6 is a software company which develops tools to allow public relations companies and advertisers draw conclusions from the conversations on different social media sites such as Twitter.

Insights that marketers could get from this feature is intriguing. However, software companies that are hopeful of mining data on Facebook will have to tread cautiously since a very small percentage of Facebook’s 200 million users are willing to make their profile information publically available.

Twitter, a social networking website that lets people communicate with the exchange of short status messages, has made its way into the UK’s top and fastest growing websites. The website is also in top 40 of Britain’s most visited sites.

According to Hitwise, the internet analyst, the micro-blogging site has seen a tremendous rise in its popularity in the past few months. It has experienced an increase of 22-fold in its traffic in the last year. Twitter is presently the UK’s 38th most visited site compared to last year’s 969th during the same time period.

Hitwise research director, Robin Goad said that the vast majority of Twitter’s growth occurred during 2009 is a remarkable thing. The site’s media coverage has also risen significantly this year following high-profile celebrity endorsements right from Ashton Kutcher to Stephen Fry. Twitter is presently used as key communications tool which is how its popularity has continued to grow rapidly. If the new figures are to be believed, Twitter has become a major source of traffic for other websites.

During May, 1 in every 350 website visits were accounted by Twitter. More than half of the entire links contained in the Tweets redirected users to sites like blogs, news, social networks and entertainment sites.

At a recent Annual General Meeting, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has asked its shareholders to stop comparing the Sunnyvale based company to Google.

The shareholders of Yahoo have voiced their disappointment with the management of the web giant on a number of occasions. This difference in opinion has been with regards to Google’s takeover of the web market and Yahoo’s inability to respond to the competition. Last year, a record number of shareholders withdrew support from the board of directors as Yahoo rejected a buyout plan offered by Microsoft for 47 billion dollars.

Richard Hackenberry, who has held shares of the company since 1999, stated that he wanted the Microsoft deal to go through because the prices of Yahoo shares have fallen considerably and he does not expect them to rise above his expectations again because of the current economic climate.

Yahoo’s shares have fallen to a great extent and are trading at around 16 dollars per share. This however, is a lot better than last year’s lowest trading price of about 9 dollars. Carol Bartz also stated that if there ever a deal was formulated with Microsoft, it would be formally announced.