The technology sector is still the most trusted industry sector in Australia, as revealed in a global survey which found that last year people in countries around the world blamed their governments, more than any other institution, for the financial and political crisis they endured, including in Australia where only one-third of the general population trust the institution of government to do what is right.

Google’s announcement that it will start featuring results from Google Plus in search results as part of Google Social Search has drawn criticism and a suggestion that the search giant is not listening to how its users perceive change.

The latest Facebook privacy scandal has erupted, with a report noting how easy it is to find people’s direct mobile numbers on Facebook, all thanks to people who’ve lost their phones, created an invite to ask friends to send their numbers over – without setting the invite to private, thus letting anyone on Facebook harvest the details.

Google says searches for terms related to Christmas shopping are up this year, and is advising retailers to review their advertising focus and budget to reflect consumer behaviour.

Microsoft has acquired video search engine VideoSurf for a reported $70 million and plans to add its video tagging technology to Xbox Live.

Microsoft’s search engine Bing wants to do to Google what Dyson did to Hoover.  Typically category killers become generic terms – think Hoover, Kleenex and Biro – but as Dyson’s proved, even category killers can prove vulnerable.

Bing is out of beta two years after launching in Australia and following many months of work by engineers to localise the search engine’s global experience for Australian users. And, with the job done to Australianise Bing, the milestone has been marked with kangaroos in the sunset replacing the beta tag on the Bing home page.

Online search and online directories continue to attract advertisers at a rapid rate while advertising in the print directories market erodes further. In the 12 months to June this year, Australian online search and directories advertising grew 23 percent to hit $1.4 billion in total revenue, with Google still the overwhelmingly dominant player.

The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) has awarded a three year contract worth almost $4m to CSIRO spin-off company Funnelback for technology that will enable the public to search for information across Government web sites.

The recent action by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) regarding the use of Google AdWords (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Trading Post Australia Pty Ltd and Google Inc) is an important one for companies that undertake online search result advertising.