SeoAlchemist

The Yahoo Search Blog has posted that they are currently undergoing a index, crawl and algorithm update. Priyank Garg of Yahoo said,

Over the last few days, we’ve been rolling out some changes to our crawling, indexing and ranking algorithms. While we expect the update will be completed soon, as you know, throughout this process you may see some ranking changes and page shuffling in the index.

I posted signs of this update this morning at the Search Engine Roundtable, and linked to several forums discussion, what appears to be a pretty significant update.

Propelled by strong quarterly earnings and rampant speculation (and coverage) about its mobile plans, Google stock earlier today crossed the $700 price target many Wall Street analysts had set for the company. It’s down slightly right now. Once Google provides more visibility about its mobile plans investors could become more bullish or potentially be disappointed. However, it’s unlikely that any practical market impact would be felt immediately because there would likely be a lag between any mobile announcement and the actual product rollout.

The mapping upgrades and improvements are coming so fast now from Google and Microsoft, MapQuest and Yahoo that it’s difficult to keep track of all the changes. But luckily the Ask Blog walks us through all the features of the new and improved Ask Maps UK, which includes multi-point routing, walking directions (which are claimed to be unique to Ask), aerial views, and incorporates landmarks, transit and points of interest.

However this isn’t a map-centric local search site, like Ask City in the US. A search for local information on the Ask UK Maps site (e.g., London Hotels) will send users to Ask.com search results.