Here's the latest installment of our monthly series on "search quality highlights," with 17 new quality improvements to read about for January.

WebmasterWorld's monthly look at Google's SERPs changes.

WebmasterWorld's AdSense barometer - a monthly look at Google AdSense earnings and observations.

WebmasterWorld Members discuss title changes, and the potential for a site/page penalty.

In a letter to Google's chief executive Larry Page, Europe's 'Data Protection Working Party' wrote that "we call for a pause in the interests of ensuring that there can be no misunderstanding about Google's commitments to information rights of their users and EU citizens, until we have completed our analysis".

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The VeriSign attacks were revealed in a quarterly U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing in October that followed new guidelines on reporting security breaches to investors.In written Senate testimony on Tuesday, U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper called the known certificate breaches of 2011 "a threat to one of the most fundamental technologies used to secure online communications and sensitive transactions, such as online banking." Others have said SSL as a whole is no longer trustworthy and effective.

The French company provides the same services for a fee and claimed the Google strategy was aimed at undercutting competitors by temporarily swallowing the full cost until it gains control of the market.

Facebook, the vast online social network, took its first step toward becoming a publicly traded company on Wednesday as it filed to sell shares on the stock market.

Moniker once had a reputation for providing the highest level of service to many of the most successful domain portfolio holders.What will Keydrive bring to the domain name game to regrain or restore that reputation?

The .com TLD has broken the 100 Million active .com domains barrier.

Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux adds powerful built-in developer tools and delivers smoother updates by making add-ons compatible by default.

The changes would not affect registrars' ability to offer Whois privacy services for an additional fee, though other amendments could formalise the process of unmasking such registrants accused of criminal behaviour or cybersquatting. And it's not certain yet that Whois verification will become mandatory.

Work on DMARC started about 18 months ago. Beginning Monday, other companies can sign up with the organization, whether they send emails or provide email services. For email users, the group hopes DMARC will mean fewer fraudulent messages and scams reaching their inbox.

"Have any of you noticed that Google's new "Search Plus Your World" can be shortened to SPY World?"

WebmasterWorld members discuss why this happens to some sites and not others.

Facebook and US state of Washington have filed lawsuits against marketing firm Adscend Media over alleged clickjacking and spam practices, as the social networking giant finally gets tough with scammers operating on the site.

Morgan Stanley, people familiar said, is the strong frontrunner for the much-coveted "lead left" position on Facebook's IPO documents to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

We haven't yet used this ability, but if and when we are required to withhold a Tweet in a specific country, we will attempt to let the user know, and we will clearly mark when the content has been withheld.

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In light of Google's new privacy policy, I wonder if Google might someday soon require all Adsense publishers to establish and maintain a Google+ account and provide a public profile that matches the identity information they've provided for Adsense.

"We simply know from the documents we reviewed and witnesses we interviewed that Larry Page knew what was going on."... The government built its criminal case against Google using money, aliases and fake companies-tactics often used against drug cartels and other crime syndicates, according to interviews and court documents. Google agreed to pay a $500 million forfeiture last summer in a settlement to avoid prosecution for aiding illegal online pharmaceutical sales.

The EU overhaul would also clamp down on data lapses such as Sony Corp.'s six-day delay in warning customers about a cyber attack that exposed more than 100 million customer accounts, the second-largest online data breach in U.S. history.Industry groups with members including Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. have warned against overly strict data-privacy rules that may stifle innovation.

The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $26.74 billion and net quarterly profit of $6 billion, or $6.43 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.

Google has already been collecting some of this information. But for the first time, it is combining data across its Web sites to stitch together a fuller portrait of users.Consumers won't be able to opt out of the changes, which take effect March 1. And experts say the policy shift will invite greater scrutiny from federal regulators of the company's privacy and competitive practices.

When engaged, this "Don't be evil" bookmarklet did indeed do one simple thing: It turned back the hands of time, and made Google work the way it did before the integration of Google+ earlier this month.

"Logged in to Google Webmaster Tools this morning and saw that there has been an update to the Diagnostic Centre and the way the URLs and content is displayed on the results page."

The European Union will propose tough new rules in the coming days on how corporations handle Internet users' personal data, a long-awaited move that could have far-reaching implications for Web giants such as Google Inc and Facebook.

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in a blog article today (January 19) Matt Cutts wrote: "In our ongoing effort to help you find more high-quality websites in search results, we're launching an algorithmic change that looks at the layout of a web page and the amount of content you see on the page once you click on a result."