The globalization of the Web means that companies have to found ways to reach out to consumers in their native languages, a costly and time-consuming endeavor.

Yahoo said it would limit to 90 days the time it holds personal information related to searches to address privacy concerns.

Yahoo said that it would limit the time it holds identifiable personal information related to searches to 90 days to address growing concerns from privacy advocates and government regulators.

Microsoft said it would abide by a European privacy panel’s request to reduce the length of time it kept records of Web searches if its rivals, Yahoo and Google, did the same.

To help sift through all the choices, companies including VideoSurf and Digitalsmiths have developed search tools.

A new survey from Microsoft suggests that self-diagnosis by search engine frequently leads Web searchers to conclude the worst about what ails them.

Some call it Big Brother, but who can resist? It’s just so darn useful.

New tools are being developed that let people at different computers search as a team in a shared Web space.

Yahoo has a fundamental decision to make, say analysts. Does it want to remain an independent company, or should it sell some or all of itself to another Internet player?

Users of the voice technology can ask any question, ranging from “Where’s the nearest Starbucks?” to “How tall is Mount Everest?”