Google Checkout did not garner much buzz at the Search Engine Strategies Conference (SES) in San Jose this week.

Google has launched Google Checkout, a payment system for online retailers that's tightly integrated with Google AdWords. Checkout isn't the rumored PayPal killer, but it does offer some compelling features for both merchants and online shoppers alike.

Shares of Google Inc fell as much as 19 per cent on Tuesday after the web search company widely missed Wall Street earnings targets due to relatively weak British results which led to a high tax rate.

The high functionality together with the minimalist design made Google's home page one of the most popular among people who search the web. But at this point, Google staff thought it was about time to let users personalize the Google home page, with different features they prefer, from news to email.

This is a major opportunity for PPC advertisers and/or business owners that couldn't afford the old price of Urchin On Demand, a tracking software and web analytics service that imports PPC costs directly from Google AdWords accounts.

Google intends to make local search results and maps available to its users by syndicating these services to other sites.

Google recently enabled a new search feature called "My Search History" that keeps track of all your web searches and every page that you view from search results.