A lot of fun stuff happened this week in the world of Web search, so let's get right to it:

• Google Swirl offers fun ways to explore images: Google has opened up a new way to find images, and it's just swirl-y (sorry 'bout that).
• Yahoo Brings 'Real Time' Updates To News Shortcut: Yahoo is coming to the table with integrated Twitter feeds; Bing, Google unveiled a Twitter search option about a month ago.
• Survey uncovers the UK's favorite websites: Some very interesting choices here.
• Twitter Premium Accounts Coming by Year's End: Premium accounts are best for those folks who need better analytics and advanced Twitter features.
• Google Builds Out A National Real Estate Search Engine: Google already rolled out searchable real estate back in July (Google Maps: now with real estate listings), but now it's got even more great features (convenient for looky-loos).
• Future Directions of Wolfram|Alpha: Fun stuff in store for the computational search engine, including the Wolfram|Alpha API, Wolfram|Alpha iPhone App, and enterprise and custom versions.
• Discover Bing: Want to explore Bing and everything it has to offer? This is the place to do it.
• Search engines are a source of learning: An intriguing new study suggests that we mostly use search engines to confirm what we already know.
• Twitter Incorporates Retweeting (Beta Launch): Retweeting (basically passing along someone else's thoughts on Twitter) gets tweaked.

Did I miss something? If you've got a Web search news item you'd like to share, now is the time!

File hosting sites, such as Gigasize, Ziddu, File Dropper, MediaFire, Megaupload, HotFile, or Rapidshare, typically do not offer you the opportunity to see what other people have uploaded to their servers. However, there are a lot of search engines that offer a way around that, and one of them is FileLinkFind.

FileLinkFind gives you the ability to search all the file hosting services listed above (along with a few more). Plus, you can subscribe to a topic you'd like to keep track of; for instance, say you want to see updates to your favorite public domain eBook....well, you can simply subscribe to that topic via RSS. Note: Please be aware that FileLinkFind (and similar file hosting search engines and sites) offer adult content and advertising, and that it is considered illegal in most countries to download copyrighted files.

More file hosting search engines

• Rapidshare Search Engines: Rapidshare, one of the largest file hosting sites on the Web, does not offer a public search option to see what other people are uploading. However, you can get around that with Rapidshare search engines. Here are my picks for the top five Rapidshare search engines; they're all easy to use, offer advanced file hosting search capabilities, and best of all - they're free.

I ran across an interesting way to search and watch videos today; it's the Veoh Web Player. It's a free download that makes it possible for you to search and watch videos right in your browser, in addition to managing all videos that you download (a plugin for downloading videos is included in the download). For instance, here's what my browser looked like when I searched for "puppy":

As you can see, I've got around 65 puppy videos from a variety of sites that I can watch instantly. Here's what my browser looked like when I clicked on one of the videos:

Now, this isn't anything groundbreaking; any video site will let you watch videos in your browser. However, if you find yourself searching for videos a lot, and you like downloading them, this is a good way to manage those tasks.

More about videos on the Web

• The Top Seven Sites to Watch Movie Trailers
• The Best Sites to Watch Free TV
• Thirty Ways to Watch Free Videos Online

If you'd like to add a little bit of spice to your search today, check out Mystery Google, a custom search engine designed to show you what the person in front of you just searched for.

Obviously, it's not a tool for when you need quick, accurate search results (you'll want to try this list of search engines for that). However, if you just want a little distraction, this is awesome.

For instance, I typed in "tabby cat" and got back results for how to beat homesickness. The query "baseball bat" got "Your boss is watching! Alt-Tab! Alt-Tab!". And the search for "potato soup" got "will you go out with me". Try it out, I promise you'll get a laugh or two!

More Web silliness

• Web Quizzes
• About Web Search Collection of Funny Sites
• How To Find Free Online Games On The Web