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Visualized: Google searches around the globe
You've already seen Android activations mapped around the globe over time, now how about some Google search volumes? Using WebGL and different color crayons for each language, the coders at Mountain View have put together the above Search Globe, which presents a single day's worth of Google queries in a beautiful, skyscraper-infused visualization. Jacking yourself into the source link below (your browser can handle WebGL, right?) will let you twist and turn the model world for a closer exploration of global Google use. And if you get tired of that, there's an alternative map showing world populations over 1990s -- that's available at the second link.
Google adding a +1 button to search results, hopes you Like it
Looks like not even mighty Google itself is able to resist the charms of a bit of widespread internet shorthand. +1, whether used to uprank an Engadget comment or in freehand writing to signify one's support / approval of something, is making its way into Google search results. You'll soon be able to throw a single thumb up on links or ads you find useful, which will then be used to inform your buddies about the value of that site. Recommendations are filtered using a typically complex algorithm intended to make them as relevant as possible, with people within your social circle (i.e. Gtalk buddies and Gmail contacts) getting a higher priority. The new +1 button will start off with English Google search and ads soon, to be followed by more products in Google's portfolio and potentially more social linkups, such as via Twitter. The usual explanatory video follows after the break.
Google Search app for iPhone introduces new side-swipe toolbar and other UI tweaks
What you once knew as the Google Mobile App has been rechristened the Google Search app, signifying a renewed focus for Google's primary iOS application. Having formerly served as a multifunctional access point to all of Google's varied web apps, the new software is now geared to serve search needs first, with its other offerings relegated to a secondary "Apps" menu. There's also the addition of a new toolbar, accessible by swiping left to right, and improved fast-app switching support. The ever-present bug fixes and a few more user interface tweaks complete the list of changes. To get your download on, you may exploit either the source link below or the QR code above.
Google Mobile app for iOS gets major revamp, new name
Google has released a major update to the Google Mobile app for iOS, with new features and a new name -- Google Search for iPhone (free). The app has a completely redesigned user interface, and according to the developers, they've improved fast app-switching support. Multi-touch gestures have been added -- to make a search more specific, you swipe right on the results that appear, and a vertical toolbar appears allowing you to focus on places, images, news, shopping (both in stores and online), videos, Twitter and Facebook updates, blogs or discussions. A downward swipe lets you access settings and log into your Google account. Even the help system is different in Google Search for iOS. When you tap on the question mark icon to display help, a transparent window with glowing blue spots overlaying areas of the user interface appears. Touching any of the blue spots displays an explanation of what function the appropriate icon or area performs. The previous app did not support the Google Goggles feature on the iPod touch and iPhone 3G. That has now been remedied, and it's possible to search for items by picture on all of the platforms (note: we have not checked that on the iPad 2). Be sure to take a look at some screenshots from Google Search for iOS in the gallery below. [via MacStories] %Gallery-119135%
Google pulls Recipe View out of the oven
Okay, so this Google announcement doesn't come with some dessert-themed upgrade, but we guarantee you'll be able to find recipes for cupcakes, gingerbread, and maybe even ice cream. Yep, those always-hungry folks in Mountain View are rolling out a new Recipe View tab, which will not only narrow your search results to show cooking recipes, but will also provide some pretty awesome ways to filter down your inevitable query for spaghetti and meatballs. The image above pretty much explains it all -- you can filter down by your ideal ingredients, cooking time, and even the calories count. Google's even making it easier for recipe website developers to add markups to their webpages so that content can eventually appear all nicely sorted on the new search pages. It should all be rolling out as we speak in the US and Japan, which really means you have no choice but to cook tonight.
Google Social Search update makes your friends more relevant, difficult to ignore
Google's been talking up its Social Search function for sometime, but up until now your friends' tweets probably haven't made it to the top of your search results -- unless of course you're besties with TMZ, and you've been searching the Miley Cyrus bong salvia rip again. Thankfully, it looks as if that could change with El Goog's latest update to the socially minded search function, which now mixes updates from your contacts' various online accounts, like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, in with the standard search fare -- pulling them up from their previous position at the bottom of your results. Google's also included a photo and annotation to show the origins of relevant links, and given you the ability to manage how you connect your accounts -- either publicly through your profile or privately through your account. The new functions started rolling out yesterday, which means you could be seeing a whole lot more from those contacts you regretted friending in the first place. Isn't social media a wonderful / disastrous thing?
Google's new Instant Previews taste great with Instant Search and a slice of cheddar
In Google's unending quest to destroy all ad revenue and make sure its users never visit any of the websites they search for, the search giant is launching Instant Previews today. The feature, which adds large previews of websites along the right rail with a simple click of a magnifying glass, has popped up at random for various users over the past couple of months (Google's stealthy testing process), but now it's available to just about everybody. Once it's activated you can tab through the previews with your arrow keys, and Google automatically loads up all the preview images if you look just one (to aid with the "instant" aspect). Expect civilization to come to a grinding halt tomorrow or maybe the day after.
Google Search App bungs Bing on Windows Phone 7 Marketplace
Bing not meeting your needs? Don't fret, Google just pushed its Google Search app for Windows Phone 7 live in Marketplace. A move the mirrors the Bing app availability on the Android Market. The Google Search app utilizes your location to provide local search results and features suggestions as your type and a search history to quickly repeat any previous queries. While there's no way to reassign Google Search to the dedicated search "button" on WP7 devices, you could always pin the app to the Start screen. Unfortunately, we're still not seeing it populated in the UK Marketplace (search for "Google Search") but that should be remedied anytime now.
Google opens Android database at former phone store URL, but only for devices using Google services
Remember when Google opened up its own portal for purchasing the Nexus One? It was January 2010, and the URL was as simple as www.google.com/phone -- ah, those were the days. Of course, the store has been down since late July when the phone sold out (permanently), so what's the company to do with such a catchy web address? Simple: make a database of devices running your über-popular Android OS and help customers both compare and find where to buy. Only, it's not just any devices running the platform: according to the Official Google Mobile blog, "all the phones in the gallery include Android Market, Google Search, and other Google Mobile services such as Gmail, Maps, and YouTube." In other words, no phones that meddle with the Android Vision by opting for Bing or Yahoo instead. Maybe Fascinate can join the ranks after that purported Android 2.2 launch, but for now it's conspicuously absent. Them's the breaks -- still, it's fun to explore and draw up side-by-side comparison charts. Go on, give it a whirl, why don't ya? [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Google's Amit Singhal tells us about the dreams search engines are made of
Do Googlers dream of electric algorithms? For a little insight into what makes the search engine that became a verb tick, we recently attended a talk by Amit Singhal, one of its chief engineers. Amit is part of the team in charge of tweaking and improving Google's ranking algorithms and has 20 years of experience when it comes to sorting through data, with that time split into even decades spent within the academic sphere and over in Mountain View. What he had to tell us mostly revolved around his aspirations from when he started out back in 1990, but it's the way that Google has acted to meet each of those goals that's the fun and interesting stuff (or as we like to call it around here, the meat). So do put on your reading monocle and join us past the break.%Gallery-97608%
Google to stop censoring Chinese search results 'soon,' China warns of consequences
According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is making headway with its plans to stop filtering search results in China. Quoting Eric Schmidt as saying that "something will happen soon," the latest report is that Google is engaged in negotiations with multiple government agencies in China, and the likeliest scenario at this point is that the search giant will remain in the People's Republic, though it may be in a slightly altered state. "There will be a way for Google to not pull out 100%," says a source familiar with the ongoing discussions, who expects that El Goog will find a patchwork arrangement by which it'll be able to maintain some parts of its business running while no longer adhering to China's censorship fiat. For its part, China is keeping up its tough posturing, with the latest statement from its IT ministry describing Google's plans as "unfriendly and irresponsible" and warning that the company will have to bear the consequences of its actions. What appears certain at this point, however, is that there'll be no going back to censored Google search results, which is a win in our books whatever the final outcome.
TomTom submits updated app for Apple review
The makers of the TomTom app for the iPhone have let us know that they've submitted an updated version that adds real-time traffic information, Google local search, and even some secret features the company isn't talking about yet. The TomTom app was eagerly sought out last year, but of late has fallen a bit behind market leader Navigon. This new release, with real-time info and Google local, will give both apps rough feature parity. The current TomTom app is on sale for U.S. $49.99 at the app store (U.S. maps only) and it includes a "free update to the new version as soon as its available." That would indicate that some or all of the new features will be an extra charge for current owners. Version 1.3 will be available as soon as it passes through the App Store vetting process. [Thanks to Steve H. for the tip]
Google Goggles brings visual search to Android; Favorite Places brings QR codes to restaurant reviews
Looks like Google's been busy on the camera tip lately -- not only is it launching a new QR code-based Favorite Places mobile search product today, it's also demoing Google Goggles, a visual search app that generates local results from analyzing mobile phone images. Favorite Places isn't super-complicated, but it sounds like it'll be pretty useful: Google's sent QR code window decals to the 100,000 most researched local businesses on Google and Google Maps, and scanning the code with your phone will bring up reviews, coupons, and offer the ability to star the location for later. (It's not implemented yet, but you'll be able to leave your own reviews in the future.) Google hasn't built this into the Google Mobile app yet, so you'll need something to read QR codes with -- Android devices can use the free Barcode Scanner, and Google and QuickMark are offering 40,000 free downloads of QuickMark for the iPhone today. We just tried it out using QuickMark and it works pretty well -- although we'll wait to see how many QR codes we see in the wild before we call this one totally useful. Google Goggles is a little more interesting from a technology standpoint: it's an Android app that takes photos, tries to recognize what in them, and then generates search results about them. Goggles can recognize landmarks, books, contact info, artwork, places, wine, and logos at the moment, and Google says it's working on adding other types of objects, like plants. Pretty neat stuff -- but how about linking these two services together at some point, guys? Check some videos after the break.
Nokia ties up with Google for search, Yahoo! dies a little inside
It feels like Nokia and Yahoo! have been all buddy buddy for a while now, and indeed, Yahoo!'s been really good about deploying its wares to Nokia's S60 devices in a timely fashion; in the mobile search game, though, it seems a bit of a faux pas to be without Google on board, doesn't it? The world's number ones in their respective industries have announced that Google search capability will be integrated into Nokia's bundled Nokia Search app on all the upcoming models announced at MWC this week and into other handsets in the future. Nokia's playing it nice and straight by saying that the move is all about "providing choices" to its consumers, but let's be honest, if you were going to have one search provider on your phone, it'd probably have to be Google. Speaking of, is it just a coincidence that "Mountain View" rhymes with "Espoo"?
Google's iPhone-specific search website
It appears that Google has released a mobile-accessible search page just for iPhone users, which sent us scratching our heads a bit. Isn't the iPhone supposed to give customers "the real web?" If so, why has Google developed a bare-bones search page that appears to be just for iPhone customers? Perhaps this is a work in progress, but since the Safari browser on the iPhone has no problems going to the normal Google search website or Google's xHTML page, what's the point here? Unless you really (really) want a bare-bones Google search page on that new iPhone that doesn't even feature many of Google's search properties, we suggest hitting www.google.com. Sounds pretty easy to us.[via TUAW]
Yahoo! "jumps ahead" of Google in mobile search
We're not quite sure how Yahoo! claims to have "jumped ahead" of Google in terms of mobile search, but upon investigation here, the Sunnyvale company has unveiled its new "local" search for the first time in the States, delivering locally relevant answers to mobile search queries instead of just relevant but global search results (like Google defaults to with its mobile search). It's true that offering customers search results that are specifically tailored to locality (Yahoo!) instead of a list of relevant but global URLs (Google) are more likely helpful for mobile web searchers, but we're not sure on if this really has Yahoo!'s oneSearch "jumping over" Google's mobile presence. In terms of usefulness, probably. In terms of sheer search volume, well... who knows.
Google gets psychic with mobile search patent
Google sometimes has the uncanny ability to know exactly what we're searching for and can cut through all the results muck sometimes. Not all the time, but nothing is perfect, right? Those Mountain View Mensas are ready to take that to the next level it appears, as Google has just applied for a patent filing that looks like possible precursor to a "Google Phone." If not a Google Phone, then at least a "Google GUI" for a phone. Heck, maybe this will show up in the iPhone upon release or as a software upgrade later. The Google patent appears to contain language and associated mobile processes (user input, of course) that can predict what a user is searching for or the words they are typing in a text message. According to the patent, Google's software takes into consideration the customer location, previous searches (search history) and even SMS history and the time of day when all this search info is requested by the customer. Before we belt out mobile AJAX in our minds, it's just a patent filing, so no dice yet on what this could mean for the future of Google's mobile efforts.[Via mad4mobilephones]
