Google and Motorola Mobility today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire Motorola Mobility.
The acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a dedicated Android partner, will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.
Wave and Buzz never amounted to much, but the new Google+ will be a force to be reckoned with. While downplaying the importance of their new service, it might be a game changer in the social sharing business for Google. It is much more than just sharing status and photos, it is a new way of communicating.
Google+ mainly consists of
• Circles – very similar to Facebook’s friends list, but you don’t need to sign up to be part of a circle.
• Sparks – a topical section where you define your own content.
• Hangouts – a place to meet up with your contacts without needing to schedule; video included.
• Mobile – what I like about the mobile component is the instant upload for photos.
• Huddle – a beter chat application
Another great “new” service from Google is Google Takeout, previously known as the Data Liberation Front. This service allows to export your data from Google products. It currently supports Buzz, Contacts, Picasa, your Google profile and some elements of Google+.
Part of a small beta test group trying out a new Google AdSense feature called general category blocking.
General category blocking lets you block ads that fall into predetermined categories. At this stage you can only opt out of a set number of categories. The feature is only availbale in the new AdSense interface.
First indications are that this filtering option will not only provide you with more control over the ads on your sites, but will also have a positive revenue impact and may even help with the profiling of users.
Google have become better at interpreting search requests after the latest three updates.
Google Suggest are now drilling down further than just the country. The service is now tailored to specific metro areas in the U.S.
If you use Google on a mobile device you might find that the search suggestion list makes provision for your location.
The search suggestion list is the terms that appear below the text entry field on Google.
For example:
If you are in London and are looking for a sushi restaurant, first on the search suggestion list will be something like “sushi restaurants in london”.
Across the channel in Paris the same query will have as a first suggestion “sushi restaurants in paris”.
This new mobile functionality will currently only work on iPhones and Android-powered devices.
Some Google search results URL’s is showing up as hierarchies.
A URL that links to a search result was normally given at the bottom of the result. It seems that these URL’s are now replaced with site hierarchies.
For example:
You search for Scarlett Johansson.
At the bottom of the result you may have seen:
http://www.domain.com/example/scarlettjohansson
Now you may see:
Domain.com > Example > Scarlett Johansson
Google Translate recently added two new features to its services.
Google launched a new feature yesterday which enables the search engine to scan RSS and Atom feeds for the discovery of new webpages.
RSS/Atom feeds is a mechanism for content publication and allow readers to easely check for new content from publishers. By scanning these feeds Google will get new pages into their index more quickly than traditional crawling methods.
Adding feeds to current crawling techniques might lead to content being indexed faster.
(source: Google Webmaster Central Blog)
About