canonical
Google just announced that it will now do its best to lead searchers directly to the single-page version of the online content it indexes instead of the paginated versions of the same content. Whenever an obvious “view-all” version of the text is available, Google will now link to that instead
Facebook today announced a major new feature that could put renewed pressure on Google+ and Twitter to out-innovate the social networking market leader. Facebook users can now choose to allow others to asymmetrically follow them thanks to the new (and optional) “subscribe button”– just like on Twitter and Google+. This
Bing
Social search is, without doubt, one of the hottest topics in the search engine business today. Google and Microsoft have made it the central focus of their latest search engine features and numerous small players are also trying to get a foothold in this nascent business. Among these smaller players
Airline
Google today launched the first iteration of its new flight search feature that will allow users to find cheap airfares right from the Google interface without having to go through sites like Orbitz, Kayak or Expedia. For now, this feature is still somewhat limited and only supports major U.S.
Bing
Not too long ago, hiybbprqag wasn’t much of a word, but as Google employee Andy Arnt noticed today, if you search Bing for it these days, you will find that it is an “orcish” word meaning “whiner.” Unless you’ve been closely following the search engine competition between Microsoft
calendar
Google just announced that it is finally launching offline access to Gmail, Google Calendar and Docs. Once upon a time, Google allowed users to access their data offline through Gears, but the company shelved this effort in 2010 and never replaced it. Now, Chrome users can install a new pluginfrom
block
When it comes to dealing with annoying people on social networks, the options are usually pretty limited. You either deal with them or use a blunt “block” feature that virtually every social network today offers. Google+, however, just added a bit of nuance to its block function. Instead of just
amazon
Google has been taking its Street View cars and trikes to some interesting locations lately. You can already use it to get a close-up look at Stonehenge and meander through the National Museum of Iraq. The next project for Street View, though, looks like the most adventurous place Google has
expanded
Google’s expanded and enlarged sitelinks don’t add much to the search experience and just waste valuable screen estate. Yesterday, Google updated the way it presents sitelinks – those extra blue links to a site’s sub-sections that often appear underneath the main search result link. When Google originally added
Chrome extension
Google just launched Google Related, a new Chrome extension and Google Toolbar feature that aims to make it easier for you to “discover useful stuff while you browse.” Once installed, the extension pops up a new toolbar at the bottom of your browser window with links to related sites. When
android
Google today announced that it plans to acquire Motorola Mobility – the Motorola’s cellphone and set-top box division – for about $12.5 billion. This is obviously a major deal and suddenly turns Google from a company mostly focused on software into a hardware manufacturer as well. While Google aims to
Google just announced that you can now easily share links to Google Books on its new social network Google+. That, by itself, isn’t really the most exciting news of the day – and the implementation could still be improved – but I think it is a sign of what’s to