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Go Inside Search to get the most out of Google
June 16, 2011
On Tuesday, we held a
media event
in San Francisco to introduce new and faster ways to search using your voice, an image or Instant Pages. We also launched
Inside Search
, a new website that hosted a live stream of the event. Inside Search contains a wealth of information about search and we wanted to let you know more about it.
When providing detailed information about a new search feature, we often link to an official landing page from the blog post (such as this one for
Google Instant
or this one for
Google Images with sorting
). Since there wasn’t one central place you could find all that information, we created a one-stop shop for all search-related features, tips and tricks. Thus, following the release of the new
Inside Search blog
, we bring you a deeper look
Inside Search
.
Whether you’re a beginner to web search or a search master, you’ll find all the search shortcuts you need under the
Features
section of the site. For example, most people don’t realize that the Google search box is a calculator, a world clock and a unit converter. You can also discover tips like how to use translated sites to search for [crepe recipes] on French sites or how to use an asterisk in a phrase or question so Google can fill in the blanks.
In addition, if you ever wonder how search takes your query and delivers results, you can use Inside Search to get an
under-the-hood look
at the technology behind Google Search. There are interactive diagrams with information on how far every query has to travel to get an answer back to you, how often we run experiments (we ran over 6000 in 2010 alone), how much time has gone into developing the algorithm and more. We’ve also included the
Search Globe
, an interactive display of searches around the world, on this page.
Inside Search also takes advantage of HTML5 to create a more interactive experience throughout the site, so instead of just clicking to read a list of search facts, you can do something a little more fun, like pick up a test tube with your mouse and pour the solution onto the Google homepage to reveal interesting facts about search:
Finally, be sure to visit the
Playground
section of the site. There, you can try your hand at the
A Google a Day
trivia game, browse our gallery of
past Google doodles
and be on the lookout for new fun additions coming soon.
To learn new search tips, get a behind-the-scenes look at Google technology or find out more information about the announcements from Tuesday’s event, visit the new site at
www.google.com/insidesearch
.
Posted by Johanna Wright, Director, Search Product Management
Watch the lunar eclipse from anywhere
June 15, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
YouTube
and
Lat Long
blogs)
We’re always fascinated by the unique wonders of space and the world—what can we say, it’s the geek in us! Naturally, when we learned that part of the world will be treated to a rare 100-minute long total
lunar eclipse
starting at 11:20am PDT today, we were both excited and disappointed that this rare occasion wouldn’t be visible from our Mountain View campus like
last year’s eclipse
. We suspect we aren’t alone, so you’ll be glad to know that we’ve worked with Slooh Space Camera to let you experience the spectacle wherever you are in the world, in real time.
Slooh will host a live
mission interface
using Google App Engine that lets anyone not lucky enough to live in certain areas (South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia) take part in this rare astronomical event. It’s equipped with audio narrations from real-life astronomers so you can hear a firsthand, expert account of the event. You can also watch the live stream on the
Google YouTube Channel
or from the Sky layer in Google Earth (download
this kml
), while exploring the fascinating world that exists in our galaxy. Finally, those of you on the go can download the
Slooh Space Camera Android app
to view the images right on your phone.
If you're fortunate enough to be able to view this event in the sky, we hope you'll get the chance to step outside and indulge in the spectacle. For everyone else, we hope our
moon madness
helps brighten your day.
Update
11:23 PDT
: Starting now, if you visit the
Google homepage
you’ll see a special interactive doodle, which will update throughout the day to show the latest state of the moon. Lunar imagery provided by Slooh.
Posted by Noel Gorelick, Chief Extraterrestrial Observer and Technical Lead in Special Projects
Knocking down barriers to knowledge
June 14, 2011
As much as technology has advanced, there are still many barriers between you and the answers you’re looking for—whether you’re juggling a clunky mobile keyboard or waiting for a website to load. Today we held a
media event
in San Francisco where we talked about some of the latest things we’re doing to tackle these barriers on mobile, announced that we’re bringing our speech recognition and computer vision technology to the desktop, and took the next step for Google Instant—Instant Pages.
The thirst for knowledge doesn’t stop when you step away from your computer, it continues on your mobile device. In the past two years, mobile search traffic has grown five-fold. Mobile search today is growing at a comparable pace to Google in the early years.
Here you can see that mobile search traffic growth over the past three years (the red line) is comparable to overall Google search traffic growth over the same duration (the blue line) but earlier in our history.
One of the technologies driving this growth is speech recognition. With Voice Search, you don’t have to type on a tiny touchscreen. You can just speak your query and the answer is on the way. We’ve invested tremendous energy into improving the quality of our recognition technology—for example, today we teach our English Voice Search system using 230 billion words from real queries so that we can accurately recognize the phrases people are likely to say. As the quality has increased, so has usage: in the past year alone, Voice Search traffic has grown six-fold, and every single day people speak more than two years worth of voice to our system.
We first offered speech recognition on mobile search, but you should have that power no matter where you are. You should never have to stop and ask yourself, “Can I speak for this?”—it should be ubiquitous and intuitive. So we've added
speech recognition into search on desktop
for Chrome users. If you’re using Chrome, you’ll start to see a little microphone in every Google search box. Simply click the microphone, and you can speak your search. This can be particularly useful for hard-to-spell searches like [
bolognese sauce
] or complex searches like [
translate to spanish where can I buy a hamburger
]. Voice Search on desktop is rolling out now on google.com in English, but in the meantime you can check it out in our video:
Searching with speech recognition started first on mobile, and so did searching with computer vision.
Google Goggles
has enabled you to search by snapping a photo on your mobile phone since 2009, and today we’re introducing
Search by Image
on desktop. Next to the microphone on
images.google.com
, you’ll also see a little camera for the new Search by Image feature. If you click the camera, you can upload any picture or plug in an image URL from the web and ask Google to figure out what it is. Try it out when digging through old vacation photos and trying to identify landmarks—the search [
mountain path
] probably isn’t going to tell you where you were, but computer vision may just do the trick. Search by Image is rolling out now globally in 40 languages. We’re also releasing
Chrome
and Firefox extensions that enable you to search any image on the web by right-clicking.
Whether you type, speak or upload a photo, once you’ve indicated what you’re looking for the next step in your search is to sift through the results and pick one. To make this faster, last year we introduced
Google Instant
, which gives you search results while you type. We estimated Google Instant saves you between two and five seconds on typical searches. But once you’ve picked a result, you click, and then wait again for the page to load—for an average of about five seconds.
We want to help you save some of that time as well, so today we took the next step for Google Instant: Instant Pages. Instant Pages can get the top search result ready in the background while you’re choosing which link to click, saving you yet another two to five seconds on typical searches. Let’s say you’re searching for information about the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, so you search for [
dc folklife festival
]. As you scan the results deciding which one to choose, Google is already prerendering the top search result for you. That way when you click, the page loads instantly.
Instant Pages will prerender results when we’re confident you’re going to click them. The good news is that we’ve been working for years to develop our relevance technology, and we can fairly accurately predict when to prerender. To use Instant Pages, you’ll want to get our next beta release of Chrome, which includes prerendering (for the adventurous, you can try Instant Pages today with the
developer version
). It’s one more step towards an even
faster web
.
To learn more about today’s news, visit our new Inside Search website at
www.google.com/insidesearch
. There you’ll find a recording of the event (when it’s ready), answers to common questions and links to other blog posts about today’s news on the
Mobile blog
and
Inside Search blog
. The Inside Search website is our new one-stop shop for Google search tips, games, features and an under-the-hood look at our technology, so there’s plenty for you to explore.
We’re far from the dream of truly instantaneous access to knowledge, but we’re on our way to help you realize that dream.
Update
4:38p.m.
: Watch the video and see a slideshow of today's event below.
Posted by Amit Singhal, Google Fellow
Tune in this morning for our search event
June 14, 2011
Today we're hosting a media event in San Francisco to talk about search and introduce some new search-related features. We'd like to invite you to tune in live from 9:30 - 11:00am PDT.
You can watch the live stream on our new
Inside Search
site or on the Google YouTube Channel at
www.youtube.com/google
.
Posted by Amit Singhal, Google Fellow
Helping homeowners harness the sun
June 14, 2011
(Cross-posted from the
Green Blog
)
Imagine sitting on your patio watching the sun’s rays pass overhead, knowing that they power your home with clean energy—at a cost that’s less that what you would have paid using just the grid. That’s what my colleague, engineer Michael Flaster, has been doing at his home in Menlo Park, Calif. since March of this year. He did it with the help of a company called
SolarCity
, which enables homeowners and businesses to begin using solar energy to power their homes and buildings.
Today, we’re announcing that we’ve investing $280 million to create a fund that will help SolarCity finance more solar installations across the country. This is our largest clean energy project investment to date and brings our total invested in the clean energy sector to more than $680 million. We’ve also launched a partnership to offer SolarCity services to Googlers at a discount.
In SolarCity’s innovative financing model, the company covers installation and maintenance of the system over the life of the lease. You can prepay, or pay nothing upfront after which you make monthly solar lease payments. All told, Michael will save $100 per month on his energy bills this year, and more than $16,000 over his 15 year lease, after factoring in his lease payment and lower energy bills.
We believe the world needs a wide range of clean energy options in the future, each serving different needs. We’ve
already invested
in several large-scale renewable energy projects, so we’re excited that this new partnership with SolarCity helps people power their homes directly with solar energy, too. We think “distributed” renewable energy (generated and used right at home) is a smart way to use
solar photovoltaic (PV)
technology to improve our power system since it helps avoid or alleviate distribution constraints on the traditional electricity grid.
Our investment is a quadruple-win for Google, SolarCity, its new customers and the environment. We continue to look for other renewable energy investments that make business sense and help develop and deploy cleaner sources of energy. Whether harnessing the sun on rooftops like Michael’s or in the
desert sands of the Mojave
, it’s all part of building a clean energy future.
Posted by Rick Needham, Director of Green Business Operations
Helping publishers get the most from display advertising with Admeld
June 13, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
DoubleClick Publisher Blog
)
It’s now clear that investments in new technologies, new ad formats and improved buying and selling processes are helping to grow the
display advertising
pie. This benefits publishers who make more money from display ads, users who receive free ad-funded content and marketers who are able to grow their businesses online.
However, we often hear from major website publishers that ad management today is still mind-numbingly
complicated and inefficient
. We’ve been investing in our publisher tools to try and improve this landscape and have made great progress, but we think we can do even better. To help major publishers get the most out of the rapidly changing and growing display ad landscape, we’ve signed an agreement to acquire
Admeld
, a New York-based yield optimization firm.
Here’s a basic summary of the
display ad industry
, from the perspective of major publishers. There are lots of different ways that they can sell their display ad space. Often, they’ll sell space
directly
to advertisers or agencies, using an ad server to actually deliver and measure the ads (like Microsoft’s Atlas, AOL’s AdTech, DoubleClick's DFP, Yahoo’s APT, OpenX, Zedo, 24/7 Real Media and others). Alternatively, they’ll make their ad space available
indirectly
—to hundreds of ad networks (like Advertising.com, Specific Media, Collective, 24/7, ValueClick, Vibrant, AdSense, Undertone and others), each with thousands of advertisers, or to various advertising exchanges or technology platforms (like Yahoo’s Right Media, OpenX, DoubleClick Ad Exchange, ContextWeb, AdBrite, AppNexus and others) that match them with ad buyers (like ad networks and demand side platforms) who represent advertisers, in real-time marketplaces.
Some publishers also work with a “yield optimization” provider (such as Rubicon Project, Pubmatic and others) that supplies technology to select ads from across these many indirect options, while providing personalized service and support. In a very complex and rapidly growing display ad landscape, that’s what Admeld does.
Providing better ad management services to publishers is an area that has seen a
huge
amount
of
investment
in
recent
months
. Formed just over three years ago, the Admeld team is an example of the huge strides the industry is making—it has quickly developed a great service that is helping many major publishers manage their ad space more efficiently and profitably.
By combining Admeld’s services, expertise and technology with Google’s offerings, we’re investing in what we hope will be an improved era of flexible ad management tools for major publishers. Together with Admeld, we hope to make display advertising simpler, more efficient and more valuable, provide improved support and services, and enable publishers to make more informed decisions across all their ad space. These are all things our publisher partners have been asking us to further invest in. Of course, Admeld will continue to support other ad networks, demand side platforms, exchanges and ad servers, to yield the best possible results for publishers.
We believe that this investment will be an important step to help online publishers, and will further improve and grow the display advertising industry as a whole.
Posted by Neal Mohan, Vice President of Display Advertising
It’s a slam dunk for NBA web searches
June 12, 2011
Way back in 1946, the Philadelphia Warriors beat the Chicago Stags in the first professional basketball league championship. Plenty has changed since then, including the name of the league (BBA to NBA), the team names (who are the Stags?!) and the length of the uniform shorts. But there are still some certainties in hoops—the rim remains 10 feet high, there are still five guys per team on the court—and at its core, basketball remains the same.
In fact, sometimes it even repeats itself. This year’s finals series between the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat is a re-match from five years ago. When we take a look at the data in our
Insights for Search tool
, it seems that sports fans across the U.S. are much more interested in the match-up this time around, as searches for both teams are
currently far outpacing their 2006 levels
.
Basketball has always been a game of big stars—with just 10 players on the court at any one time, one player can change the game in a major way. Looking at players like [
kobe bryant
] and [
tim duncan
], we can see the professional league’s best players have shined during the NBA Finals. This year is proving to be no exception as the big names in the playoffs dominate people’s basketball searches. Mavs forward
Dirk Nowitzki is the most popular Maverick
and
Lebron bests his fellow super-stars, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade, as well as the rest of the Heat players
.
While Lebron “King” James and Dirk “The Diggler” Nowitzki are the top dogs on their respective teams, it’s another player, Jason Kidd of the Mavericks, who is really the breakout star of these Finals. The 17-year NBA veteran has visited the Finals before (with the New Jersey Nets in 2002 and 2003), but he’s never won a championship; in fact, Kidd has played in more playoff games without winning a championship than any other active player. With his team currently up 3-2, this year might finally be his to win. While he’s had a career worthy of the Hall of Fame, the veteran has
seen a resurgence in interest from U.S. sports fans
this season, as you can see in the chart below.
Another way to look at NBA Finals search trends is geographically. As you’d expect, foreign-born players are seeing interest spike in their homelands.
Dirk Nowitzki is popular in Germany
and Joel Anthony, a Canadian playing center for the Miami Heat, is
generating lots of interest from Canuck hoops fans
.
It’s not just the two cities with teams left playing that are searching for info on the series. Cleveland—the jilted former home of Lebron James—has taken a bigger interest in the [
nba finals
] than ever before. It seems both lovers and haters are paying attention to their former star’s fate.
To understand the fan frenzy in Dallas, we need look no further than how the team stacks up to the traditional fare for most Texans: barbecue. In the Dallas area,
[mavs] searches are currently outpacing [bbq] searches
. When basketball is outpacing ribs in Texas, you know something big is going down in the Lone Star State.
Though I’m neither a Texan nor a Floridian, with just two potential games left in a neck-and-neck series I’ll be settling in to watch Game 6 this Sunday hoping for another
historic NBA Finals moment
.
Posted by Mike Rooney, Account Executive, Online Sales
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