Google Spell Checker

Labels: Google Search
Google aims at giving users the most relevant content in search result pages. Larry Page, co-founder of Google, stated that a"perfect search engine," is defined as something that, "understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want.". Long ago, Google displays OneBox above search results which are information Google identifies as most relevant to specialized information like weather and stock quotes. In the past few months, they extend this idea to something bloggers name it 'PlusBox' or 'ManyBox' which basically is similar information provided in OneBox displayed in an expandable box after individual search results. Currently, PlusBox works for stock quotes, in-site search, maps and directions, related blog posts about corporates, etc. Lately, they experimented videos on PlusBox which means users can play videos hosted in popular videos sharing sites (e.g. YouTube and Google Video) on the search result page. Here is how users benefit:
Labels: Google Search
There have been rumors going on for a while that Google is launching a premium service for its current Google Apps. Google now provides free trial to the premium service for all existing users until 30th April. Here are some highlights of the premium edition:
Labels: Google Apps
Anything with that six characters printed on them will drive Google fans crazy (Google tee, Google mug, Google calendars, Google stickers, etc.). But the problem is, not everyone is so lucky to have them delivered to their homes. However, don't get disappointed because there are rare chances where Google allows users to sign up for them. First-come-first-serve. Recently in the Official AdSense Chinese Support Forum there was a sticky thread where the top ten repliers will get souvenirs delivered to their specified address. No one knows what those gifts are, maybe a pack of IT'S IT Google ice cream. Google provides free lunch to its employees, now, it is generous to its lovers as well. Want one? Start keeping an eye on the official Google support forums ;)
Labels: Google AdSense
Google fancy algorithms more than human editing and that's why all most everything, from search results to advertisement delivery system, are all automated. But when it comes to languages, Google might need some help from humans to make it sound more natural. One of the ten things Google found to be true, is The need for information crosses all borders. According to Google,
"Google's mission is to facilitate access to information for the entire world. ... That is why they also offer a translation feature to make content available to users regardless of their native tongue and for those who prefer not to search in English. To accelerate the addition of new languages, Google currently offers volunteers the opportunity to help in the translation through an automated tool."The voluntary opportunity mentioned in the quote is on an invitational basis and Google manually approves every single application. In most cases, especially for popular languages, Google will not allow users to help. But Google might have changed its mind. Now, when users translate websites into a different language using Google's translation tool, you can suggest better translations by rolling over the translated text. Google will automatically phrase sentences according to punctuations and display the original phrase. Imagine if every webmaster translates their site to a foreign language, I am sure Google will have the best translation ever.
Update: This function only works for BETA languages, e.g. Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic. Note: Google Translate now does Chinese (Traditional). Big thanks from Hong Kong and Taiwan users! |
Labels: Google Translate
This year is the year of pig. My wish about Google is to hope that Google Greater China can hire more programming talents to localize its products and gain more market share. Google is currently experiencing difficulties in hiring Chinese to improve their search quality.
Labels: Doodles
Google Video is testing a new layout which is very similar to YouTube where users see all the video options (description, ratings, related videos, etc.) in one screen without having to click here and there. This is a sensible act as it makes no sense to have the a 'wide screen' to display videos that are mostly in square size. And adding more details in one page means users saves time for loading the new content because they are preloaded. Another improvement is that scrolling through related video uses AJAX which means we don't have to scroll down for more videos like in YouTube. You will also see some snapshots of at certain time in the video which allows users to skip to sections that interest them. However, users will have to scroll down to view some of the details which means they will have to leave the video. Adding to that, some videos have loads of comments and all of them are displayed in one l-o-n-g page.
Related: Google Video and YouTube integration
Labels: Google Video, YouTube
The Gmail Team might be feeling to excited about the fact that anyone can sign up for Gmail without invitations or mobile phones so they made a series of puppet show to demonstrate visually the four different reasons 'Why use Gmail?' (Only spam-free, search and chat are listed on Gmail's homepage, how about mobile access?)
Labels: Gmail
It was a surprise for me to receive a few Google items this Valentines Day delivered right to my home in Hong Kong. Maybe they are awarding me for blogging about them ;)
Labels: Google Store
AdWords is inviting advertisers who are interested in cost-per-click (CPC) site-targeting ads to join the testing scheme. Currently, advertisers can only bid for site-targeting ads on cost-per-thousand-impression (CPM) basis which means they pay when ever their ads are shown. Switching to CPC bidding, Google says it can:
Labels: Google AdWords
Yummy! The choco-coated strawberry looks great (note that the 'O' is stained). Bet you will find them in Google Checkout? ;) Here are the previous doodles on valentine's day.
Labels: Doodles
According to Google's Chinese Official Blog, Gmail opens up for everyone around the world today. It says:
April's Fool 2004, Gmail starts its beta testing on invitation basis. Over the past two years, from one single invitation till today with over 10 millions of users covering 42 languages globally.
It sounds that we are watching Gmail grow from a child and today it graduates (yet it is still in beta). Sign up for Gmail on its homepage! The Google guys had done a great job in bringing a revolution over free webmails. From giving over 2 gigabytes of storage, AJAX interface, chat with browser, etc. I am hoping to have another surprise on Gmail's four-year-old birthday.
P.S. The previously mentioned Help Center page is back. And Gmail Fetcher is confirmed to be a feature for all.
Labels: Gmail
Among the five lucky products listed on Google's homepage, Google Maps is one of them. But how can maps change the world? Here I try to analysis it and list out the 5 potentials of Google Maps:
Labels: Google Maps
Google released two wizards to help webmasters or bloggers who know nothing about programming to implement AJAX Search API into their sites or blogs. You can add in News search or Book search by simply entering the keywords, site URL and paste the code into your site. It looks like this:
Labels: Google Code
Google announced that Google Docs is now in 12 more languages and Google Toolbar 3 for Firefox (which allows users to open documents in their desktop using Google Docs) is out of beta. I see Google's efforts to localize its service, but to gain more market share, Google has to work hard on improving the overall user experience. Here are some suggestions for Google Docs:
Labels: Google Docs
After almost three years of closed-door beta testing, Gmail opened up its service to everyone today. The age where people are desperate to get a Gmail invitation by tattooing a Google logo on their body (according to the Gmail Help Center if you still remember) is gone and everyone who have access to Internet can sign up via http://mail.google.com/mail/signup and get access to the 2.8 GB of free storage. The thing that concerns me most about this, is the fact that spammers will have much easier access to Gmail and good username combinations will run short soon as it is much easy for people to sign up for multiple accounts.
Note: Not all users are seeing the sign up page (including users in Hong Kong) but this news is confirmed in the Gmail Help Center. Also, some have reported that experimenting Gmail Fetcher feature is available to everyone as well. |
Update: Google has changed the FAQ page in the Help Center to the old version which says that you can get invitations with mobile phones. Maybe this would be the Gmail's birthday present for its users this year. Let's see. |
Labels: Gmail
Google updated its webmaster tool which now shows external and internal links for a particular page. Before, webmaster will have to use the 'link:' attribute in Google search to check backlinks (in Google's language, it is called external links). You get much more up-to-date and detailed linkage from this tool and I have to admit I like it very much. If you got a large site and got loads of links in and out, you can export the data to Excel. As mentioned in the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog:
... the overall fraction of links we show is much, much larger than the link: command currently offers.So you might get excited (like me) who saw the astonishing amount of links to your site. Another small update is the 'My sites' drop down menu in the top right corner of the page which allows much easier navigation between sites you own. If you own a site but haven't tried this out yet, I strongly recommend you give it try.
Labels: Google Sitemap
Ionut from Google Operating System accidentally discovered that Google is about to launch its PowerPoint named Google Presently. Presently (just like Writely) should be included in Google Docs which now provides basic spreadsheet and word processing. This would be another advancement for Google's ambitious to put everything online. Google emphasis on collaborating and allows multiple users edit the same document at the same time seeing instant changes. It wouldn't be a surprise if they have it in Presently as well. Now that Google put most of the Office applications online, the next step would be to develop an offline editor which will automatically synchronize with the online version. Once this is done, Window and probably Mac users will have an alternative (a much better one) to Office. Go, Google, Go!
Labels: Google Docs
Google's advertising program AdSense has invited publishers by email to join the so called custom placement packs program which is to enable advertisers to find and target publishers under a certain topic easily. In the email, it
After a recent review of your site, we would like to include [your doamin] in our custom placement packs program. Custom placement packs are selections of individually-reviewed sites designed for our largest brand advertisers.My first impression is that this act is the follow up to the ongoing reports that Google is expanding its brand-advertising which means large brand-name advertisers will have more opportunities to appear in quality sites in Google's content network (as joining the program is on an invitational process). This act would definitely increase the incentives of large advertisers to spend more on advertising on Google as most of the invited sites are of high traffic. I suppose these brand name ads are bid using CPM. We want to hear from those who have been invited!
We would like to feature your site more frequently in these advertiser packages, but to do so, we need you to place more image and text-enabled medium rectangle ad units (300×250) on your site. Visit https://www.google.com/adsense/adformats to see a sample of the medium rectangle unit.
The medium rectangle is the most demanded size among our brand advertisers that utilize these packages for both text and image ads. These advertisers want to ensure they reach visitors on high quality sites like yours, and are willing to bid more for ads prominently displayed on these sites. They require that the units be placed “above the fold” on a page so that the ads are immediately visible to your site’s visitors without scrolling down.
If you decide to add medium rectangle units to your site, please notify us by replying to this email so that we can begin featuring your site in more of our advertiser packages.
We also recommend you use the newly launched ad placements feature to define your ad slots to advertisers so they can bid on specific placements on your site. For instructions on how to create ad placements, please visit https://www.google.com/adsense/suppo...y?answer=50691 .
Labels: Google AdSense
I have notice a yellow box appears above some Google Account login pages (e.g. Gmail and Personalized Homepage) which promotes Google's personalized services (e.g. personalized search). This feature is not new at all, it is just that Google didn't publicize them. Google provides suggestions for users via the Interesting Item gadget that users can add in their Personalized Homepage which suggests web search, pages, gadgets and videos to users according to their history. I guess Google is trying to evaluate their artificial intelligence (AI) and to see how much they 'understand' about users from the data they have. The ultimate goal would be suggesting advertiser links to users. As Google collects huge amount of information from users via their daily search history (but not Gmail and AdWords at the moment), the ads will be highly targeted and to advertisers, this means a higher conversion rate. What do you think?
Labels: Gmail
In Google Groups, you get an option called 'Receive communications from Google' in the group settings if you are a group moderator. If you check the box, you agree that occasionally Google will send you updates on the latest features, ask your input on possible new features, or seek permission to highlight your Group. The information that Google collects will be held confidentially and help them make Groups better. What does this means to you? To me, it means Google start to promote groups in Groups homepage either on a random basis or on invitation (i.e. featuring groups). This makes users spend more time in Groups and help them discover groups of their interest. Groups, like most of the other Google products, is monetize with Google AdSense which servers relevant ads based on the content of the threads and topics. Yet, there is currently no option for non-profit organizations to opt out and not to display ads in their groups. Do you have any speculations?
Labels: Google Groups