This is part of a regular series of posts on search experience updates that runs weekly. Look for the label This week in search and subscribe to the series. - Ed.
From Google Squared enhancements to search becoming more social, this week brought a slew of exciting and (we hope) useful search feature releases:
Social Search
Sometimes, there might be relevant content on the web from people in your social circle. For example, learning what your friend thinks about the latest gadget or exotic travel location (e.g. in his or her blog) can help enhance your search experience. Until recently, there was no easy way to find this type of content published by your friends. Last October, we launched Social Search in Google labs to help solve this problem.
After a large number of users opted in and tried out the feature, Social Search has graduated and is available in beta for all signed-in users on google.com in English. We also added this feature to Google Images and gave you a way to visualize your social circle. To learn more about Social Search and how to get better social search results check out this post or this video.
Google Squared single item landing page
Last year we launched Google Squared, an experimental search tool that collects facts from the web and presents them in an organized collection, similar to a spreadsheet. For categorical searches like [us presidents] or [dog breeds], Google Squared produces the type of extracted facts you might be interested in, and presents them in a meaningful way. Starting this week, Google Squared has a new design to better handle queries looking for a single thing, like a specific president or a particular breed of dog. The page is now easier to read and includes multiple images, and you can still add, remove or change the type of facts that are visible.
Example searches: [barack obama] and [boston terrier]
Better labels for Time/LIFE images
In late 2008, we worked with Time/LIFE to digitize several million archival images never been seen before, and made them available in Image Search. At that time, many images in the collection had descriptions and labels and were easy to search for. But some had less descriptive information, making them more difficult to find. Now it's possible for knowledgeable users to label images and enrich the collection. Over time, we hope the Google community will make the quality of image search better than ever before.
Example: [Cincinnati baseball]. Note the "labels" in the bottom righthand corner.
We hope you enjoy the variety of new features this week.
Decoración de Baños
El baño es uno de los espacios más acogedores y agradables de la casa, y también uno de los que más posibilidades ofrece a la hora de vestirlo y decorarlo. Tanto si se trata de baños modernos, como si son tipo vintage, rústicos o minimalistas, actualmente casi todo vale dentro de la decoración de los baños, siempre dentro de la elegancia y el buen gusto.
Las tendencias más actuales siguen la línea del minimalismo y las formas rectilíneas, como se puede apreciar en este ambiente de Ideal Standard. Sanitarios con estética casi cubista, espejos sin marco, mamparas de ducha casi invisibles y tonos neutros son las pistas a seguir. Baños elegantes, para espacios de la era post-industrial.
Los baños accesibles para personas con baja movilidad y los sistemas para ahorrar agua en grifos o sanitarios son cada vez más comunes, y hay una gran variedad.
Las tendencias en lavabos aceptan casi cualquier material y diseño, y si no, a ver qué me decis de este espectacular lavabo-acuario. Todo un placer para la vista y los sentidos…
Sin embargo, los ambientes clásicos también están en la cresta de la ola en lo que a baños se refiere. Los tonos grises y blancos siguen siendo tendencia, pero en este caso los sanitarios evocan la Belle Épocque, así como los preciosos carteles bellamente enmarcados.
El color también tiene su sitio en el cuarto de baño. Si bien las líneas sencillas son lo que más se lleva, el contraste de los colores es también una nota a destacar. Las franjas verdes que decoran estos sencillos muebles, y la elegancia de sus patas de acero, son el complemento perfecto para el suelo de grandes baldosas de gres y la tarima de madera de teca.
Las tendencias más actuales siguen la línea del minimalismo y las formas rectilíneas, como se puede apreciar en este ambiente de Ideal Standard. Sanitarios con estética casi cubista, espejos sin marco, mamparas de ducha casi invisibles y tonos neutros son las pistas a seguir. Baños elegantes, para espacios de la era post-industrial.
Los baños accesibles para personas con baja movilidad y los sistemas para ahorrar agua en grifos o sanitarios son cada vez más comunes, y hay una gran variedad.
Las tendencias en lavabos aceptan casi cualquier material y diseño, y si no, a ver qué me decis de este espectacular lavabo-acuario. Todo un placer para la vista y los sentidos…
Sin embargo, los ambientes clásicos también están en la cresta de la ola en lo que a baños se refiere. Los tonos grises y blancos siguen siendo tendencia, pero en este caso los sanitarios evocan la Belle Épocque, así como los preciosos carteles bellamente enmarcados.
El color también tiene su sitio en el cuarto de baño. Si bien las líneas sencillas son lo que más se lleva, el contraste de los colores es también una nota a destacar. Las franjas verdes que decoran estos sencillos muebles, y la elegancia de sus patas de acero, son el complemento perfecto para el suelo de grandes baldosas de gres y la tarima de madera de teca.
Sauna de vapor y ducha para dos
¿Quién no querría disfrutar de un sauna de vapor y ducha, todo en uno sin tener que visitar un hotel? Renovation Store tiene una gran ducha de vapor perfecta para dos, su diseño es simple y funcional, en blanco, cromo y vidrio.
Perfecta para despertarte en la mañana con un masaje estimulante o si lo prefieres para prepararte para ir bien relajado a la cama por la noche. Si no tienes tiempo para terapias de alivio del stress semanal, invertir en esta ducha a vapor es una exelente idea.
Otras amenidades incluyen un masajeador de pies, distintas opciones de lluvia multi-funcional y protección contra fuga de líquidos. Pero si eres de los que aman los gadgets, puedes agregarle a este modelo algunas cosas extra como altavoces, ordenador con mando a distancia, FM, CD externo y teléfono. Además, cuenta con un ventilador integrado que ayudará para el control de la humedad. Este modelo tiene un costo de aproximadamente 3.400 dólares.
Perfecta para despertarte en la mañana con un masaje estimulante o si lo prefieres para prepararte para ir bien relajado a la cama por la noche. Si no tienes tiempo para terapias de alivio del stress semanal, invertir en esta ducha a vapor es una exelente idea.
Otras amenidades incluyen un masajeador de pies, distintas opciones de lluvia multi-funcional y protección contra fuga de líquidos. Pero si eres de los que aman los gadgets, puedes agregarle a este modelo algunas cosas extra como altavoces, ordenador con mando a distancia, FM, CD externo y teléfono. Además, cuenta con un ventilador integrado que ayudará para el control de la humedad. Este modelo tiene un costo de aproximadamente 3.400 dólares.
Acabados con cera para muebles antiguos
Los acabados a la cera son de los más antiguos que se conocen, y quedan preciosos sobre muebles de maderas nobles, chapados o marquetería. Hacerlos bien no es difícil, pero sí es importante conocer la técnica para sacarles el máximo partido posible.
Lo primero es hacerse con el material: cera para muebles (puedes comprarla hecha o prepararla tú mismo; en un post próximo enseñaré cómo hacerla), lanilla de acero, paño de algodón o brocha plana de buena calidad, un cepillo para zapatos y una media limpia.
En primer lugar, si el mueble estaba ya encerado tendrás que limpiarlo bien. Puedes usar un desencerador comercial (a la venta en buenas droguerías o centros de bricolaje), o emplear una mezcla al 50% de aguarrás puro y aceite de linaza. Agita bien la mezcla y frota el mueble con lanilla de acero nº 000 empapada en ella, retirando al tiempo la cera vieja con un paño.
Una vez limpia la madera hay que aplicar la cera nueva. Puedes hacerlo con un trapo de algodón limpio que no suelte pelo (por ejemplo, una camiseta vieja) o una brocha. Extiéndela bien, sin pasarte con la cantidad.
Deja secar una hora y saca brillo a la cera, frotando la superficie con el cepillo para zapatos envuelto en la media. Después, da otra mano de cera y deja secar de nuevo, esta vez durante veinticuatro horas.
Verás el brillo intenso que adquiere la madera con este tratamiento. Las mejores ceras son las incoloras o amarillas, de tipo anticuario. Y recuerda que, cada vez que quieras volver a encerar el mueble, es recomendable limpiarlo primero para que no se acumulen las capas de cera vieja.
Lo primero es hacerse con el material: cera para muebles (puedes comprarla hecha o prepararla tú mismo; en un post próximo enseñaré cómo hacerla), lanilla de acero, paño de algodón o brocha plana de buena calidad, un cepillo para zapatos y una media limpia.
En primer lugar, si el mueble estaba ya encerado tendrás que limpiarlo bien. Puedes usar un desencerador comercial (a la venta en buenas droguerías o centros de bricolaje), o emplear una mezcla al 50% de aguarrás puro y aceite de linaza. Agita bien la mezcla y frota el mueble con lanilla de acero nº 000 empapada en ella, retirando al tiempo la cera vieja con un paño.
Una vez limpia la madera hay que aplicar la cera nueva. Puedes hacerlo con un trapo de algodón limpio que no suelte pelo (por ejemplo, una camiseta vieja) o una brocha. Extiéndela bien, sin pasarte con la cantidad.
Deja secar una hora y saca brillo a la cera, frotando la superficie con el cepillo para zapatos envuelto en la media. Después, da otra mano de cera y deja secar de nuevo, esta vez durante veinticuatro horas.
Verás el brillo intenso que adquiere la madera con este tratamiento. Las mejores ceras son las incoloras o amarillas, de tipo anticuario. Y recuerda que, cada vez que quieras volver a encerar el mueble, es recomendable limpiarlo primero para que no se acumulen las capas de cera vieja.
Go Mobile! Series: Introducing click-to-call phone numbers in local ads on mobile devices
When people search for goods or services using their mobile phones, they often prefer to call a store rather than visit that store's website. Whether they're placing a direct order, making a reservation, or inquiring about services, the ability for prospective customers to easily call your business is a key distinguishing feature of searches made on mobile phones versus computers.
Now you can make it even easier for potential customers to reach you by adding a location-specific business phone number in ads that appear on mobile devices with full internet browsers. Users can click the number to call you just as easily as clicking to visit your website. And, since ads can be served based on user location, a potential customer will see -- and can click to call -- the phone number of your store location that's nearest to them, not one that's across town.
This new feature also makes it easier for you to fully measure the results of your ads by allowing you to track how many calls you actually receive.
Advertisers who participated in the beta trial have seen improved click-through rates. Plus, many advertisers received more visits to their websites in addition to incremental phone calls.
To show a click-to-call business phone number in ads on mobile devices with full Internet browsers, follow these two steps:
1. Set up location extensions and add your business phone number. Customers will be able to click to call your business location nearest to them.
2. Check that you've chosen to show your ads on iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers in your campaign settings.
That's it. Customers can now click to call you from your ads. If your campaigns are already set up this way, your phone numbers will start showing as click-to-call on mobile devices with full browsers automatically. The cost of a click to call your business will be the same as the cost of a click to visit your website.
To find out how many calls you've received from your ads, go to the Campaign Summary tab in your AdWords account. Click the "Filter and views" dropdown (step 1 in the screenshot below) and select "Segment by", then "Click Type" (steps 2, 3). The report shows how many clicks and how many calls you received (step 4). You can view calls received at the campaign, ad group or keyword level.
If your campaigns are already set up with phone numbers in location extensions and opted in to mobile devices with full browsers, but you'd prefer to opt-out out of click-to-call, simply remove the phone number from your location extensions in AdWords.
Check out how click-to-call works in our latest Mobile (Ad)itude video below, or visit the AdWords Help Center to learn more.
Unicode nearing 50% of the web
About 18 months ago, we published a graph showing that Unicode on the web had just exceeded all other encodings of text on the web. The growth since then has been even more dramatic.
Web pages can use a variety of different character encodings, like ASCII, Latin-1, or Windows 1252 or Unicode. Most encodings can only represent a few languages, but Unicode can represent thousands: from Arabic to Chinese to Zulu. We have long used Unicode as the internal format for all the text we search: any other encoding is first converted to Unicode for processing.
This graph is from Google internal data, based on our indexing of web pages, and thus may vary somewhat from what other search engines find. However, the trends are pretty clear, and the continued rise in use of Unicode makes it even easier to do the processing for the many languages that we cover.
Searching for "nancials"?
Unicode is growing both in usage and in character coverage. We recently upgraded to the latest version of Unicode, version 5.2 (via ICU and CLDR). This adds over 6,600 new characters: some of mostly academic interest, such as Egyptian Hieroglyphs, but many others for living languages.
We're constantly improving our handling of existing characters. For example, the characters "fi" can either be represented as two characters ("f" and "i"), or a special display form "fi". A Google search for [financials] or [office] used to not see these as equivalent — to the software they would just look like *nancials and of*ce. There are thousands of characters like this, and they occur in surprisingly many pages on the web, especially generated PDF documents.
But no longer — after extensive testing, we just recently turned on support for these and thousands of other characters; your searches will now also find these documents. Further steps in our mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
And we're angling for a party when Unicode hits 50%!
Web pages can use a variety of different character encodings, like ASCII, Latin-1, or Windows 1252 or Unicode. Most encodings can only represent a few languages, but Unicode can represent thousands: from Arabic to Chinese to Zulu. We have long used Unicode as the internal format for all the text we search: any other encoding is first converted to Unicode for processing.
This graph is from Google internal data, based on our indexing of web pages, and thus may vary somewhat from what other search engines find. However, the trends are pretty clear, and the continued rise in use of Unicode makes it even easier to do the processing for the many languages that we cover.
Searching for "nancials"?
Unicode is growing both in usage and in character coverage. We recently upgraded to the latest version of Unicode, version 5.2 (via ICU and CLDR). This adds over 6,600 new characters: some of mostly academic interest, such as Egyptian Hieroglyphs, but many others for living languages.
We're constantly improving our handling of existing characters. For example, the characters "fi" can either be represented as two characters ("f" and "i"), or a special display form "fi". A Google search for [financials] or [office] used to not see these as equivalent — to the software they would just look like *nancials and of*ce. There are thousands of characters like this, and they occur in surprisingly many pages on the web, especially generated PDF documents.
But no longer — after extensive testing, we just recently turned on support for these and thousands of other characters; your searches will now also find these documents. Further steps in our mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
And we're angling for a party when Unicode hits 50%!
Face Lift!
For a while now I've been debating on re-branding MasterPiece Weddings. Not changing my company's name or doing anything crazy like that. I like the name - but modern'ing up my logo. Just so you think, hmph, something's different, but I can't put my finger on it...
I think over time I realized who I was and not who I thought everyone wanted me to be. Almost 16 years ago now, I created MasterPiece Weddings. It was always to help brides create the wedding of their dreams and that will never change. But with an awesometastic feel, and a modern and fresh twist.
But over time, we've developed a fun and romantical (yes, I said romantical) vision for our company. So, we updated, adjusted - but we have the same warm and gooey center that we've always had.
So without further ado, our new logo... whatcha think?
I think over time I realized who I was and not who I thought everyone wanted me to be. Almost 16 years ago now, I created MasterPiece Weddings. It was always to help brides create the wedding of their dreams and that will never change. But with an awesometastic feel, and a modern and fresh twist.
But over time, we've developed a fun and romantical (yes, I said romantical) vision for our company. So, we updated, adjusted - but we have the same warm and gooey center that we've always had.
So without further ado, our new logo... whatcha think?
Beauty reveals Neha Sharma
Indian actress and model Neha Sharma gazing into the camera to make her career in a new way. Neha Sharma is a Delhi born girl, she got good recognition for her dancing skills, acting and beauty in the showbiz world. She made her entry into the films through a Telugu film Chirutha. Her glamorous beauty reveals in this photo shoot. More images after the break...
12 Images
Samsung introduced two 12-megapixel ultrazoom
Samsung has unveiled the HZ35W and HZ30W compact superzooms. The new image-stabilized cameras increase their zoom ranges to 15x, starting at a very useful 24mm equivalent. The new image-stabilized cameras increase their zoom ranges to 15x, starting at a very useful 24mm equivalent. (A worlds first in a camera so slim) The HZ35W (WB650 in Europe) includes built-in GPS and a 3.0" AMOLED display while the.... More images after the break...
6 Images
Aircraft Hotel
If you're thinking to yourself, "that's sort of a small window for a luxury hotel suite," well, you're right. But it's only because this room occupies the entirety of a repurposed Cold War-era East German aircraft. More images after the break...
OK, the view isn't anything special: the plane stays grounded outside the Teuge airport in the Netherlands. But the room itself, dubbed the Vliegtuigsuite, is spectacular, including three flat screen TVs, a Blu-ray player, a sauna, and a jacuzzi. Guests have access to the entire plane, from your king-size bed in the back all the way up to the cockpit. On Dec. 7th 2007 I post Plane Restaurent and this time a plane hotel, the world is really amazing.
Google's Privacy Principles
Thursday, January 28th marks International Data Privacy Day. We're recognizing this day by publicly publishing our guiding Privacy Principles.
We've always operated with these principles in mind. Now, we're just putting them in writing so you have a better understanding of how we think about these issues from a product perspective. Like our design and software guidelines, these privacy principles are designed to guide the decisions we make when we create new technologies. They are one of the key reasons our engineers have worked on new privacy-enhancing initiatives and features like the Google Dashboard, the Ads Preferences Manager and the Data Liberation Front. And there is more in store for 2010.
You can find out more about our efforts at the Google Privacy Center and on our YouTube channel.
- Use information to provide our users with valuable products and services.
- Develop products that reflect strong privacy standards and practices.
- Make the collection of personal information transparent.
- Give users meaningful choices to protect their privacy.
- Be a responsible steward of the information we hold.
We've always operated with these principles in mind. Now, we're just putting them in writing so you have a better understanding of how we think about these issues from a product perspective. Like our design and software guidelines, these privacy principles are designed to guide the decisions we make when we create new technologies. They are one of the key reasons our engineers have worked on new privacy-enhancing initiatives and features like the Google Dashboard, the Ads Preferences Manager and the Data Liberation Front. And there is more in store for 2010.
You can find out more about our efforts at the Google Privacy Center and on our YouTube channel.
Supporting students from under-represented backgrounds in the pursuit of a technical education
(Cross-posted with the Google Students Blog)
We know firsthand how vital a good science or math education is to building products that change the world and enrich peoples' lives. We're committed to supporting students in their pursuit of the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields — particularly those from traditionally under-represented backgrounds.
Over time, we've dedicated time, people, and financial resources to organizations, events and schools to help advance this mission — and we're excited to share that we rounded out 2009 with a donation of $8 million to a variety of organizations who share our dedication to this cause. Our efforts were focused in four key areas:
Starting in high school
STEM education at an elementary and high school level builds technical skills early and encourages interest in technology. To support the ongoing education of these subjects, we identified more than 600 high schools with significant populations of students from under-represented and economically disadvantaged backgrounds and are providing laptops to their computer science and math departments. We are also offering laptops to some of the most promising students in these schools. In a time when many of these schools are experiencing decreased funding, we wanted to support their continued commitment to learning and teaching these subjects, and recognize the exceptional work done by teachers in these communities. If you're interested in learning more about our efforts in this field, check out Google Code University (CS tutorials for students and teachers) as well as our tools, tips and lesson plans for K-12 educators.
Growing promising talent
We've worked with over 200 outstanding students as part of our FUSE, CSSI, BOLD and BOLD Practicum summer programs. To help the alumni of our 2009 summer programs pursue their studies, we awarded former program participants with school-based scholarships. We hope that this support for tuition will lessen the financial burden on these students and their families, reduce work-study commitments and free them up to explore other educational opportunities, like studying abroad.
Advancing technical knowledge through universities
We have close relationships with universities around the world — not only do we employ their alumni, but they are also a source of groundbreaking research and innovation. We awarded grants ranging in size from $20k to $100k to 50 U.S.-based universities with whom we already have relationships and directed these funds toward departments that are closely aligned with promoting under-represented minorities in technology. We hope to expand this effort both to more U.S.-based universities and to universities around the world in the future.
Partnerships with the organizations that make it happen
Our commitment to promote women and under-represented minorities in technology is shared by dozens of local and national organizations around the country. We awarded grants to 22 partner organizations, almost all of which we have worked with in the past. These organizations are on the front lines, making sure that under-represented groups have the support, resources and contacts they need. You'll find a list of these organizations with a quick overview of the work they focus on here.
This was a terrific way to close out 2009 and we look forward to attracting and encouraging more students from traditionally under-represented backgrounds to pursue studies and careers in science, technology, engineering and math. In the meantime, you can find news especially for students on the Students Blog and by following us on @googlestudents.
Search is getting more social
Late last year we released the Social Search experiment to make search more personal with relevant web content from your friends and online contacts. We were excited by the number of people who chose to try it out, and today Social Search is available to everyone in beta on google.com.
We've been having a lot of fun with Social Search. It's baby season here on our team — two of us just had little ones, and a third is on the way. We're all getting ready to be parents for the first time and we have lots of questions. So, what do we do? We search Google, of course! With Social Search, when we search for [baby sleep patterns], [swaddling] or [best cribs], not only do we get the usual websites with expert opinions, we also find relevant pages from our friends and contacts. For example, if one of my friends has written a blog where he talks about a great baby shop he found in Mountain View, this might appear in my social results. I could probably find other reviews, but my friend's blog is more relevant because I know and trust the author.
While we've been enjoying Social Search (and having babies), we've been hard at work on new features. For example, we've added social to Google Images. Now when you're doing a search on Images, you may start seeing pictures from people in your social circle. These are pictures that your friends and other contacts have published publicly to the web on photo-sharing sites like Picasa Web Albums and Flickr. Just like the other social results, social image results appear under a special heading called "Results from your social circle." Here's what it looks like:
Looking at the screenshot, you may notice two new links for "My social circle" and "My social content." These links will take you to a new interface we've added where you can see the connections and content behind your social results. Clicking on "My social circle" shows your extended network of online contacts and how you're connected.
Clicking on "My social content" lists your public pages that might appear in other people's social results. This new interface should give you a peek under the hood of how Social Search builds your social circle and connects you with web content from your friends and extended network. You can check out your social circle directly by visiting this link. (Note that it may take some time for the connections and content to update.)
We think there's tremendous potential for social information to improve search, and we're just beginning to scratch the surface. We're leaving a "beta" label on social results because we know there's a lot more we can do. If you want to get the most out of Social Search right away, get started by creating a Google profile, where you can add links to your other public online social services. Check out this short video to learn more:
The new features are rolling out now on google.com in English for all signed-in users, and you should start seeing them in the next few days. Time to socialize!
We've been having a lot of fun with Social Search. It's baby season here on our team — two of us just had little ones, and a third is on the way. We're all getting ready to be parents for the first time and we have lots of questions. So, what do we do? We search Google, of course! With Social Search, when we search for [baby sleep patterns], [swaddling] or [best cribs], not only do we get the usual websites with expert opinions, we also find relevant pages from our friends and contacts. For example, if one of my friends has written a blog where he talks about a great baby shop he found in Mountain View, this might appear in my social results. I could probably find other reviews, but my friend's blog is more relevant because I know and trust the author.
While we've been enjoying Social Search (and having babies), we've been hard at work on new features. For example, we've added social to Google Images. Now when you're doing a search on Images, you may start seeing pictures from people in your social circle. These are pictures that your friends and other contacts have published publicly to the web on photo-sharing sites like Picasa Web Albums and Flickr. Just like the other social results, social image results appear under a special heading called "Results from your social circle." Here's what it looks like:
Looking at the screenshot, you may notice two new links for "My social circle" and "My social content." These links will take you to a new interface we've added where you can see the connections and content behind your social results. Clicking on "My social circle" shows your extended network of online contacts and how you're connected.
Clicking on "My social content" lists your public pages that might appear in other people's social results. This new interface should give you a peek under the hood of how Social Search builds your social circle and connects you with web content from your friends and extended network. You can check out your social circle directly by visiting this link. (Note that it may take some time for the connections and content to update.)
We think there's tremendous potential for social information to improve search, and we're just beginning to scratch the surface. We're leaving a "beta" label on social results because we know there's a lot more we can do. If you want to get the most out of Social Search right away, get started by creating a Google profile, where you can add links to your other public online social services. Check out this short video to learn more:
The new features are rolling out now on google.com in English for all signed-in users, and you should start seeing them in the next few days. Time to socialize!
Entertaining Tips: Planning
Rule #4
Serve a signature drink in a pitcher or an Italian Beverage Jar! This way it's premade, and you won't be playing barmade all night.
At our last dinner party, I used an Italian Beverage Jar filled it with juice and volka, a little soda water, and tossed in a bag or cranberries... and everyone loved it! And I didn't have to mix drinks all night.
We set some bottles of red and white wine beside the jar, a few bottles of water, with cups for our guests, and this way no one had to be bartender. We could all enjoy the party.
Just have fun, it's your party too!
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