What happened last week...
15-12-2009
Real time search
It has been a ground breaking week for Google, with the introduction of real time search into the Google search results pages. Ok, so a single box of scrolling Twitter updates is not that exciting but it does show the effort Google is making to increase the speed at which their algorithm updates the search engine results pages (SERPS) for breaking news. This and Mr Dorsey's (Co-Founder and Chairman of Twitter) rather cryptic answer when asked if Google was planning to acquire Twitter, have reignited the rumour mills that an acquisition may yet again be on the cards.
Google Personal Search
For a while now Google has been experimenting with their Google user accounts. Google Personal Search works by analysing your recent search and web history to serve you an optimised version of the standard SERPS based on your past preferences. The really interesting part of this news is that you no longer need to be logged in to your Google account for this to work and up to 180 days worth of data is stored against a browser on any particular machine.
Google Goggles
An exciting new idea for mobile search has also been announce by Google. Google Goggles is a search function that works by analysing images taken by the camera on the Google Android phone. It is similar to the barcode search that exists as a mobile application but does not limit the images that can be analysed to only barcodes. Google has already, anticipating a privacy backlash, stated that the software won't be able to identify people by taking their photograph.
Written by: Martin McAndrew