6 Google Stories for Wednesday, October 7, 2009
6 Google Stories for Wednesday, October 7, 2009
There was a ton of news about Google today (in addition to the two [see here and here] we’ve already covered today), so let’s dive right in:
Search Options was released on the mobile version of web search for Android, iPhone, and Palm WebOS. By the way, that’s the second time in a week where a mobile update is for those three types of devices. Blackberry and Nokia phones are noticeably missing while omitting Windows Mobile is no real surprise.
Google Maps released a major update, with improved details for parks, bike paths, and college campuses.
The Google Webmaster Central team is proposing new standards for making AJAX sites crawlable.
PDFs in Google’s search results are getting the “Quick View” treatment. Since July, Google has added the option, which is based on the same technology used in Google docs, to 50% of the PDFs in their index.
Google is testing Cloudboard, as pointed out by a great post over at Google Operating System. Cloudboard is an online clipboard that would enable copying between Google services including GMail and Google docs.
Google held a press conference today (a response to Microsoft Open House?) and mostly told reporters a bunch of stuff we all already know. Here are a couple of tidbits that stood out: They talked up the new Verizon agreement to sell Android mobile phones. They said the prices publishers set for their own content don’t affect SERPs but that traffic could indicate which content is more relevant for searchers. Otherwise, it was your regular Google stuff - defending their book settlement (which they’re re-negotiating), defending their luxurious culture in a recession, and how they’re good not evil (like Microsoft is, don’t ya know?!).
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