When Google Suggest was first released, Google freely admitted that its development had begun about four years earlier. Since the feature did little more than save keystrokes, this seemed kind of sad. Only now Google’s testing some upgrades that might make Google Suggest both sophisticated and profitable.
Google Offers New Resource for Analytics Information
Google seems to really want to spread awareness about Google Analytics, and get more people to understand how to use all of its features. This is a good thing because analytics are obviously important for keeping your site’s performance up to its potential. A couple weeks ago they announced a new Google Analytics Help Forum with participation from Google employees as well as top contributors, and seasoned analytics pros:
Google Makes Risky AdSense For Domains Expansion
Here’s the good news: Google’s found another way to raise some money. Here’s the bad: its behavior is raising a few eyebrows. The search engine giant has achieved both these things by extending AdSense for domains to more publishers.
Mapping Uncharted Territory with Google Map Maker
Google has announced the launch of Google Map Maker in 43 new countries and territories. You can find a complete list of 164 countries you can use Map Maker with here. Google provided a short example video of how users have used Map Maker to transform a map of Islambad, Pakistan:
Google, Yahoo Tied To Baidu’s Unlicensed Doctor Scandal
Not long ago, China’s top search engine was caught selling high search rankings to unlicensed doctors. The uproar that resulted hurt its reputation, caused earnings estimates to get lowered, and culminated in a personal apology from the CEO. Now, the Chinese arms of Google and Yahoo have been accused of doing something similar.
LinkedIn Gains A Google Veteran
While it certainly is not an exodus there have been some high profile Google executives leaving the Mountain View nest for other opportunities.
Google Pushing Charity Through iGoogle Themes
Keeping within the Holiday spirit, Google is doing something a little more significant than helping track the path of Santa Claus. They’re offering a number of iGoogle themes for causes in an effort to spread awareness and raise donations. They’re clearly taking it seriously because there is a link to them right from the front page of the search engine, and usually there is not a whole lot of change going on there aside from the occasional doodle.
Google’s Global Zeitgeist – 2008 Edition
Last week Google revealed the fastest growing search terms for the United States, which we looked at here. Now Google has released their year-end Zeitgeist, looking at a number of categories in (for the first time) over 30 different countries.
Is Google Second-Guessing Itself?
Times are tight. Heck, college professors are having to sell ad space on exam pages to make up for budget cuts. It would make sense that Google would increase the number of ads on its search pages, too, except it’s hard to forget certain executive speeches about fewer ads with better targeting.
Google Adds Magazines to Book Search
Google’s quest to organize all the world’s information has taken another step forward today with the announcement that magazines are now appearing in Google Book Search. In time, these results will also become part of regular Google searches.