Google Docs has been the subject of some not-great press over the past week or so; a ClickStream study, in particular, suggested that the productivity offering has been ignored by a lot of people. But Matt Cutts has stepped forward with some new statistics, and it seems that the market share of Google Docs may not be quite so slim, after all.
Google Earth Models Getting Better
Google Earth is doing some amazing things as highlighted with their announcement the other day of the Ancient Rome layer (shown in the video below).
Google Site Search On-Demand Indexing Triggers Re-Crawling
Google has introduced some new functionality to its Site Search product, which allows customers to search within your own site. The feature that everyone is talking about is the ability to add pages on-demand to be indexed by site search, so customers have access to these new pages as soon as they’re ready.
Google Docs And Spreadsheets Still In The Shallow End
Microsoft may be down compared to Google in terms of search – some of the most conservative estimates suggest Google’s market share is five times bigger – but the Redmond-based corporation still has little to fear as far as productivity software goes. Google Docs and Spreadsheets is growing at a gastropod’s pace.
Google Alleviates Privacy Concerns About Flu Tracker
Yesterday Google announced its Flu Trends tool, which tracks outbreaks of the Flu. Of course like with just about everything Google does, there are critics, and very often the concerns of these critics stem from privacy issues. This case is no different. So before the speculation and criticism spirals too far out of control, Google decided to nip it in the bud, and address these things right away. A post at the Official Google Blog says:
Exploring the History of the Future with Google Earth
Google has teamed up with Past Perfect Productions, UCLA, and the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia to bring Ancient Rome back to life with a new Google Earth layer.
Can Google Save Us From Pestilence?
Google is sometimes called "evil" by its critics. Often this has to do with advertising or privacy concerns, but critics might want to consider the notion that Google’s efforts might potentially prevent the spread of plague and dare I even say the apocalypse. A bit of a stretch? Maybe, but watch this video from Google.org, and you will get a sense of where I’m going with this.
Google Reader Gains Auto-Translation Abilities
We English speakers are truly lucky that so much of the world is willing to accommodate us, learning enough of the language to at least give directions to the nearest bathroom. But there’s an amazing amount of written content out there that isn’t in any given person’s native language, and to help with this issue, Google Reader has gained an auto-translate option.
Google Makes Planning Ads Easier
You may recall earlier in the year, Google released Google Ad Planner on an invitation-basis only, not unlike the release of Gmail. Today, the company has announced that Google Ad Planner is available to everyone.
Google CEO And Obama Get Cracking On Economy
Economists and Wall Street types sent two clear messages this week in one simple statement: President-elect Obama needs to get his financial team working on the present crisis ASAP. The underlying message there is, obviously: Bush’s team is asses over elbows on this, and we can’t wait until January 20.